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LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Wildfires have been burning for weeks in the mountains above the town of Las Vegas, N.M. Its population is about 13,000.
LOUIE TRUJILLO: The west side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range is full of smoke. It looked almost like an air show. You can still hear the planes flying over that area, dousing it with repellant and also with water.
FADEL: That's the town's mayor, Louie Trujillo, describing the view from his window at city hall.
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Some families have started to evacuate their homes. Trujillo says others who live on the surrounding ranches and in canyons have lost everything.
FADEL: Crews don't have an exact tally yet of how many homes have burned. Since winds kicked up on Monday, the fire has been burning too hot and too intensely for anyone to check.
TRUJILLO: There are cattle ranches. They are just little ranch houses, old-style homes, mostly adobe, some stick-built, and of course, some mobile homes in that area.
MARTINEZ: Losing these properties is uniquely heartbreaking, he says. Some have been in the same family for generations.
TRUJILLO: It's a loss of culture. It's a loss of querencia, if you know that word in Spanish.
MARTINEZ: Yeah, there's no direct translation in English. Trujillo says querencia means a feeling people have for the land.
TRUJILLO: To us, it's really more of a spiritual belonging to the land. And it's not just a house that you buy and move on to another one and so forth. So when there's lineage and there's generations that have owned that property, so it means a lot more to people here in northern New Mexico.
FADEL: He says it's a common sentiment in this corner of New Mexico, where longtime families like his trace their ancestry back centuries.
TRUJILLO: The current proprietors of these properties were given to them by their grandpa and their tios and their tias and their, you know, bisabuelos. And their great-grandfather had this house, and now it's mine. And so you can see that it's not just a house; it means so much more.
FADEL: Eleven hundred people are working to save those homes and contain this fire. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-04/with-wildfire-closing-in-new-mexico-residents-prepare-to-flee | 2022-05-12T16:07:53Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Leila Fadel. Thrift stores have a lot to offer - vintage clothes, cool accessories or, if you're Laura Young, a 2,000-year-old bust from the Roman Empire for just under $35. It's unknown how it ended up at an Austin, Texas, thrift store, but odds are it was originally taken from a German museum during World War II. The piece will be returned to Germany. For now, it's currently on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Hmm, I think I might go thrifting this afternoon. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/2-000-year-old-bust-from-the-roman-empire-discovered-in-texas-thrift-store | 2022-05-12T16:07:59Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We wanted to know more about this enormous and complex operation. The U.S. has moved millions of pounds of material to Ukraine. According to the military, it's the biggest operation since the Berlin Airlift in the late 1940s. So we talked to the person in charge of shipping all those heavy weapons to Ukraine. The head of the U.S. Transportation Command, or TRANSCOM, is General Jacqueline Van Ovost. She's only - she's one of only two female four-star generals in the Department of Defense right now. She spoke to me from the National Defense University here in D.C.
JACQUELINE VAN OVOST: Essentially, what we are is a global transportation company. We have about 130,000 sailors, airmen, Marines, guardians and civilians - along with our commercial partners - that provide global transportation services. So now as I look to how we do this for Ukraine, and providing security assistance and as well as providing assurance and deterrence for the NATO nations, we mobilize here in the United States, and we bring forward our soldiers. We bring forward our equipment to help assure and deter, and we have brought millions of pounds - so far about 45 million pounds - of aid to Ukraine to assist them.
FADEL: Is that all weaponry, the 45 million pounds?
VAN OVOST: No, it's a combination of lethal and non-lethal aid.
FADEL: Mmm hmm. Now, you've had to move a lot of aid quickly. Were there any specific obstacles or challenges you had to get past to move it quicker than usual?
VAN OVOST: Our ability to move within days or even hours of the first request is because we so carefully collaborate and plan with U.S. European Command, who is in complete touch with Ukrainians to understand what their needs are and with NATO, all the way through to where our sources of supply are. So for example, with the non-standard ammunition - ammunition that we don't actually have in our stocks - where is that? And, you know, who's offering it, and how are we going to get it there? And we have to work together with our allies and partners. You know, we've had over 30 nations participate, and so how do we best orchestrate that large dance across the globe?
FADEL: Now, you mentioned that you also work with private companies - commercial airlines, commercial shipping - that partner with the U.S. military to transport these weapons. How big of a role do private companies play?
VAN OVOST: In what we do around the world, we are inextricably linked to our commercial partners. When we first started providing aid to Ukraine - lethal aid - on 21 January, it was what I call a white tail, or one of our commercial assets, that was landing in Kyiv before the invasion and beginning to supply them with that lethal aid.
FADEL: I want to talk about cybersecurity. It's something you have spoken about a lot. When you testified before a House subcommittee in March, you said cybersecurity is a major concern of yours because private companies, unlike the military, communicate in an unclassified environment. So right now, with heightened concern around possible cyberattacks from Russia, is it risky for the U.S. to partner with private companies to transport weapons?
VAN OVOST: As you know, I am concerned about cyber defense, both from a Department of Defense standpoint and from our commercial partners because we rely on them and their networks. But I tell you, talking to the C-suite leaders, they are very focused, themselves, on ensuring that they are a hard target. We've been partnering with our commercial partners to help them understand the threats and ways to mitigate those threats a little more.
FADEL: How unprecedented is this moment, in the sense of the speed and level of aid - especially lethal aid - that you're moving?
VAN OVOST: Well, you know - so I've been in the military 33 years, and I've seen nothing like it. Our ability to support another nation at this level is really - it's unprecedented. It shows, though, how when American leadership and NATO leadership come together, that we can move out and meet the promises - whether it's deterring Russia from attacking a NATO nation to supporting Ukraine in their defense of their nation and their humanitarian needs - that we will be there delivering.
FADEL: You are part of a transportation pipeline that is moving a huge amount of weaponry. Do you have any concerns that it could wind up in the wrong hands?
VAN OVOST: Well, certainly any of the equipment we move around to our allies and partners around the world - there is always a chance that some equipment will not be used in the way that we had intended or that it gets taken by another party. We have safeguards in place with respect to different types of equipment. But you know what? What I think about is the rationale for what we're doing right now, with the equipment that we're giving them and the support that we're giving them - that's what we want to focus on. Because we calculate those losses when we make these decisions and when the president makes these decisions, and it's our job to get out there and execute. And every capability and, frankly, every piece of aid that I can give each Ukrainian is important.
FADEL: I know I can't let you go without speaking to you about the fact that you are one of two women who are four-star generals in the Department of Defense. I mean, what is that like to be one of two in 2022?
VAN OVOST: (Laughter) You know, I never wanted to be one of two, but it's better than one of one, which is where I started, so (laughter).
FADEL: Right.
VAN OVOST: So - but, you know, what an honor it is to command the men and women of U.S. Transportation Command. And, you know, I've had great opportunities throughout my life. And I say to folks, if you marry up your passion and your talent, you won't work a day in your life, everything you do will be rewarding, and the system will reward you, right? And so I've had great opportunities that I've been able to capitalize on, and here I am sitting at the pinnacle of leadership, leading the men and women of Transportation Command and having taken part of both Operation Allies Refuge and now this - just this groundbreaking work with Ukraine and NATO. I just couldn't be prouder of what we do at Transportation Command and of the United States for the leadership role that we've played.
FADEL: But it couldn't have been easy coming up, I mean, a little bit lonely, right?
VAN OVOST: Yeah.
FADEL: I mean, one of two...
VAN OVOST: Yeah.
FADEL: ...And like you said, one of one at one point.
VAN OVOST: You can't be what you can't see. When you look up and you don't see someone that looks like you, it's very hard to think that you could actually do that, right? But I tell you, we just need to show out there that, you know, people - they can do it, right? Just because you don't see someone up there that looks like you doesn't mean you can't do it.
FADEL: General Jacqueline Van Ovost, thank you so much for speaking with us.
VAN OVOST: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/a-complex-operation-is-involved-as-the-u-s-sends-weapons-to-ukraine | 2022-05-12T16:08:05Z |
One of the world's most widely used reading intervention programs for young children has taken another hit to its credibility.
Reading Recovery — a one-on-one tutoring program for first graders — has long been controversial because it's based on a theory about how people read that was disproven decades ago by cognitive scientists. A 2019 story by APM Reports helped bring public attention to the fact that reading programs based on this theory teach the strategies struggling readers use to get by. In other words: Children are taught to read the way that poor readers read.
Now, a new, federally funded study has found that, by third and fourth grade, children who received Reading Recovery had lower scores on state reading tests than a comparison group of children who did not receive Reading Recovery.
"It's not what we expected, and it's concerning," said lead author Henry May, director of the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy at the University of Delaware. May delivered the findings at an April gathering of education researchers in San Diego.
At least 2.4 million students in the United States have participated in Reading Recovery or its Spanish-language counterpart since 1984, when the program first came to America from New Zealand. The program is also used in Australia, Canada and England, among other countries.
The new research could prompt schools to reexamine their investment in Reading Recovery, and consider other ways to help struggling first-graders.
The new research shows children make initial gains, then fall behind
May was the principal investigator of an earlier federally funded study of Reading Recovery, one of the largest ever randomized experiments of an instructional intervention in elementary schools. That study, which began in 2011, found evidence of large positive gains in first grade, as has other research. The program's advocates have pointed to that research as evidence that the instructional approach is effective and based on sound science.
But whether the initial gains last and translate into better performance on state reading tests remained a question. This new study on the long-term impact of Reading Recovery is the largest, most rigorous effort to tackle that question, according to May.
The fact that students who participated in Reading Recovery did worse in later grades than similar students who did not get the program surprised May.
"Was Reading Recovery harmful? I wouldn't go as far as to say that," he said. "But what we do know is that the kids that got it for some reason ended up losing their gains and then falling behind."
In a written response to the study, the Reading Recovery Council of North America, the organization that advocates for the program in the United States, disputed some of the research methodology and maintained that their program is effective. It also said: "Reading Recovery has and will continue to change in response to evidence gathered from a wide range of studies of both students having difficulties with early reading and writing and their teachers."
U.S. schools have been dropping Reading Recovery
At one point, Reading Recovery was in every state. But school districts have been dropping the program – today, it's in nearly 2,000 schools in 41 states.
... do you have evidence of impact? That's really the key. Do you have evidence of impact, and how do you know? And if you don't have evidence of impact, you have to ask yourself why and then what are you going to do about it?
In fact, the first district to implement the program in the U.S. recently decided to stop using it.
Leslie Kelly, executive director of teaching and learning at Columbus City Schools in Ohio, said the decision to drop Reading Recovery is part of a larger effort to bring "the science of reading" to the district. She said she and her colleagues realized that their approach to reading instruction, including Reading Recovery, didn't align well with that science.
Her advice to other districts that are still using Reading Recovery is to take a close look at the program's effectiveness: "Do your research. Read a lot, and really look at do you have evidence of impact? That's really the key. Do you have evidence of impact, and how do you know? And if you don't have evidence of impact, you have to ask yourself why and then what are you going to do about it?"
Reading Recovery was already controversial
Critics of Reading Recovery have long contended that children in the program do not receive enough explicit and systematic instruction in how to decode words. In addition, they say, children are taught to use context, pictures and other clues to identify words, a strategy that may work in first-grade books but becomes less effective as text becomes more difficult. They say kids can seem like good readers in first grade but fail to develop the skills they need to be good readers in the long run.
May said this could explain his latest research findings. "If you don't build up those decoding skills, you're going to fall behind, even though it looked like you had caught up in first grade."
He said the results could also be explained by the fact that about 40% of the students who received Reading Recovery got no further intervention after first grade. "Because the kids didn't get the intervention that they needed in second and third grade, they lost those gains," May said. "I think that's a plausible hypothesis."
But the study also found that the students who were in Reading Recovery were more likely than the comparison group to receive extra help for reading after first grade. Advocates for Reading Recovery have justified the program's high cost — estimated to be up to $10,271 per student — by saying that the program reduces the need for further reading intervention.
This new research comes as schools and states are looking for ways to help students recover from the disruptions of the pandemic, including disruptions to their reading development. May's findings are something for policymakers and school leaders to consider as they make decisions about what programs to invest in.
Emily Hanford is a senior correspondent and Christopher Peak is a reporter for APM Reports, the documentary and investigative reporting group at American Public Media. This story was adapted from their earlier reporting. A collection of stories from APM Reports on how kids learn to read can be found here.
Copyright 2022 APM Reports. To see more, visit APM Reports. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/a-popular-program-for-teaching-kids-to-read-just-took-another-hit-to-its-credibility | 2022-05-12T16:08:12Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Abortion law could soon be in the hands of states. A draft opinion leaked earlier this week suggests the Supreme Court may soon overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion ruling. If that happens, more than two dozen states are expected to ban abortion. Some lawmakers are also trying to keep people from pursuing options in states where abortion will remain legal. All this is gray legal territory, so let's turn to Melissa Murray, professor of law at New York University. Professor, thanks for joining us.
MELISSA MURRAY: Thanks for having me.
MARTINEZ: All right. Several weeks ago, a Missouri lawmaker introduced a bill that would let private citizens sue someone who helped a patient cross state lines for an abortion. Is that legal?
MURRAY: It is a gray area, as you say. There are a lot of different legal issues that would be raised if a bill like this were actually enacted. Individuals have what is known as the right to travel, which means that they can move freely within the various states. There are some limitations, obviously, on the right to travel, but the idea is that you should be able to move from state to state and be able to access the benefits that the state offers to its citizens, with some limitations. But again, the idea of a state actually precluding someone from accessing benefits in another state, basically imposing their public policy on the other state, is something that I think is a little more far afield. And so I think there would be legal questions about that.
The idea of what it means to assist someone to leave the state is also something that moves us into some gray area. Is it simply driving someone across state lines to seek an abortion in a more hospitable state? Or is it something more anodyne, like donating money to an abortion fund that helps people to leave the state to seek abortion care? I think in a situation like that, where you're donating money but the money provides assistance, you could actually have some First Amendment issues around the whole question of prohibiting that kind of assistance. So the Supreme Court has suggested that returning this to the states will settle this fraught conflict over abortion that has really gripped the nation for almost 40 years now. But it seems like it's really just going to exacerbate already existing conflicts and perhaps provide new conflicts that we haven't yet seen.
MARTINEZ: In general, how far can states go to legislate activity beyond their state lines?
MURRAY: Again, I think we're going to see how far they can go. And I think many of these states are willing to push the envelope and test this. But if you just look to our recent past, 1967, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia. What people don't realize is that the laws that were struck down in that case - it wasn't simply about banning interracial marriage. One of the Virginia laws that was challenged actually made it a crime for people to leave the state in order to transact interracial marriages elsewhere. This is sort of ripped from the same playbook. If another state offers a benefit that your state doesn't offer, can your state prohibit you from leaving you in order to seek that benefit if you're going to return to your home state?
MARTINEZ: You mentioned helping people go across state lines. I know a lot of companies are offering to pay for travel so their employees can find abortion care - Apple, Amazon, Citi, a growing list. Would that be legal if Roe was overturned?
MURRAY: Well, right now it's legal. But again, if the terms of these laws, like the proposed Missouri law, broadly construe what it means to assist someone, then that, too, could be off the table. And that, too, could be a violation of the corporation's rights to use its money in a manner of its choosing. I mean, think about Citizens United and this whole idea that corporations enjoy speech and are able to donate, and that is an expression of speech. This might be considered an expression of speech, too. So I think there are likely to be First Amendment issues if this notion of assistance goes so far as to prohibit individuals from supporting particular causes or even providing funding for their own employees to do this.
MARTINEZ: What about lawmakers who are trying to minimize access to abortion medication? What's likely to happen with that?
MURRAY: Well, so abortion medication lends us into the whole realm of administrative law. And this has been an area where conservatives - the Trump administration, for example - was very exercised during the pandemic to limit access to medication abortion. The Biden administration changed its policies, so it sort of, you know, rolled things back from what the Trump administration had done. But individual states can do this through their own administrative agencies that regulate the distribution of pharmaceuticals and other drugs in their borders. And they can perhaps limit the distribution of those kinds of pharmaceuticals from other states from coming in. You could also have a conservative Congress, for example, passing laws that prohibit the use of the mails to distribute medication abortion. We had this back in the 1870s with the Comstock Act, which prohibited the transmission of articles intended for, quote-unquote, "immoral purposes" across state lines using the Postal Service. So there's a wide range of things that can be done to limit the distribution of the medication abortion protocols through the mails and other means of transmission.
MARTINEZ: I know Texas provided an enforcement model for some states when it gave private citizens the authority to sue someone who sought an abortion. Could there be lawsuits over those kinds of lawsuits?
MURRAY: Well, I think we can have lawsuits over lawsuits. Certainly it's likely if, for example, someone filed suit under that Texas law but did so maliciously, knowing that the individual they had named had not actually provided an abortion or assisted someone in providing an abortion. So you could imagine lots of lawsuits brought by people who were sort of hemmed up in litigation because of a falsely brought lawsuit or maliciously brought lawsuit, so we could have things like that. There could also be challenges to, you know, what it means to actually provide assistance. And so, again, these laws are written really broadly. They're untested as of yet. And I think they are going to be fertile ground for new lawsuits pushing and trying to understand what the scope of everyone's rights is at this point.
MARTINEZ: Melissa Murray is the Frederick and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at NYU. Professor, thanks.
MURRAY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/abortion-law-could-soon-be-in-the-hands-of-states-creating-new-issues | 2022-05-12T16:08:18Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
People opposed to abortion say they're excited and sobered by this week's Supreme Court leak. Some are trying to keep emotions in check until the court issues its final ruling. But even if the court does overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion opponents say there will be more work to do. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Republican strategist Deana Bass Williams teared up when she saw the leaked draft. She's ardently opposed abortion since she was a teenager. But then, after this decades-long fight, she says it felt like when the dog actually catches the car.
DEANA BASS WILLIAMS: It's kind of one of those situations where because you never, ever thought it would happen in your lifetime, that now that it is actually happening, there will be a need to make it work.
LUDDEN: Part of that work will be winning over more people. Bass Williams is frustrated at media focus on how a majority of Americans support Roe v. Wade. Sure, she says, but many also support some limits. Getting rid of Roe would change the discussion. And she welcomes talking with abortion rights supporters about when they think life starts.
BASS WILLIAMS: You know, and I'll whittle you down and move you back until conception. But if we can just - if you can just tell me when you believe that a baby is a baby inside of a woman's womb, then let's start with that conversation.
LUDDEN: Terri Herring is also ready for what she calls a heart battle. She heads Choose Life Mississippi, directs the state chapter of Americans United for Life and has been an anti-abortion advocate for more than three decades.
TERRI HERRING: Abortion and Roe v. Wade has been our Goliath, OK? So now we've slain Goliath, presumably. So after you slay Goliath, there are still a lot of Philistines.
LUDDEN: That's because doing away with Roe would send the issue back to all 50 states to decide. Mississippi is one of 13 states with so-called trigger laws. If Roe falls, they would automatically ban abortion with few exceptions. In that case, Herring says her focus will be helping women navigate pregnancies they didn't plan for.
HERRING: We have these 30 pregnancy resource centers. And to really say now, today, are you prepared? - because the women are coming.
LUDDEN: Herring herself unexpectedly got pregnant at age 18. She says she understands the OMG of it. But she thinks as more limits kick in, women would start to see that it doesn't have to ruin your life.
HERRING: So what I'm looking forward to with the overturn of Roe v. Wade is a lot of people being in love with those babies that they weren't sure they wanted to have.
LUDDEN: Iowa is in a different place. Kristi Judkins heads Iowa Right to Life. She says legal battles there led the state supreme court to rule that there is a fundamental right to abortion.
KRISTI JUDKINS: That is in place. So regardless of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, in Iowa, we still have work to do, which is promoting and making sure Iowans are aware of our Protect Life Amendment.
LUDDEN: That would change the state constitution to allow limits on abortion. It's been passed in the general assembly but will also need to pass in the next one. Of course, some Democratic-led states are already looking to boost abortion rights, even help women travel from other states for the procedure. So what about pushing for a national abortion ban? Republican strategist Bess Williams says, yes, if at some point there's a filibuster-proof Republican majority Congress. But Terri Herring in Mississippi thinks that idea is a no-go. She asks, over the past half century, what did Republican Congresses do on abortion?
HERRING: Nil, nothing, nada. OK? Roe has given them a way out. They can say they're pro-life and do nothing.
LUDDEN: If Roe goes away, she says, politicians in every state will be forced to do something about abortion, one way or the other. Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF THOM YORKE SONG, "ATOMS FOR PEACE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/abortion-opponents-are-excited-about-the-roe-v-wade-leak-but-say-theres-work-to-do | 2022-05-12T16:08:24Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
There is an economic indicator that can reveal the state of the trucking industry and sometimes the economy at large. It's called the spot market rate, and it hit historic highs early in the pandemic. But this year, it's fallen fast. Paddy Hirsch and Wailin Wong from our daily economics podcast The Indicator explain what that means.
WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: If you need to truck your goods across the U.S., there are two ways you can do it. You can use the contract market, where you make a contract with a haulage firm. That's where the cost of transportation is agreed to weeks or months in advance. Or you can use the spot market.
KENDRA TUCKER: So at any given moment or any given location, there's a market for drivers and riders.
PADDY HIRSCH, BYLINE: This is Kendra Tucker. She's the CEO of truckstop.com It's a service that links people who need to move their goods with drivers who can do the moving for them.
TUCKER: One everyday example of a spot market is a ride-sharing app, like Uber or Lyft.
HIRSCH: The spot market in trucking is super dynamic, with prices rising and falling all the time, as supply and demand fluctuates. But during the pandemic, of course, we saw a massive surge in demand for goods, and that led to a surge in demand for truckers to ship those goods, and, of course, that led to a surge in transportation prices. Since 2020, the cost per mile to ship something in a truck has gone pretty much only one way - upwards.
WONG: Close to a 60% increase in the spot rates, an increase that peaked in January this year and created an interesting wrinkle in the trucking market.
HIRSCH: As those spot prices began to rise, contract market truckers started to get jealous of their spot market peers, and they started to reject their contracts.
TUCKER: So just because the contract exists doesn't mean the contract is always honored, particularly when spot market rates start doing what they've been doing. Carriers then say, I've got to get out of this contract because I could make more in the spot market.
HIRSCH: But of course, now the spot price is falling - down 15% since January. And in the past, a slump in the spot market has been kind of like a red light flashing on the dash of the trucking industry and maybe even the economy at large, warning that a correction could be coming or maybe even a recession.
TUCKER: We generally avoid the R word, in that it's not actually recessionary. I guess it's recessionary in that demand is receding. But demand was incredibly high, right? So what we're headed back to now is a normal market based on the trends that we see.
WONG: A normal market - and this makes sense, right? We are now coming out of the pandemic - fingers crossed.
HIRSCH: Fingers crossed.
WONG: And so our demand for services is rising, and our demand for goods is falling. That ebbing demand for goods means less demand for trucks.
HIRSCH: Which is good for the consumer, right? Because it means our stuff costs less to ship and, therefore, should be marginally less expensive.
WONG: But what about all those new trucking entrepreneurs who entered the market while it was raging hot?
DEMETRIS WASHINGTON: My name is Demetris Washington (ph). I'm the owner of Nomadic Transx LLC.
HIRSCH: Demetris started his own small trucking business in Maryland.
WASHINGTON: The industry right now is tough. You know, gas prices are really high and...
HIRSCH: But all of these problems aside, Demetris doesn't think that the sky is falling. Like Kendra Tucker, he believes that the industry is merely in a correction, and he's doing OK. Last week, he says, he broke even. That felt great.
Paddy Hirsch.
WONG: Wailin Wong, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/an-economic-indicator-sheds-light-on-the-trucking-industry | 2022-05-12T16:08:30Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are still trying to take control of Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks. The plant is where Ukrainian fighters and civilians have been holding out for weeks. The reports of fierce fighting come as Russia says it will hold to a three-day ceasefire of its assault to allow civilians to evacuate. Earlier this week, some were able to escape. The International Committee of the Red Cross is helping organize those evacuations, and Chris Hanger, with the ICRC, is on the line from Zaporizhzhia.
CHRIS HANGER: Good morning.
FADEL: If you could just start by describing the role of the ICRC in arranging these evacuations.
HANGER: So we had a safe passage operation that lasted five days that brought people from the Azovstal plant - civilians, elderly, women and children - to Zaporizhzhia. It was a five-day operation, very complicated. But in the end, these people are now in a safer place. At the same time, just yesterday night, we managed to do another safe passage operation to get over 300 civilians out of the area in Mariupol. So this is another success and another safe passage operation, and our role as a neutral intermediary in this type of conflict is to really try to facilitate the dialogue with the parties through the conflict to make sure that really practical agreements are found so that civilians can get to safety.
FADEL: How many people have you been able to get out?
HANGER: So out of the Azovstal plant, it was several dozens - mainly children, mainly women, mainly elderly. We've - at the same time, in the surrounding areas around Mariupol, we've managed to get more than 100 people out. And yesterday, more than 300 civilians came to Zaporizhzhia in another safe passage operation, which - these civilians came from Mariupol, but also surrounding villages like Manhush, Berdyansk and Tokmak.
FADEL: What are people saying who have gotten safe passage - who've been able to get out of Mariupol and the surrounding areas on these buses? What are they saying about what they've been through?
HANGER: When our teams spoke to them - I mean, one thing that struck them is, really, it's the first time - the people that we got out of the Azovstal plant - that it's been over two months they've not seen the sky...
FADEL: Oh.
HANGER: ...So they had no idea what was going on around them. They only heard fighting - intense fighting around them. But obviously, they were relieved when they were able to see the sun again, but they saw destruction. So they saw their home, their city, completely destroyed. And, of course, they were in a deep state of shock. Women were crying. Men were staying silent. There was actually a priest, and a lot of people were asking for a priest, so this shows you a little bit the level of trauma and devastation these people have seen and been through. And they kept asking us - are we safe? Are we going to be OK? Where are we going? And that shows you, really, how deeply traumatized these people have been after two months in such a horrible, dire situation.
FADEL: And now that they're in Zaporizhzhia, what happens to them next?
HANGER: So, of course, there are these immediate needs that people think of - that we see from images, that we hear from people. There were people, for example, that had broken - they had fractures, so they needed to have direct medical care. There was a pregnant woman. There were people, of course, that didn't have access to medication - so people with diabetes, they needed to be cared for. At the same time, now, people, of course, need a place to stay, so there are different organizations working on this on the ground in Zaporizhzhia, helping these people to find shelter. At the same time, I think I want to stress that it's - I think we can't really imagine what these people have been through, and there's obviously a huge need for psychological support. And that's something - our teams also work across Ukraine on this because the mental scars of these type of situations will take years to process.
FADEL: Hmm. How many civilians are now left behind in Mariupol, and what are their prospects of getting out?
HANGER: So it's obviously a very difficult situation. There are reports that there is renewed fighting, and this is an active conflict, so we don't have specific numbers on the people that are still trapped, but not only in Mariupol and not only in the Azovstal plant, but across Ukraine. And we are in constant dialogue to get these people to safety if they wish to leave, and we hope that those who are still trapped can find a safe way out with the support of the ICRC or other organizations.
FADEL: Chris Hanger with the International Committee of the Red Cross. He joined us from Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine. Thank you so much for your time.
HANGER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/attacks-persist-on-ukrainian-steel-plant-where-some-people-managed-to-flee | 2022-05-12T16:08:36Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade could quickly curtail access to abortion in a lot of states. That prospect is already shaping the way candidates, strategists, advocates and voters are thinking about the 2022 midterms, especially in swing states like Georgia. WABE's Sam Gringlas joins us from Atlanta for more on this. Good morning, Sam.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: So, Sam, if this draft decision holds up, states would decide whether to allow abortion. Where does that leave Georgia and other states?
GRINGLAS: Well, Georgia's legislature is solidly Republican, and in 2019 they passed a bill banning abortion after roughly six weeks. That law would likely take effect really quickly if Roe is struck down. You know, for the last dozen years, Republicans have been just pouring resources into winning these state House races and then drawing district maps to lock in that political power. Democrats now admit that, for a long time, they just didn't invest enough in state legislatures. I talked about that with Jessica Post. She runs the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
JESSICA POST: We need to do everything we can to win state legislatures. So I know folks right now may be giving to abortion funds. I would also say please support your Democratic state legislative candidates because they will be the ones deciding the fate of abortion in your state.
GRINGLAS: So say Democrat Stacey Abrams wins her campaign for governor. Without the legislature, there's not a whole lot that she can do to undo laws that are already on the books.
FADEL: Are you already seeing this draft opinion shaping election strategy in Georgia?
GRINGLAS: Yeah. I mean, Democrats think this ruling could energize voters. There's a Democrat here running for attorney general. Her name is Jen Jordan. And right after this draft leaked, she sent off a tweet calling Georgia the next battleground for reproductive freedom, and she's pledging to fight restrictive abortion laws in the state courts.
JEN JORDAN: This was not going to be front and center, obviously. You know, we were talking about pocketbook issues and consumer protection and voting and all that kind of stuff. But sometimes you don't pick the fight; the fight picks you.
GRINGLAS: One more voice I want to bring in - this is Jeanna Kelley. She just signed up to volunteer with Jordan's campaign, spurred by this news, and she's already done a shift texting women voters.
JEANNA KELLEY: I can't do anything else about this but vote and encourage other people to vote. But it really did feel good to be able to connect with women and say, hey, you know, we would love to have you join us in supporting this candidate.
GRINGLAS: So at the end of the day, we really don't know how much overturning Roe would actually move the needle on Election Day. You know, persistent inflation, some other issue could end up outweighing everything else.
FADEL: And what about Republicans? How are they responding?
GRINGLAS: Well, let me just play you some tape from this week's Republican debate for lieutenant governor. All the candidates were lined up on stage, and they were asked if they're satisfied with the restrictive abortion rules Georgia already passed or whether they would want to do more, and here's what they all said.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ATLANTA PRESS CLUB")
JEANNE SEAVER: I would love to ban abortion.
BRAD MEANS: Just ban it?
SEAVER: Yes, sir.
MEANS: And, Mr. Miller, your thoughts?
BUTCH MILLER: Ban it.
MEANS: For you, Mr. Jones?
BURT JONES: Ban it.
GRINGLAS: Republican David Perdue, who's challenging Georgia's sitting Republican governor, Brian Kemp, says he would also now pursue an all-out ban on abortion. Kemp has not weighed in on that, but he might feel compelled to call for a ban, too. That could bite him in November, though, when he needs this broader swath of Georgia voters to keep him in office.
FADEL: Hmm. Sam Gringlas, political reporter at WABE in Atlanta. Thank you so much.
GRINGLAS: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/attention-turns-to-midterms-after-supreme-court-draft-decision-is-leaked | 2022-05-12T16:08:42Z |
MARY LOUISE KELLY, BYLINE: Our next guest has been in Showbiz since she was 11 months old - 11 months. That is when Brooke Shields took her first turn before the cameras as the face of Ivory soap. More ads followed, then movie deals, TV, stage, and almost always documenting her every move, paparazzi. Shields grew up in the public eye, and now she is aging in the public eye, and she wants to talk about it. At the top of her list, the idea that women in their 50s are not represented in lots of places, including advertising.
BROOKE SHIELDS: Why are we forgotten? And we're forgotten just in this middle chunk because there's 20, and then there are people, you know, say, more in the more aged age or geriatric world, you know, and it's like you go from sexy to depends. And there's this whole margin in the middle that is actually...
KELLY: (Laughter) Quite a few decades in the middle there, yeah.
SHIELDS: Quite a few decades in the middle that are vibrant. I always say I don't like to talk about it as aging as much as vitality.
KELLY: And Brooke Shields is on a mission to highlight the vitality of women over 50. She started an online community, signed with the winemaker Clos du Bois to rebrand Chardonnay. And the one-time face and body of Calvin Klein jeans is doing ads for Jordache.
I read that you told them, do not even think about retouching this; I want people to see my body and the way it looks as I'm 56. Why?
SHIELDS: A, because I worked really hard to get to that picture-ready place. And you know what? Sure, it's - you look at yourself with a filter and a this and a that or whatever, and you're like, oh, OK. Then you look in the mirror and you're like, OK, not the same, don't look the same. But what am I going to do? You know, it was brilliant lighting, a amazing photographer, hair and makeup and wardrobe. Everybody was on top of their game. So I was very secure within what was going to be represented.
What I didn't want was to be made thinner. I did lose weight, you know, hit it a bit harder. I worked every day. You know, I had to work at 5 a.m. because that was the only time that I could get this training session. And I worked really hard for it. You know, I don't look skin and bones. I just didn't want to be dishonest with how much work I put in to doing it and saying, why can't I be sexy at this age?
KELLY: Well, I, in the interest of full honesty, will say, I - you look gorgeous in this ad. I also was like, you're Brooke Shields. You're more gorgeous than the rest of us combined, whether you were getting up and working out at 5 a.m. or not, and even you had to do that. I mean, that's the reality. And I wondered, you know, I could work out at 5 a.m. every day for the rest of my life. I'm not going to look like you do in Jordache jeans. Do you worry at all about that, about the, like, women, whatever age we are, and the unrealistic body expectations that get put out there?
SHIELDS: Listen; I - it is all true. You know, I can't apologize for what I look like, but I know that I've worked hard at it, and I've made sure that I wasn't just that. And it's about the dialogue that you have with your children, with people. It's about aligning with companies that do believe in body inclusivity.
I'm one version of that. I can say that this is my age. You know, this is my age, and this is where I am today. I'm having my own - I have to find my own pride in my own shape. And it looks different now than it did...
KELLY: Yeah.
SHIELDS: ...You know, when I was - everything was all up higher.
KELLY: Yeah. I mean, there's a special resonance in talking to you, Brooke Shields, about doing a jeans ad because you, of course, starred in one of the most famous jeans ads ever, the Calvin Klein ad from 1980, which was controversial then because you were so young. It would be more controversial today. I wondered as I watched you, you know, in this new, very sexy ad, I mean, you're wearing jeans and nothing else, right? You're barefoot. It's - you're topless. It's shot from behind. How is your understanding of that, of wanting to be in an ad where you are - where it is all about the sex appeal? How has that changed over 42 years?
SHIELDS: I think it's probably the first time I've ever felt the sex appeal. You know, you don't - you can't really feel it at 15. It was all about doing a really good job. When I did it, I did not own the sexuality of it in the same way that I understand it and do now. And it's taken me a lot longer. I have a very fraught, you know, historical relationship with sexuality and virginity and, you know, all of that for decades. Now I understand it differently. So it's - I'm much more inclined to do something that is more overtly sexual that I understand...
KELLY: And own it. Yeah.
SHIELDS: ...Because I own it now. It's mine, you know?
KELLY: How do you think about the line - is there a line? - I think about this all the time - between wanting to look good and wanting to look young? Because it's so ingrained that they're the same thing.
SHIELDS: That's hard. That is a - that's hard because, you know, it's like - it's one thing to say, oh, you know, these wrinkles are from laughter. And everybody's like, oh, that's good. You know, OK, yeah. But they weren't there then. And I look at my little baby girl's faces, and they are just flawless. It's like I gaze at them, and then I think, wait a minute. I was once that. I didn't even know it.
So then I look at myself, and I think, OK, no, I don't look like I did in my 20. And my skin is looser. My butt's lower, my love handles and - you know what I mean? It's like you look at all those and you take them apart.
And then you look at these sort of nubile bodies that are just emerging into these incredible women. And you're just like, oh, my God, I have to be careful not to compare myself. And, you know, the thing for me that's more important than the look of it is I'm partially broken down. Like, my knees are bad, you know? Weight loss is more difficult.
KELLY: Yeah.
SHIELDS: I can't drink in the same way that I used to, even though I love it as much - I mean, actually, more than I ever did. Those are the kind of things that I'm fighting more than just what I look like in the mirror.
KELLY: What do you want women to hear from watching you feeling conflicted and wrestling with all of this still at this point, at 56 and still living your life so much in the public eye?
SHIELDS: I don't think there's any shame. There's no shame in being older and getting older. There's a sense of pride, I think, that comes with it. But I don't want to wait for that pride to have to look like ancient wisdom. You know, I'm not stopping a thing I love doing. Yes, I'm limited in a lot of the physical activity, but I'm still going. I'm still taking on new jobs. There is still more to come. And this is all a part of it.
So I want that message to be out there because I want, especially women over a certain age, in their 50s, to feel like they are at a new beginning. You know, just because their ovaries are not producing babies anymore, are they supposedly not as important or not as valuable? I don't believe so.
KELLY: That is Brooke Shields. She is an actress, author, spokesperson, as you heard, for Jordache, Clos du Bois, and founder of the online community for women Beginning Is Now, which pretty much sums it up. Brooke Shields, this was a total pleasure. Thank you.
SHIELDS: Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/brooke-shields-is-aging-in-the-public-eye-and-she-wants-to-talk-about-it | 2022-05-12T16:08:48Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Cinco de Mayo, May 5, is a day that's come to stand for a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage. But Cinco de Mayo is part of a much deeper story of two nations, Mexico and the U.S., trying to define themselves at a time when old empires were crumbling and borders were in flux. Hosts Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah from our history podcast Throughline bring us this story.
RUND ABDELFATAH, BYLINE: We're in the historic center of Mexico's capital, Mexico City, a massive city of over 8 million people, with tour guide Ismael Rivera.
ISMAEL RIVERA: (Speaking Spanish). My name is Ismael Rivera (ph). I was born in Mexico City.
ABDELFATAH: I can't help but go on a historic tour of pretty much everywhere I visit now.
RIVERA: Underneath me here, there's three Aztec temple dedicated to the sun, to the wind and the...
ABDELFATAH: Ismael guides us through winding streets, past towering Gothic churches, ancient Aztec temple sites, ornately engraved Spanish colonial arches, a salsa class in one square and a busy market with taco vendors every two feet. The smell is delicious - like, unreal. And then we find ourselves in a quieter place, surrounded by tall trees, fountains with statues of Greek gods and these vibrant purple flowers called jacarandas.
RIVERA: This is Alameda Park. It was the first one in American continent.
ABDELFATAH: Alameda Central Park was built in the 16th century. It sits right off of Cinco de Mayo Avenue.
RIVERA: And Diego Rivera paints a mural about this park.
ABDELFATAH: Diego Rivera, who's considered one of the greatest Mexican painters of the 20th century, called this mural "Sueno De Una Tarde Dominical En La Alameda Centrale," "Dream Of A Sunday Afternoon In Alameda Central." A replica of the mural stretches maybe 50 feet long across the side of a building at one end of the park.
RIVERA: It's divided in different periods - Hispanic period, colonial period.
ABDELFATAH: The mural basically tells the entire history of Mexico from the fall of the Aztec empire in the 16th century, when the Spanish conquerors arrived, to a revolution in the 20th century in images, like a modern-day cave painting. It's a swirl of colors with a tightly packed crowd of people all along the bottom. The faces are Indigenous, African and European - central characters from Mexico's past.
RIVERA: We're seeing a guy with bloody hands. He's Hernan Cortes.
ABDELFATAH: The leader of the Spanish Invasion.
RIVERA: And the blood is the blood of the Native people.
ABDELFATAH: And as you move right across the mural, you see the influence of Catholicism on Mexico.
RIVERA: We see the nun.
ABDELFATAH: A nun in a black hooded veil. Then you see an American general in uniform.
RIVERA: They were the war...
ABDELFATAH: War between the U.S...
RIVERA: U.S.
ABDELFATAH: ...And Mexico.
RIVERA: Mexico.
ABDELFATAH: There's men in suits, gunslinging farmers in sombreros, women in Victorian gowns alongside women in traditional huipil dresses, including...
RIVERA: Frida Kahlo.
ABDELFATAH: But perhaps the most striking character is a man who sits right around the middle of the mural and looms above all the other characters. He has a head of bright white hair with an impressive mustache to match and is dressed in a dark blue military uniform overrun with medals.
RIVERA: He is Porfirio Diaz.
ABDELFATAH: Porfirio Diaz, the general who ruled Mexico for 35 years. Porfirio Diaz is at the center of the mural and of modern Mexican history thanks to a single day in May.
KELLY LYTLE HERNANDEZ: May 5 of 1862.
ABDELFATAH: May 5, Cinco de Mayo. On that day, an epic battle was fought, a battle fought and won by Mexicans against foreign aggression, a battle that helped shape the future of Mexico and the U.S.
LYTLE HERNANDEZ: And that battle is led by several generals, but one of them was Porfirio Diaz.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARIACHI VARGAS DE TECALITLAN SONG, "SON DE LA NEGRA")
LYTLE HERNANDEZ: That is what we celebrate when we celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
RAMTIN ARABLOUEI, BYLINE: This is Kelly Lytle Hernandez. She's a professor of history at UCLA and author of a new book called "Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, And Revolution In The Borderlands."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Colorful dancers and dozens of bands will be performing up and down San Diego Avenue through the heart...
LYTLE HERNANDEZ: So I grew up in San Diego, Calif. And, oh, gosh, you know, I don't know if I remember a lot about Cinco de Mayo outside of a couple school festivals, maybe a couple of things at local fairs. As a child, you know, a regular African American kid growing up in the borderlands, I witnessed a lot of what was happening around the border and immigration and border policing as I was growing up.
ABDELFATAH: But Kelly says she learned very little about Mexican history in school. And Cinco de Mayo remained this abstract thing - a fun party in the San Diego streets divorced from a particular time and place - until she studied that history as an adult.
MAURICIO TENORIO-TRILLO: What is Cinco de Mayo? Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the victory - of Mexican victory in one battle.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Happening now - thousands flooding downtown Tulsa, celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
RIVERA: And now it's like St. Patrick's Days, you know?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Bringing smiles and also big business to different restaurants.
TENORIO-TRILLO: Cinco de Mayo sale, cerveza, fiesta, whatever.
ARABLOUEI: This is Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo. He's a history professor at the University of Chicago.
TENORIO-TRILLO: I'm also professor at the Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas in Mexico City.
ARABLOUEI: Growing up in Mexico City, Mauricio had a similar experience to Kelly Lytle Hernandez but in reverse, on the other side of the border. For a long time, he wasn't taught much about U.S. history.
TENORIO-TRILLO: It's all about Mexico. Mexico very, you know, self-contained. And the problem is Mexico, the U.S. and Canada have share a common history for a long time. Cinco de Mayo is one of those things because it represents historically a common past between Mexican and Americans.
ABDELFATAH: A common past of two young border nations figuring out who to become in a rapidly changing world that was shedding old empires and making way for a new economic order, a past seen through wars, coups, revolutions and, of course, a history of migration across the border.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ABDELFATAH: Eventually, a generation after the first Mexican mass migration at the turn of the 20th century, Mexican Americans in the U.S. reclaimed Cinco de Mayo as a symbol of anti-imperialist resistance, part of a budding Chicano movement in the U.S.
ARABLOUEI: And around the 1980s, beer companies saw Cinco de Mayo as a smart business strategy and helped the holiday go mainstream.
ABDELFATAH: Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo says the story of Cinco de Mayo and everything that followed reveals two countries that have been attached at the hip, connected since their founding by land, culture, business and people, yet often in denial of the commonalities they share both then and now.
TENORIO-TRILLO: And at some point, we will look and find out that we have a common body, that the survival of one place or the other depends on the body. And there was no past, there is no present, and there will be no future is not common for the United States and Mexico.
(SOUNDBITE OF DESTROYER SONG, "KAPUTT")
FLORIDO: Throughline hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei brought us that story. You can listen to the complete Throughline Cinco de Mayo episode wherever you listen to podcasts.
(SOUNDBITE OF DESTROYER SONG, "KAPUTT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/cinco-de-mayo-is-part-of-a-deeper-story-of-2-nations-trying-to-define-themselves | 2022-05-12T16:08:54Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
This next story is one of betrayal and steps toward reconciliation. In the 18th century, a scholar worked to raise money to build a college for Native American students like him, but the money was diverted to establish the Ivy League Dartmouth instead. Connecticut Public Radio's Diane Orson reports.
DIANE ORSON, BYLINE: Born in 1723, Samson Occom was the first Native American student of the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock. Occom was a gifted orator and became a minister. In the 1760s at Wheelock's urging, Occom traveled to Europe to raise funds for what he believed would be a school in Connecticut for Native students. But not long after his return, he learned that Wheelock diverted the funds to the founding of a school in New Hampshire that catered to the sons of white settlers. It became Dartmouth College.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING)
ORSON: Members of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut chant a traditional song before the start of a repatriation ceremony. Guests include Dartmouth officials and Mohegan families.
Sarah Harris is vice chairwoman of the Tribal Council and a Dartmouth graduate. She says for decades, the Mohegans asked Dartmouth to honor Occom's role in the school's history.
SARAH HARRIS: Hundreds of years of not telling Occom's story has denied both Native and non-Native students and the larger community the truth of Dartmouth's founding.
ORSON: The Mohegans also called on the college to return a collection of Occom's handwritten papers. As Dartmouth President Philip Hanlon prepares to hand them over, he reads from a 1771 letter Occom wrote to Wheelock about the betrayal.
PHILIP HANLON: (Reading) Your having so many white scholars and so few or no Indian scholars gives me great discouragement. And now I am afraid we shall be deemed as liars and deceivers in Europe.
ORSON: Occom's papers include letters, diaries, sermons and a page of Indigenous herbal remedies. He wrote in five languages - Mohegan, English, Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Dartmouth experts say it's one of the earliest examples of written Mohegan language. President Hanlon acknowledges it took too long for the papers to return to Mohegan land.
HANLON: But they are here now, accompanied by the spirit of Samson Occom that lives with them.
ORSON: Jane Fawcett gets emotional as she describes what the repatriation ceremony means to her. Fawcett is a Mohegan nonner, or honored grandmother, and grew up on Occom's homestead.
JANE FAWCETT: Samson Occom was very important to me, actually. He was - he inspired me to go to college. I'm sorry. I don't usually break down.
ORSON: For two centuries, Dartmouth did little to honor its founding purpose. Fewer than 20 Native American students got Dartmouth degrees between 1769 and 1969. In 1970, the school began actively recruiting. About 1,200 Native Americans have graduated since. And Mohegan leaders say today's ceremony marks the start of a different relationship with Dartmouth, now that Samson Occam's papers are back home.
For NPR News, I'm Diane Orson.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/dartmouth-returns-the-papers-of-an-18th-century-mohegan-scholar-to-the-tribe | 2022-05-12T16:09:00Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In Grand Rapids, Mich., there are increasing calls to charge the police officer who shot and killed a Black driver during a traffic stop last month. While the investigation is ongoing, the officer is still on the payroll and receiving benefits. From member station WGVU, Kylie Ambu reports.
KYLIE AMBU, BYLINE: It's been about a month since residents here were stunned by the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya. The Black Congolese refugee was killed by Christopher Schurr, a white Grand Rapids police officer, following a scuffle during a traffic stop.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHRISTOPHER SCHURR: Stop. Stop.
AMBU: Body camera footage shows Schurr making the stop when he's unable to match the license plate with the car Lyoya's driving. When Schurr made physical contact, Lyoya ran away, leading to a foot chase and a struggle over the officer's Taser. The scuffle ended with Schurr on top of a face-down Lyoya and Schurr shooting him in the back of the head. Officer Schurr is on paid leave and stripped of his policing duties pending an investigation by Michigan State Police. Patrick Lyoya's parents call the killing unjustified. Speaking through an interpreter, his father, Peter, says it was an execution of his firstborn son.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PETER LYOYA: (Through interpreter) I was thinking that Patrick will take my place. And to see that my son has been killed like an animal by this police officer, I see that I have no life. I see my heart been broken. I'm asking for justice.
AMBU: The Grand Rapids Police Officers Association has thrown its support behind Schurr. It released a statement calling Lyoya's death tragic but affirming Christopher Schurr's actions, saying an officer, quote, "has the legal right to protect themselves and community in a volatile, dangerous situation such as this in order to return to his or her family at the end of their shift." While Michigan State Police investigate the incident, ultimately, it's Kent County prosecutor Christopher Becker who will determine whether to charge Schurr in Lyoya's death. There have been calls for Becker to recuse himself because of the long-standing relationship between the prosecutor's office and police department. But Becker says there's no reason he should step down.
CHRISTOPHER BECKER: I don't know any of the individuals involved in the case. I don't know the officer involved. I don't know Mr. Lyoya. So, you know, the law is pretty clear on when disqualification is appropriate, and none of those are met here. I've done numerous officer-involved shootings over the past six years I've been elected. I don't know why it would change now.
AMBU: Becker has received a preliminary investigative report from the state police but says he's still waiting on forensic findings from the manufacturer of the body camera and Taser.
BECKER: I have no idea what comes back from that. It could be earth-shattering. It could be nothing. But, you know, you don't want to make a decision before you get that material.
AMBU: As the city awaits, public pressure continues to mount for police reform.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: We are fighting for our lives, too. We could be the next Patrick.
AMBU: There have been weekend protests and marches that have shut down a city commission meeting. Additionally, since 2020, activists like Olabanji Olatunde (ph) have been rallying for police reform.
OLABANJI OLATUNDE: If people would have listened, it would have been preventable. But now it's just like an I-told-you-so moment. That's exactly what it is now. I told you so.
AMBU: Grand Rapids city leaders say they are making changes, proposing to more than double the budget for its Office of Oversight and Public Accountability. Activists' calls remain consistent. They want Christopher Schurr charged and fired and the department held accountable in Patrick Lyoya's death. For NPR News, I'm Kylie Ambu in Grand Rapids.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTOPHER SCOTT ATUNDE ADJUAH'S "DANZIGER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/demands-grow-for-a-white-officer-in-michigan-to-be-charged-in-black-motorists-death | 2022-05-12T16:09:06Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Parents of transgender youth are asking a federal judge in Alabama to block a new state law that criminalizes gender-affirming treatments for minors, such as puberty blockers or hormone therapy. They say the law, set to take effect on Sunday, is unconstitutional.
NPR's Debbie Elliott has been listening to arguments in Montgomery and joins us now. Hi, Debbie.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Hi there, Ari.
SHAPIRO: What's the legal issue in this case?
ELLIOTT: Well, this is whether Alabama's ban on gender-affirming medical care discriminates against transgender youth and whether it infringes on parental autonomy. This law would make it a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for parents to seek or doctors to prescribe medicines or perform surgery intended to alter a minor child's sex assigned at birth or to delay puberty. It also requires school officials to notify parents if a child discloses that they are transgender in their classes. Now, the families who filed this lawsuit say allowing this law to go into effect on Sunday will cause irreparable harm, and the U.S. Justice Department agrees and has intervened in the case.
SHAPIRO: So what was the argument that lawyers for the families made today?
ELLIOTT: Well, they started with expert witnesses, including mental health counselor Linda Hawkins. She oversees Gender and Sexuality Development Clinic at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She said it would be devastating to deny this treatment to transgender youth, especially those who are currently on either puberty blockers or hormone therapy. She said it would be like removing someone's cancer treatment. Hawkins said, without this medical care for youth who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, it can become what she described as a daily suicide watch that devastates families.
Now, some of the plaintiffs themselves, including transgender minors, are also testifying, but they're doing that privately before the judge and not in open court.
SHAPIRO: How does the state defend this law?
ELLIOTT: The state won't be presenting its witnesses until tomorrow, but we did get sort of a sense of where they're going during cross-examination today. Alabama's solicitor general, Edmund LaCour, asked one witness why is it policy to, say, ban female genital mutilation for minors or to require someone to be 18 to get a vasectomy, but not for hormone therapy that carries a risk of infertility.
Now, the Republican sponsors of the law say that youth are not old enough to make these kinds of decisions. Alabama's attorney general, Steve Marshall, has said calling gender-affirming care medically necessary is ideologically driven.
SHAPIRO: Now, transgender issues have emerged as a political wedge in many states, including Texas and Arkansas, and now Alabama is the latest. So what's been the reaction more broadly outside of the courthouse?
ELLIOTT: You know, this morning, before the hearing began, I spoke with Evan Moreno and his mom, who were here to witness this, and they want to see the law blocked. He's an 18-year-old high school senior from Birmingham who is taking testosterone. If this law goes into effect, he could not continue that therapy until he's 19, which is what the law requires.
EVAN MORENO: And it is something that has saved so many people regardless and has made my life so much easier. And if I - if that was taken away from me, I don't know what I would do. I don't know what would happen, which is a terrifying thought.
ELLIOTT: So there are families grappling with this all over the state. The federal judge here will be deciding whether to enjoin Alabama's law from taking effect on Sunday so that these families can pursue their lawsuit.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Debbie Elliott, covering that lawsuit in Montgomery. Thank you.
ELLIOTT: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/doctors-and-parents-of-alabama-trans-youth-seek-to-block-ban-on-gender-affirming-care | 2022-05-12T16:09:13Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Tonight, First Lady Jill Biden heads to Eastern Europe. She's planning to meet with U.S. troops and Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia and Romania. On Sunday, she'll visit the Slovakia-Ukraine border. As NPR's Scott Detrow reports, it's the most high-profile moment yet for the first lady.
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: First Lady Jill Biden set the tone for how she would approach her new job two days into the Biden presidency. She showed up at the U.S. Capitol to hand out chocolate chip cookies to National Guardsmen and -women who were protecting the building after the January 6 attacks.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JILL BIDEN: I just wanted to come today to say thank you to all of you for keeping me and my family safe.
DETROW: The first lady told the soldiers that the Bidens were a National Guard family. Beau Biden served in the Delaware National Guard. Just like when she was second lady during the Obama administration, Biden has put a lot of focus on helping other military families. She's also traveled the country promoting COVID vaccines, often alongside the second gentleman.
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BIDEN: Please, if you're listening, this is Doug Emhoff, and I'm Jill Biden. And we want to encourage everybody here in Texas to go and get the vaccine.
DETROW: But most of Biden's public efforts have focused on education. She's been a teacher her entire adult life. When she spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, it was from one of the first classrooms she taught in.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BIDEN: I have always loved the sounds of a classroom - the quiet that sparks with possibility just before students shuffle in.
DETROW: In fact, Anita McBride says one of the most important things Biden has done during her time in the White House is keep her full-time job as a community college professor in Virginia. McBride is an expert on the Office of the First Lady and served as Laura Bush's chief of staff. It's kind of a strange job, she says.
ANITA MCBRIDE: That has no position description, and each person gets to rewrite that job description in a way that suits them.
DETROW: By keeping her day job and effectively working two full-time jobs, McBride says Jill Biden is charting a new course that future first ladies or first gentlemen could follow. The trip to Slovakia and Romania, McBride says, is more of a classic use of the symbolism of the role. Biden is signaling America's commitments by showing up and bringing media attention with her in two countries who have taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and have also served as a staging ground for NATO's military support for Ukraine.
MCBRIDE: More importantly, too, is a validation that the United States is not going to forget the Ukrainian people and also the allied countries that are helping Ukrainian refugees.
DETROW: And within that mission, Biden will continue to focus on education. In both Romania and Slovakia, she'll visit schools that have taken in Ukrainian refugees and talk to the teachers who are helping new Ukrainian students settle in.
Scott Detrow, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/first-lady-jill-biden-head-to-eastern-europe-to-visit-ukrainian-refugees | 2022-05-12T16:09:19Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been called the Trump of the tropics. He won his first election easily but is facing a tough reelection this fall. And now he's been casting doubt on Brazil's election system, making claims very similar to false claims that former President Trump has made about U.S. elections.
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PRESIDENT JAIR BOLSONARO: (Through interpreter) We want clean and auditable elections. I can't participate in a farce backed by the president of the electoral court.
FLORIDO: These sorts of attacks have Scott Hamilton very worried. Hamilton was the U.S. consul in Rio de Janeiro until last year. After retiring from the State Department last week, he published a stinging op-ed in Brazil's largest newspaper. And he joins us now. Scott Hamilton, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
SCOTT HAMILTON: Thank you so much, Adrian.
FLORIDO: In your piece, you said that Bolsonaro has a messianic vision and that he's sabotaging the integrity of his country's democratic process ahead of October's elections. What have you seen?
HAMILTON: Well, when I was in Rio, I saw President Bolsonaro do a number of things that caused me tremendous concern. He attacked the judges as partisan figures who cannot be trusted. He criticized the outstanding electronic voting system in Brazil. He castigated the media as purveyors of fake news. He lambasted civil society. He also said that only fraud or God will remove him from office. And most recently, Mr. Bolsonaro has said that the military in Brazil must be involved in running a parallel vote count. So taken individually, none of those things are normal. But taken collectively, I think they should have alarm bells ringing in Washington.
FLORIDO: Is your fear that he might refuse to vacate the presidency should he lose the election?
HAMILTON: I do, frankly. I think our mismanagement of the relationship with Brazil during the Bolsonaro administration under both presidents Trump and Biden means that we are risking sleepwalking to disaster as Brazil prepares to hold these elections. I think Bolsonaro is thinking very hard about whether he will leave office or not.
FLORIDO: Well, you wrote in your piece that the U.S. has been too passive and that it needs to speak up now about this. What do you think the U.S. government should be saying? And should they be saying it publicly?
HAMILTON: I think, starting even a couple of years ago, we should have been telling Mr. Bolsonaro that the electoral system in that country was one that should not be intimidated in the manner in which he was seeking to do. More than that, I think, we should also have been far more public about visiting with the independent democratic institutions in Brazil, like the supreme court, like the electoral tribunal, and making it clear that we have confidence in their professionalism and integrity.
FLORIDO: You published this column shortly after retiring from the State Department. But I have to ask, when you were the U.S. consul in Rio, how strongly did you raise these sorts of alarms to colleagues in Washington or to counterparts in the Brazilian government?
HAMILTON: I raised it three times before I left Brazil. I raised it first in around June of 2020 with our ambassador, Ambassador Chapman. And when I had that discussion with him, he made it very clear that he was not persuaded that there was an issue. I raised it again a few days after President Biden was inaugurated in January in a written form to the ambassador again. And that got no response at all, nothing whatsoever. And so when I left Brazil in July of last year, I wrote again to half a dozen senior officials in Washington and in Brasilia. And I only got one response to that note, which was favorable, indicating that it would be forwarded to others in the government. But if such messages have been passed to Bolsonaro, I'm not aware.
FLORIDO: How is your article being received by everyday Brazilians? What have you heard from people you know there?
HAMILTON: I think that Brazilian society is about as polarized as the United States. And so there are, quite clearly, a large number of people who share my view. On the other hand, of course, there are people who feel Bolsonaro has been sent by God to save the country from communism and that any effort to get in his way of that mission is inappropriate and unwarranted. And so I suspect there are plenty of people who would strongly disagree.
FLORIDO: Scott Hamilton was the U.S. consul in Rio de Janeiro from 2018 until 2021. Thank you for joining us.
HAMILTON: Thank you so much, Adrian.
(SOUNDBITE OF TAJDAR JUNAID'S "DASTAAN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/former-u-s-consul-in-rio-de-janeiro-raises-new-alarms-about-brazils-bolsonaro | 2022-05-12T16:09:25Z |
MARY LOUISE KELLY, BYLINE: What should the next move be for abortion rights supporters in the wake of news this week that the Supreme Court may be poised to strike down Roe vs. Wade? When feminist icon Gloria Steinem came to the phone today, we asked her.
GLORIA STEINEM: Some of us might go and support our local Planned Parenthood clinic, or we can wear buttons. We can carry banners. We each probably have a very fervent way of doing it. And I think, you know, it's very important that we state our opinion.
KELLY: Gloria Steinem is in her late 80s now. She spent a lifetime fighting for women's rights, including the right to control their own reproductive choices. So I asked her reaction to this leaked draft suggesting that conservative justices may be aligning to overturn federal legal protection for abortion.
Gloria Steinem, welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
STEINEM: Thank you. I've missed you.
(LAUGHTER)
KELLY: Let me begin with a very obvious, basic question. What's your reaction? What went through your mind when you heard the news this week of this leaked document, which suggests the Supreme Court may be about to overturn Roe versus Wade?
STEINEM: It felt both new and angering and ancient. You know, I think there have always been efforts to control women's birth giving since women have given birth for thousands of years. I mean, I remember sitting in the Kalahari Desert talking to women who were showing me the plants that they used for abortifacients and to increase fertility. I mean, you know, this is not a new issue. And the very definition of patriarchy is trying to control women and birth giving.
KELLY: So that's the ancient part and the new part, just that after - I know for you, wondering, worrying whether this was the direction things would go, here we are.
STEINEM: Well, I think it's important to connect the ancient to the new because otherwise we don't understand the strong threat of patriarchy and racism that has been with us and continues to be with us. It's completely wrong. As the great Florynce Kennedy used to say, if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. But we have to contend with it, and we will.
KELLY: You've laid out some of the consequences, but I guess, big picture, you've argued for decades that access to reproductive freedom is key to equality. What do you see as the impact of potentially striking down Roe? - I mean, setting aside abortion and the right to an abortion or not, just for the right of women to be seen as, treated as equal citizens under the U.S. Constitution.
STEINEM: That's a huge impact potentially on women because we have to be able to make decisions about our own physical selves. It's a very differential impact on women, depending on what part of the country they're in, what their economic situation is, what their race is, ethnicity. It affects all women but not all women equally. But I do note in all the surveys that all women are devoted to making sure we maintain reproductive freedom.
KELLY: So the core of Justice Alito's argument - Justice Alito, who wrote this draft majority opinion - is that the Constitution makes no mention of abortion, that that ruling back in 1973 invented a right and that it is time to - and I'll quote his words - "return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives." I mean, in the United States, the states do decide all kinds of things. What is wrong with letting states decide this?
STEINEM: Well, his comment that this is not mentioned in the Constitution is ridiculous since women weren't mentioned in the Constitution. It's quite possible that reproductive freedom would have been up there with freedom of speech if everyone had had an equal say. But medical needs should not be distributed geographically. They're way too distributed by class and economics as it is because we don't have national health care as we should. And this makes it far worse for the female half of the population.
KELLY: Was there any part of Justice Alito's argument that resonated to you in any way?
STEINEM: No (laughter) I don't think so. I mean, I'll go back and look, but I couldn't find any. No.
KELLY: And I'm sure you read it closely. I guess I wonder for you, personally, this is a fight you have fought your whole career. You have had an abortion, which I mention because you've been very public about it. I've talked to you about it on air. Does it feel like you're watching your life's work be struck down?
STEINEM: No, I don't feel my work or the work of all the women and men who care about racial and sex equality has been struck down. It's just that it has a roadblock now, theoretically coming from the highest court in the land, but actually will impose hardships unequally but will not change the fact that we either have decision-making power over our own bodies, women and men, or there is no democracy.
KELLY: When I interviewed you last back in December, I asked whether you still thought you'd be fighting this fight in 2021, which it then was. Allow me to update the question. Did you think you'd still be fighting this fight in 2022?
STEINEM: (Laughter) Yes because, again, A, we still live in some degree of patriarchy and, B, women have the unique power of giving birth means that there are likely to be this and other waves of patriarchal efforts to control the bodies of women. It is much different from my earlier days, you know, when abortion was way more likely to be illegal and way more difficult to find. We have made a lot of progress, and we have made a lot of progress in contraception and the morning after pill and many ways of making sure that we don't need to have abortions. This is just not a pleasurable experience. Women don't get up in the morning and say it's a nice day. I think, you know - it's not an experience that any woman would choose unless she had to.
KELLY: It's very striking listening to you. You still sound as determined and as convinced that individuals can make a difference in turning the course of this country and its laws as you ever did.
STEINEM: Yes. Yes, of course. I mean, one thing I've learned over time, over and over again, that politics and deep change and, you know, everything we're trying to do is like a tree. And too often, we think the tree grows from the top, from Congress. Trees grow from the bottom. So what you and I do every day, what's possible in our community, we could thank the physicians who are supporting and providing reproductive freedom. We can give money to the elected figures who are supporting this vast majority view. And we can just, you know, refuse to be intimidated by the protestations of a losing minority.
KELLY: Journalist and activist Gloria Steinem. Gloria Steinem, thank you.
STEINEM: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/gloria-steinem-on-the-consequences-of-overturning-roe-v-wade | 2022-05-12T16:09:31Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
All right. Just about to graduate from college and looking for a job? Actually great timing. The growing competition for graduates is allowing for earlier job offers, higher starting wages and more control during the hiring process. Rich Kremer from Wisconsin Public Radio reports.
RICH KREMER, BYLINE: The final months before college graduation can be a time of anxious job searches and streams of outgoing resumes. That's not the case for University of Wisconsin-River Falls senior Nissy Obasi. The computer science and economics double major accepted an offer in August to become an investment analyst with Deutsche Bank in New York.
NISSY OBASI: I've had the chance to really enjoy senior year without having that on my back.
KREMER: Her advice to other students who may still be looking - don't be afraid to counter an offer because you may have the upper hand.
OBASI: I feel like negotiation skills, not a lot of people have them. So if you're given an offer for 100k, you just take it. You can get that to 120k and maybe throw something on top. You can just negotiate.
KREMER: A spring survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows businesses planning to boost college grad recruitment by more than 30% this year. That's the sharpest year-to-year increase in at least a decade.
JOSHUA KAHN: This is an even hotter period for recruiters than they thought it was going to be in the fall.
KREMER: Josh Kahn is assistant director of research for the group. He says recruiters are keenly aware of increasing competition for college grads. Their average starting salary is projected to top $50,000.
KAHN: They know that they need to make good offers. They know that they need to raise wages and benefits to make attractive offers, competitive offers.
KREMER: Taylor Schmidtfranz is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, who landed a teaching job in April just one day after her first interview.
TAYLOR SCHMIDTFRANZ: February and March, I was kind of freaking out a little because I'm like, what am I doing with my life? Like, where am I going to live and all that stuff? But it feels really good. I feel ready to graduate now.
KREMER: Even for seniors like U.W. Eau Claire's Hannah Leah (ph), graduating without a job offer isn't that scary.
HANNAH LEAH: It's a really big job market right now, so I'm not really too concerned, especially because there's, like, a teacher shortage and they're paying people to go back to school to become teachers because they need them so bad.
KREMER: The national unemployment rate for those with at least a four-year degree was 2% in March. The unemployment rate for those with high school diplomas was twice that. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported a record pay gap last year of $22,000 between those with bachelor degrees and those without.
JIM KWAPICK: With a college degree, your ability to be employed is greatly enhanced.
KREMER: That's Jim Kwapick, district director for international talent recruiting company Robert Half.
KWAPICK: Many employers are getting out ahead of the graduating class, and they're locking students in well before they graduate, unlike it's ever been.
KREMER: But college enrollment has fallen since 2020. Elise Gould with the Economic Policy Institute says the pandemic added new roadblocks for many minority and lower income potential students who may not have been able to come up with tuition.
ELISE GOULD: That's just not accessible to many people across the country.
KREMER: As the race to recruit college students heats up, those watching the trends expect things to cool, though they're not sure how or when. In the meantime, those nearing graduation appear to be calling the shots in today's hiring economy, and they know it.
For NPR News, I'm Rich Kremer in Eau Claire.
(SOUNDBITE OF UNWED SAILOR'S "AJO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/good-news-for-college-seniors-the-job-market-is-booming | 2022-05-12T16:09:37Z |
Many years ago, Milwaukee-based book influencer Cree Myles first picked up Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and found the validation she didn't know she needed. The book affirmed many of her experiences moving through the world as a Black woman.
"I'm reading it and I was like, yes! And yes! And yes! And I was like, I'm not crazy," she remembers. "That was a seminal moment in my life for sure."
Myles immersed herself in other pioneering works by Black authors: James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker. She read Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me. "I emerged from the ashes a new person, and I just needed to tell the whole world about it," she says. "And that's how it kind of all started."
Now, Myles curates the Instagram account @allwaysblack, on behalf of publishing giant Penguin Random House. Myles says the goal of the account is "to celebrate Black writers and the readers who love them," and Myles is voracious in her ability to come up with fun and innovative ways to do that.
I'm all about glamorizing Black literature and the writers. They give us such important stories. They should be treated accordingly.
Myles first partnered with Penguin Random House last year, when she organized a read-a-thon called Black Like We Never Left featuring works by Toni Morrison. The late, heralded, Pulitzer and Nobel-prize winning author was published by Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House.
A few months later Penguin Random House offered Myles a job curating an Instagram platform centered on Black books.
Myles calls the platform All Ways Black thanks to her husband — who came up with the name about 20 seconds after she was offered the job. "He was like, 'How about just All Ways Black, like, all the ways,'" she recounts. "It was that quick, and, for me, it's an aural check to make sure that I'm not just doing Cree's Black. Because as universal as some Black experiences are, I'm not from the African continent, I'm not from the Caribbean. I am not in the diaspora in Europe, and those are all also very Black and very nuanced experiences."
In a promo for All Ways Black, Myles, flanked by dancers and bookshelves full of literature, speaks over drumline music.
"There are infinite ways to be Black," she relays. "To be Black and joyful or awestruck. To be Black and to amplify, or to agitate, or to celebrate. They're all important. They're all glorious," she continues. "And nothing quite captures this truth like literature — to see us on a page all of us in all our ways — is one of the most magnificent experiences anyone can have."
Now, Myles has cultivated a space that includes chats with authors, interactive read-a-thons, and sold-out awards galas for Black Bookstagrammers, with categories like best interview, best reel and best review.
She hosts regular D.E.A.R. sessions, in which she asks people to "drop everything and read." She also posts photos and lists of new releases, Black poets you should know, sentences from Black classics and other creative content about Black lit.
Like this "word-of-the-week" video about the word "ephemeral" that she gleaned from Brandon Taylor's book Filthy Animals. It's set to rapper Saweetie's 2020 song "Tap In."
"If it's short like a skort, it's ephemeral," raps Myles. "Ephemeral. Like an inch or a flinch, it's ephemeral. Ephemeral. Kim K's marriage, babies in the carriage, being mad at yo' moms after she embarrassed."
Myles' work was recently nominated for a Webby, which honors excellence on the internet. It's also been nominated for a Shorty, which recognizes the best work in social and digital media.
On a mission to glamorize Black writers
A big component of Myles' work is individual chats and panel discussions with authors on Instagram live. From her home in Milwaukee, framed by plants and colorfully arranged bookshelves, Myles creates an easy rapport with authors, whether they are established and renowned or just releasing their first works.
During an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Myles half-jests that on "the Bookstagram streets" an interview with him is "the biggest flex of all time."
"You know what, you know what? You need to tell them streets they need to dream a little bigger," Coates chuckles.
Myles has a breezy interview style, connecting with authors personally and asking sharp questions about their works. It's a mixture of natural talent, preparation and an earnest respect for writers – who she believes deserve the celebrity of singers or actors.
"I'm all about glamorizing Black literature and the writers," Myles notes. "They give us such important stories. They should be treated accordingly. That's how I feel."
Myles says there's a lot to be gleaned from the wisdom of these authors, the living and the ancestors. "Because [written] stories aside... their lived stories are also things to be revered, because they weren't just writing these revolutionary pieces, essays and shorts and novels and then like going on and living non-revolutionary lives," notes Myles. "They were embodying everything that they were writing about. And so, looking to them has always been really powerful for me."
All Ways Black centers the joy of being Black. Myles ends her interviews by asking authors about their favorite thing about being Black, and she poses a laughter-inducing "speed round" to writers, asking them to make impossible choices between two options central to Black culture, like "Afro or dreads?" or "Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King?"
Myles says it's all in good fun. "So, even if I'm dealing with the best wordsmiths on the planet," says Myles, "they are also just Black like me, and we will laugh about the same things, and we will throw the same shade, and we will crack the same jokes. And they're just masters at their craft, but they're still very much human."
Changing the publishing industry
Myles also has the respect of fellow book influencers, like Traci Thomas, who runs The Stacks podcast.
"On [other] publishing platforms, they might have a Black intern and then they post something that uses Black vernacular but feels very hollow," says Thomas. "All Ways Black feels super authentic. And I know that that is because Cree is in control and is empowered to do what feels right to her, and her judgment is spot-on."
All Ways Black feels super authentic. And I know that that is because Cree is in control and is empowered to do what feels right to her, and her judgment is spot-on.
Myles is functioning in a publishing world that's still three quarters white, according to a 2019 survey by Lee and Low.
After pledging to audit the diversity of its creators in June 2020, Penguin Random House determined that 76% of its books released from 2019 to 2021 were by white creators.
All Ways Black has proven to be an important way for the company to promote its Black works and branch out to new audiences. In championing Black books, Myles has developed an engaged community. Penguin Random House reported in August 2021 that "the community that's formed on @allwaysblack has the highest average engagement rate in the Penguin Random House ecosystem."
"I'm always just thinking of the liberation I experienced in my 20s upon reading the stuff that I read, and how to make that accessible to other folks who don't have the background that I have," she says. "Because [these books] are not just for the Black girls who went to college and had middle class backgrounds."
The stories, she says, are for all of us.
"Like you wouldn't say, 'Oh, I can't listen to Whitney Houston. Her voice is too good. I don't get it,'" notes Myles. "And it's the same way when you're reading James Baldwin, or Toni Morrison."
Or, says Myles, many of the authors writing the Black canon today.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/how-one-book-influencer-championing-black-authors-is-changing-publishing | 2022-05-12T16:09:43Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Some people in Michigan are sounding the alarm about a strict abortion law that's been on the books since 1931. It's currently unenforced, but if the Supreme Court strikes Roe down, that could change. As Michigan Radio's Kate Wells reports, the law would make abortion a felony even in cases of rape or incest.
KATE WELLS, BYLINE: The anti-abortion protesters who often crowd outside this Planned Parenthood in Ann Arbor have gone home for the day, so now it's quiet - just a lot of women sitting in their cars, one with a baby on her lap, all waiting for friends or family in the clinic. Veronica Valdivia-Vera says she did not know about Michigan's old law criminalizing abortion.
VERONICA VALDIVIA-VERA: Nope. I was not aware that, you know, that would happen. It's, like, shocking times. We didn't even think that, in 2022, we'd be worrying about women's rights, reproductive rights.
WELLS: Veronica is here with her daughter-in-law, Stephanie Mejia-Arciniega. They're waiting for Stephanie's friend, who's still inside the clinic. And Stephanie says even just pulling into the clinic was kind of scary. They were surrounded by anti-abortion protesters.
STEPHANIE MEJIA-ARCINIEGA: It's kind of intimidating because they come to your car super-fast. You don't want to run them feet over. So, like, we had to, like, stop and be like, OK, no, thank you. And we were, like, 10 minutes late for our appointment because of that.
WELLS: Stephanie is only 18. She can't imagine a world where abortion's illegal.
MEJIA-ARCINIEGA: You wouldn't want someone young that isn't ready to have to have a baby because the law says no. Like, it's not fair.
WELLS: Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel agrees.
DANA NESSEL: People can go to jail or prison for this.
WELLS: Nessel says the way the old law is written, the doctor who performs an abortion and possibly the patient could get up to four years. Michigan has not enforced that law since Roe was decided in 1973, but it was never repealed. Nessel, a Democrat, says she won't enforce it. But Michigan has 83 local county prosecutors, and they could do whatever they want.
NESSEL: I don't think that I have the authority to tell the duly elected county prosecutors what they can and what they cannot charge.
WELLS: Nessel also talked about her own abortion that she had years ago. She was pregnant with triplets, and they weren't growing in utero.
NESSEL: And I was told very, very specifically that there was no way that all three would make it to term. But if I aborted one, then it was possible that the other two might live. And I took my doctor's advice. And you know what? It turned out that he was right. You know, now I have two beautiful sons.
WELLS: But under the 1931 law, there is just one exemption - to preserve the life of the woman. University of Michigan OB-GYN Dr. Lisa Harris says that is dangerously vague. What if a pregnant woman has severe heart disease and her chance of dying in pregnancy is 20 to 30%?
LISA HARRIS: But is that enough of a chance of dying that that person would qualify under Michigan's ban? Or would their risk of dying need to be 50% or 100%? Or what if a pregnant woman has cancer and she needs to end the pregnancy to start chemo?
WELLS: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is a Democrat, but the state's legislature is controlled by Republicans, so weeks ago Whitmer filed a lawsuit trying to block the old abortion law from ever taking effect. There's also a push to let voters decide in the November election if abortion should be legal in Michigan. But that would not be until long after the Supreme Court makes its final ruling. For NPR News, I'm Kate Wells in Ann Arbor.
SHAPIRO: This story comes from NPR's partnership with Michigan Radio and Kaiser Health News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/if-roe-v-wade-is-overturned-a-strict-abortion-law-from-1931-could-take-effect | 2022-05-12T16:09:49Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
With inflation at historic highs, it's perhaps time for a long ignored investment option to shine, the I bond. It's a U.S. Treasury savings bond whose interest payments are linked to inflation. Wailin Wong and Darian Woods from our daily economics podcast The Indicator explain some of the fine print.
DARIAN WOODS, BYLINE: Before we get to I bonds, let's talk about the plain old U.S. savings bond. It's been around since the Great Depression, and it's one of the safest, kind of most dull investments that there are.
WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: Right now, the interest rate on a series EE U.S. savings bond - that's like the traditional plainest vanilla savings bond - is 0.1%.
WOODS: And I bonds are savings bonds but with a twist. Their interest rate is tied to the consumer price index. So when inflation goes up, so does the interest rate.
ZVI BODIE: When I bonds came out, I felt, oh, finally.
WONG: Zvi Bodie is a professor emeritus at Boston University. He's a financial economist who has been obsessed with inflation hedging strategy since the 1970s. And he sees I bonds as a government program that serves the public interest. Basically, the U.S. Treasury is covering the cost of inflation for regular folks. So the U.S. Treasury introduced I bonds in 1998. And that year, Zvi goes to a bank to buy the maximum amount of I bonds for him, his wife and their two daughters.
BODIE: And I said, I want to buy I bond. And they said, what are you talking about? They didn't have a clue. And I said, I know that you have them because the Treasury distributed them. So they had to go down into the basement. And they came back, and they said, you know what? You're right. We have them.
WOODS: There you go. Zvi was spreading the word to the banks about their own product. And it does seem like I bonds have just been under-appreciated from the beginning, which kind of makes sense. Like, inflation was just 1.6% in 1998. So holding on to your purchasing power maybe wasn't the first thing you're thinking about when you were putting away savings.
WONG: Yeah. And today is, of course, a very different story. With inflation helping to set the I bonds interest rate, for the last six months, it was just over 7%. The new rate came out on Monday and it's now over 9%. Now, there are some caveats to I bonds. No. 1, I bonds protect you from inflation. They don't beat inflation. And No. 2, you're not going to get rich quick off I bonds. There's this $10,000 cap or calendar year, and the earliest you can redeem an I bond is one year. But for Zvi, it's been worth it. He estimates he has more than half a million dollars of I bonds in his portfolio today.
WOODS: And now people are finally paying attention to this thing he's been talking about since 1998.
BODIE: You know, what it takes is a bout of inflation. And then all of a sudden, everybody, their interest perks up.
WONG: Well, not quite everybody.
BODIE: Here's the shocker, Wailin. It's 23 years later. I have an accountant who does my taxes. OK? So I said to my accountant, I'd like to, you know, buy I bonds. He said, what? What are those?
WOODS: The work of marketing this continues for Zvi.
WONG: A lonely road.
WOODS: Darian Woods.
WONG: Wailin Wong, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/it-may-be-time-to-look-at-the-i-bond-a-savings-bond-that-protects-you-from-inflation | 2022-05-12T16:09:55Z |
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Russia can afford its war in Ukraine because Britain helped raise the cash, writes my guest Oliver Bullough. He's referring to how Russian oligarchs linked to Putin launder their money, keep it hidden in shell companies and stash it in luxury yachts and mansions in Britain. There are so many Russian-owned mansions in London it's been nicknamed Londongrad. Bullough says the Russian state would have nothing like the wealth it has now without Britain's help. England, the U.S. and several other Western countries have sanctioned some oligarchs, but Bullough says they're not changing the financial systems that enable oligarchs and criminals to protect their ill-gotten gains.
Bullough has spent years investigating how kleptocrats hide and protect their money. His second book on the subject will be published in the U.S. in June. It's called "Butler To The World: How Britain Helps The World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, And Get Away With Anything." Among the things he's known for is giving kleptocracy tours in London, pointing out the mansions and apartments owned by oligarchs. Bullough is a British journalist and spent the early part of his career reporting from Russia and covering the war in Chechnya.
Oliver Bullough, welcome back to FRESH AIR.
OLIVER BULLOUGH: Thank you for inviting me back. It's an absolute pleasure.
GROSS: Can you explain how the money that Russian oligarchs have stashed in England is helping Russia pay for the war, is helping Putin pay for the war?
BULLOUGH: Well, this is a, on the face of it, complicated question in that they make it complicated. You know, the money is hidden by multiple layers of shell companies in multiple jurisdictions. But it all comes down to a pretty basic calculation, which is people don't steal things unless they can keep them. And the basic expedient used by Russian oligarchs to secure their ill-gotten gains - and these are people who have made huge fortunes by essentially stealing chunks of the state in Russia - their sort of main tactic is to get that money outside Russia and to put it somewhere where they think it's safe. And the main place that they've chosen - not the only place, but the main place they've chosen - to keep it safe is the U.K. They put their money in the form of high-end property in West London or in the countryside around London. They buy soccer clubs. They buy fine art. They buy superyachts. They buy financial instruments - all of these things.
And so, essentially, what Britain has been and what Britain has become for them is a giant safety deposit box that allows them to know that whatever happens in Russia, you know, whatever the government there does, whatever the response of the people to the government's mismanagement, their money is safe. That's been the calculation. And therefore, they've kept stealing it far past the kind of limits when people would, in any normal country, have had to stop. They've been able to keep stealing it because they've been able to keep it safe.
GROSS: So here's what I don't understand. If the Russian oligarchs have taken their ill-gotten money and stashed it in England to keep it out of sight and to keep it out of reach, how is that money helping to fund Putin's war in Ukraine?
BULLOUGH: It's not so much that that money, per se, is funding Putin's war in Ukraine; it is the system that they have built, essentially, in order to steal that money so that the system that they have built, this kleptocratic system, is totally controlled by - you know, by Putin, by a very small number of his friends. And the reason it can be controlled by this very small number of his friends is they have essentially created an extremely efficient looting machine to enrich an incredibly small number of people. So it isn't so much that they are calling on their bank accounts in London to buy tanks or weapons or missiles; it's that this entire system, enabled by British lawyers, British accountants, over many years has been created, which is under the direct control of Putin and his very close friends.
So it isn't, you know, as if they are dipping into a safety deposit box just to buy the missiles they need right now; it's more that over the last two, three decades, London has essentially allowed them to create an incredibly tightly controlled dictatorial kleptocratic system, which is able to wage war in this way without any kind of attempt to prepare the ground among the public or to justify it democratically to a Parliament or whatever because, you know, when you have so much control over the purse strings, as Putin and his friends have in the system which London has helped them to build, then they are able to essentially operate completely independently of any of the checks and balances which you would normally get even in a normal dictatorship.
GROSS: Well, what are the possible penalties if an oligarch criticizes Putin in public and speaks out against the war? Like, what might the penalties be? Can Putin, like, confiscate the business and turn it into a state-run business?
BULLOUGH: Well, we saw this with Oleg Tinkov, who is an interesting sort of serial entrepreneur who's done various things. He had a beer company. When I lived in Russia, his Tinkov beer was some of the best Russian beer, certainly in my opinion. And he also had a very successful bank. He criticized the war for a couple of weeks, three or two weeks ago now. And his - was essentially very quickly forced to sell his bank at what he called, you know, a knockdown price, severely undervaluing it to a Kremlin-aligned - a still Kremlin-aligned oligarch. And that was a pretty clear demonstration of the consequences of speaking out. More generally - and going back a bit further in time, back to sort of 2003, in the very early years of Putin's time in office - and sort of more dramatic in a way because Oleg Tinkov, a wealthy man is not particularly - is very definitely not in the top rank of Russian oligarchs or even in the middle rank.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky who then was Russia's richest man, spoke out against what Putin was doing and essentially tried to interfere in politics in the way that Putin had warned the oligarchs not to, and he was jailed. His business, Yukos, his oil company, was expropriated and, essentially, you know, taken by the state oil company and made a state asset. So, you know, it is pretty clear. I think both examples will have been - you know, anyone who's forgotten the example of Khodorkovsky will be reminded by the example of what happened to Tinkov and his bank, that standing up to Putin is unwise if you wish to keep your access to the Russian market and want to keep being able to freely operate as a business person.
GROSS: So we've been talking about Russian oligarchs. What about Putin himself? Does he have money stashed in England in secret accounts or real estate or whatever?
BULLOUGH: This is a really interesting question. I have a good friend called Bradley Hope, who is a journalist who - and I talk about this with him quite often because it's very interesting 'cause it cuts to the heart of, in a way, what wealth is. I personally don't think Putin does have wealth offshore because, you know, having a deposit account, in a way, suggests you're saving money for a rainy day, right? You know, you're putting it aside. I don't think Putin does that because if Russia is your current account, you don't need a deposit account. I think it's, in fact, a slightly broader understanding of wealth. However, we can say that he probably does have a lot of wealth. He doesn't have any in his own name. Well, I very much doubt he has much in his own name because he has long been able to call on the wealth of the oligarchs whenever he wants it.
So essentially, any money the oligarchs have offshore, he can request it and receive it. If he wants something, he asks for it, and he gets it. You know, he wanted - when he wanted to host the soccer World Cup, he persuaded the oligarchs to build him the stadiums. When he wanted a palace on the coast of the Black Sea near Gelendzhik, the oligarchs stepped up and built him his palace. When he wanted a superyacht, they stepped up and bought him his superyacht. So I don't think Putin has somewhere - I don't think there are bank accounts to be found, you know, in his name if the authorities just look hard enough. I think, more broadly, what we have is a situation a little bit like the Tudor Court of Henry VIII, whereby he personally probably didn't have very much wealth, but he was able to essentially use any of the money that belonged to any of his courtiers as his own at any time that he wanted it. So it's a far - you know, almost a feudal system whereby the barons own their wealth at his pleasure, and he therefore gets to call on it whenever he wants.
That, I think, is something that was shown fascinatingly by the Panama Papers, this leak of secret legal documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which revealed a lot of the offshore secrets of the elite from around the world, is how Putin's friend, the cellist Roldugin, had this, you know, vast offshore wealth, far more than you could conceivably justify with what he earned playing his cello. And it seems likely that he and many of other - Putin's other friends have essentially been able to become wealthy during Putin's time in office. And so some of his oldest friends have become astonishingly wealthy, multi-multibillionaires now, essentially on the basis that he is able to call on that wealth whenever he wants it.
GROSS: So you're talking about Putin calling on the wealth of the oligarchs to use as he pleases when he wants it. I mean, do you think he's been doing that with the war?
BULLOUGH: Yes. I think, at the moment, it seems absolutely certain that he has been calling on them in all sorts of ways. I mean, the sanctions being put - that have been placed on Russia have been far, far more severe than I think the Russian authorities anticipated, particularly the sanctions on the Russian central bank. And that has left, obviously, the government scrambling around for funds and mechanisms to access the international markets. So the oligarchs' business connections, particularly with countries that are sort of skilled sanction busters, such as Iran, will definitely have been, you know, tapped by the Kremlin in the last couple of months. And we will see far more of that going forward. I mean, obviously, it is difficult for them to provide him straightforward with money because so many of their assets have been frozen as well.
You know, just to - I think probably a lot of Russians expected the Western sanctions to be broadly similar to the ones that came in after the 2014 annexation of Crimea, which were pretty tough by the standards of sanctions against a major country like Russia. But the sanctions that have been imposed in the last two months have been, you know, far, far more severe from a Russian perspective. So, you know, I suspect he would like to be able to access the oligarchs' money. But an awful lot of that money is as frozen as the Russian central bank's is. So, in a way, more what he will be accessing will be their connections around the world in order to find ways to circumvent the sanctions, to move money via jurisdictions like the United Arab Emirates, for example, which, you know, is a wealth center that isn't a Western dominated one. You know, I suspect we'll be seeing much more of that. Certainly in the next few months, we'll be hearing a lot of allegations about that kind of behavior.
GROSS: Well, let me reintroduce you here. If you're just joining us, my guest is British journalist Oliver Bullough. And his new book, which will be published in the U.S. in June, is called "Butler To The World: How Britain Helps The World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, And Get Away With Anything." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF DAN AUERBACH SONG, "HEARTBROKEN, IN DISREPAIR")
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. And if you're just joining us, my guest is British journalist Oliver Bullough. And for years, he's been investigating how oligarchs and other kleptocrats hide and launder their money in Britain. His new book on the subject, which will be published in the U.S. in June, is called "Butler To The World: How Britain Helps The World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, And Get Away With Anything."
Let's talk money. Give us a sense of how much Russian oligarch money is hidden in assets in England and in mansions and yachts and shell companies, other assets.
BULLOUGH: Once again, you've asked an extremely complicated question, in fact, one that I'm not sure that there is an answer to. Part of the problem is that money that is Russian, how long does it remain Russian? If the oligarch who owns it buys himself a passport from a jurisdiction like Cyprus or Malta or Saint Kitts and Nevis, is he still Russian? If the money has been invested in a superyacht and then sold and then reinvested and then sold again, is it still Russian?
You know, you do end up with these increasingly complicated calculations of trying to work out what exactly is Russian wealth? But, you know, in the broadest scheme of things, it's reckoned that about $1 trillion has left Russia. Russia is in a unique position among major economies in the sheer volume of its national wealth, which is owned outside of Russia - probably half, maybe slightly more than half of Russian national wealth - until the recent events, which may have upended this calculation. Until the recent events, around half, slightly more, was owned outside of Russia. And, you know, the equivalent figure for the U.S. would be, you know, in the single figures of a percentage.
So it is, you know, a vastly different situation. And that is because, you know, the oligarchs who have these huge fortunes in this very unequal economy, they like to spend it on the usual bling that rich people like to spend money on, you know, superyachts, mansions, fine art, all that kind of thing. And, you know, you can buy those things far better outside of Russia than you can in Russia. It's not to say they aren't available in Russia, but they're far more available outside. So because Britain has been one of the places that's been most willing to accept this money and most unwilling to investigate its origins - its law enforcement and regulatory system is incredibly weak and sort of demoralized - a significant proportion of this money is here.
Now, as you said, it's very hard to give a precise figure on how much money there is because it's hidden behind shell companies and trusts and all the other paraphernalia of the offshore world. But if $1 trillion has left Russia in, you know, the last 20 or 30 years, then I would anticipate that a significant proportion of that - perhaps half, perhaps not quite as much as half - will be here somewhere.
GROSS: Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader in Russia, released a list of 35 men and women who are Putin's enablers. Now, Putin had Navalny poisoned twice. And when Navalny survived, Putin put him in prison, where he is today. So he kind of secretly released this list from prison. Has that list been helpful to you as a, you know, investigative journalist?
BULLOUGH: There are quite a lot of these lists going around. And the system is what I am most concerned about, rather than the individuals. You know, I think it's possible to condemn the individuals, but if we wish to really change the ability of kleptocrats in Russia and elsewhere to steal whatever they like and to use that stolen wealth to threaten democracy and the rule of law in the West, then we really need to change the system here to prevent enablers being able to do that, you know. And the calculation is a straightforward one. The, you know, oligarchs are very good at certain things. They're good at stealing money. They're good at, you know, the political connections in the Kremlin. They're good at, you know, encouraging invasion of sovereign countries and so on. But they're not very good at integrating their wealth into the international financial system or managing complicated networks of shell companies or bringing legal proceedings against journalists that try and expose them. They need help for all of those things.
If we can change the calculations of people who might be tempted to help them, then we can cut them off from the system. And this isn't going to stop them stealing because, you know, these are thieves, and thieves will keep stealing, but it will stop them stealing so much because they won't be able to hide the money they steal. And they won't be able to build this kleptocratic network. So that's why I'm so keen and so focused on attempting to change the system that creates and allows enablers to appear rather than just sort of, you know, whack-a-mole-ing (ph) individual enablers. It's important to name and shame, obviously, but I think it's more important to try and prevent more emerging in the future.
GROSS: Before we get to the larger system that enables the kleptocrats to stash their money in other countries, with an emphasis on England, let's talk a little bit about the sanctions against the oligarchs. The U.S. has created sanctions. Britain has created sanctions. From your perspective, which sanctions have actually been most effective?
BULLOUGH: I mean, obviously, the - from a perspective of committing (ph) individual oligarchs, just freezing their wealth has been dramatic and effective, has clearly driven a lot of oligarchs out of Britain and other Western countries, Britain in particular. But they haven't been effective with regard to turning the oligarchs against Putin, which I think is what we were all hoping they would do. Or, you know, possibly thinking that they might conceivably do, though maybe hope would be too strong in that regard. So that's important. But I'm not sure we've really thought about what's going to happen next. You know, we've been thinking about freezing, but we haven't really been thinking about seizing. So what happens next? If this - will this money be confiscated and used, you know, to help rebuild Ukraine? That's a question which needs to be thought of. So you know, it's been - it's clearly significant that their wealth has been frozen, but it hasn't had the effect that perhaps we were hoping for. And, you know, I don't think there's been nearly enough work being put into thinking about what happens next to this, you know, frozen wealth.
Of greater significance, I think, and I'm very heartened to see this, is the embargos, the boycotts of Russian oil. The U.S. and the U.K. have already gone ahead and done this. Not being sort of major consumers of Russian oil, that wasn't a huge hardship for either country. But the EU is today talking about within six months ending imports of crude oil from Russia and within - and by the end of the year, ending imports of oil products. That is a real game changer. You know, without that revenue stream - people talk a lot about gas, but, you know, oil is a bigger revenue stream for the Kremlin - that could really undermine the entire sort of financial basis of the Kremlin system. Most of his, of Putin's oligarchs, or many of Putin's oligarchs, rely on oil for their wealth. The Russian budget relies heavily on taxes on oil for its wealth. So that could be a really big deal.
GROSS: Let me reintroduce you here. If you're just joining us, my guest is journalist Oliver Bullough, and he spent years investigating how kleptocrats hide and protect their money in England. And his second book on the subject will be published in the U.S. in June. It's called "Butler To The World: How Britain Helps The World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, And Get Away With Anything." We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF ERIK FRIEDLANDER'S "OSCALYPSO")
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. We're talking about how Russian oligarchs have parked a lot of their money in Britain over the years and how that's helped Putin, including helping Putin launch the war in Ukraine. My guest is Oliver Bullough, and he's spent years investigating how kleptocrats hide and protect their money. His second book on the subject will be published in the U.S. in June. It's called "Butler To The World: How Britain Helps The World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, And Get Away With Anything." He's a contributor to the British paper The Guardian.
So let's talk a little bit about the system that enables oligarchs to hide and launder money in England. And you trace this back to 1956. When Britain lost control of the Suez Canal - a very important trade route - they lost control to Egypt, which took over the canal. Why was that so disruptive to Britain that it created parts of, like, a new financial system?
BULLOUGH: Yeah, it's a really important moment. I mean, the Suez crisis is, you know, one of the most important moments in modern British history, a real nadir of British influence, you know, one of the final sort of death throes of the British Empire as a sort of significant geopolitical force. The British economy was heavily indebted at the time because of the legacy of the Second World War, a huge overhang of debt, which meant that the pound was incredibly vulnerable. And so in a sort of couple of weeks when Britain attempted to sort of stand its ground before it sort of ignominiously surrendered, it froze the use of pounds by British financial institutions to finance trade in order to try and make sure that the pound could be used only for absolutely essential purposes, you know.
And the British Empire was dying, but it was still a thing. And the city of London, which had been the financial engine of the British Empire, was still there. It was still staggering along in a very diminished way. And these financial institutions, which were still using pounds to finance trade around the world, were suddenly left thrashing around for something else to do. And they seized on this tiny little idea which had been created the year before by a deal between a British bank and a Soviet bank, in which they - the British bank allowed the Soviet Union to keep its dollars in London in order to avoid potential U.S. restrictions.
And so instead of banking with pounds, the British banks - in desperation - started banking with dollars and using dollars to finance trade and made this extraordinary discovery completely by accident. It wasn't intentional at all. But they realized that if they weren't using pounds, then no British regulations applied to them. But because they weren't in the U.S., no U.S. regulations applied to them, either. That essentially opened a hole in the global financial architecture and allowed their clients, the owners of these dollars, to move their money back-and-forth anywhere they liked, totally regulation and scrutiny free. So business got really profitable if you owned capital. And essentially, what London did was opened a side passage which allowed people with wealth to bypass this entire onerous system that had been created to favor ordinary people and not the wealthy and to move their money and make as much money from it as they liked.
GROSS: I know you think that reforming the financial system in England that allows oligarchs to stash money there is, in the long run, more important than singling out individual oligarchs and freezing their money. So let's talk about that system. What are some of the basic ingredients of the system that allows kleptocrats to safely store and launder money?
BULLOUGH: Well, you know, we hide wealth behind shell companies to disguise the ownership. We protect wealth. We protect it from scrutiny by, you know, suing people who would look into it or suing journalists who would look into it. And we invest it for people with, you know, a world-leading financial services industry. But, you know, essentially, you know, we - all the skills that we learned running the world's biggest empire for so many years, we've repurposed to essentially allow other people to run their own empires. You know, we provide almost empire solutions services, you might say.
GROSS: Well - and you also write, like, a whole industry that surrounds helping the kleptocrats who store their money in England, helping them do it. And you alluded to this - the lawyers who defend them, the banks that help them. What else?
BULLOUGH: One subject I've been writing about recently, which is sort of at the forefront of my mind as a result, is lawyers who use data protection rules to sue journalists and private investigators who might investigate oligarch's businesses. Now, this seems really, really niche, but actually it's quite important because under European law, if you are, you know, using someone else's data - you're a tech company or whatever - then you have to, you know, abide by certain regulations. And what these entrepreneurial lawyers have realized is that data isn't just ones and zeros being held by Facebook about you. It applies to any information. So if you are a journalist and you store information about an oligarch, then that information has to be open and accurate and all the other things that, you know, are the rules that apply to Facebook if it stores your ones and zeroes. And so this has been a new front essentially being opened against anyone trying to investigate oligarchs in that oligarchs' lawyers can now demand to see your files, to see all the information you have about them. And this is quite terrifying if you are investigating. So, I mean, that's just an example of how a well-meaning law, like a data protection law designed to protect ordinary people against the giant tech companies, has essentially been repurposed in the hands of the oligarchs' lawyers to defend oligarchs' wealth rather than to do the opposite.
GROSS: Well, it can be very perilous to be an investigative journalist in England investigating the oligarchs because the oligarchs can sue. And the libel laws in England are different than the ones in the U.S. and they tend to favor the oligarchs over the journalists. Can you explain how the law tends to favor the oligarchs?
BULLOUGH: Yeah. We don't have a sort of First Amendment right of free speech here. So, yeah, essentially, if you write about someone - anyone but normally someone who can afford a lawyer - they have the right to sue you for having defamed them, for having lowered their reputation in the eyes of society. And if they do that, essentially, it - the law assumes you're guilty. You have to actually prove that you're not. And there are various ways of doing that but all of them are very expensive. So, you know, London has become a major center for oligarchs to sue journalists who write about them, both for defamation and, as I said, on data protection grounds.
I have a couple of good friends here - Catherine Belton and Tom Burgis - both of whom have been sued in terrifying cases in the last three years by Russian oligarchs in Catherine Belton's case, and oligarchs from Kazakhstan in the case of Tom Burgis, and have been left potentially facing up to being on the hook for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars' worth of costs. And so, you know, in Catherine Belton's case, she was forced to settle cases against a number of different oligarchs just because, you know, the costs that she could have faced and her publisher could have faced could have been so colossal had they lost. So they really couldn't take that risk. It's a little bit like gambling against someone who's got a gigantic hill of chips in front of them when all you've got is two or three chips. Even though your hand might be extraordinarily good, you're probably going to lose anyway just because you can't afford to keep playing against them, you know, for any length of time.
And that's a little bit what it feels like as a journalist, you know, facing up against oligarchs because they're just going to keep suing you. Even if they might lose, they're just going to keep suing you because for them, the costs are peanuts. But for a journalist, you're talking about existential sums of money. So it - this is the real problem is that the courts here have become playthings of people who can afford to bring these vexatious lawsuits all the time. And there isn't like you have, this sort of, essentially, assumption that, you know, journalists are acting in good faith and have the right to freedom of speech. We don't have those laws here. So it becomes a really scary place to operate.
GROSS: How much of a chilling effect has the fear of lawsuits had on your reporting?
BULLOUGH: Yeah, it does. I mean, I notice it when I'm talking, to be honest. I'm constantly trying to think, you know, 20 seconds ahead of what I'm saying to make sure that I'm not about to say anything which would be unwise. I know that what I say is being listened to. And that is an alarming thought. There are a lot of people who, I think, would prefer me to shut up. So it does have a chilling effect. I'd like to say it didn't. I'd like to say that I was incredibly brave and prepared to pick every fight going.
But at the end of the day, there's only so many hours, you know, available to work in. And I would rather research articles that can be published rather than, you know, bravely throw all of my resources at something for months, which ends up on the cutting room floor somewhere. So yes, there are lots of oligarchs that I wouldn't even consider writing about. I tend to try and find ones that I can write about but tell sort of the same stories as I would about the big ones. It's been - yeah, it's a pain, to be honest with you. And, you know, I've had to learn the hard way that you need to pick your battles.
GROSS: When did you start to feel that the oligarchs were paying close attention to what you said and that you had to be really careful?
BULLOUGH: I mean, there's been a couple of times when I've been hacked by - clearly in response to particular things I've said or written. There's been some pretty alarming communications that I've received in terms of, you know, having meetings and so on, which has been pretty dark. And also, I have, you know, friends who are well-connected who occasionally warn me off and tell me that, you know, people are aware of what I'm doing and that I should stop. So you know, it could be worse. I mean, you know, obviously, friends who I have who work in Russia or Ukraine or Azerbaijan have far worse time than I do. My friend Vitaly (ph) in Ukraine had his house burned down. And that was before the war. He's now got a gun in his hands. You know, I have a friend in Azerbaijan who's been jailed for, you know, reporting on what politicians there have done. So you know, let's put it in perspective. I'm in the U.K. And the sun shining. It's not that bad.
GROSS: Well, let me reintroduce you here. If you're just joining us, my guest is British journalist Oliver Bullough. And his new book, which will be published in the U.S. in June, is called "Butler To The World: How Britain Helps The World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, And Get Away With Anything." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIJAY IYER'S "BLACK AND TAN FANTASY")
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. And if you're just joining us, my guest is British journalist Oliver Bullough. And for years, he's been investigating how oligarchs and other kleptocrats hide and launder their money in Britain. His new book on the subject, which will be published in the U.S. in June, is called "Butler To The World: How Britain Helps The World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, And Get Away With Anything."
For an oligarch to sue a journalist, I think they have to prove that the journalist tarnished the oligarch's reputation. So I think the way you explain it is that the oligarchs often start donating large amounts of money to charities and, you know, good works and stuff to build a reputation that they can then say was tarnished by the journalist.
BULLOUGH: Yeah. This is a whole separate industry here in the U.K., a sort of reputation-management industry whereby - and there is, you know, a fairly well-trodden path that many oligarchs have trodden when they give money to charitable institutions, to art galleries, to universities and so on, essentially gaining a reputation as a philanthropist. And once you have a reputation here, then you have a reputation that can be harmed, you know? In a defamation case, you have to be able to show the journalist has harmed your reputation. If you don't have a reputation, it's very difficult to show that. But if you do have a reputation as a philanthropist, thanks to your generous donations to a university or art gallery or whatever, then it becomes very difficult for journalists to write about you. I mean, this was - and this really affects the decisions that we as journalists make.
You know, when Roman Abramovich, the oligarch who owns - still owns, I think, time of I'm talking, Chelsea Football Club, one of the wealthiest and most high-profile Russian oligarchs - when he was sanctioned by the British government, a number of editors got in touch with me and asked me to write about him. And I had to admit that I'd never done any research into him at all just because it had never occurred to me I'd ever be able to get anything published. Yeah. I'm a freelance journalist. I'm not going to just do, you know, research into someone for an article which I can never, you know, make any money out of, obviously. And that is a problem that affects sort of every calculation we make. If you can't get an article published, then you're never going to start the process of researching it, which means that there have been people with reputations for being extremely litigious who have been able to avoid any kind of scrutiny from journalists.
And it isn't just journalists who are affected by some of these cases. The data protection cases are not just against journalists, but also against the whole private investigation industry. If they can be sued too, then, you know, the kind of people who advise banks on who to take on as their clients also are going to be very risk averse about the reports that they write. You know, there is an entire industry here to shield oligarchs from investigation and scrutiny. And there is very little - certainly that I've heard from politicians - suggesting they're planning to do anything about it.
GROSS: So the people who help support the oligarchs in protecting the oligarchs' reputation and protecting their money, do those people like the lawyers, like the PR people, do they make a lot of money off of the oligarchs? And because those British people who make money off the oligarchs are powerful, and this is a very profitable business, does that help bolster the system and prevent it from being reformed?
BULLOUGH: Yeah. That's an entire class of very well networked and, you know, well wealthy enablers, particularly in London, I mean, elsewhere as well, but mainly in London who, you know, who use their connections in politics to make sure that nothing really gets done. There's always a reason not to do something, right? You could always call for another consultation. And, you know, every year that goes past, that's more business in these people's pockets. The kind of lawyers who might once have worked for ordinary people now work for oligarchs. And so you end up with a situation whereby there's a whole service class of people. It's not just about what they own, it's who they employ. It's a whole service class of people who no longer sort of have the interests of, you know, Britain or democracy particularly in mind. They just have their own personal interests and the interests of their oligarch employers.
GROSS: I think the City of London has independent banking rules from the rest of Britain. Is that right?
BULLOUGH: Sort of. The British - City of London is a really fascinating place. I'm thinking of writing my next book about it. But it has its own kind of autonomy while also not really having its own autonomy. So the reason when we talk about the City of London is just because that's always been the financial center of Britain. So it has a kind of institutional sort of memory while out - without really being constitutionally separate anymore. It's more of a kind of culture than it is of politics.
But it's very noticeable how, you know, the City of London is the Roman capital of Britain, right? I mean, it's been there for 2,000 years. And yet it remains the sort of the business heart of the country with, you know, with this incredible concentration of banks and financial services. So it is an absolutely fascinating place with the old street plan. And even if you go underground in the Guildhall, there's even an amphitheater down there that's been there ever since the Romans were around.
GROSS: So how does that - how has that contributed to making London an attractive place for oligarchs?
BULLOUGH: Well, the City of London's role that it's been playing since the 1950s, as I was talking about before, is essentially as a sort of - it's a bit like Wall Street, but with less regulations. That's its post-empire role in the world. So, you know, if you had business to do but, you know, you worried that the feds might come after you on Wall Street, you could just bring it to the City of London and do it here instead. And that's been, you know, a pretty profitable way to rebuild post empire for the city of essentially enabling dodgy business.
You know, for a lot of Americans too, you know, you may notice that whenever there's a big financial crisis, the dodgiest (ph) practices done, you know, in 2007-'08 exposed - the dodgiest practices of American companies tended to be done by subsidiaries in London. That seems to be the way - when Deutsche Bank laundered money out of Russia, that money ended up in London. You know, when Danske Bank, the biggest-ever money laundering scandal, moved money out of Russia, the shell companies were registered here in the U.K. So essentially, you know, Britain's role is the dodgy cousin of America. You know, if, like, as I say, if there's any business too dodgy for the U.S., then it happens here.
GROSS: You're very critical of the regulatory system in England and basically say that there isn't a body that's responsible for investigating crime within the banking system.
BULLOUGH: Yeah. I mean, we have sort of regulatory and police agencies, but they're sort of hilariously underfunded. My favorite example is the fact that one of the many anti-money laundering regulators here is the faculty office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which is responsible for regulating one of the branches of the legal profession and has been since the 16th century. Yeah, this is quite clearly not a system that has been designed to actually do anything. It's just, you know, what we happen to have. And no one really expects it to crack down on anything. I mean, the Archbishop of Canterbury has many advantages, but he's not, you know, very good at fighting money laundering, you know.
And so essentially, you know, we have the appearance of a regulated system. We have the appearance of, you know, police organizations that look like the FBI because they've got three-letter acronyms like the SFO or the NCA. But in reality, behind the facade, they're very few people, hugely outmuscled by the oligarchs. Yeah, one of the most remarkable quotes that came out of a British Parliament report into Russian interference here in the U.K. a couple of years ago was when the head of the National Crime Agency, which nominally is Britain's FBI, was asked why she didn't go after the oligarchs. She replied, because she was concerned about the impact on her budget. You know, you wouldn't get the head of the FBI saying that.
GROSS: Well, let me reintroduce you here. If you're just joining us, my guest is journalist Oliver Bullough. He's the author of the new book "Butler To The World: How Britain Helps The World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, And Get Away With Anything." It will be published in the U.S. in June. We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with journalist Oliver Bullough, who's a contributor to the British paper The Guardian. He's been investigating for years how Russian oligarchs hide and launder their money in Britain, and lately, he's been writing about how that's helping fund Russia's war in Ukraine. His second book about how kleptocrats hide their money is going to be published in June in the U.S. It's called "Butler To The World: How Britain Helps The World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, And Get Away With Anything."
As we've said, you think that there not only needs to be sanctions against the oligarchs, that the British financial system needs to be reformed so that it's no longer easy for oligarchs and other kleptocrats to hide or launder money there. Has Russia's war on Ukraine led to any reforms or proposals of reforms?
BULLOUGH: There has been a bit of action, actually. Last month, there was the - an economic crime act. It's a pretty scanty measure, actually. But it did - the idea, anyway, is that it imposes transparency on property that's owned via offshore shell companies. So you can't - as an oligarch, you can't own a house anymore and have it - you know, say it belongs to ABC PLC of, you know, the British Virgin Islands or Liberia, when instead of saying that you own it in your own name. So that's really good. You know, I don't know how well it will work in practice, but the idea is good. But really, what we need is just much more potent law enforcement agencies who can really go after oligarchs with the kind of resources to prosecute them that they have able to deploy to defend themselves. And I don't see any sign yet that the government is prepared to do that. And without that, all the laws in the world are kind of a bit meaningless.
GROSS: So, you know, you've said it's not enough to sanction the oligarchs, that Britain has to reform the system that enables the oligarchs to hide or launder their money in Britain. And this week, Britain seemed to take a step forward on that, announcing that British accounting, management consulting and PR firms will be banned from doing business in Russia with Russian firms. Would you describe what this is, what this new ban is?
BULLOUGH: This is a step forward. It's positive. The stated justification for this measure was that these firms helping Russians to structure their businesses are helping fund the Russian war machine. So the fact they won't be doing that anymore is good. However, I was sad not to see lawyers included on that list. You know, obviously, PR consultants are important, but they're not that important when it comes to really structuring a hidden business empire. Lawyers are the ones we need to really prevent doing business with the Russians. Without Western legal services, these businesses would have real trouble operating in the Western economy at all. That has to be the next target, really.
GROSS: I'm still - like, I'm not sure how this would work. In other words, so are these firms banned from doing business in Russia? Or what about if you're a Russian oligarch who occasionally is in Britain and you want some help from a PR firm - how does that work? Are they banned from that?
BULLOUGH: You ask a good question. I mean, I've read the statement and looked at it. Sadly, over the last couple of months, Britain has been quite good at announcing gimmicky measures against the Russians. Technically, what they've done is ban business exports, so services exports to Russia, so Russian businesses can no longer use these services from the U.K. Does that mean a Russian in the U.K. could use them? I think we'll have to wait and find out. But still, it's a step forward. It would have been unimaginable two months ago. You know, and it does show that perhaps the British government is finally getting a little bit serious about ending its support for the kleptocracy, for ending its provision of services to the Russian kleptocracy. But like I say, it's a baby step, and maybe it won't amount to much, but it's better than nothing.
GROSS: Well, Oliver Bullough, I want to thank you so much for talking with us.
BULLOUGH: Thank you very much for having me on. It's been my pleasure.
GROSS: Oliver Bullough is the author of the new book "Butler To The World."
If you'd like to catch up on FRESH AIR interviews you missed - like this week's interviews with actor Alexander Skarsgard, who stars in the new film "The Northman," or New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, who got the leaked audiotapes revealing what House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had to say in private after January 6 - check out our podcast. You'll find lots of FRESH AIR interviews. Oh, and I want to remind you to check out the new FRESH AIR newsletter. The link to sign up is on our website at freshair.npr.org.
FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with help today from Diana Martinez. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Therese Madden, Ann Marie Baldonado, Seth Kelley and Joel Wolfram. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. I'm Terry Gross.
(SOUNDBITE OF ED PALERMO BIG BAND'S "SANFONA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/journalist-says-britain-has-become-a-safe-deposit-box-for-oligarchs-ill-gotten-gains | 2022-05-12T16:10:01Z |
Updated May 5, 2022 at 6:08 PM ET
President Biden has named Karine Jean-Pierre as his second White House press secretary, replacing Jen Psaki later this month. Jean-Pierre, who has been Psaki's deputy since the start of the administration, will make history several times over.
She will be the first Black press secretary in White House history and the first openly gay person in this high-profile role, speaking for both the president and the U.S. government in press briefings that are watched by the world.
"Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris Administration on behalf of the American people," Biden said in a statement announcing the news. "Jill and I have known and respected Karine a long time and she will be a strong voice speaking for me and this Administration."
"This is a historic moment, and it's not lost on me," Jean-Pierre said at Thursday's press briefing, where she appeared with Psaki, embracing and holding hands at times.
"I understand how important it is for so many people out there, so many different communities, that I stand on their shoulders and I have been throughout my career," she added.
Psaki referred to her successor as "my partner in truth." She added, "One of the first conversations we had when we both found out we were getting these jobs was about how we wanted to build a drama-free, on your best days, workplace where everybody worked hard. Where we, on our best days, were rebuilding trust with the public."
Jean-Pierre came to the Biden team from the progressive organization MoveOn.org, where she was a top communications staffer. She was also a regular on MSNBC. Jean-Pierre has already led several White House press briefings, including when Psaki was out with COVID.
"It's a real honor just to be standing here today," Jean-Pierre said in May 2021 during her first turn behind the famous lectern. "I appreciate the historic nature, I really do. But I believe being behind this podium, being in this room, being in this building, is not about one person. It's about what we do on behalf of the American people."
Jean-Pierre has had a few rough briefings, winding up in the hot seat on days when there were headlines the White House didn't have great answers for. In one briefing on Air Force One, she accidentally suggested the U.S. favored admitting Ukraine to NATO, before quickly walking it back upon landing. She is generally well liked among reporters and will provide continuity as significant turnover is expected in White House press operations in the coming weeks.
Psaki is widely expected to take a job at MSNBC when she leaves. Her last day is scheduled for May 13th.
"Jen Psaki has set the standard for returning decency, respect and decorum to the White House Briefing Room," said Biden in the statement. "I want to say thank you to Jen for raising the bar, communicating directly and truthfully to the American people, and keeping her sense of humor while doing so."
In addition to the elevation of Jean-Pierre, the White House announced long-time Biden adviser Anita Dunn will return as a senior adviser and assistant to the president. She briefly left the administration last summer to work at the consulting firm SKDK, but didn't stay away long.
Raised in New York, Jean-Pierre was born in Martinique and went to Columbia University. Throughout her career she has bounced between Democratic political campaigns and left-leaning organizations.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/karine-jean-pierre-will-become-white-houses-1st-black-press-secretary | 2022-05-12T16:10:08Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Good morning. I'm A Martinez. Lester Wright ran a meter for every year of his life last weekend. He did the 100-meter dash in Philly's Penn Relays the day after he turned 100. Asbury Park Press reports the sprinter competed against 80-somethings, finished the race in 26 seconds and was not in last. Wright was a high school runner in the '30s and fought at the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. And as impressive as all of this is, he's also been married to his high school sweetheart, Adele, for 80 years. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/lester-wright-ran-a-meter-for-every-year-of-his-life-at-the-penn-relays | 2022-05-12T16:10:14Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
It's been 71 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. In order for Ukrainian fighters to fend off Russian forces, they, of course, need lots of weapons, and many of them are being supplied by the West. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is attempting to stop his troops from getting those weapons by targeting critical infrastructure targets, including electrical power facilities and transportation hubs like railroads. But the Pentagon says it's not working. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. is still able to flow weapons systems and other materials into the region. And those shipments have been happening nearly every day. The U.S. and its NATO allies fly military equipment to Eastern Europe, where it's trucked into Ukraine - billions of dollars' worth of drones, armored vehicles, Howitzers, shoulder-fired missiles, even helicopters and tanks. And more is on the way to help give the Ukrainian military an edge as it continues to fight Russian forces.
Some of that equipment will fly out of Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman went there and has this report.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: The warehouse squats on a remote edge of the base behind a chain-link fence. Inside, it's all bustle. Front-end loaders dart about, lifting up pallets of Howitzer rounds. They look like massive green bullets. Each one weighs 90 pounds.
DAN ROMAINE: As fast as we can push it.
BOWMAN: Airmen tie down the pallets with thick nylon straps so the shells don't shift when they're heading across the Atlantic. Technical Sergeant Dan Romaine records it all in a clipboard. Today's load will total some 1,300 shells, just a small amount of the 190,000 rounds promised for Ukraine.
ROMAINE: Last month we moved a lot of the Stinger and the Javelin missiles. I think it was something like 800 javelins or so.
BOWMAN: Eight hundred of the tens of thousands of shoulder-fired missiles the U.S. and NATO are sending over. They all work 12-hour shifts round the clock. Pallets come in and quickly go out on a waiting aircraft. There are three flights each day bound for an air base in eastern Poland. There's an address sticker on the pallet, a military district in western Ukraine, right down to the street address. Ukrainian military has been desperate for the Howitzers and the shells to help push back the Russian forces.
Senior Airman Jordan Duquette tugs on the nylon straps.
JORDAN DUQUETTE: It gets very repetitive, but I think with that, we can get the process down very smoothly.
BOWMAN: He reflects on the horrific videos from Ukraine - the loss of life, the destruction, desperate people on the move.
DUQUETTE: I think it's very heartbreaking that people are - have to go through that. People are being displaced from their homes.
BOWMAN: Moving shells and missiles in a warehouse might not be the stuff of war movies, but Sergeant Romaine says it's his warehouse and the daily flights of armaments that could be a deciding factor in the Ukraine war.
ROMAINE: Logistics is - will make or break the war. Logistics is going to get it there, and it's going to sustain it.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIRPLANE LANDING)
BOWMAN: The C-17 has just landed. It came from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. And we can see the pallets out there, pallets loaded as the pilot, Air Force Captain Jonathan Sollender, completes his flight check in the cockpit. Nine hours from now, he'll touch down in Poland.
JONATHAN SOLLENDER: Nice to meet you.
BOWMAN: Nice to meet you.
He's about to turn 28.
SOLLENDER: And some people have gone their entire careers not actually doing missions that matter. So here I am, you know?
BOWMAN: Last summer, he flew four missions from Kabul, Afghanistan, rescuing hundreds of refugees. They were crammed elbow to elbow in the vast cargo bay. He remembers what happened as a plane rose off the runway.
SOLLENDER: As soon as, like, they were able to get the wheel liftoff feeling, they were cheering and excited.
BOWMAN: Now his plane is stuffed with 18 pallets of Howitzer shells. It's his first mission to Poland. He says it likely won't be his last.
Tom Bowman, NPR News, Dover Air Force Base, Del. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/logistics-plays-an-important-role-in-ukraine-getting-weapons-from-the-u-s | 2022-05-12T16:10:20Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
San Francisco is known for the Bay, the bridge, the hills and now self-driving cars. More and more of them are picking up riders on the city's streets. NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn went to check them out.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: A video went viral last month. In it San Francisco, police pull over a car with its headlights on. As officers approached the vehicle, someone shouts at them.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ain't nobody in it.
ALLYN: Ain't nobody in it. Now, I'm watching the video of the bewildered police officers with UC Berkeley transportation researcher Steven Shladover.
STEVEN SHLADOVER: One of them looking on the driver's side, one looking in the front, and I guess this is where they realized there's no driver in the vehicle.
ALLYN: When the officers walk away, the car pulls ahead and parks with its hazards on.
SHLADOVER: I believe the vehicle actually responded quite well.
ALLYN: Which is a relief to Mo Elshenawy. He's an engineering executive at Cruise, the General Motors' own self-driving car company. It was one of his company's cars that police were pulling over, and the technology worked as it was supposed to. He says roads would be safer if more cars were self-driving.
MO ELSHENAWY: Your cars would never get angry or tired or frustrated or do a California roll on a stop sign.
ALLYN: Self-driving car companies have been promising for years that we're on the cusp of a driverless car future, and it just hasn't happened. But in San Francisco, the technology has hit a milestone. Fully self-driving cars have gotten approval to taxi people around. So I thought I'd give it a try. Cruise has an application process, and I wasn't selected, so I tried Waymo, the company owned by Google.
LINDSAY: Please buckle up.
ALLYN: These fully electric white Jaguars tricked out with all sorts of high-tech cameras and sensors are everywhere in the city. But only employees and a select group of others get to ride in these here. For me, the Waymo car has a safety driver.
What's your name?
LINDSAY: I'm Lindsay (ph).
ALLYN: Lindsay. How's it going?
LINDSAY: Good, good.
ALLYN: As we're driving around, I ask Waymo spokeswoman Sandy Karp, who's sitting next to me, so Lindsay really isn't driving?
SANDY KARP: No. So the Waymo driver or the technology is...
ALLYN: What do you mean - sorry. What do you mean Waymo driver? What do you mean by that?
KARP: So the Waymo driver is what we call our autonomous driving suite, so...
ALLYN: So a robot.
KARP: Exactly. The robot.
ALLYN: It was kind of confusing to me that she kept calling the software operating the car the Waymo driver. From the outside, you'd never know that Lindsay wasn't doing anything but sitting there. Sure, it looks like she's driving, but she's not. And the ride was smooth. There was just one thing that stuck out to me.
So 23 miles per hour - that's what people complain about, that these cars go too slow.
KARP: So we also want to provide a comfortable driving experience for our riders. So what we've heard from our riders is that when you're barreling down a hill, they'd actually prefer to go a little slower.
ALLYN: This, after all, is San Francisco, a city known for its dramatic hills. Waymo's cars have been trained to take them extra cautiously. The short span in the robot Jaguar was over, and we got out.
Thank you.
KARP: Thank you so much.
ALLYN: Appreciate it.
It makes sense that the nation's tech hub would be on the forefront of robo taxis. And one other place, the Phoenix, Ariz., area, also has self-driving cars buzzing around. But for the most part, self-driving cars are not common around the U.S. I ask UC Berkeley researcher Shladover when self-driving cars will be able to go everywhere and do everything human drivers can do.
SHLADOVER: The answer for that one is probably never.
ALLYN: There are tons of regulations. These cars are expensive to operate. The technology is complicated. And it's just not there yet. Shladover says it's really hard to train a computer to learn the nuance of human driving.
SHLADOVER: Eye contact and gestures that other road users use to communicate with each other to coordinate their use of the road space.
ALLYN: Recently, I was in an Uber at a stoplight and to our left and to our right pulled up Waymo Jaguars with nobody in the driver's seat. I asked my Uber driver, do you worry these cars are going to put you out of a job? And he responded, no because I know how to fix a flat.
Bobby Allyn, NPR News, San Francisco. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/look-closely-at-those-white-jaguars-in-san-francisco-no-drivers | 2022-05-12T16:10:26Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Democrats say overturning Roe v. Wade could erode much more than abortion access.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
And according to Democrats, gay marriage and birth control are just some of the civil rights under threat. So what would the legal basis be to overturn what has been a bedrock of American law for the past 50 years?
MARTINEZ: NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to explain the legal and political ramifications. Danielle, let's start with the legal side of things. Are gay marriage and birth control linked to abortion in legal terms?
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: They are connected, and that's because under Roe, the court found that abortion is what's called an unenumerated right under the 14th Amendment. That means that is - that the Constitution protects the right, even if the Constitution doesn't explicitly say abortion is protected. Now, Alito, in this leaked draft, he argues that when the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868, American law didn't at the time recognize abortion as a fundamental right; therefore, abortion isn't a constitutional right. Now, I spoke to Mary Ziegler. She's a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. And she explained how this logic could carry over to a lot of other rights.
MARY ZIEGLER: Obviously, at the time the relevant part of the Constitution was written, same-sex couples could not marry. Interracial couples certainly couldn't marry. Birth control was being criminalized. And so the logic is, if that's how we determine where our constitutional rights begin and end, there's no reason that would stop with abortion.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, in this leaked draft, Alito does say that Roe is separate from all these other rights because it is specifically about fetal life. But that doesn't mean the court couldn't change its mind in the future.
MARTINEZ: And this has quickly become a central message for Democrats. What's the political logic behind that?
KURTZLEBEN: You know, I've asked a lot of people who support abortion rights how they feel about that argument because activists have criticized top Democrats, including Biden, heavily for seemingly being reluctant to even use the word abortion. So grouping it together with these other rights might read as reluctance or changing the subject. But Renee Bracey Sherman - she's the founder of abortion rights advocacy group We Testify - she explained to me that connecting abortion to other rights is about helping voters see abortion as a fundamental part of a landscape of rights that are all connected to each other and also about just educating voters.
RENEE BRACEY SHERMAN: A lot of people think, I might never need an abortion. And a lot of people think about all issues like, oh, I'm not trans. I'm not Black. Why does police brutality matter to me? But I think what people don't realize is how much something like Roe v. Wade is the bedrock of so many other things legally.
MARTINEZ: Yeah, we're all living together in the same space. Now, what do we know about how the argument will play out with voters across the nation in November? Because Democrats were expected to do poorly in the midterms. Could this possibly help them out?
KURTZLEBEN: Surprise, surprise - it's complicated. A majority of Americans do believe abortion should be legal in some or all circumstances. But a plurality are in that some category - they think there should be some restrictions. Pollster Tresa Undem told me that that is important because a lot of Americans also just don't feel very emotional about the topic of abortion, and it doesn't come up for them. But that might change if Roe is overturned.
TRESA UNDEM: That is going to break through to people. They don't have to read a political article. They're going to hear about it. They're going to be upset about it. They're going to be surprised by it - maybe not shocked, but surprised.
KURTZLEBEN: So the idea is people might hear that a right that they've been taking for granted for nearly 50 years could be taken away, and they'll be angry. Now, that said, we don't know how this is going to play out. But to be clear, there are much more immediate consequences. If Roe is overturned, greater abortion restrictions in many states would start immediately, well before November.
MARTINEZ: That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Danielle, thanks.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTINEZ: All right, let's see how a potential reversal on abortion rights is playing out in a state that's holding primaries in just a few weeks.
FADEL: And we're talking about Georgia. This key swing state holds its primaries on May 24.
MARTINEZ: WABE's Sam Gringlas joins us from Atlanta. So, Sam, what would abortion access look like in Georgia if this draft decision holds up in the Supreme Court?
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Well, Georgia's Legislature is solidly Republican, and in 2018, they passed a bill banning abortion after roughly six weeks. That law would likely take effect pretty quickly if Roe is struck down. You know, Republicans have poured resources into state House races for, like, the last dozen years, and Democrats now admit that for a long time, they didn't really invest enough in these legislatures. I talked about that with Jessica Post. She runs the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
JESSICA POST: We need to do everything we can to win state legislatures. So I know folks right now may be giving to abortion funds. I would also say please support your Democratic state legislative candidates because they will be the ones deciding the fate of abortion in your state.
GRINGLAS: So say Democrat Stacey Abrams wins her campaign for governor here, without the Legislature there's just not a whole lot she can do to undo laws that are already on the books.
MARTINEZ: And we just heard Danielle Kurtzleben talk about how Democrats are shaping their midterm strategy around this draft opinion. How is that playing out in Georgia?
GRINGLAS: Well, Democrats think this ruling could energize voters. There's a Democrat running for attorney general here named Jen Jordan, and after this draft leaked, she sent off a tweet calling Georgia the next battleground for reproductive freedom.
JEN JORDAN: This was not going to be front and center, obviously. You know, we were talking about pocketbook issues and consumer protection and voting and all that kind of stuff. But sometimes you don't pick the fight; the fight picks you.
GRINGLAS: One more voice to bring in - Jeanna Kelley. She just signed up to volunteer with Jordan's campaign, spurred by this news, and she's already done a shift texting women voters.
JEANNA KELLEY: I can't do anything else about this but vote and encourage other people to vote. But it really did feel good to be able to connect with women and say, hey, you know, we would love to have you join us in supporting this candidate.
GRINGLAS: We don't know how much overturning Roe would actually move the needle come Election Day. You know, persistent inflation or some other issue could totally outweigh everything else in the end.
MARTINEZ: Yeah, sure. How are Republicans, actually, responding in Georgia?
GRINGLAS: Let me just play you some tape from this week's Republican debate for lieutenant governor. All the candidates on stage were asked if they're satisfied with the restrictive abortion rules Georgia has already passed or whether they would want to do more. Here's what they said.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ATLANTA PRESS CLUB")
JEANNE SEAVER: I would love to ban abortion.
BRAD MEANS: Just ban it.
SEAVER: Yes, sir.
MEANS: And, Mr. Miller, your thoughts?
BUTCH MILLER: Ban it.
MEANS: Ban it. For you, Mr. Jones?
BURT JONES: Ban it.
GRINGLAS: Republican David Perdue, who is challenging sitting Republican Governor Brian Kemp, says he would pursue an all-out ban, too. Kemp hasn't weighed in on that, but he might feel compelled to call for a total ban as well. That could bite him in November, though, when he needs a broader swath of Georgia voters to keep his seat in office.
MARTINEZ: That's Sam Gringlas, political reporter at WABE in Atlanta. Sam, thanks.
GRINGLAS: Thanks.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE WAR ON DRUGS SONG, "PAIN")
MARTINEZ: All right, turning now to Ukraine, where it's been 71 days since Russia's invasion began.
FADEL: And as many since Russia started its assault on the southern city of Mariupol. The last Ukrainian holdouts are trapped in the Azovstal steel plant. Overnight, the remaining soldiers' commander released a video in which he described the situation as dire, but he also said they will continue to resist, even though Russian troops have breached Ukrainian defenses there. Russia says it will commit to a three-day cease-fire, but previous truces have failed.
MARTINEZ: Let's talk to NPR's Brian Mann, who is in Lviv in western Ukraine. Now, more than 150 people have been evacuated from that plant so far. They arrived in Zaporizhzhia, where aid workers assisted with food and supplies. Brian, have there been any new evacuation attempts? And actually, what's the latest on the plan itself?
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Yeah, those efforts are always underway, but no broader successes so far, A. My colleague Joanna Kakissis said just this morning people are trickling in. They're coming mostly in private cars right now. And heavy fighting there has really prevented aid organizations and the Ukrainian government from establishing a broader cease-fire. One of the Ukrainian commanders at the plant today sent a message saying it's been the second day since the enemy broke into the area of the plant. Heavy and bloody battles are being fought. So the situation clearly is grim there. And Ukrainians, of course, are watching this closely. It's a symbolic part of this war.
One other symbolic thing that's happened here - last night, we heard about the death of a well-known Ukrainian journalist. Oleksandr Makhov has been killed. President Zelenskyy paid tribute to the 36-year-old father who also recently proposed to his fiancee from the front lines. Makhov has covered the war in the east for years. He was a veteran soldier. So again, a really key moment for people here, hundreds of Ukrainians sharing stories about him and his character.
MARTINEZ: Brian, you've been looking at how this war is affecting Ukrainian children and teens. What are they telling you?
MANN: Well, you know, they're terrified. They're frightened. I've been in front-line city Mykolaiv talking with them. I met one little boy, Arthur, who saw the ceiling collapse in his family's apartment after a missile struck. You know, the Red Cross is trying to help these kids, trying to provide counseling and support, but they're just in a very tough environment.
MARTINEZ: And the U.N. says young people who flee the fighting also face a danger of human and sex trafficking. What have you learned about that?
MANN: Yeah, experts and NGOs I've been speaking to are really worried about this. After Russia invaded Donbas in 2014, there was a real crisis then, as young women and girls fled, hoping to find safety and were victimized. Just a few days ago, I met a young woman who was evacuating without her parents because they're needed for the war effort. Nika, who's 17 years old, hopes to reach Poland by herself. Here's what she told me about the danger.
NIKA: I read a lot about it 'cause I'm a feminist, so I know a lot about it. And I'm worried about it, too, about all the women that are in danger now.
MANN: What Nika told me is that there are just no good answers for people like her during this war. Whether they stay or go, they're in danger. I don't know how to deal with that, she said. So, you know, what we're seeing here, A, is a horrible situation for these young people and, of course, also for their parents.
MARTINEZ: That's NPR's Brian Mann in Lviv. Brian, thanks.
MANN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/news-brief-supreme-court-leak-georgia-primaries-kids-and-the-war-in-ukraine | 2022-05-12T16:10:32Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
This past September, the NPR Politics podcast put together an episode on the history of abortion rights in the U.S. We listened back to it, given the leaked Supreme Court draft, and it provides some helpful context for this moment. We're going to play part of it now, but we should warn you, you'll hear from people who spoke to NPR in the 1970s about why they got illegal abortions and describe what it was like to undergo the procedure. Here's podcast host Tamara Keith, speaking with legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
TAMARA KEITH: It has been nearly a half-century since the Supreme Court legalized abortion. That means there is an entire generation - more than a generation - who doesn't know what life was like without legal abortion in the United States. So, Nina, can you take us back to those years leading up to Roe v. Wade?
NINA TOTENBERG: Well, you know, interestingly, abortion was not made illegal until the late 1800s. But by the 1960s, abortion, like childbirth, was really a very safe procedure when performed by a doctor. And women were entering the workforce in large numbers. And to have a child out of wedlock was to make working not only far more difficult, but it was like putting a scarlet letter on your back. It was scandalous. As a result, illegal abortion was becoming a public health problem. The numbers of women who had illegal abortions each year ranged from 200,000 to over a million. I know that's a wide estimate. In 1973, NPR spoke to one of those women who had an illegal abortion. She didn't want her name used.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I was very ashamed. But now I see that I was ashamed for many reasons, more than just the things that I had done. In other words, I think I was ashamed because I had nobody to help me. When you have an illegal abortion, all the institutions and all the people which normally support you through a crisis disappear into the mist. And I think this is one of the most damaging things about it because when you make that decision, you are probably as lonely and alone as you will ever be in your whole life.
KEITH: That is a devastating story and not an uncommon one at the time.
TOTENBERG: That's right, Tam. And to talk about how the Roe case came to be at the Supreme Court, I talked to somebody who was actually there at the time.
GEORGE FRAMPTON: Hi, I'm George Frampton. I was a law clerk for Justice Harry Blackmun at the time that the Roe v. Wade case was argued and decided.
TOTENBERG: At the time, if you were a young woman who lived in a college dormitory, you were likely to see one or more women carried out of your dorm hemorrhaging from a botched illegal abortion.
FRAMPTON: Those abortions either had to be obtained undercover if you had a sympathetic doctor if you were wealthy enough, or more likely illegally in back rooms, often by abortion quacks, crude tools, no hygiene. By the early, mid-'60s, thousands of women in large cities were coming into hospitals bleeding, risk of their lives, often maimed.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: The best way I can describe it would be the equivalent of having a hot poker stuck up into your uterus and scraping the walls with that. It was excruciatingly painful. The attendant that was there held me down on the table. I must say he worked on me more as though I were literally a piece of meat. And I don't mean that to be vindictive, but that was the way the relationship was.
FRAMPTON: And as a result, in the mid-'60s, a reform movement had started, begun to decriminalize abortion, treat it like a normal medical decision between a woman and her doctor.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court, we are once again before this court to ask relief against the continued enforcement of the Texas abortion statute.
KEITH: So, Nina, I am guessing that because this is the way things work in this country, there was, like, a patchwork of state laws with different rules and different approaches that came to the Supreme Court.
TOTENBERG: Correct. The American Law Institute, a highly respected group of lawyers, judges and scholars, published a model abortion reform law supported by the American Medical Association. And many states began loosening the restrictions on abortion. Four states legalized it, and a dozen or so other adopted some form of the model law, which permitted abortion in cases of rape or incest, fetal abnormality and to save the life or health of the mother. Most of the laws follow the ALI recommendations but by the 1970s, when nearly half the states had adopted reform laws, there was a small backlash. Still, as George Frampton observes...
FRAMPTON: When this came to the court, it wasn't a big political or ideological issue at all.
KEITH: That seems sort of surprising, I mean, given where we are politically right now. Wow.
TOTENBERG: In fact, you know, the justices of the Supreme Court back then were mainly conservative establishment figures. Six were Republican appointees, including the court's only Catholic, and five were generally conservatives as defined at the time, including the four appointed by President Nixon.
FRAMPTON: These were people who were establishment conservative justices who saw this as a constitutional aspect of a medical and legal reform movement.
TOTENBERG: As it happened, Roe was argued twice because of the death of two justices. And by January of 1973, the court was ready. Justice Blackmun announced the decision for a 7-2 majority.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Supreme Court today ruled that abortion is completely a private matter to be decided by mother and doctor in the first three months of pregnancy. The seven...
KEITH: So the framework established in Roe and upheld repeatedly by the court was that for the first two trimesters, the choice was the woman's.
TOTENBERG: Correct, with some qualifications added in 1992, when the court said that states could enact some restrictions as long as they didn't impose a, quote, "undue burden on a woman's right to abortion."
KEITH: Why did the court impose that rigorous framework around trimesters?
TOTENBERG: Well, Frampton says that the court hewed to the traditional view in Anglo-American law that the fetus became a person at quickening, when the woman first feels the fetus move. And that usually was defined as between 18 and 22 weeks. And having this framework, the court thought it could resolve the issue.
FRAMPTON: The justices thought that this was going to dispose of the constitutional issues about abortion forever.
FADEL: So far, forever has lasted a little over 49 years. That was NPR's Nina Totenberg talking about the history of abortion rights with colleague Tamara Keith.
(SOUNDBITE OF ERNIE R ROUSSEL TRIO'S "TANIATA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/npr-politics-podcast-the-history-of-abortion-rights-in-the-u-s | 2022-05-12T16:10:38Z |
Democrats are warning that the draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito that would strike down Roe v. Wade could threaten other rights rooted in privacy — including marriage and contraception.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Democrats are warning that the draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito that would strike down Roe v. Wade could threaten other rights rooted in privacy — including marriage and contraception.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/overturning-roe-v-wade-could-erode-other-rights-such-as-same-sex-marriage | 2022-05-12T16:10:44Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
The American Academy of Pediatrics has called for an end to, quote, "race-based medicine." This week, the academy said it will revise all its policies and guidelines to eliminate language suggesting that races have underlying biological differences that should be factored in medical treatments.
NPR health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee is here to tell us more. Hi, Rhitu.
RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: Hey, Adrian.
FLORIDO: First of all, what does race-based medicine mean?
CHATTERJEE: So, you know, going back to how races were originally defined - you know, it was based on the superficial differences between people, primarily skin color. And the assumption was that those superficial differences reflected real genetic or biological differences, which we now know is not true. But that thinking has persisted in medicine, and modern medicine still uses race as sort of a proxy for biology. That, in turn, has influenced the kind of care people get.
FLORIDO: Race as a proxy for biology - can you give me an example of that?
CHATTERJEE: Yeah. So I spoke with Dr. Joseph Wright, who's one of the authors of the statement put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics. And he's at the University of Maryland. And one example he gave me was that, you know, doctors are less likely to use this gold standard test for Black kids for urinary tract infections.
JOSEPH WRIGHT: The hypothesis was, it seems that Black children have a lower incidence of urinary tract infection than white children.
CHATTERJEE: And, you know, this came out of two small studies. But they haven't really been replicated nationally or internationally, and yet this continues to dictate how doctors treat kids.
FLORIDO: OK. Well, there are still, though, huge racial inequities that we see in health outcomes in the United States. I mean, during the pandemic, communities of color saw many more COVID cases and deaths when compared with white communities. So how does the academy factor that in, or does it?
CHATTERJEE: So the academy is trying to address those inequities, right? This is part of that effort. And we know that race has a major influence on health, not because races are different in terms of their biology, but because they determine people's social circumstances through systemic racism - so where you live, whether you have access to transportation, good jobs, access to health care. And Wright says doctors need to know these things.
WRIGHT: We are not at all suggesting that we ignore the impact of race on health outcomes. I think we're all, you know, quite clear that race has certainly a role to play in the health status of individuals.
CHATTERJEE: And he thinks that addressing those social things - factors is important for health equity. And there are other efforts, too, by the way. One significant one is by the board that certifies pediatricians, and that board has added questions about these factors to the board exam. And the effort was led by Dr. Yousef Turshani, who is a pediatrician in California's Bay Area.
YOUSEF TURSHANI: We had questions on microaggressions. We had questions on immigration, questions on racism, mental health.
FLORIDO: So Rhitu, are these efforts likely to change how pediatricians treat their patients?
CHATTERJEE: I put the question to Dr. Brittani James, a family physician in Chicago. Here's what she told me.
BRITTANI JAMES: Really, what's so exciting about this is, one, that it's action instead of just words, which just really has been the status quo in the field, but also that we know that this could be a - likely be a domino effect, and it opens the door for accountability to other orgs.
CHATTERJEE: And so she's optimistic.
FLORIDO: NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee, thanks for stopping by.
CHATTERJEE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/race-can-impact-the-medical-treatment-a-person-gets-pediatrics-wants-to-address-that | 2022-05-12T16:10:50Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Believe it or not, we've gone more than a month without the release of a Marvel movie. "Morbius" opened the 1 of April, and "Thor: Love And Thunder" isn't coming out until July. But there is a bit of fan service opening this weekend. Here's critic Bob Mondello on "Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness."
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Shortly after the opening credits, Doctor Stephen Strange is at a wedding, wearing a brave face as his beloved Christine marries someone else. Then, somewhat to his relief, I suspect, bravery of a more conventional Marvel sort is needed out in the streets of Lower Manhattan. A one-eyed octopus that could have escaped from Pixar's "Monsters, Inc." - except that it's the size of a small apartment building - seems intent on eating a bus. Strange quickly realizes it's actually trying to eat a teenaged girl on the bus and puts a stop to that with much flexing of wrists and assistance from Sorcerer Supreme Wong.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS")
XOCHITL GOMEZ: (As America Chavez) Look out.
MONDELLO: The girl, once rescued, strikes Strange as familiar. Wasn't she in his dream the night before? Not a dream, she tells him - another universe in which he was a somewhat less reliable Doctor Strange.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS")
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH: (As Stephen Strange) Things just got out of hand.
MONDELLO: A multiverse traveler who's being chased by a demon, the girl's name is America Chavez, which means people will spend the rest of the movie saying things like, we have to save America, and is America OK? - but never mind. The film has bigger fish to fry - that octopus, for instance. So Strange, figuring he needs an ally, turns to an old pal...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS")
CUMBERBATCH: (As Stephen Strange) Wanda.
MONDELLO: ...Who's also known as the Scarlet Witch.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS")
ELIZABETH OLSEN: (As Wanda Maximoff) I knew sooner or later, you would show up.
CUMBERBATCH: (As Stephen Strange) I need your help.
OLSEN: (As Wanda Maximoff) With what?
CUMBERBATCH: (As Stephen Strange) What do you know about the multiverse?
MONDELLO: Now, I know a little something about the multiverse and how it gives you alternate versions of yourself, having caught last month's crazily inventive "Everything Everywhere All At Once." That was not, strictly speaking, good preparation for Marvel's multiverse, partly because it's thought through, where Marvel's works hard at seeming random and also because Marvel's is governed by different and extremely complicated rules in addition to the more prosaic ones that have always bugged Wanda.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS")
OLSEN: (As Wanda Maximoff) You break the rules and become the hero. I do it, I become the enemy. That doesn't seem fair.
MONDELLO: Be that as it may, she does get to act while the others are busy soaring past a block-iverse (ph) and a paint-iverse (ph) on their way to a flower-bedecked New York-iverse (ph). There are even end credits for a splinter unit, which makes sense after you've seen Wanda wreak havoc in a hall of mirrors. Whatever can be done with performers gesticulating in front of screens has definitely been done.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS")
CUMBERBATCH: (As Stephen Strange) You OK?
MONDELLO: Director Sam Raimi, who cut his teeth on the "Evil Dead" franchise before he went family-friendly with the first three "Spider-Man" films, will get his horror freak on by film's end. Corpses and wispy black smoke wraiths will go toe-to-rotting-toe with the lightning bolt-tossing superhero types, but only after the filmmaker has dispensed with a full hour or so of explaining things.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS")
CUMBERBATCH: (As Stephen Strange) Multiverse is a concept about which we know frighteningly little.
MONDELLO: And that goes double for intricacies in the darkhold and the Book of Vishanti and variations between sorcery and witchcraft. I'll let you wade through those for yourself. And what about the good doctor?
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS")
CUMBERBATCH: (As Stephen Strange) I never meant for any of this to happen.
MONDELLO: Well, by comparison with the unrestrained love that audiences have for, say, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange-love, if you'll pardon that expression, seems limited. Not that Benedict Cumberbatch isn't hard-working - he brings a lot more intensity than you'd think possible to moving his fingers an inch or two as digital sparks fly. But his scripts have so far felt sort of second-tier in the Marvel canon. And the script for "Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness," which is absolutely the most entertaining multiverse movie to come out so far in May, is no exception. I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF DANNY ELFMAN'S "MAIN TITLES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/review-doctor-strange-and-the-scarlet-witch-take-on-the-multiverse-of-madness | 2022-05-12T16:10:56Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A new "Star Trek" series called "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" debuts today on the Paramount+ streaming service. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says it boldly goes where a certain other classic science fiction TV series also went with spellbinding results.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is the third live-action version of the "Trek" franchise to land on Paramount+. And it is by far the most similar to the original show that kicked off this 55-year-old franchise way back when the adventures of Kirk, Spock and Bones first debuted on old-school broadcast TV. If you have any doubt, check out the show's opening credits, which feature Anson Mount's Captain Christopher Pike delivering a familiar speech.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS")
ANSON MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission - to explore strange new worlds, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPACESHIP WHIZZING)
DEGGANS: Here's what's most amazing about watching "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," especially for this longtime "Trek" fan - how much I enjoyed a series that recaptures the sentiment, adventure and rhythms of the old show but with a sparkling new sensibility. I didn't know how much I missed old-school "Trek" until this show gave it to me again. Technically, "Strange New Worlds" takes place many years before the era of Kirk and Spock, when a different man, Captain Christopher Pike, commands the Federation Starship Enterprise. Fans who watched the first modern "Star Trek" series on Paramount+, "Star Trek: Discovery," know that Pike showed up there and saw a terrible vision of his future. That vision now haunts him as he explains to a science officer, Mr. Spock.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS")
MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) I saw my own death, Spock. And I didn't just see it. I felt it, every agonizing second. I can't stop seeing it.
ETHAN PECK: (As Spock) I would suggest knowledge of death is vital for effective leadership.
MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) Knowledge is one thing, Spock, but I experienced it. How will it live in me?
DEGGANS: That question hangs over the series as we meet younger versions of beloved characters given a modern twist. Christine Chappel is transformed from a lovesick nurse with a crush on Spock to a brilliant medical expert. Spock, played by Ethan Peck, is changed by his connection to a character from "Discovery," who is his adopted sister. And we also meet a young version of another cherished "Trek" character.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS")
MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) Communications, the prodigy; Cadet Uhura on communications rotation - very happy to have you aboard.
CELIA ROSE GOODING: (As Nyota Uhura) Thank you, sir. Enterprise is cleared for launch.
DEGGANS: A later episode detailing how Uhura, now played by Celia Rose Gooding, first came to Starfleet is a wonderful highlight. But the true appeal here is seeing a return to the adventure-of-the-week format that previous Paramount+ "Trek" shows abandoned. In the first episode, this involves Pike disregarding Starfleet regulations, like they always do, to stop a less advanced alien species from plunging into war. He tells them about Earth's history of conflict.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS")
MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) We call it the Second Civil War, then the Eugenics War and finally, just World War III. What began as an eruption in one nation ended in the eradication of 600,000 species of animals and plants and 30% of Earth's population. You'll use competing ideas of liberty to bomb each other to rubble just like we did, and then your last day will look just like this.
DEGGANS: Sounds a little too close to today's times for comfort, but it's also a refreshing return to the days when "Star Trek" was about a diverse, charismatic group of explorers having new adventures every week while proving the value of unity and peace among the stars. Welcome back, "Star Trek." Your return to classic form is needed by TV fans now more than ever. I'm Eric Deggans.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEON INDIAN SONG, "SLUMLORD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/review-welcome-back-star-trek | 2022-05-12T16:11:03Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
As the fighting continues to shift in Ukraine, Ukrainians are shifting, too. According to the U.N., more than 13 million have been driven from their homes by the war. Nearly 6 million have fled west into Europe, setting off the largest refugee crisis on the continent since World War II. But now many are also crossing back into Ukraine. Statistics from Polish border officials show that on some recent days, as many Ukrainians are returning to their country as fleeing it. NPR's Jason Beaubien is in the Polish capital, Warsaw, and joins us to talk about all this. Hi, Jason.
JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE: Hey, Adrian.
FLORIDO: Jason, most of those refugees ended up going, at least initially, into Poland. What's the situation like right now?
BEAUBIEN: Well, it's certainly less chaotic than when I was here in March. Back at that point, you had more than 100,000 people a day crossing into Poland. A lot of them were ending up at the central bus station here in Warsaw. Many had no idea even where they were going to sleep for the night. Now there still are big tents at the Warsaw bus station. And there's people offering food. And volunteers are helping people find housing and jobs and transportation if they want to try to move further into Europe.
I met this one woman, Maria Doronina. She was trying to get visas to Canada for herself and her two kids, and she was trying to fill out the online application form, including uploading her kids' birth certificates over this old cell phone. But despite that, and even though she's never even been to Canada, she thinks this is the best move for her right now.
MARIA DORONINA: I want my children have future, and I think that the future in Ukraine will be difficult for them. Maybe some time, I will return, but not now.
BEAUBIEN: Even if the war ends tomorrow, she says, she doesn't think the Russian threat to Ukraine is going to go away.
FLORIDO: And yet people are going back into Ukraine anyway. Why is that, Jason?
BEAUBIEN: You know, probably the biggest driver of it is that the Ukrainian military managed to hold off the Russian offensive on Kyiv. You know, missile strikes continue, as they do all over the country, but Kyiv's no longer under a direct military assault by Russian ground troops. So people are hearing that, and they're hearing that it's relatively safe to go back. Also, Ukraine still isn't allowing most men to leave the country. The vast majority of the refugees are women and children. So there's this desire for families to reunite. And finally, some of the push for Ukrainian refugees to return is because for most of them, this is a difficult life.
FLORIDO: Difficult even though Poland has been very welcoming to Ukrainian refugees - what are the conditions like there for them?
BEAUBIEN: Yeah, it's true. I mean, Poland has been bending over backwards in a way that you don't often see in a refugee crisis. They're getting essentially Polish Social Security cards to the Ukrainians so they can work. They're giving them access to health care. Trains and buses are free. They can even get the same unemployment benefits as if they were Polish. But housing is scarce, and most of the refugees are either staying with other Ukrainians who'd been living here before the war, or they're living with Polish families.
FLORIDO: Do you have a sense, Jason, of how long Poland can extend this kind of welcome?
BEAUBIEN: You know, I'm hearing from analysts that this situation is going to have to be carefully managed in the future, particularly in terms of the burden of refugees on schools and on the health care system. But one factor that's really working well for everybody is that Poland's economy has been booming. The unemployment rate here is, like, 3%, so there's a need for more workers. And then the second factor is that many Poles are also afraid that, at some point, they could be the target of Russian aggression. And so supporting the Ukrainians who are showing up here is seen, by many Poles, as doing their part to keep the Russian threat further at bay.
FLORIDO: That's NPR's Jason Beaubien in Warsaw, Poland. Jason, thanks for joining us.
BEAUBIEN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/some-ukrainian-refugees-in-poland-are-now-starting-to-return-home | 2022-05-12T16:11:09Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We're approaching a grim milestone. In the coming weeks, we'll reach 1 million Americans dead from COVID-19. We're remembering some of those who've died in this pandemic through the music they loved. This morning, we'll meet Carlita Lewis, who lost her mother Eileen Moody-Lee last August. She worked at the Indian Health Service Unit in Whiteriver, Ariz.
(SOUNDBITE OF R.E.M. SONG, "LOSING MY RELIGION")
CARLITA LEWIS: Everybody knew her as Missy (ph). Her favorite song was R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOSING MY RELIGION")
R E M: (Singing) That's me in the corner. That's me in the spotlight, losing my religion.
LEWIS: Growing up, we would go to Pizza Hut. It was a treat. And my mom would always have one of us asking her for money so that we could play music on the music player. And she always said, make sure you play my song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOSING MY RELIGION")
R E M: (Singing) And I don't know if I can do it. Oh, no, I've said too much. I haven't said enough.
LEWIS: We are White Mountain Apache, and she always looked forward to turning 60, being officially an Apache elder. She always joked about when she turned 60, she would stop dyeing her hair and that she would start wearing her traditional Apache camp dresses. And she would laugh, and she was joking, but she totally looked forward to turning 60. When she passed away, she was 59, just one month short of turning 60.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOSING MY RELIGION")
R E M: (Singing) Oh, life is bigger, it's bigger than you, and you are not me.
LEWIS: She loved to laugh and joke. She liked to tease all the time. And I think that's what I miss the most, is her jokes and her laughing at us. She was our best friend.
FADEL: That's Carlita Lewis remembering her mother Eileen Moody-Lee. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/songs-of-remembrance-daughter-misses-her-moms-jokes | 2022-05-12T16:11:15Z |
Updated May 5, 2022 at 5:40 PM ET
It was an ugly day on Wall Street, with stocks going from one of their best days in recent memory to one of their worst on Thursday.
The Dow fell by 1,063 points, just a day after gaining nearly 1,000 points. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq suffered similar swings after they had one of their best days since 2020.
The sharp turnaround denotes the incredible volatility in markets and the deepening fears that the economy may be headed to a recession as the Federal Reserve embarks on one of its most aggressive fights against inflation in years.
"I think we need to prepare ourselves for a volatile market," said Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy at Bank of America Securities.
Subramanian said markets are adjusting for a new environment of higher interest rates after enjoying historically low rates for years.
"I mean, for the last 30 or 40 years, we have seen rates slowly grinding down to zero, and we are embarking now on the opposite of that," she said.
It mainly hinges on the Fed
On Wednesday, the Fed raised interest rates by half a percentage point, as Wall Street expected. The Fed said more rate hikes of that size are on the table, as the central bank intensifies its fight against persistently high inflation.
But investors were relieved after Fed Chair Jerome Powell appeared to rule out increases larger than half a percentage point at future meetings.
The positive feelings did not last. Just hours later, markets went the opposite way as investors reckoned with the hard reality that interest rates are going up, which is bound to raise borrowing costs across the economy, from mortgages to bank loans.
The Fed wants to engineer a "soft landing" for the U.S. economy, by raising rates just enough to cool inflation without kickstarting a recession.
But investors are worried the central bank will overdo its rate hikes, tipping the economy into a deep downturn in its quest to bring down inflation.
Those fears are leading to the dramatic swings in markets.
An ugly, ugly year for markets
The falls on Thursday extend what has been an ugly year for markets.
The Fed's rate hikes also come at a time of deep uncertainty about the global economy as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues and China is in the midst of lockdowns to tamp down a COVID outbreak.
Technology stocks had quite a run during the pandemic, but they were among the biggest decliners on Thursday. Netflix, Amazon, and Meta, Facebook's parent company, all slumped by about 7%.
Higher interest rates put pressure on high-growth technology stocks in particular, because they are more dependent on debt.
Other companies that saw their shares surge during the pandemic are experiencing a reversal this year. Peloton closed down 9%, Wayfair ended down 25.7%, and Carvana, the used car retailer, was off almost 18%.
Bonds were also hit hard on Wednesday, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury trading over 3% — its highest level since 2018.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/stocks-dive-a-day-after-their-best-session-in-years-as-economic-fears-intensify | 2022-05-12T16:11:21Z |
DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm TV critic David Bianculli. This week Paramount+ unveiled a new science fiction series, but it's also, in a way, a series that's very, very old. It's called "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." And basically, it brings to fruition a TV series that NBC first proposed and made an unsuccessful pilot episode of in 1965. The "Star Trek" universe, like the "Star Wars" universe that followed it a decade later, obeys the laws of physics of our own universe. It's constantly expanding. And like "Star Wars," the original adventures of "Star Trek" ended up in the middle of the canon with other stories added that were either sequels or prequels.
"Star Trek" as it was first broadcast began on NBC in 1966 and ran for three years, never cracking the top 20, but making an ever-widening pop culture footprint. William Shatner starred as James T. Kirk, captain of the Starship Enterprise, and Leonard Nimoy played his half-human, half-Vulcan sidekick, Mr. Spock. Eventually, other "Star Trek" TV series and movies followed. On TV alone, counting only the live-action, non-animated "Star Trek" shows, there have been four sequels - "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," "Voyager" and a current Paramount+ offering, "Picard."
As for the prequels, which cover the territory before Kirk and Spock teamed up, there's been the series called "Enterprise" showing that starship's maiden voyages, and "Star Trek: Discovery," another current Paramount+ show. And now we have "Strange New Worlds," a new "Star Trek" narrative that pulls characters and plot points not just from "Discovery," but also from the very origins of the "Star Trek" series itself. And here's the surprising, exciting part. I've seen five episodes of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," and they're really, really fun. This is the most enjoyable "Star Trek" show since the original.
It's a genuine throwback in more ways than one. The captain in "Strange New Worlds" is Christopher Pike, played by Anson Mount, who played the same character throughout Season 2 of "Discovery" and now gets to deliver this new show's opening narration, a major nod to the original "Star Trek."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS")
ANSON MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) Space - the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission - to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPACESHIP WHIZZING)
BIANCULLI: The nostalgia doesn't end there. The creators of this new series are all about connecting all the "Star Trek" dots. Pike is called back from self-imposed retirement to take charge of the USS Enterprise once again, and his crew members include a new recruit named Uhura and a returning Starfleet science officer named Spock. This younger version of Spock is played by Ethan Peck, who nailed the role on "Discovery" and nails it again here, reuniting with Pike as the captain beams up to the bridge of the Enterprise.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS")
MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) How are you, Mr. Spock?
ETHAN PECK: (As Spock) Systems are all nominal. But as you know, no simulations were run.
MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) Thank you, Chief Kyle.
PECK: (As Spock) The main AI has been upgraded. Personal rotation was in process. A few officers will have to billet after the mission. That includes the chief engineer and Lieutenant Kirk, whom I know you requested.
MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) Seems like a million years ago.
PECK: (As Spock) Three months, 10 days, four hours, five minutes, actually.
MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) I asked how you were, Spock.
PECK: (As Spock) I am well, Captain. Although I confess, each time I return to space, the weight I carry for the loss of my sister feels heavier.
MOUNT: (As Captain Christopher Pike) Sorry. I miss her, too.
BIANCULLI: The sister they're referring to is the central character of "Discovery," who, like that series, has time-jumped 900 years into the future. So that makes "Discovery" no longer a prequel but a sequel, and that's getting way too deep into the sci-fi weeds. All you need to know is that "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is a true prequel but a modern one - both retro and shiny, old-fashioned and sleek. Its episodes are fairly self-contained. Its characters are playful and clever. And to those who know the original "Star Trek" series, there's that extra jolt of revisiting familiar characters.
There are major upgrades, for example, of Nurse Chapel and T'Pring, both of whom are better written and played by better actors than in the old series. Even Number One is here, who was a character in the never-broadcast "Star Trek" pilot from 1965, the one made before Shatner starred as Captain Kirk but instead featured actor Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike. It also had Leonard Nimoy as a more robotic Spock. And here's how that unsold pilot began - with him issuing an order. Consider it the Big Bang of the entire "Star Trek" universe.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "STAR TREK")
LEONARD NIMOY: (As Spock) Check the circuit.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) All operating, sir.
NIMOY: (As Spock) Can't be the screen, then.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Definitely something out there, Captain, headed this way.
BIANCULLI: And now headed this way is a new series that picks up the original "Star Trek" story and that already is set to introduce the Kirk character in Season 2. Just as the original "Star Trek" by Gene Roddenberry, it manages to comment on today's society and problems while presenting adventures that are both imaginative and, on occasion, inspiring. More than 55 years later, it's still a winning formula.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF RUSSO'S "STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS THEME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/strange-new-worlds-is-the-most-enjoyable-star-trek-show-since-the-original | 2022-05-12T16:11:27Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
The Federal Reserve is rapidly unwinding its easy money policies as it tries to crack down on sky-high inflation. The central bank raised interest rates this week by half a percentage point and suggested two more similar rate hikes are likely in the next two months. Here's NPR's Scott Horsley.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell held his first in-person news conference in more than two years Wednesday, but his opening comments were not aimed at the roomful of reporters in front of him. Instead, Powell said he wanted to speak directly to the American people, those who've been struggling to cope with the soaring price of groceries, gasoline and other essentials.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
JEROME POWELL: That's who we work for. It's inflation that people are feeling all over the country. And it's very important that they know that we know how painful it is and that we are working hard on fixing it.
HORSLEY: Through most of the pandemic, the Fed kept interest rates close to zero in an effort to prop up the economy. But with prices now climbing at the fastest pace in four decades, the central bank has done a quick about-face. By making it more expensive to borrow money, Powell and his colleagues hope to cool off consumer demand and bring inflation under control. Some economists warn that's likely to lead to a recession. But despite challenges posed by the war in Ukraine and ongoing COVID lockdowns in China, Powell says the U.S. economy is in good shape to weather the higher interest rates.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
POWELL: I think we have a good chance to restore price stability without a recession, without, you know, a severe downturn and without materially higher unemployment.
HORSLEY: The stock market, which had been even more volatile than usual in the run up to this week's Fed meeting, rallied sharply while Powell was speaking, especially when the Fed chairman said he and his colleagues are not seriously considering even larger rate increases of three-quarters of a percent at a time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared more than 900 points on Wednesday. Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 Index jumped about 3%.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRAD MEHLDAU'S "GOT ME WRONG" Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/the-fed-is-rapidly-unwinding-its-easy-money-policies-to-fight-inflation | 2022-05-12T16:11:33Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
U.N. officials say the war in Ukraine has caused devastating harm to children. More than 500 kids have died or been injured. Millions more are living in cities threatened by the Russian army, or they've been forced to flee. NPR's Brian Mann has been talking to young people near the frontlines in southern Ukraine.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: It's mid-morning in Mykolaiv, a city on the Black Sea. Anya Voychuck has come with her son, Arthur, to fill jugs of water. The main water system here was knocked out three weeks ago when Russian soldiers pushed to the outskirts of the city. I ask Anya if I can talk to her boy about how this war looks through his eyes.
ANYA VOYCHUCK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
MANN: "Sure, you can ask him," Anya says. She tells me Arthur, who's 11, has been really scared, trembling because of explosions caused by the Russian missiles that land here almost every day.
ARTHUR: (Speaking Ukrainian).
MANN: "Yeah, it is scary," Arthur says. "The ceiling in our apartment fell down." He's a small boy wearing a green puffy coat, his hair neatly combed.
ARTHUR: (Speaking Ukrainian).
MANN: School's been canceled because of the fighting, Arthur says, so he plays with his toys to pass the time. A lot of people have left Mykolaiv, but officials say roughly 200,000 civilians, many of them children or teens, are still here.
MARIA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
MANN: Maria is a high school student. She says when the war started, it was really frightening at first. But people can get used to anything, she says. She's angry at Vladimir Putin and still worries sometimes that the Russians will fight their way into Mykolaiv.
MARIA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
MANN: "We are afraid of what might happen," Maria says, "especially when we think of Bucha and Mariupol. We're heartbroken, and sometimes I can't control my tears."
(SOUNDBITE OF AIR RAID SIREN)
MANN: Every day, air raid sirens sound in Mykolaiv. Arkadiy Dabagian (ph), who heads the Red Cross here, says anxiety and fear are taking a toll on young people.
ARKADIY DABAGIAN: (Speaking Ukrainian).
MANN: Children and teenagers here are really stressed. It's obvious, Dabagian says. This war is horrible for them. The Red Cross created special programs in Mykolaiv, including a separate shelter for kids, a relatively safe place where they can play, where there are also therapists to provide counseling.
DABAGIAN: (Speaking Ukrainian).
MANN: "We know sooner or later this war will stop," he says. "We don't want these young people to suffer long-term mental trauma, so we're trying to help."
Some young people are able to leave these cities close to the front lines, but that can be dangerous, too. The United Nations has warned that young Ukrainians, especially women and girls, are being actively targeted by organized crime groups after they leave home.
JULIA SACHENKO: The war is the perfect background for the human trafficking.
MANN: Julia Sachenko heads the Ukraine office of an aid group called A21 that's working to protect young women here and in other countries. Sachenko says after Russia first invaded the Donbas region in Crimea in 2014, many Ukrainian girls wound up abused by sex traffickers after they fled to what they hoped would be safety.
SACHENKO: Those were terrible cases, and it was very difficult to assist those people because they have suffered through the nightmare - hell, in their lives.
MANN: I meet two young women, high school students aged 17 and 15, in a bomb shelter under the train station in Odesa, a city close to Mykolaiv. There's been a missile alert, and they're waiting for the threat to pass before boarding the next evacuation train.
NIKA: A building been bombed in a kilometer from our home, so we decided to leave.
MANN: That's Nika, a small woman surrounded by suitcases. She tells me they hope to cross the border into Poland.
Are you traveling with your parents?
NIKA: We are traveling alone 'cause my mother have a job here so she can't leave.
MANN: That's really scary.
NIKA: It is.
MANN: I ask Nika about the U.N.'s warning about sex traffickers, and she says she understands the risks they're taking.
NIKA: I read a lot about it 'cause I'm a feminist, so I know a lot about it. And I'm worried about it, too, about all the women that are in danger now.
MANN: But she says there are no good answers during this war, whether they stay or go.
NIKA: We are in danger there, too. I don't know how to deal with that. Just be careful.
MANN: Every young person I speak to says they believe Ukraine will win this war, but no one thinks victory or peace or safety will come any time soon.
Brian Mann, NPR News, southern Ukraine. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/the-russia-ukraine-war-is-taking-a-dramatic-toll-on-children | 2022-05-12T16:11:39Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers have never gone smoothly, and that's been especially true in recent days. The war in Ukraine distracted the countries involved, just as it seemed a deal might be near, and Iran made a new demand - that the U.S. drop its terror designation of a powerful wing of Iran's military. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports the issue is putting years of diplomatic work to the test.
PETER KENYON, BYLINE: The Biden administration still believes the 2015 nuclear agreement is worth restoring, as a means of ensuring that Iran doesn't acquire a nuclear weapon. But in New York, as the U.S. this month assumed the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that diplomacy is not the only avenue Washington is prepared to pursue.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD: And we don't have an agreement just yet, and it's possible we might not get there. Of course, if diplomacy does not succeed, then we'll continue to work very closely with others in the international community to increase pressure on Iran.
KENYON: But Iran is applying pressure of its own, demanding that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian military, be taken off the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. The IRGC supports militias around the region, but Iran's leaders see it as essential to protecting the revolutionary government in Tehran.
Sanam Vakil, an analyst with the London-based Chatham House think tank, says removing the foreign terrorist designation wouldn't make any practical difference in the tools the U.S. would have to deal with the IRGC, but it's symbolically important. And she says Tehran thinks now, with Washington focused on Russia's war in Ukraine, is a good time to press for any advantage it can get.
SANAM VAKIL: Tehran sees Biden as distracted with the war - rightly so - weakened at home in advance of the midterm elections and is very worried that 2024 will bring back President Trump and concern that the deal will only be a two-year deal rather than a more durable deal.
KENYON: Without a resolution to the IRGC question that both sides can live with, she adds, the odds against restoring the nuclear deal grow significantly. And even if it is restored and limits Iran's nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief, the agreement, known as the JCPOA, is unlikely to be seen by politicians on either side as a big victory.
VAKIL: And so politicians and policymakers in Iran are less willing to go out on a limb for what they see to be a weak JCPOA, and I think some of the same challenges exist in Washington.
KENYON: Henry Rome, Iran analyst at the Washington-based Eurasia Group, agrees that the odds of restoring the agreement have been going down in recent weeks. But he says both sides think it's worth saving.
HENRY ROME: I think a deal is still a bit more likely than not. I still see a lot of interest from the U.S. side and still some interest from the Iranian side in making this happen, but it's going to require a really concerted, creative, diplomatic effort to bridge this final issue here.
KENYON: Rome says U.S. regional allies, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, are highly critical of the deal's failure to address the actions of Iran and its proxy militias, and they would see a decision to lift the IRGC terrorist designation as a worrying signal about Washington's commitment to the region if and when the deal is restored. But in Tehran, he says, the designation is seen quite differently.
ROME: I think, from the Iranian government's point of view, the designation is a key part of the maximum pressure campaign that President Trump waged against Iran, and therefore that needs to go as well. So it's a tricky one.
KENYON: He says what Washington is looking for is a commitment from Iran to reduce its support for militias in the region. Rome also says it would be wrong to assume that the current stalemate can simply continue for weeks or months to come. It wouldn't take much, he says, to ratchet up tensions.
ROME: So I would expect, over the coming weeks, a lot of energetic efforts from intermediaries - especially the Europeans, but also regional states - to try to find some creative way around this.
KENYON: Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium to 60% purity, close to weapons-grade fuel.
Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Istanbul.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-05/the-status-of-iran-nuclear-deal-talks | 2022-05-12T16:11:45Z |
ROCK SPRINGS – Some of the Sweetwater County School District No. 1 staff came together for a good cause on Tuesday, May 3, to put 104 gift baskets together for students’ families in need.
A vote was taken by the Central Administrative Building (CAB) staff to use the money from their Blue Jeans Fund, $1,333.33, for families.
Furthermore, Sweetwater One Public School Foundation provided an additional $3,500 to purchase items for the baskets.
The items that were included in the 104 packed tubs include laundry soap, dish soap, bar soap, bath and shower wash, shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, toothbrushes, tissues, paper towels and toilet paper.
SCSD No. 1 Superintendent Kelly McGovern said that the CAB staff originally did this project a few years ago and decided that they wanted to repeat it this year.
“We went to the chamber of commerce and opened it up for community partners as well and worked with Rick Lee on it. We even had parents come in and donate,” McGovern said. “Every little bit helped. It was really a community effort.”
Additional community members and business partners that also donated products for the baskets include Church and Dwight, That Yogurt Place, Carol Jelaco, Judy Washam, Kelli Ball, Paul and Denice Goldman, Leanne Chesnovar, Lennie Lew and an anonymous donor.
“I sent different numbers of the packed tubs to different schools. I did that based on the enrollment and on the size of the school. For example, Rock Springs High School got 25, Rock Springs Junior High got 16. Everybody receives tubs.
“Even our outlying schools got them; Farson-Eden, Wamsutter, our virtual school kids. We tried to take care of everybody.”
Larry Fusselman is one of the foundation’s board members.
“I think I can speak for the entire school foundation board that we believe in helping the students, helping the families and in turn, help the entire community,” Fusselman said.
The foundation was started around 2005 and was formed with the idea of helping students.
The foundation has different programs that they oversee such as Karli’s Access Awards.
It is an endowment fund that Fusselman set up in 2006 in memory of his daughter, Kari (Kay) Fusselman. Its focus is to help individual district No. 1 students, K-12, to access non-traditional scholarships that provide students the opportunity to participate in outside activities such as sports and musical instruments. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/making-a-difference-scsd-no-1-staff-assemble-baskets-for-students-families-in-need/article_d4ad9a62-a48c-5ea1-bf60-ddb3112caac3.html | 2022-05-12T16:11:47Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A wildfire burning east of Santa Fe right now is the second biggest in New Mexico's recorded history. And it's not even peak fire season yet. Two fires have merged into one. The Hermit's Peak and Calf Canyon fires have already destroyed about 170 homes. Michelle Lujan Grisham is the governor of New Mexico and joins us now. Welcome.
MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM: Thank you for having us, Ari. I appreciate paying attention to this emergency.
SHAPIRO: Nearly 16,000 homes are under evacuation orders. And I know you have toured some of the shelters that are housing people. Can you tell us about somebody you met in one of those visits?
LUJAN GRISHAM: Absolutely. You know, there are folks who have been evacuated that are on land grants that have been held by those families for 400 years. And it really puts into perspective what these losses look like. And yet they are organizing food drives. They are getting trained to help provide navigation to assistance. They are helping the World Kitchen cook and deliver meals. They're incredible. And they have their whole families involved. And then I met a new New Mexican, new in the context of, you know, 20 years as opposed to 400, who's alone and in a shelter, older gentleman who is really worried about whether or not we have the ability - and we really don't - to make sure that his cats who are both outdoor and indoor cats are all right and whether he can expect if he's lucky enough to have a home to go to, will they be there? And, you know, these are real issues that people are struggling through. And you can't provide enough comfort to someone in that space because we can't go look every day at those cats, too dangerous.
SHAPIRO: This weekend, high winds are forecast, which could spread these fires really quickly. What's the state doing to prepare for that? Do you think you'll be able to contain this fire in spite of those weather conditions?
LUJAN GRISHAM: Well, we have to do everything that we can. There's no way to say to any New Mexican - so I haven't - that there's no way we keep this fire from spreading. If we thought that was the case, then we wouldn't have mandatory evacuations and high-risk fire warnings. But the containment lines have been holding. A ton of work has been done in preparation for this extreme weather event. We just have to hope that it's enough. And it's more difficult because of the smoke for us to be able to see it and be on it immediately.
SHAPIRO: Yeah. And President Biden's disaster declaration frees up federal aid for New Mexico. Is it going to be enough? How does it compare to the need?
LUJAN GRISHAM: Oh, I'm going to tell you that what I know from being a member of Congress and a governor that none of the federal resources are enough. Now, that sounds angry and it's not intended to be. They have very prescriptive rules about what's available and how you have to be in a real recovery phase, right? You're not actively fighting the fire. But people are evacuated now. They need food and shelter. They need hotel rooms. They need unemployment assistance. Right? They need to be submitting their disaster relief. All of that, in my view, has to happen right away. And certainly the president agrees with us, and they're leaning in. Between local, state and federal - and I have no doubt more appropriations are forthcoming from Congress - we are intending on making people as whole as we can.
SHAPIRO: Big-picture, the Western U.S. right now is in another historic drought, and climate change is expected to make fires like this one more common and more severe. So what can New Mexico and other states do to prepare for that future?
LUJAN GRISHAM: We have to revise and revitalize our forest protection plans. Given the extreme heat, extreme drought and the winds, prescribed burning has to be narrowed and refined in a meaningful way. Getting fuel out of the forest, trimming trees and then taking them out. We have this sort of disconnect where you trim and then it's left on the ground - can't do it. We have got to think about continual year-long forest health. And we don't do that in the context of a robust federal and state partnership. I expect New Mexico to lead that for the entire Southwest.
SHAPIRO: That's New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat. Thank you for speaking with us.
LUJAN GRISHAM: Thank you. I appreciate the time today. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/2-wildfires-in-new-mexico-have-merged-into-1-and-the-weekend-is-bringing-high-winds | 2022-05-12T16:11:52Z |
ROCK SPRINGS -- Three Rock Springs High School Talking Tigers competed in the National Speech and Debate Association’s Last Chance Qualifier last weekend. They will be battling with competitors from all over the United States for the chance to compete at nationals in Louisville, Kentucky in their main events.
Qualifying for Nationals in Original Oratory is RSHS sophomore Sophia Cozzens.
Stephanie Cozzens, RSHS Talking Tigers coach said, “I’m so proud of all of them for taking the shot! They didn’t give up.”
“Sophia wrote an entirely new oratory, memorized it and perfected her performance which is a tall order because she knew she needed a better topic than the one she used all season,” Cozzens explained. “She was entered in the second-largest event of the tournament, with smaller odds of making it to Nationals, but it paid off!”
According to Sophia, the NSDA Last Chance Qualifier allowed her to go into her main event, which is oratory speaking.
“I'm grateful to have had a second chance to qualify,” said Sophia. “I'm also very excited to be going to Kentucky with the team, especially because this is my first in-person national tournament.”
She added, “I didn't ever think I would have the opportunity to go to a national tournament for any team, but I'm glad that I do and that I'm going in Speech and Debate.
“I think that being able to meet a bunch of kids from all over the nation will be really cool. That's probably the biggest reason I joined the speech team, other than my mom being the head coach, of course.”
She said that she wanted to meet kids who were interested in the same things as she was.
“Luckily, I've found what I'm looking for through this activity, and so much more. I've been able to grow a lot personally and as a competitor through speech and debate.”
RSHS freshman Gavin Robbins hopes he’ll “make it into the finals while he’s in Kentucky.” His categories are storytelling and impromptu speaking.
“My siblings were on the speech and debate team so they really inspired me to join,” said Robbins.
RSHS junior Danyell Jacobson broke into semifinals in Informative Speaking. She will compete at Nationals in Expository and Poetry.
Jacobson is “beyond excited to go Kentucky.”
“I never imagined that as a first-year competitor, I would ever make it this far,” she admitted. “I learned that sometimes it's not the outcome that matters but the work that's put in. One thing I always promised to do was fight as hard as possible and never stop working and ultimately, I got here.”
Jacobson said, “I decided to do speech and debate to widen my knowledge about things and just try something new. I wanted to do an activity that would help me in all aspects of life and something to better my future as well.
“And let's just say, it was everything I wanted it to be.” | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/tiger-talkers-final-qualifiers-prepare-for-competition/article_ea807c29-5106-5c64-81c0-827f6ce36131.html | 2022-05-12T16:11:53Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Good morning. I'm A Martinez.
Lions are definitely not to be messed with. So when a farmhand in Kenya saw one, wildlife authorities were called. After investigating, it was discovered the lion was harmless. Turns out that in an attempt to protect their avocado tree seedlings, a homeowner had put them inside a bag that had a realistic picture of a lion's head on it. Now, you see, if I was that farmhand, I'd have said, (imitating county accent) Sweetheart, tell me my lion eyes are wrong.
It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/a-farm-hand-in-kenya-alerts-authorities-about-a-stray-lion | 2022-05-12T16:11:58Z |
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ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today it's investigating more than 100 potential cases of severe hepatitis in children, including five deaths. Cases have been reported in 25 states and territories, but the cause of the liver illness remains unknown. Several hundred similar cases have been reported in more than two dozen countries.
NPR health correspondent Maria Godoy is covering this story for us. Welcome.
MARIA GODOY, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: What more can you tell us about these cases in the U.S.?
GODOY: The CDC is looking into 109 cases. All of the children were previously healthy. Hepatitis is a swelling of the liver, and in nearly all of these cases, the injury to the liver was severe enough that the children needed to be hospitalized. Most of the children have recovered, but, you know, some of the more - but 14% did end up needing a liver transplant, and, unfortunately, five of the children died.
SHAPIRO: This has happened so quickly. When the CDC first issued the alert, it was just two weeks ago, and there were only nine cases. What's behind the big jump?
GODOY: So these nine cases were first seen in Alabama between October and February, but the situation got more global attention in April after U.K. health authorities issued an alert about a similar illness. The majority of cases were in children aged 5 and under. That prompted U.S. health officials to issue an alert and to cast a wider net looking at potential cases. They stressed that this investigation is still evolving, and it may turn out that some of these are unrelated.
Now, hepatitis does occur in children, but it's rare. And while U.K. officials say they are seeing more cases than usual, the CDC says, for now, it's not.
SHAPIRO: I mentioned that the cause of the illness is unknown, but do researchers suspect a link to COVID?
GODOY: They're still investigating this, but health officials stress this is definitely not being caused by the COVID vaccine. Most of the children affected are too young to have been vaccinated. As for COVID itself, officials say they aren't aware of these hepatitis cases in kids with COVID, although they are looking for evidence of possible past infection.
SHAPIRO: So what other possible causes are they looking into?
GODOY: Well, hepatitis is usually caused by strains of the hepatitis virus, known as A through E, but all of those have been ruled out. Right now, the leading suspect is a strain of adenovirus. That's a common virus that usually causes mild cold or flu-like symptoms or stomach and intestinal problems. A good number of these children have tested positive for adenoviruses, but there are also other hypotheses being looked at, and it's possible that a combination of factors has left kids more susceptible to getting severely ill when infected with adenovirus - for example, if they'd previously been infected with another virus, including possibly the coronavirus.
SHAPIRO: If parents are concerned about this, what should they be looking out for in their kids?
GODOY: The CDC stresses that severe hepatitis remains rare in children, but it does advise that parents of young children be aware of the symptoms of hepatitis. That includes vomiting, dark urine, stool that's light in color and yellowing of the skin. And of course, if you're at all concerned, contact your pediatrician.
SHAPIRO: That's NPR's Maria Godoy. Thank you.
GODOY: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/a-mysterious-form-of-hepatitis-has-appeared-in-more-than-100-children | 2022-05-12T16:12:04Z |
Several aspects about her team have impressed Laramie High coach Anne Moore throughout the Plainsmen’s run to a No. 1 seed at the Class 4A East Conference regional tournament, but their consistent approach on a daily basis stands out above the rest.
Close contests were a struggle at times last year, with LHS going 2-3 in one-goal games during the regular season. That hasn’t been the case this spring.
The Plainsmen (13-2, 11-1 in 4A East) will begin postseason play Friday at 5 p.m at Cheyenne Central against the winner of Campbell County and Thunder Basin. They do so with a 5-1 record in one-score games, in addition to a 2-0 overtime win last month.
“Our team has been able to perform at a high level,” Moore said. “Even when we get down a goal or have been behind, we've been able to fight and come back and find a way to win. Last year, I feel like we were in a lot of close games and it just didn't come out on our end. This year, we're finding a way to win when we need to.
“The weather conditions haven't been the best this spring, but I'm extremely proud of the consistency of our team, and the way we're moving the ball, passing and trying to take control of the game early.”
Laramie’s only setback of its conference slate came in the form of a 1-0 loss to third-place Cheyenne Central last week.
Unfavorable conditions kept the scoring to a minimum for both teams, but the Plainsmen also found areas to improve in the defeat. They responded with a 6-0 rout of Cheyenne East two days later to close out the regular season.
“That game was pretty evenly matched,” Moore said. “We had rain conditions, so both teams had mistakes and missed passes (that led to missed) opportunities, so it was pretty even. It really came down to just a good shot from Central at the end of the second half.
“I felt like getting the ball in behind, that final pass, we were lacking a little bit. We worked on that more before the East game and had a lot of success, scoring six goals to finish up our at-home stretch for the regular season.”
Outside of this loss, however, weather hasn’t had much of an impact on the Plainsmen. Moore points to her team’s emphasis on possession and comfort playing in the wind as factors that have given them an edge over their opponents.
“We like to keep the ball on the ground, and I think with the wind especially, a lot of teams have struggled when they've had the wind in their face,” Moore said. “For us, the way we play, it didn't have as big of an impact. We were still able to keep the ball on the ground, move it and create goal-scoring opportunities, whereas teams that play more direct long ball, they seemed to struggle more with getting pinned in their own house when the wind was in their face.
“Our stadium is the windiest place in Laramie, so we practice in it and kind of understand which way it's coming from, the cross-winds, the wind in your face. Each day has been different, so we've been able to practice in those conditions and adjust during games.”
This year’s success has been a complete team effort for the Plainsmen, who finished the regular season atop the conference for the first time since 2014. A talented senior class, however, has been the anchor.
Senior Cameron Hoberg leads the team with 15 goals and 34 points, followed by classmates Landon Whisenant and Christian Smith, who have recorded eight goals and 20 points and seven goals and 15 points, respectively. Senior goalkeeper Talon Luckie, meanwhile, leads the conference with .717 goals allowed per game.
Luckie will be out this week with an injury, but there is hope that he will be able to return for next week’s state tournament. Sophomore Sage Ahern, who has allowed three goals in four games, will start in net for the regional tournament.
“We have a group of players that have played together since they were freshmen,” Moore said. “Cameron Hoberg is (among the conference’s) top-three leading point-getters, as far as goals and assists, so he's definitely on top as far as production. Then you also have Landon Whisenant, who is at the top with goals scored and assists, and Christian Smith has had two big game-winning goals in conference.
“I call them ESPN highlight goals, where he hit it from 30 yards out, just upper 90s rocket shot to win games for us. Karson Busch in the midfield has also been instrumental in controlling the midfield, and then Landon Smith has been the anchor in the back with Talon Luckie as our goalie, who has been in and out of play because of injury.”
Laramie got off to a rough start at last year’s state tournament, suffering a 9-1 loss in its opener to eventual state champion Jackson Hole. They rebounded to finish fifth, however, winning the consolation bracket with victories over Evanston and Cheyenne East.
The Plainsmen carried over a strong finish in 2021 into one of its most successful seasons in recent memory. Now, they’ll look to keep the momentum rolling into the postseason.
“That Jackson loss definitely wasn't a strong performance on our team's part, so to be able to bounce back and find a way to win that next game was big,” Moore said. “Then after that, we just continued and ended up winning our final game 5-0 against East.
“I think that gave us some momentum, especially the juniors. They're all seniors this year, and they committed over the summer, played in the fall and did a lot of training during the offseason that has really helped prepare us for this season.” | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/high_school/laramie_high/plainsmen-ride-consistency-experience-to-no-1-seed/article_96e78de1-bcbb-5f9b-8ffa-e1eef760014f.html | 2022-05-12T16:12:06Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Just a warning here - this story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse. Over a period of seven decades and across the nation, the Boy Scouts of America have faced repeated accusations of sexual abuse. More than two years ago, the organization was hit with hundreds of lawsuits from former Scouts who say they were sexually abused by Scout leaders. A Delaware judge will soon rule on the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy case. It would provide more than $2.7 billion to over 82,000 claimants.
Here's NPR's Wade Goodwyn.
WADE GOODWYN, BYLINE: Seventy-year-old John Sakowicz went on his first Boy Scout overnight trip with his good friend, Patrick Quinn, back when he was 12 years old in 1965. Instead of a lovely night in the outdoors, it was an unimaginable horror.
JOHN SAKOWICZ: I was abused. I was raped, anally penetrated when I was 12 years old. I was a student at an elementary school in New City, N.Y.
GOODWYN: Both boys say they were brutally raped by the Boy Scout leader. Sakowicz's friend Patrick was so devastatingly traumatized, he drank himself to death as fast as he could, dying of liver failure at the age of 18. Sakowicz, too, has never really recovered.
SAKOWICZ: I had been accepted to Johns Hopkins University, attended the first semester, survived a suicide attempt, dropped out of college for the next three or four years. And my life has been very disrupted by that early childhood trauma ever since that time.
GOODWYN: If the settlement proposal is approved, the National Boy Scouts of America would provide a little less than 10% of the $2.7 billion settlement to the abuse victims. Two hundred fifty local Boy Scout councils would provide more than half a billion dollars, and the two largest insurance companies, The Hartford and Century Indemnity, more than $1.5 billion. Finally, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will provide a quarter of a billion for claims involving the church.
ADAM SLATER: I mean, I handle a lot of sexual abuse cases. This one is just on another level, again, because of the national scale and how long it went on.
GOODWYN: Adam Slater is a founding partner at Slater Slater Schulman, which is representing more than 14,000 Boy Scout victim survivors. Ken Rothweiler, Slater's colleague, is also on the Boy Scout case.
KEN ROTHWEILER: We were satisfied with the trial because we thought it went well for the survivors' group. We're hopeful that almost any day now we're going to get a decision from the court.
GOODWYN: Lawyers for the Boy Scouts of America declined to talk on the record before the judge's ruling but appear mostly satisfied with the proposed settlement.
SAKOWICZ: I will have myself a good cry.
GOODWYN: John Sakowicz says he'll be remembering Patrick Quinn back before that terrible night in 1965 when they went on their first Boy Scout trip.
SAKOWICZ: Through every day of this proceeding, I've remembered my friend Patrick. You know, this is a case that brings closure and justice to survivors. But I know one kid, at least, who did not survive.
GOODWYN: The ruling by Delaware Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein will probably be soon. The case is then expected to be appealed to federal court.
Wade Goodwyn, NPR News, Dallas.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTINEZ: If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, there are free trained counselors available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Contact them by calling the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/a-ruling-is-expected-soon-in-a-bankruptcy-case-involving-the-boy-scouts-of-america | 2022-05-12T16:12:10Z |
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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Time now for StoryCorps. Today, a love story that began in the Catskills. It was the summer of 1946. Hunny Feller and her identical twin sister, Bunny, were waitresses at a hotel. Another set of identical twins, Elliot and Danny Reiken, worked as musicians in a band there. At StoryCorps, Hunny and Elliot remembered what happened when the twins met the twins.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
ELLIOT REIKEN: When we met, you and your sister couldn't tell us apart, and we couldn't tell you two apart.
HUNNY REIKEN: But by the end of the summer, there was no chance of separating us. And we had a double wedding. You and I were married the same day as Bunny and Danny were married. And it was two brides, two grooms, one set of parents for each. The gowns were identical gowns. The flowers were identical.
E REIKEN: We both went on a honeymoon to Miami Beach by different trains...
H REIKEN: Yeah, so people wouldn't....
E REIKEN: ...Because we didn't want to be so obvious that people would be staring at us, you know, embarrassing.
H REIKEN: Yeah, the twins that married the twins.
E REIKEN: What'd you think about marrying me many years ago?
H REIKEN: You bowled me over with your way of kissing and the way you hold me when we dance. You're not a fantastic dancer, but you hold me fantastically. And I feel it. It's genuine. You're just not phony. I don't think you have a phony bone in your body. And I never thought anybody lasts this many years.
E REIKEN: Like, just yesterday was our 50th anniversary.
H REIKEN: Yeah. And now it's 11 years after that. I never feel, what will he do if I die first? You know how to open tuna fish. You know how to schmear it with mayonnaise. You will not fall apart. You'll feel sad when I'm gone. But you will manage. And that makes me feel very good. Thank you for being you, Elliot. You made my life complete.
E REIKEN: And I say the same. You made my life complete and hope we go on for another 50 years.
H REIKEN: I'll take five good ones. Five good ones, and I'll say thank you, God.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTINEZ: That's one of the sweetest things I've heard in a while. That was Hunny and Elliot Reiken in New York City in 2010. The last of the twins, Elliot Reiken, died last week. He was 98 years old. This conversation is archived at the Library of Congress. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/a-storycorps-love-story-twin-waitresses-caught-the-eyes-of-twin-musicians | 2022-05-12T16:12:16Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Heartache, loss and how friendship can help us get through that kind of pain. They are the themes at the center of a new novel. Its focus is on one particularly endearing friendship between Marcellus and Tova. Marcellus is an octopus who lives in captivity in a small town aquarium on Washington's Puget Sound. Tova is a grieving 70-year-old who works the night shift, cleaning the aquarium. The book is called "Remarkably Bright Creatures." And its author, Shelby Van Pelt, joins us. Welcome, Shelby.
SHELBY VAN PELT: Hello. Thank you for having me.
FLORIDO: Thanks for joining us. Marcellus - he's this octopus, but he's a real curmudgeon stemming from his life in captivity. And yet he's charming. He's really funny. And we should note that he's not a talking octopus to the humans in your book. He's just an octopus in a fish tank. But you take us into his mind. Why?
VAN PELT: Well, I think it really started for me watching octopus videos on the internet, which is a wonderful way to pass the time if you've never gone down that particular rabbit hole. You know, watching them, they're trying to escape. They get into all sorts of antics because they're just bored. And for me, watching those, I just really felt like there was a character in there, the frustration that an animal must feel when it almost must feel kind of superior to the beings that have captured it.
Octopuses are incredibly intelligent. I think we don't quite know the limits of how intelligent they are or could be because it's just such a different type of intelligence from what we, you know, as humans and mammals, are used to. And so I think that's where the curmudgeonly-ness (ph) really started for me. It's just, you know, it's kind of just a funny premise, but like, gosh, that guy must be so grumpy if he's trapped in there.
FLORIDO: And he's sort of watching these humans outside of the - you know, on the other side of the fish tank, sort of bumbling around. And he's sitting there, scheming.
VAN PELT: He really does believe that he is the superior species. And he has endless amounts of time to watch the humans. And he has a very sharp observational capacity. And I think he relieves a lot of his boredom by sort of, you know, creating these little soap opera moments and just really honing his observations and his thoughts about humans and how we operate.
FLORIDO: Well one of the humans he observes is Tova, who's 70 years old. She just lost her husband to cancer. But more importantly, she lives, you know, with the unsettled grief of her teenaged son's disappearance at sea 30 years ago. And because of that, she's really stoic. She's emotionally inscrutable, as you describe her. And yet she seems open to Marcellus, in part because maybe she sees his sadness.
VAN PELT: I think so. I think that she sees how they are similar. Tova has a very difficult time being open and honest with the humans in her life, but she has no problem talking to the fish at the aquarium. You know, that's why she likes that job. She relates to animals really better than humans. And, you know, I think Marcellus is kind of stuck in his box literally.
FLORIDO: Yeah.
VAN PELT: And Tova is stuck in hers metaphorically. She has no surviving heirs. She's approaching a time in her life when she's going to need help. And she's really honestly horrified at the thought of having to ask for that help from her community and from her friends. So she just sees herself kind of stuck in this box. And I think in befriending Marcellus, they both kind of help each other get out of that mindset of, you know, this sort of fatalistic, well, this is how it's going to be. This is how it's always been.
FLORIDO: It struck me that Marcellus isn't the only one in captivity here. You know, Tova lives in a small town, and yet everyone is always up in her business, wanting to know what's going on with her. So she seems to understand him on that level, too.
VAN PELT: Absolutely. Yeah. The - you know, the whole town, the fictional town of Sowell Bay, is really like an aquarium in and of itself. I introduced the character of the gossiping grocer. It was so much fun to write because he's the opposite of Tova. He wants to be in everyone's business. He's well-intentioned. But, you know, he's just that - you know, I feel like every small town has that character. I think for me, too, writing a lot of this book during COVID and during the early days of COVID, when we were really kind of locked down and spending way more time in our house, it felt like I was in a box, too.
FLORIDO: We all did. Yeah.
VAN PELT: And yeah. So it was really interesting to write these kind of trapped storylines, whether it's the octopus or Tova in the town or some of the other characters who are really just trapped by their own misconceptions of themselves, during a time when, you know, we spent a lot of time just looking out the front window, thinking, wow, where do we go from here?
FLORIDO: You know, Tova has a group of friends who really care about her, and yet she doesn't open up to them. She decides to sort of let an octopus be the creature that cracks her heart shell.
VAN PELT: You know, Tova gets in her own way there. You know, she's an imperfect character. She does have a group of friends that care about her a lot. But she almost won't let them because she's got this - you know, this kind of shell around her, this stoic nature, this, you know, can-do...
FLORIDO: She's a Swede.
VAN PELT: She is. Yes. And, you know, my grandmother was Swedish, was very much like Tova. The character is sort of based on my late grandmother in many ways. And, you know, I watched her have a similar path to Tova in some ways toward the end of her life. My grandfather passed away, and she lived alone. And she just kept on keeping on, cleaning all the time, you know, ironing the linens, just doing her thing. And I always kind of wondered, like, gosh, is she happy? Like, does this actually make her happy? You know, when she was alive, I kind of wish that I had been able to see her shell crack open a little bit more, and, you know, I never did. So I think writing a character like Tova was really exploring that for me.
FLORIDO: A lot of Tova's grief comes from not knowing what happened to her 18-year-old son. Marcellus finds a way to sort of help her through that.
VAN PELT: You know, I think the moment when she actually starts talking to him, she acknowledges to herself, hey; this is ridiculous. I'm doing the very thing that I have always been kind of judgmental about. And...
FLORIDO: I'm talking to an octopus.
VAN PELT: Exactly, you know?
FLORIDO: He's not talking back.
VAN PELT: He's not talking back. But he kind of is. I mean, he is in a way that's good enough for her to keep going.
FLORIDO: This is your first novel, but you've been writing...
VAN PELT: Yes.
FLORIDO: ...For a long time. How did writing during the pandemic change your writing?
VAN PELT: Writing for me during that time, a very, you know, dark time, was - it was a joy. It was a balm almost. And I think that's part of the reason why "Remarkably Bright Creatures" turned out to be such a happy novel. I mean, it's funny. A lot of my short stories are darker, and they're not necessarily this heartwarming vibe that I think comes through in the book.
FLORIDO: Yeah.
VAN PELT: But it couldn't have been anything else at that time. I mean, it just - writing it during, you know, 2020, it had to be a happy story.
FLORIDO: Shelby Van Pelt. Her new book - her first book - is called "Remarkably Bright Creatures." Thanks for taking the time to speak with us.
VAN PELT: Thank you so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF DAPHNI'S "LIFE'S WHAT YOU MAKE IT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/a-widows-unlikely-friendship-with-a-giant-pacific-octopus | 2022-05-12T16:12:22Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Last time NPR spoke with Kathaleen Pittman, the phone was ringing off the hook at her abortion clinic in Shreveport, La.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)
KATHALEEN PITTMAN: Hello. This is Kathaleen. How may I help you?
FLORIDO: Many of those calls were coming from Texas just next door because Texas had just banned abortion for pregnancies older than six weeks. Fast-forward to this week's leak from the Supreme Court signaling it's set to overturn Roe vs. Wade, abortion providers like Pittman are steeling themselves for these sorts of scenes to begin playing out across the country.
If Roe is overturned, about a dozen states would ban abortions immediately, with others likely to follow, so we wanted to check in with some abortion-rights advocates to see what the past few days have been like and how they're preparing for what might come next.
I'm joined now by Kathaleen Pittman of the Hope Medical Group for Women in Louisiana. Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
PITTMAN: Thank you for having me.
FLORIDO: We also have Dr. Erin King, executive director of the Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Ill. Hi.
ERIN KING: Hi - nice to be here.
FLORIDO: And finally, Odile Schalit, who directs the Brigid Alliance, a group that helps women connect with abortion services. Thank you for being here.
ODILE SCHALIT: Thanks for having me.
FLORIDO: I understand you all had just attended the National Abortion Federation conference earlier this week when the draft ruling from the Supreme Court was leaked. You were surrounded by other abortion-rights advocates, and I'm wondering what that moment was like. Odile, can I ask you?
SCHALIT: It's hard to capture. I think that the best way to do so is to say that it was a combination of feeling stunned, mad and a sense of resignation and acceptance that this is something that we knew was coming for a long time and gratitude that, unlike many other moments that have been quite similar to this one, in this one, we got to actually - some of us - be together.
FLORIDO: Kathaleen, I want to go to you. It was just eight months ago that your clinic, which is the closest abortion clinic in Louisiana to the Texas border, saw this huge influx of patients after Texas passed SB 8. Does this feel like deja vu?
PITTMAN: Deja vu all over again. Actually, it does. I had actually returned to my hotel room when a reporter called me and said, have you seen the news? And I'm - no, I haven't. She sent it to me. So I actually canceled my plans so I could start conferring with our attorneys and my staff. I felt like I needed to do some reassurance there. This was an early draft. And I reminded them, you know, we have overcome so many obstacles. We'll see this through. We'll do what we need to do. And to my staff's credit, the concern was about the women. Not a single employee expressed concern for themselves or their livelihood. Everybody has been worried about the women.
As you said before, we had seen such an influx from Texas last fall. And at Hope, we are still operating with a waiting list. On any given day, I have 300 names ready for us to reach out to them to schedule that very first appointment. So I spent my time reassuring and telling them, you know, it's not over, not yet. In order to provide abortion care in Louisiana, you have to be willing to have a certain amount of optimism. Otherwise, we can't get out of bed in the mornings.
FLORIDO: Dr. Erin King, I want to go to you. Your clinic is in Granite City, Ill., just about 10 minutes from the Missouri border, where abortion access has already been quite restricted. And Illinois is surrounded by states that have trigger laws, meaning automatic bans would go into effect if Roe is overturned. How is your clinic preparing for this possible outcome?
KING: So you are correct. We actually see about 60% of our patients are from Missouri. They are coming from out of state. And we have watched over two years as Missouri has restricted abortion so much that there are just a couple hundred abortions happening in Missouri right now where there used, you know, be over 5- to 6,000 at least per year.
And so we are extremely worried about the Supreme Court decision that the same thing is going to happen in more states around us. And pretty much every other state that borders Illinois will immediately or, over this next several months after a Supreme Court decision, will have significant restrictions on abortion if not a complete ban on abortion.
So we've actually been preparing for several years. We are optimistic all the time. We want the best for our patients. But we also are realistic. And to be prepared to even be able to see a small portion of the patients that will need access out of their own states, we've had to add staff. We've added nurses. We've added doctors. We've added appointment types. We have the capacity to expand pretty quickly hours and appointments and have been able to even though we've seen influxes of patients on and off from surrounding states. But no one will be ready for the number of patients that can't access care if the decision from the Supreme Court is anything like the draft that's come out.
FLORIDO: I imagine you've been getting a lot of phone calls in the last few days. Tell me about who's calling and what they're saying to you.
KING: Well, the minute the draft decision was leaked - of course, we weren't open at that time; we were open the next morning - we had patients immediately calling, asking were we canceling their appointment because they thought abortion was now illegal in the country. There was a lot of confusion around what access and care was available just the next morning after the leak of a draft. So I can't even imagine the amount of confusion that's going to happen and concern when the real decision comes down.
And we were also getting calls from - luckily from supporters, saying, what can we do? How can we help? Who can we fund? What funds can we help? What patient support organizations should we turn our attention to? And unfortunately, we also had a very strong protester presence outside of our office for the next several days, including actually today. We've seen almost double the number of protesters and a lot more anger and really angry, mean words towards patients and staff entering the building.
FLORIDO: Are you increasing security?
KING: Yes.
FLORIDO: Kathaleen in Louisiana, are you making plans to scale up your clinic, or are you kind of taking a wait-and-see approach because of the pending restrictions that Louisiana's legislature might pass soon?
PITTMAN: There is no possibility of scaling up. We have a trigger ban in Louisiana. Should Roe be reversed, we would cease to exist - all three clinics in Louisiana. You have to understand - none of the clinics that provide abortion care in Louisiana offer any other type of care. Because we are dealing with some of the poorest of the poor, there would be issues with, say, if we were to attempt to provide routine GYN care. How is that cost going to be covered? Most of the patients that come to us would qualify for Medicaid because of their income. However, in Louisiana, it's against the law to provide any type of funding, Medicaid or otherwise, to clinics that provide abortion care.
So in Louisiana, it's all or nothing. We can't do more than abortions. We can't even relocate to expand, should we need to, without having to apply for a new license, which would not be forthcoming, I assure you. There's a Planned Parenthood in New Orleans that, years ago, had a new facility, applied for an abortion clinic license, and that has never come to fruition and probably never will.
FLORIDO: Odile Schalit, your organization, the Brigid Alliance, is a practical support organization. You help people get across state lines all over the U.S. Describe some of the logistics of that for me. What does it look like to help someone get across state lines to find an abortion that might not be available where they live?
SCHALIT: Yeah. So at the Brigid Alliance, we cover a wide range of logistical needs. So that can include anything from transportation, like flights, bus tickets, train tickets, gas, cash for parking, cash for a rental car service. It can also include lodging, reimbursements for childcare. And critically, we coordinate these things for our clients. As you can imagine, having to access an abortion, having to travel for that, having to negotiate the disruption that that causes to your life is significant enough. Having to then plan a whole trip, especially if you've never traveled out of your state before, which is the case for many folks who - a lot of people who travel from rural areas - that that is - can be a significant hindrance to whether someone even tries to travel.
So we - our coordinators - our incredible coordinators spend a lot of time trying to make sure that our clients feel safe in traveling, feel that they have a companion in us, that they are not alone. That means being in touch with them regularly so that they feel that support. So we're really - we work with our clients from when we first speak with them all the way until they get home.
FLORIDO: Kathaleen Pittman in Louisiana, where you are, what kind of patients are you expecting are going to be most affected by this potential forthcoming ruling?
PITTMAN: I think what we will be seeing most affected would be the marginalized communities, which actually makes up the majority of our patient roster. Most of the women we see here at Hope are living at or below the federal poverty level. The majority are persons of color. The majority already have one or more children at home and are trying to decide what's best for them. We're seeing them having to navigate just to get to our clinic - issues with transportation, issues with child care, time off work, time off school. Again, it's going to be those who have the least that will suffer the most.
FLORIDO: I've been speaking with Kathaleen Pittman of Hope Medical Group in Shreveport, La., Odile Schalit of the Brigid Alliance and Dr. Erin King of Hope Clinic in Granite City, Ill. Thank you all so much for being with us.
KING: Thank you.
SCHALIT: Thank you.
PITTMAN: Thank you for having us.
(SOUNDBITE OF NICHOLAS BRITELL'S "END CREDITS SUITE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/abortion-providers-and-advocates-experience-deja-vu-as-roe-v-wade-is-threatened | 2022-05-12T16:12:28Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
If the Supreme Court does overturn Roe v. Wade next month, it'll be a huge win for groups opposed to abortion. Overturning that landmark decision has been the motivating force for groups like the National Right to Life Committee for decades. So if they do notch this victory, we wanted to know, where will they focus their efforts next? Carol Tobias is president of the National Right to Life Committee and she joins us now. Welcome.
CAROL TOBIAS: Thanks, Adrian.
FLORIDO: The leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe is just that, a draft, but assuming it holds, where does your organization go next?
TOBIAS: So we are going to work with the states to see what kind of legislation they can pass. We are going to continue our educational efforts because we realize that there are still many in the country that are unaware of the humanity of the unborn child. Or maybe they are, but don't quite see the need for protecting that innocent life. So we still have a big battle ahead of us.
FLORIDO: What kind of abortion restrictions does your group, the NRLC, support, a total ban on abortions, a ban after conception?
TOBIAS: Our ideal position would be abortion only if the mother's life is in danger. Our reasoning is that we want to protect as many babies as we can as soon as we can. So some of the states are not going to be where we are, obviously, but we'll see if there are some limits, some protections that we can get through.
FLORIDO: What about forms of contraception like IUDs that can theoretically prevent an embryo from implanting into the uterus?
TOBIAS: We would encourage women to talk to their medical provider. And if this is any form - that it's labeled contraception, but it might actually work after fertilization has taken place and a new life is forming, we would encourage them to talk to the medical provider and find out how it works, and if it is going to end the life of that newborn being, then don't do it.
FLORIDO: But will you be advocating for forms of contraception like IUDs to be criminalized?
TOBIAS: That, quite frankly, is one of the ones - it's hard to really know what what is happening. And I don't know how that would ever be regulated or monitored. You know, we're just going to encourage people to choose life for their babies.
FLORIDO: Do you think that women who violate abortion bans in their state should go to prison?
TOBIAS: No, no. In many cases, quite frankly, they are the victims. Many of them will say that they got the abortion because their partner pushed them to do it. We certainly know that there are women who go through it knowing full well what is happening. Our goal is to get abortionists to stop killing babies. We have never advocated for penalties for women.
FLORIDO: People choose abortions for many reasons. Some women just don't want a baby. Some don't have the means or support structure to raise a child. And yet, our country doesn't have a whole lot of federal policies like family leave, guaranteed daycare, preschool, a child tax credit that a lot of advocates believe would actually make it possible for Americans to raise children, especially middle income and low-income families. What kind of lobbying have you done for these sorts of family-friendly policies?
TOBIAS: I'm actually pleased that we are starting to see much more action from the states in programs to help a woman in need. There are several of them, like Missouri has a Show-Me Healthy Babies program that would, you know, provide health care and support for a woman and a newborn child. Oklahoma and Arkansas have Every Mom Matters Act. We've got states like Texas and South Carolina actually providing health care for a new mom and her baby, you know, for the first couple of years of life, in-home nursing visits to make sure that everything is going OK. There is certainly more that we can and should do so that no woman would think abortion is her best or only option.
FLORIDO: The the anti-abortion movement has been very closely aligned with the Republican Party, which generally has rejected strengthening the social safety net. Do you think that Republicans will have an obligation to do that if Roe is overturned?
TOBIAS: I think we are seeing much more receptiveness from them in those lines. And I know for much of it, it's, you know, we only have so much money and, you know, how is it going to be spent? We would certainly encourage them to make moms and their babies a priority when they're looking at various programs.
FLORIDO: Carol Tobias is president of the National Right to Life Committee. Thank you for joining us.
TOBIAS: My pleasure. Thanks, Adrian. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/after-roe-v-wade-whats-next-for-the-anti-abortion-movement | 2022-05-12T16:12:34Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A new law in Alabama bans gender-affirming medical treatments for anyone under 19. It's set to take effect on Sunday. Today, a federal judge is considering whether it can move forward. Families of transgender youth argue that allowing enforcement would cause irreparable harm. Attorneys for Alabama say the law will protect children from risky interventions that they may later regret.
NPR's Debbie Elliott has been covering a two-day hearing in Montgomery. Hi, Debbie.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: You told us yesterday about the arguments that lawyers made on behalf of the parents of trans young people. Today, lawyers for the state of Alabama presented their witnesses. How are they defending this transgender medical treatment ban?
ELLIOTT: You know, the general theme has been to portray these gender-affirming medicines - we're talking about puberty blockers or cross-sex hormone therapy, for instance - as risky, as unproven, and as experimental interventions. A 23-year-old woman testified that she regretted trying to transition from female to male using testosterone therapy when she was 19 and in the state of Georgia. She said she was under a mental delusion at the time.
Then, there was testimony from Toronto clinical psychologist James Cantor, who said that a majority of youth who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria later desist, meaning that they change their minds and identify with the sex that they were assigned at birth. He testified that there's no medical consensus in the U.S. Now, he says this despite the fact that most major medical associations consider gender-affirming treatments an accepted standard of care for transgender adolescents.
Under cross-examination, he did acknowledge that he treats adults and has no knowledge of how transgender youth are diagnosed and treated in Alabama. He was also forced to agree that some studies have shown that gender-affirming medical care improves mental health outcomes for some transgender youth.
SHAPIRO: So if this law is allowed to take effect on Sunday, what would it do?
ELLIOTT: Well, it would become a felony, punishable by 10 years in prison, for parents and youth to seek or for doctors to provide gender-affirming medical treatments or surgeries for anyone under 19 years old. The families who have sued say this is an unconstitutional infringement on parental autonomy and discriminates against these youth. The U.S. Justice Department agrees and has intervened in this case.
Plaintiffs presented testimony Thursday from medical professionals who say banning the treatments would have a devastating impact and could raise the risk of suicide and other emotional problems for these teenagers. Doctors also testified that the law puts them in this position where they're forced to choose between obeying the law or abandoning their oath to do no harm and face conviction.
SHAPIRO: There's a tight timeline here. So how does the case resolve?
ELLIOTT: Well, now it's up to U.S. District Judge Liles Burke to decide whether or not to block enforcement of the law while the plaintiffs pursue these constitutional questions. We should note that a federal judge in Arkansas blocked a similar law in that state, and based on questions in the Alabama courtroom, Judge Burke is very aware of that ruling.
During closing arguments this evening, plaintiffs' attorney Jeffrey Doss told the judge that Alabama's law criminalizes parents' concern and love for a child and violates fundamental parental freedom. Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour, on the other side, argued that the state has a wide discretion to regulate areas of medical uncertainty. So we're just waiting on Judge Burke to decide, and Sunday is that deadline.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Debbie Elliott. Thank you.
ELLIOTT: You're welcome, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/alabama-judge-considers-whether-to-block-new-ban-on-gender-affirming-care-for-youth | 2022-05-12T16:12:40Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
The job market continues to hum month after month. This morning, we learned that employers added 428,000 jobs in April, exactly the same as the revised number from March. There are still a record number of job openings and not enough people to fill them. And that means lots of opportunities for people looking for work. But does it have a potential downside for the broader economy? NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now. Scott, all right, just how tight is that job market?
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning, A. It's very tight. The unemployment rate in April was just 3.6%, the same as the month before. That matches the lowest level since the start of the pandemic. And this was the 12th month in a row that employers have added more than 400,000 jobs, which is a really remarkable run. They'd probably have added more jobs if they could find more workers. Employers began the month of April with well over 11 million job openings. And many of those are still vacant. Here's how Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell described the job market earlier this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JEROME POWELL: For people who are out of work and looking, there are lots of job opportunities. Wages are moving up at rates that haven't been seen in quite a long time. So it's a good time to be a worker looking to either change jobs or get a wage increase in your current job.
HORSLEY: Average hourly wages in April were up 5.5% from a year ago. Certainly, those wage gains are good for workers. But they're also a potential source of concern for the Fed.
MARTINEZ: Why would they be concerned?
HORSLEY: The Fed is worried that employers may try to offset the cost of higher wages by raising prices. And that would make inflation, which is already at a four-decade high, even worse. That's why the Fed is hoping to pour a little cold water on this sizzling job market by raising interest rates in hopes of cooling off demand. You might see some very early effects of that in the construction industry in this report. Construction companies added only 2,000 jobs last month. That's a marked slowdown from earlier months. And that may reflect the impact of rising mortgage rates, which we know they've jumped pretty sharply. They're above 5%.
The central bank is hoping to engineer what they call a soft landing here - that is, cooling off the economy gradually but without a sharp jump in unemployment or a recession. Some economists are doubtful that Powell and his colleagues can pull off that balancing act. And that's one reason you've seen these really wild swings in the stock market over the last couple of days, with the Dow soaring more than 900 points on Wednesday, only to sink more than 1,000 points yesterday.
MARTINEZ: How close, though, is the economy to replacing all the jobs that were lost during the pandemic?
HORSLEY: It's getting pretty close. You know, there were 22 million jobs lost in the spring of 2020 when the coronavirus first struck here in the U.S. As of April, the U.S. had replaced nearly 95% of those. We saw solid job gains last month in manufacturing, in bars and restaurants, in warehousing and transportation. Now, it could be that we will start to see some slowdown in hiring in the coming months. Economist Nela Richardson, who's with the payroll processing company ADP, says that wouldn't really be a surprise at this late stage of the recovery.
NELA RICHARDSON: Given that the labor market is - made such tremendous progress back towards 2019 levels, I think what we're going to see going forward is more of a normal pacing.
HORSLEY: When you talk about normal pacing, you know, in the 12 months before the pandemic, the U.S. was averaging about 200,000 new jobs a month. So we've been running at more than double that level.
MARTINEZ: Anything else jumps out about today's jobs report?
HORSLEY: This is, generally, a pretty positive report. One negative, though, is what we see in the labor force. That is the number of people working or looking for work. Over time, a growing labor force could offer a little breathing room in this very tight job market. And we did see that in February and March. But last month, the workforce actually shrank a bit. So that means employers are going to continue to have a hard time finding workers. And that's going to continue to put upward pressure on wages and maybe prices as well.
MARTINEZ: That's NPR's Scott Horsley. Scott, thanks a lot.
HORSLEY: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/an-unusually-tight-job-market-has-a-potential-downside-for-the-broader-economy | 2022-05-12T16:12:47Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A recently leaked draft opinion suggests the U.S. Supreme Court will likely overturn the landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade. If that happens, more than two dozen states are expected to ban or seriously restrict abortions. That would affect anyone seeking abortion in those states but especially poor women and women of color. NPR's Yuki Noguchi joins us to explain why.
Good morning, Yuki.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So, Yuki, let's start with who this ruling will impact. Who gets abortions in the U.S.?
NOGUCHI: Yeah. Well, it's estimated about 1 in 4 women will get an abortion in their lifetime. More than half the people who access abortion are women in their 20s; also low-income people are more likely to get one. And race is a factor. Black and Latino women account for more than half of abortions, according to the most recent estimates. And the reason is the same as other racial disparities across health care - you know, less access to doctors and insurance or contraception and education. Plus, they face higher rates of poverty. And the ruling itself would disproportionately affect those communities also because many Southern states with large Black and Latino populations have bans that would be triggered by this ruling.
FADEL: And so what are people in those communities likely to do?
NOGUCHI: Well, they have a couple of options. I mean, for those who still need a clinic, they might have to travel further, you know, to states where abortion will still be legal. And that's pricey, right? - I mean, gas prices. But some may try to use abortion pills.
Laurie Bertram Roberts co-founded the Yellowhammer Fund in Tuscaloosa, Ala. And that group pays for travel or child care and logistics for people seeking abortions. And she says that's gotten more expensive and complicated. And this is something she knows firsthand. She wasn't able to get an abortion several years ago, even after doctors warned her she might die. She was already in financial straits with three kids and felt forced to carry the pregnancy to term.
LAURIE BERTRAM ROBERTS: And we ended up homeless within a year.
NOGUCHI: And she sees a connection between abortion access and overall health.
ROBERTS: Mississippi and Alabama are both two states that have very high Black maternal mortality rates and Black infant mortality rates. And what does forced birth look like for us?
NOGUCHI: So she says not having good health care and then not having the access to abortion is a vicious public health cycle.
FADEL: So it becomes an equity issue. If you have money, you get to a somewhere with access; if you don't, you can't. Now, you mentioned abortion pills as an alternative. Those weren't around when Roe was decided.
NOGUCHI: Exactly.
FADEL: What about that?
NOGUCHI: Yeah. And that's a major difference. Those pills, whether through a clinic or self-managed at home, now make up a majority of abortions. But many people can't take them. You know, maybe they have a blood disorder or are later in pregnancy and find out about a fetal abnormality then.
And Terri-Ann Thompson says telehealth isn't an option for everyone. She's at the research group Ibis Reproductive Health.
TERRI-ANN THOMPSON: At present, there are 19 states that actually banned telehealth for medication abortion care. And 11 of those states are actually consider part of the South. That's states where Black and Latinx communities are highly represented. Then there really is no access available to those populations.
NOGUCHI: You know, as a practical matter, it may still be possible to get access to these pills, you know, through the mail or something. But that is definitely the next, you know, frontier of this battle. Specifically, the question will be, will women who use them or use other means of terminating a pregnancy be prosecuted?
FADEL: And that's happened, right?
NOGUCHI: Yeah. Just last month, a Latina woman was detained for an alleged self-induced abortion in Texas, which, as you know, passed new abortion restrictions last September. Zaena Zamora lives there and runs the Frontera Fund, which helps fund abortion access for people. And she says that case had a huge chilling effect.
ZAENA ZAMORA: When you see someone in your community who got arrested because of their pregnancy outcome, it does create a lot of fear and anxiety and uncertainty and a lot of misinformation that gets spread out throughout communities.
NOGUCHI: So Zamora says people will have to travel further to places like Minnesota or Colorado to seek abortions. But, you know, many people, like I said, won't be able to afford that.
FADEL: NPR's Yuki Noguchi - thank you so much for your reporting, Yuki.
NOGUCHI: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/an-upcoming-supreme-court-ruling-may-disproportionately-impact-on-people-of-color | 2022-05-12T16:12:53Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
The unprecedented leak of a draft opinion on abortion rights from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is just one of the latest headlines involving the nation's highest court. Back in March, there were reports that Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas, urged an aide to former President Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Joining us to discuss how this could be affecting public confidence in the court is reporter Lawrence Hurley. He covers the Supreme Court for Reuters. Lawrence, you reported recently, the Supreme Court has cultivated a reputation as a so-called grown-up branch of government. Is that possibly changing?
LAWRENCE HURLEY: Yeah, that's one of the questions that people are now talking about because the Supreme Court's whole reputation and its sort of notion of itself is that it's sort of above the fray in Washington. And that's important because people need to take its decisions as being, you know, carefully reasoned and not based on politics, the way that decisions are that come out of the White House or Congress. And so if the court starts to sort of lose some of that reputation, that could be bad for its reputation and people's willingness to follow its rulings across the country. So...
MARTINEZ: Yeah, and I've always thought, with the Supreme Court, Lawrence, that they may not agree all the time, but they're generally friendly with each other and that they're, you know, trying to come up with fair decisions.
HURLEY: Yeah. And that's an image they've carefully cultivated. Whenever the justices appear in public, they always talk about how, you know, we disagree on some of the rulings, but we all are friends with each other and we get along with each other. But that sort of image has been undercut a little bit, especially the recent kind of flap that went on about wearing masks in the courtroom, where Justice Neil Gorsuch was in the courtroom - the only justice not to wear a mask in a hearing and - during the omicron outbreak of COVID-19. And that led to some news stories saying that, you know, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who has diabetes, was, you know, somehow concerned about that. And that's why she didn't appear on the bench. And the court denied that. But it sort of showed a sort of - you know, a break in their sense of - that everyone gets along.
MARTINEZ: And I remember being surprised when Scalia and Ginsburg said they were friends. I just didn't...
HURLEY: Right.
MARTINEZ: ...That didn't seem like it would match. But, you know, that's - that was me.
Now, recently, Chief Justice John Roberts has had to put out public statements - the most recent about Alito's leaked draft opinion. You've been covering the Supreme Court since 2008, Lawrence. How unusual is that?
HURLEY: Yeah, it's very - I mean, the leak itself, obviously, is extremely unusual. But for the chief justice to come out and actually, you know, acknowledge that the draft was an authentic document, to then have to say that it wasn't a final decision of the court and not a final work product and that the court was investigating the leak - that's nothing I've ever seen before. You know, at times, he has had to issue statements on things. But, you know, it seems to be coming more and more frequent. And for the court that, you know, likes to sort of, you know, keep to itself and just kind of issue these rulings from on high, it's these statements and the leaks and things like this that are sort of bringing them back down to earth, which is, I think, something they're not really comfortable with.
MARTINEZ: Bringing them back to earth, but do you think the court's reputation is in danger? I mean, just how serious are these recent headlines involving the Supreme Court?
MARTINEZ: No, I mean, that's heavily in dispute - right? - because the Republicans who have a vested interest in defending the court because it has a conservative majority are sort of blaming left-wing activists and probably the media, as well, for fomenting this idea that the court's, you know, reputation is in danger because they think that's just politics. It's because people on the left don't like the rulings that are coming out of the court, and that's why they're attacking the court. But, you know, there's people, I think, on both sides who are a little concerned about the court being drawn into this kind of - into the mud, as it were, of Washington because the more the court seems like it's a bit more like the other branches of government, the more it seems like it's a political branch and not a judicial branch.
MARTINEZ: So on that - because there's been discussion, particularly on the left, about whether the court is advancing minority rule in this country - on abortion, polling shows most Americans support access of some kind. So what you think it means for the country when the Supreme Court is able to advance new law and policy that maybe might be out of step with the majority of the country?
HURLEY: Well, one problem with the Supreme Court right now is that, you know, Congress doesn't do much, right? Congress doesn't pass many laws. The White House is also limited in what it can do. And so, you know, the Supreme Court is sort of in this position where it's almost the most powerful branch of government. And, you know, people will say that means it can make policy decisions that it shouldn't be.
MARTINEZ: Lawrence Hurley covers the Supreme Court for Reuters. Lawrence, thanks a lot.
HURLEY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/are-people-losing-confidence-in-the-supreme-court | 2022-05-12T16:12:59Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Nearly 1 million people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. NPR has been remembering some of those who died through the music that gave their lives meaning. We called these tributes Songs of Remembrance.
Today, English teacher Bobby Texel remembers his coworker Dennis DeCarlo, a woodshop teacher at Pompton Lakes High School in New Jersey. Dennis and Bobby worked together for years on the school's musical productions.
BOBBY TEXEL: Dennis would get very creative in the sets he would construct. He would use wood when he could, but he would use foam core as well. And he was always very particular. He always textured the sets and brought special aspects to them. Sometimes he'd put little jokes in that only he and the students knew about.
I think the most telling thing about Dennis as a teacher, though, was the fact that many students openly called him Dad, and he really embodied that not just for the students, but for us at school. There'd be many times when I'd walk into Dennis' room, you know, with a sort of anxiety about the show or an interaction or a lesson that went wrong, and I would come out with a smile or a laugh. And I would just feel better after interacting with him.
(SOUNDBITE OF BENNY ANDERSSON'S "THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC")
TEXEL: Before the pandemic, we were almost ready to go on our production of "Mamma Mia," and my last memory of Dennis was meeting him to discuss pushing back the musical by a couple weeks and having him reassure me that everything was - would be OK and that, you know, the show must go on. And we walked out, and then that was it. That was the last time I saw him.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO ONE IS ALONE")
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (As Cinderella, singing) Sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood.
TEXEL: He fell ill pretty quickly. And, you know, eventually things got worse, and he passed away. And that was not easy, and I still miss him dearly.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO ONE IS ALONE")
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (As Cinderella, singing) Mother isn't here now.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: (As the Baker, singing) Wrong things, right things.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (As Cinderella, singing) Who knows what she'd say?
TEXEL: So then the next year came around, and I was very scared about doing the musical. It got to the point where I felt like I didn't want to do it. I was wondering if we could have a year off, you know, 'cause it was just so nerve-wracking. But my co-director said, would you do it if we did "Into The Woods"? And he knew that that was my favorite show, and I couldn't say no to that. And we dedicated it to his memory. We put his picture in the program, and that felt good.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO ONE IS ALONE")
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1 AND #2: (As Cinderella and the Baker, singing) But you are not alone.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (As Cinderella, singing) Believe me, no one is alone.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: (As the Baker, singing) No one is alone, believe me.
TEXEL: "No One Is Alone" is the second to last song in the entire show. It's sung by four characters - the Baker, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Jack - and each of them have lost somebody. And together, all four characters weave this idea that even though you might feel alone, you aren't alone. Someone is on your side. No one is alone.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO ONE IS ALONE")
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1 AND #2: (As Cinderella and the Baker, singing) Someone is on your side.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #3 AND #4: (As Little Red Riding Hood and Jack, singing) Our side.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #2: (As the Baker, singing) Our side.
TEXEL: Dennis was our someone. And, you know, we certainly felt alone after he was gone, but the beauty of "Into The Woods," the beauty of "No One Is Alone" got me through. And I hope that it got others through.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO ONE IS ALONE")
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1 AND #2: (As Cinderella and the Baker, singing) Someone is on your side. No one is alone.
FLORIDO: That was Bobby Texel speaking about his coworker and friend Dennis DeCarlo, who died from COVID on May 3, 2020. You can visit our tribute, NPR's Songs of Remembrance, at NPR.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF STEPHEN SONDHEIM SONG "NO ONE IS ALONE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/at-a-high-school-the-song-no-one-is-alone-becomes-about-a-teacher-lost-to-covid | 2022-05-12T16:13:05Z |
With so much talk these days of when or whether President Biden will broadly cancel student debt – and with payments and interest on that debt paused for more than two years – it's easy to forget that the federal student loan system remains unchanged. And one part of that system is about to deliver a shock to many borrowers: Interest rates are going up, likely by quite a bit.
"We're going to get bad news," says Robert Kelchen, an expert on higher education finance at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Interest rates on federal student loans are fixed, like a mortgage. A student who took out a new, undergraduate loan for this school year got a good interest rate: 3.73%. And that loan will remain at that rate for the life of the loan.
The wrinkle, says Kelchen, is that "every year, interest rates reset based on the 10-year Treasury yield, plus some additional amount," a premium added to help cover the government's costs.
That means borrowers who need help next year will have to take out a new loan at a new interest rate. Federal student loan rates change every May, based on the U.S. Treasury Department's auction of 10-year notes, which is set for 1:00 pm ET on Wednesday, May 11.
And that's bad news for borrowers because, this year, as with mortgage rates and virtually everything else, student loan interest rates are sure to rise.
While we don't know exactly how much they'll rise, we can make some educated guesses by applying some basic math, spelled out in federal law, to the current 10-year Treasury rate, 3.06% at the time of writing.
For example, undergrads' current 3.73% interest rate would jump to 5.1%.
What's the difference between 3.73% and 5.1%? On a loan of $5,500 (the max for a first-year, dependent undergrad), a borrower would end up paying $435 more in interest over 10 years.
The change could have an even bigger impact for graduate students and parents, who are allowed to take out larger loans but at higher rates than undergraduate borrowers (not to mention having to pay a larger loan fee upfront as well, 4.2% vs. 1.1%).
Based on the latest 10-year Treasury rate, interest on loans for grad students is likely to jump from the current 5.28% to around 6.66%, and for parent PLUS loans from 6.28% to around 7.66%.
These loans aren't capped like undergraduate loans and are only limited by a school's price tag, which helps explain why the average yearly Parent PLUS loan tops $14,000. What difference would this potential interest rate hike make on that kind of loan?
Over 10 years, a parent would end up paying an extra $1,194 in interest.
The higher rate for parents, combined with larger allowable debt loads and less generous access to income-driven repayment options, has driven many families to financial ruin.
For potential borrowers wondering if they could do better on the private loan market, "just remember, the federal student loan program is in large part making loans without any sort of credit check. Everybody gets the same terms. It's kind of no questions asked," says Jason Delisle, a senior policy fellow at the Urban Institute.
And yes, Delisle says, "the rate is going to be a lot lower than what you would get in the private market for a similar kind of loan – if you could even find something like it."
To see how much more you might have to pay in interest, there's no shortage of student loan calculators out there, including this one and this one.
NPR is committed to reporting on pressing issues that matter to you, like student loans. Sign up for our Education newsletter to stay up to date. You can support NPR's trusted, vital coverage by donating to your local NPR station today.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/beware-new-student-loan-borrowers-interest-rates-are-about-to-jump | 2022-05-12T16:13:11Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
With the expected reversal of Roe vs. Wade by the Supreme Court, a handful of states are trying to protect that right. Connecticut enacted a new abortion rights law late yesterday and Colorado's Democratic governor, Jared Polis, recently did the same. I spoke with him yesterday.
JARED POLIS: A lot of folks, including us, saw the writing on the wall. So what we wanted to do is enshrine the Roe vs. Wade precedent in state law so that we didn't rely on the federal protections, but people would have the freedom here to make their own decisions.
FADEL: Could you describe what exactly this guarantee means in practical terms?
POLIS: It means that despite what happens with Roe vs. Wade at the national level - and obviously we all hope that what was leaked either changes or doesn't come to pass. But at this point, tragically, it looks likely, and the freedoms of millions of people will be taken away. Colorado residents will not experience a change. Women will still be empowered to make their own choices about when and how to have a family.
FADEL: I mean, how fragile is this protection? If you're no longer in office, if the makeup of the state legislature changes, how fragile are the protections?
POLIS: It's very fragile. Republicans in Colorado and nationally are obsessed with taking away freedoms, whether it's a Texas law that would arrest women and encourage vigilante attacks on women and doctors, the Florida law that infringes upon freedom of speech and bans the word gay. They're just obsessed about taking away freedoms. And, you know, when we put something in law, of course, that can be changed by future legislators and future governors. I think it's really important at this time that we focus on, of course, the United States Senate, President Biden and making sure that we can elect people that really stand for and protect this right across the country.
FADEL: So then this becomes an endless situation where, depending on if advocates for abortion rights or opponents to abortion rights are elected, that changes access.
POLIS: So we made it a law, which means it's not at the whim of just a future legislature or governor. It would take all three, both chambers of the legislature and the governor, to be won over by Republicans who want to take away the freedoms of people. You know, our state has a long history of pro-choice Republicans. In fact, the very first governor, John Love, who legalized abortion in Colorado, was Republican. And it wasn't even that long ago when I was younger in the early 2000s, you could always count on two or three pro-choice Republicans in the legislature - no more. To a person, they voted against this. And they really are increasingly obsessed with controlling how people live their lives, which is, frankly, not what most Colorado voters want, not what most Americans want. And we don't want to be in any way seen as using the state to make the most intimate decisions for Coloradans.
FADEL: Now, Colorado's neighbors Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, they've all moved towards limiting or banning abortion. Or they're actively trying to restrict abortion rights. Governor, is it your intention to actively invite people seeking access to abortions to come to Colorado?
POLIS: If there's one thing we know that when abortion is illegal, it doesn't necessarily reduce the number of abortions. It drives them underground, and it's very dangerous so-called back alley abortions, women going to people who - and turning to people who might not be fully qualified in a non- or less-than-medical setting. So, I mean, you know, beyond, of course, taking away freedom, there will be lives that are lost because of people who turn to underqualified services in states where it's no longer officially available.
FADEL: So is the message here, you can come to Colorado?
POLIS: Well, people can travel wherever they need to.
FADEL: If they can afford it.
POLIS: That's a big issue. I think the real answer here is do residents of these states really want the government intrusion into their personal lives about what decisions they make about when and how to have kids? I don't think most residents of Utah, of Texas want that, but that's exactly what they're getting.
FADEL: Now, the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which you signed, guarantees access to reproductive care before and after pregnancy. Do you and others in your state envision scenarios in which care before pregnancy or in the early days of pregnancy, such as contraception or abortion medication, do those come into legal jeopardy?
POLIS: A lot will come into question following the repeal of Roe vs. Wade. And I think, you know, right now, you have Democratic governors across the country on the front lines of protecting this freedom in an uncertain world because we can no longer rely on Supreme Court protection. You know, I really grew up having a very positive view of the Supreme Court expanding freedom - Brown vs. Board of Education, Roe vs. Wade and affecting me personally, of course, Obergefell vs. Hodges that allowed same-sex marriage - and this really turns that on its head and goes the other way, stripping away freedoms from hundreds of millions of Americans who just happen to live in states that don't have elected officials that value those freedoms.
FADEL: Since you brought this up, I mean, the larger implications here that could impact you personally - I mean, people have talked about does this mean the next step is same-sex marriage? What other personal freedoms might be in jeopardy?
POLIS: Well, I think, you know, based on this dangerous precedent and the way the Supreme Court is going, it could be interracial marriage, same-sex marriage, integration of our schools. These are all steps that the Supreme Court took forward to expand our freedoms and support equality.
FADEL: But are you being alarmist here? I mean, because in Alito's...
POLIS: It's very alarmist that the Supreme Court is going to micromanage what a woman does with a fetus that's in her body. I mean, there's no more micromanaging than that. It's very scary.
FADEL: Democratic Governor Jared Polis of Colorado, thank you so much for your time.
POLIS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/colorado-recently-enacted-a-new-abortion-rights-law | 2022-05-12T16:13:17Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
A new WNBA season gets underway today without one of the league's biggest stars. Brittney Griner, center for the Phoenix Mercury, remains in Russian custody on an allegation of drug smuggling. For years, Griner has played in Russia to make more money. That's something many WNBA players go overseas to do. The league will honor Griner in her absence, but it's also pushing back on the notion that it's not doing enough to fairly compensate athletes. NPR's Tom Goldman reports.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: It was one headline but could have been many since Brittney Griner was wrongfully detained in February. It read "How Low WNBA Salaries Led To An American Basketball Superstar's Detainment In Russia," and it rankled the WNBA.
CATHY ENGELBERT: The narrative that the only choice for WNBA players to make additional income overseas, I think, is outdated and inaccurate.
GOLDMAN: League Commissioner Cathy Engelbert says before she took over three years ago, it probably was accurate. But thanks to a widely praised labor deal in 2020, she says the chance for more WNBA money is there.
ENGELBERT: Top players now have the opportunity to make 500- to 650K, including all their opportunities.
GOLDMAN: Such as...
ENGELBERT: League and team marketing deals where we put a million dollars plus on the table for players in the off-season as long as they don't go overseas.
GOLDMAN: Last month, Engelbert said there were 29 such deals, with more expected. Betnijah Laney of the New York Liberty was one of the first players to sign a league deal. She's played in Israel and Australia but would rather not.
BETNIJAH LANEY: I like to be home and to be able to experience birthdays, experience holidays with my family. And going overseas, that's just something that you don't get the opportunity to do.
GOLDMAN: Laney's league and team deals require everything from social media posts to, this week, throwing out the first pitch at a New York Mets game.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: And now she has to throw the pitch (ph).
GOLDMAN: Laney won't say if the deals on top of salary put her in that higher six-figure range. She will say this.
LANEY: It is enough for me to stay home and be comfortable.
GOLDMAN: The W wants that to be the norm for its players but knows league revenues have to swell to make it possible. Engelbert says that means cutting through cultural bias that's historically undervalued women's sports. But there are what she calls signs and signals - partnership deals with Amazon and Google. And this year, investors ponied up $75 million for the WNBA. Engelbert called it a huge step forward in getting an economic model that's worthy of the players. One of the best, Courtney Vandersloot of the defending champion Chicago Sky, acknowledges the league is making strides.
COURTNEY VANDERSLOOT: But we're not there yet. And so you can't expect players to turn down these type of contracts to be over here to not make the same type of money.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Vandersloot (non-English language spoken).
GOLDMAN: Since 2018, Vandersloot has played in Russia during WNBA off-seasons on the same team as Brittney Griner, a top team well funded by its oligarch owners.
VANDERSLOOT: They treated us like professionals. You know, we flew private. They put us in really nice places. They paid us good money. You know, they just really took care of us.
GOLDMAN: Vandersloot knows playing there in the near future is unlikely, but she'd still consider going overseas somewhere, even though WNBA players who do that risk breaking a strict new rule called prioritization. Starting next year, it'll require players to show up for the start of WNBA training camp and then the season or face fines and even a season-long suspension. It's what the players agreed to in the labor contract in exchange for, among other things, higher salaries. Vandersloot appreciates the concept.
VANDERSLOOT: I agree with it, that we should all be over here. I want to be over here to prioritize the WNBA.
GOLDMAN: But she says it's still a tough decision for top veteran players like her with the continuing lure of overseas money.
Starting today, Brittney Griner's initials and uniform number will be featured on all 12 WNBA courts, honoring a missing colleague and serving as a reminder of the league's ongoing challenge to treat the best female basketball players like they are the best.
Tom Goldman, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF EXMAG'S "ZAN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/critics-blame-wnba-for-brittney-griners-absence-since-she-went-to-russia-for-money | 2022-05-12T16:13:23Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Leila Fadel. Inspiration for the fashion and beauty industry can come from anywhere - art, nature, media or even Cup Noodles. The instant ramen brand known by college students around the world recently announced it's releasing a makeup collection inspired by the noodles themselves. The collection includes a pigment palette with shades like diced carrots, teriyaki, roasted corn and spicy chili, which I want to say sounds like it might taste better than it looks. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/fashion-and-beauty-inspiration-can-come-from-anywhere-even-cup-noodles | 2022-05-12T16:13:29Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
The most famous horse-racing event is tomorrow. This year's Kentucky Derby features 20 thoroughbreds. But it's missing the sport's most famous human. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has been suspended because of a series of failed drug tests by his horses. NPR's Tom Goldman reports.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: One year ago at famed Churchill Downs Racetrack, it took a tick over 2 minutes for a thundering thoroughbred to land its famous trainer in the winner's circle a record-breaking seventh time.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIKE TIRICO: Heading to the finish in the Kentucky Derby. Here's the wire. Bob Baffert does it again. Medina Spirit has won the Kentucky Derby.
GOLDMAN: But eight days later, Bob Baffert announced Medina Spirit failed a drug test after the derby. It began a monthslong saga that resulted in the horse's disqualification and Baffert's derby record reverting to a record-tying six victories. He also was punished with a two-year ban from Churchill Downs and the current 90-day suspension that takes him out of all the Triple Crown races. Gone for now is the trainer instantly recognizable with his white hair and tinted glasses, who entertains media and fans with his wisecracks and poetic takes on racing, like this one in 2016.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BOB BAFFERT: A good horse is like a good song. You just remember what you were doing when that song was playing or when that horse was running.
GOLDMAN: The memory of Medina Spirit is a sad and contentious one. The horse suddenly died after a workout late last year. Baffert's defense of the failed test, he says it was inadvertently caused by a legal topical ointment. And his fight against the resulting bans led to lawsuits and angry media appearances. This was Baffert on "The Dan Patrick Show."
(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO SHOW, "THE DAN PATRICK SHOW")
BAFFERT: I think it was just a knee-jerk, cancel culture kind of reaction.
GOLDMAN: But horse-racing journalist Ray Paulick says Baffert's history makes the sanctions against him seem anything but knee-jerk.
RAY PAULICK: He had seven medication violations in three states over a 14-month period, beginning in 2019.
GOLDMAN: Paulick publishes the Paulick Report, which covers thoroughbred racing and breeding around the world.
PAULICK: So I think what Churchill Downs is saying, you've been sloppy. You've made too many mistakes. We're tired of it. We're tired of the way you're reacting to it. And we're going to give you a two-year timeout, basically.
GOLDMAN: Baffert is revered in some quarters for his abilities. He's won with the most expensive horses and those without the best pedigree. He's reviled elsewhere for the history of drug violations and high rate of deaths of horses under his care. Ironically, perhaps, his 90-day suspension is due to end July 2. A day after, a major reform effort begins - the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act goes into effect. Among its provisions, a plan to fix the current patchwork of drug regulations in horse racing. Marty Irby is with Animal Wellness Action.
MARTY IRBY: For the trainers and for the industry, this brings certainty and consistency where they know the same rules are going to be the same in every state, at every track and that they're not going to be using any kind of drugs on race day.
GOLDMAN: His optimism, though, was blunted this week when it was announced the respected U.S. Anti-Doping Agency won't be hired to enforce the law as some backers hoped. Irby says the law still will be better than the current status quo but not nearly as good as things could be with the agency's comprehensive approach to anti-doping. For now, the Triple Crown season begins tomorrow with the usual fanfare and traditional mint juleps at Churchill Downs, but without one very familiar and polarizing horse trainer.
Tom Goldman, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALMORHEA'S "REMEMBERANCE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/hall-of-fame-trainer-bob-baffert-is-banned-from-saturdays-kentucky-derby | 2022-05-12T16:13:35Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
In a new French film, a 1960s college student discovers that she must cope with a life-changing event almost entirely on her own. Critic Bob Mondello says that the film "Happening" is a period piece that speaks to this particular moment.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: The French countryside, 1963 - Anne and her gal pals are at a university party, Anne being the only one who talks to the boys - to a fireman, actually, who has crashed the party.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAPPENING")
ANAMARIA VARTOLOMEI: (As Anne Duchesne, speaking French).
JULIEN FRISON: (As Maxime, speaking French).
VARTOLOMEI: (As Anne Duchesne, speaking French).
MONDELLO: He's handsome enough, but Anne's a little preoccupied. And the next day, when she goes to the doctor, a quick pelvic exam reveals why. You've had sexual relations, the doctor asks.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAPPENING")
FABRIZIO RONGIONE: (As Dr. Ravinsky, speaking French).
VARTOLOMEI: (As Anne Duchesne, speaking French).
MONDELLO: No, never, she says - a boyfriend?
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAPPENING")
RONGIONE: (As Dr. Ravinsky, speaking French).
VARTOLOMEI: (As Anne Duchesne, speaking French).
MONDELLO: But now he knows better. Removing his gloves, he's matter-of-fact. You're pregnant, he tells her.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAPPENING")
RONGIONE: (As Dr. Ravinsky, speaking French).
MONDELLO: She sits up in alarm. Do something, she whispers.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAPPENING")
VARTOLOMEI: (As Anne Duchesne, speaking French).
MONDELLO: And now, it's his turn for alarm. You can't ask me that, nor anybody else, he tells her. The law is unsparing. Anyone who helps you can end up in jail.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAPPENING")
RONGIONE: (As Dr. Ravinsky, speaking French).
MONDELLO: Anne, played by newcomer Anamaria Vartolomei, steels herself. Her university career is just beginning. Having a child would derail it. But who can she turn to? Not her girlfriends, who she correctly guesses would shame her if they knew. Other doctors? Dangerous. Her parents? Not after their sacrifices so she could study. The one guy at school she's close to? That's a real mistake.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAPPENING")
KACEY MOTTET KLEIN: (As Jean, speaking French).
VARTOLOMEI: (As Anne Duchesne, speaking French).
MONDELLO: As the weeks tick by, Director Audrey Diwan, working from an autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux, shows Anne growing ever more desperate - in the library afraid to be seen even reading about pregnancy, distracted by worry to the point that she's likely to be kicked out of school. If she could find an abortion provider, she'd have to sell her most precious belongings - her books - to pay for an agonizing procedure. And even then, her travails wouldn't be over, either physical or psychological. As she tells a doctor who is sympathetic but still can't help her, she wants someday to have children...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAPPENING")
VARTOLOMEI: (As Anne Duchesne, speaking French).
MONDELLO: ...But not instead of a life.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HAPPENING")
VARTOLOMEI: (As Anne Duchesne, speaking French).
MONDELLO: Anne's is a wrenching journey that feels at first as if it's going to play like a historical object lesson. But Vartolomei brings such urgency to the heroine that nothing about what happens in "Happening" feels past tense. Given current events, it feels all too timely. I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/happening-takes-place-in-france-in-the-1960s-but-speaks-to-this-particular-moment | 2022-05-12T16:13:42Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Last year, about half of Latino households in the U.S. were homeowners. And according to the Urban Institute, this group could make up 70% of new homeowners over the next two decades. But new findings suggest Latinos are more likely than any other ethnic group to use risky home financing. More than a third of those households surveyed by the Pew Research Center said they tapped something other than a traditional mortgage to purchase a house. And that alternative financing can come with steep costs and also high risks. Joining us to discuss what this could mean for U.S. homeownership long term is Lot Diaz. He's vice president of Housing and Financial Empowerment with the Latino advocacy group UnidosUS. Lot, welcome to the show.
LOT DIAZ: Thank you.
MARTINEZ: All right. Now, when most Americans buy a house, they take out a traditional 30-year mortgage. But there's a whole world of alternative financial products out there. Some have some pretty significant risks. Lot, tell us about how these products work and what they are.
DIAZ: People get into these products for two reasons. One, they're not aware there's other options. A typical family gets an FHA or conventional mortgage that is priced at appropriate levels. Families need to know how to apply for those, get into those. Many times, they're sold for products that are not these types. They're higher cost. So that's the - one reason. And the second reason - they have not protected their credit. And so when they start to apply for a conventional or FHA loan, they can't beat the filters, and they get denied. They seek other avenues. And there's plenty of marketing for these alternative products that are more costly and can present a risk over time to a family to maintain their home.
MARTINEZ: When it comes to just simply qualifying for a loan to purchase a home, when it comes to that, are Latinos maybe behind the eight ball a bit? Are they not getting approved as much?
DIAZ: The data seems to indicate that's the case. What we've seen within our partners in the market is that they tend to get declined (ph) at a greater rate. And many times, it's really because they don't fully understand or respond to the lender in a way that the lender's expecting, or they're asking for documentation and other items that are required that is difficult for them to get because their income is not maybe a strict salary. It could be a small business. There could be two or three income sources that they're drawing from, and that just doesn't conform to a typical mortgage origination system.
MARTINEZ: Yeah. According to the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, Latinos are 81% more likely to be denied than non-Latino counterparts. I mean, so considering that Americans really derive most of their wealth from real estate - typically the homes that they own - what does this mean when so many of the country's would-be homeowners, aspiring homeowners, can't access traditional mortgages?
DIAZ: Well, if you've seen the dialogue in more recent periods around the wealth discrepancies between communities of color and the white population, homeownership has always been the driver of families' wealth for all races and ethnicities. So if Latinos are shut out or discouraged from becoming homeowners, that has a huge impact on the collective family wealth in the community. So the biggest thing - and wealth is - what does wealth do for you? It gives you the ability to borrow at affordable rates. It allows you to make money available for college, for health emergencies, for a lot of other things that many families just take for granted.
MARTINEZ: Yeah. And when you see gentrification happening in areas where there are - typically, Latinos have been living there for decades, for generations. And if their ownership and their wealth is not tied to the real estate, especially the place that they live in, that's when these neighborhoods all of a sudden change drastically.
DIAZ: That's absolutely true. And there's just a gazillion examples of that across the country. There's two things that happen. Pricing is driven up by a variety of factors. And if families are not owning and renting, what goes up - when real estate price goes up, rents go up, and they are forced out of the neighborhood. Ownership is the only thing that can protect them in these kinds of situations.
MARTINEZ: And this country, just in general, is also in the grips of a national housing shortage. How is that affecting Latino homebuyers in particular?
DIAZ: If you talk to anybody in real estate, they always say a lack of inventory is a big problem because - why? - it increased prices and makes it harder for families, particularly families buying their first home, to enter the market and start the process of homeownership.
Interesting thing - foreclosure crisis happened. Over 10 million families lost their home during that crisis. A majority of those homes were bought by investors. And then when they went back into the market, they became a home to rent rather than a home to own. So that shrunk the market. The pandemic and other factors have made the things that you need to build homes more expensive. And it's resulted on the moderate income-priced home that gets shut out. The higher-end homes still get built because people with more wealth can buy those homes. So it's the moderate income-priced home that's been kind of impacted a lot by the increased cost.
And then the federal government has not increased its investment in housing, even though the population has grown substantially over time.
MARTINEZ: And you mentioned starter homes, those homes that are or used to be affordable for young families - because that's how it used to work. A young family would be able to look for a starter home, and then as their family grew, along with their savings and their wealth, they could look for a bigger house to meet their growing family's needs. And many experts now think that, really, starter homes are not realistic for anyone in particular. But if that's the case generally, Lot, I mean, what do you think this might specifically mean for Latinos who aspire to be homeowners?
DIAZ: Homeownership is a ethic that is really emphasized in our community. And so what that means - they will go to all lengths to kind of become a homeowner. So what that means is, really, they going to have to be much more prudent consumers. We, as - the commercial entities in this country have to make sure that they're providing services that will put Latinos into homeownership in an affordable way and, as we like to say, sustainable over time. There are down payment assistance programs in some localities. There's organizations, like ones we support, that offer families a path to kind of get there. So it's really accessing either support services, programs that support homeownership - but most importantly, always seeking more information before you enter the process rather than responding to an ad or someone who says, I know someone who can give you an affordable mortgage if you can find a house.
MARTINEZ: That's a Lot Diaz. He's vice president of Housing and Financial Empowerment with the Latino advocacy group UnidosUS. Lot, thank you very much.
DIAZ: Thank you very much. It was a pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARK PRESTON'S "BLUE HILL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/latino-homebuyers-are-most-likely-to-use-risky-financing-survey-finds | 2022-05-12T16:13:48Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
In Egypt, authorities have freed dozens of political prisoners in recent days, among them, prominent journalists, activists and lawmakers jailed by the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as part of a years-long crackdown on free speech. Despite these releases, many thousands of Egyptians are thought to still be in prison on what critics say are mostly bogus charges.
Joining us to discuss this is Mirette Mabrouk. She is the founding director of the Egypt program at the Middle East Institute here in Washington. Welcome.
MIRETTE MABROUK: Thank you so much.
FLORIDO: What do we know about why these people were released?
MABROUK: Generally speaking, there is an annual amnesty drive. It's usually done around Eid and always on Sinai Liberation Day, and there would always be people released. What was interesting this time is that among the people released were political detainees. And typically speaking, that has not happened for a while. So for a lot of people, it's something hopeful.
FLORIDO: And these dozens of political detainees who were released as part of this broader amnesty for thousands of people, why were they arrested in the first place?
MABROUK: Generally speaking, since 2013, room for freedom of expression and political dissent in Egypt has shrunk perceptibly, so many of these people have been detained on charges of joining a terrorist organization, on charges of releasing incorrect information harmful to the state. So it's generally the sort of charge that says, you have said the wrong thing, and we don't like it.
FLORIDO: Well, President Sisi has been in office since shortly after the military coup that removed President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, and he's faced intense criticism for political repression from the start. But recently, the U.S. withheld some aid to Egypt over human rights concerns. And I'm wondering if you think it's possible that the release of these political prisoners is a direct response to that pressure?
MABROUK: Egypt does not respond well to external pressure. It never has. So no, these releases I don't think are at all a response to that. I think that they're a response to internal pressure. And I think in Egypt's case, there is a realization, perhaps, that they need to reopen up the political sphere. Now, the other good news is that the president is calling for national dialogue, and there are people who think that it is serious this time.
FLORIDO: Egypt has taken other steps, aside from what you've just mentioned, to seemingly sort of try to open up the political sphere. It ended the longtime state of emergency. It established a national human rights strategy. Are these meaningful steps, do you think?
MABROUK: Whether or not they're meaningful depends on how the government decides to proceed, OK? It's kind of like saying that you are going to go on a diet but then, you know, having a muffin in the morning or something. So I think people are waiting to see how the government decides to proceed.
FLORIDO: And so are there specific things that you are keeping an eye on to signal how the government intends to actually handle free speech issues going forward?
MABROUK: Yeah. There are a few things. The release of more political prisoners would be welcome, but I think, more basically, there needs to be a discussion on alternatives to detention. Basically, the way you treat prisoners is going to be indicative of how serious the government is. Are you going to lock them up, or are you going to try and find a different way, possibly more humane way of dealing with them?
FLORIDO: Mirette Mabrouk is with the Middle East Institute. Thank you.
MABROUK: You're very welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOOMBOX'S "MIDNIGHT ON THE RUN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/middle-east-expert-weighs-in-on-string-of-prison-releases-in-egypt | 2022-05-12T16:13:54Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Abortion access could become illegal or restricted in about half of all U.S. states if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
At least 25 states are likely to ban abortion immediately if the court's ruling matches the leaked draft opinion. That's because various laws and constitutional amendments already in place for most of the states. Low-income people of color seeking an abortion in the South and the Midwest would be disproportionately affected.
FADEL: Joining us now to explain is NPR's Yuki Noguchi. Hi, Yuki.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: Good morning. So Yuki, tell us what the data shows about who gets abortions right now.
NOGUCHI: Yeah. An estimated 1-in-4 women get an abortion in their lifetime. That includes people of all backgrounds. But more than half those people who access abortion are women in their 20s. Also, low-income people are more likely to get one. And race is a factor. Black and Latino women account for more than half of abortions, according to the most recent estimates. And the reason is the same as for other racial disparities across health care, you know, lack of access to doctors, insurance and to contraception. Plus, they face higher poverty rates.
FADEL: OK. So without Roe v. Wade in these states that will ban or limit access, how would people in those communities get this procedure?
NOGUCHI: Well, for those who still need a medical clinic, they might have to travel further to states where abortion will still be legal. And that's pricey, right? Gas prices are high. Laurie Bertram Roberts co-founded the Yellowhammer Fund in Tuscaloosa, Ala. That group pays for travel and logistics and child care for people seeking abortions. And that's gotten more expensive and more complicated. Those are struggles Roberts knows firsthand. She wasn't able to get an abortion several years ago even after doctors warned her she might die if she gave birth. And she was already in financial straits with three kids and says she felt forced to carry the pregnancy to term. They ended up homeless within a year of that birth. And she sees a connection between abortion access and overall health.
LAURIE BERTRAM ROBERTS: Mississippi and Alabama are both two states that have very high Black maternal mortality rates and Black infant mortality rates. And what does forced birth look like for us?
NOGUCHI: You know, she says having poor health care and then losing access to abortion is a vicious public health cycle.
FADEL: So if you have money, you can get to a state where abortions would be legal. But if you don't, it sounds like you're stuck. Are abortion pills an alternative? They weren't around when Roe was decided.
NOGUCHI: Yeah, that's right. And those pills, whether through health clinic or self-managed at home, now make up a majority of abortions. But many people can't take them because they might have, like, a blood disorder. Or they might be further along in their term. Terri-Ann Thompson says, also, telehealth isn't an option for everyone. She's at the research group Ibis Reproductive Health.
TERRI-ANN THOMPSON: At present, there are 19 states that actually ban telehealth for medication abortion care. And 11 of those states are actually considered part of the South. That's states where Black and Latinx communities are highly represented. Then there really is no access available to those populations.
NOGUCHI: And as a practical matter, access to these pills may still be possible, you know, through the mail or something.
FADEL: Right.
NOGUCHI: But the question is, will women be prosecuted for using them or another means of terminating a pregnancy?
FADEL: Has anyone been prosecuted for using abortion medication?
NOGUCHI: Yes. Yeah.
FADEL: Oh.
NOGUCHI: Just last month, a Latino woman was detained for an alleged self-induced abortion in Texas, which passed new abortion restrictions in September. You know, people will now have to travel further to Minnesota or Colorado to seek abortions. But many people, like I said, won't be able to afford that.
FADEL: NPR's Yuki Noguchi. Thank you, Yuki.
NOGUCHI: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: Businesses are looking to hire. So people searching for work see a lot of openings.
MARTINEZ: This morning, we're going to find out how many of those jobs were filled in April. Recent data indicates the labor market is strong and workers are getting better pay. But there's a potential downside for the broader economy.
FADEL: NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now to discuss. Hi, Scott.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: Good morning. So just how tight is the job market?
HORSLEY: It's very tight. The unemployment rate in March was 3.6%. And forecasters think it may have dipped even lower in April. According to the Labor Department, there were more than 11.5 million job openings at the beginning of the month. That's an all-time high. Employers are really eager to hire more people because they've got a lot of customers demanding goods and services. This is how Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell described the job market earlier this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JEROME POWELL: For people who are out of work and looking, there are lots of job opportunities. Wages are moving up at rates that haven't been seen in quite a long time. So it's a good time to be a worker looking to either change jobs or get a wage increase in your current job.
HORSLEY: Private sector wages in the first three months of the year were up 5% from a year ago. And that's a good wage gain for workers. It is, however, potentially worrisome for the Federal Reserve.
FADEL: Why? What's the Fed worried about?
HORSLEY: The central bank is worried that employers may try to offset the cost of these higher wages by raising prices. And that could make inflation, which is already at a four-decade high, even worse. That's why the Fed is trying to pour a little cold water on the sizzling job market by raising interest rates. They're trying to cool off demand. Ideally, the central bank would like to see the job market cool down gradually, without a sharp jump in unemployment or a recession. But there are some economists who are doubtful that Powell and his colleagues can pull off that delicate balancing act. And uncertainty about which way the economy's headed is behind the wild swings we've seen this week in the stock market, you know? The Dow soared more than 900 points on Wednesday, only to sink more than 1,000 points 24 hours later.
FADEL: So how close is the economy to replacing all the jobs that were lost during the pandemic?
HORSLEY: It's getting there. The economy lost 22 million jobs in the spring of 2020 when the coronavirus first struck here in the U.S. In the two years that followed, the economy has managed to replace about 93% of that total. It has been an uneven recovery at times. But now we've had 11 months in a row with at least 400,000 jobs added. We will find out today if April makes it 12 months in a row. Some forecasters think hiring fell short of the 400,000 mark last month. Economist Nela Richardson of the payroll processing company ADP says that would not be terribly surprising at this relatively late stage in the recovery.
NELA RICHARDSON: Given that the labor market is - made such tremendous progress back towards 2019 levels, I think what we're going to see going forward is more of a normal pacing.
HORSLEY: For context, in the 12 months before the pandemic, the U.S. averaged about 200,000 new jobs a month.
FADEL: OK. What else should we be watching for in today's jobs report?
HORSLEY: I'm going to be watching to see what happens to the size of the workforce. It would give the tight job market some additional breathing room if more people who've been on the sidelines come into the workforce and start working or looking for work. More than 300,000 people joined the workforce in February, another 400,000 in March. Some of that reflects improvements in the health outlook. Some of it's the strong wages. And, frankly, some of it may be people feeling increased pressure to go to work because their cost of living has gone up.
FADEL: NPR's Scott Horsley. Thank you, Scott.
HORSLEY: You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: We're turning overseas now to Northern Ireland, where Sinn Fein is poised to become the first Irish Nationalist Party to lead the government.
MARTINEZ: The votes are still being counted. But if they win, it would mark a major milestone that could pave the way for Northern Ireland to leave the U.K. Sinn Fein focused its campaign on bread-and-butter issues. The party was long linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that fought British and loyalist forces for three decades to achieve a unified Ireland. A peace deal in 1998 largely ended the conflict.
FADEL: Joining us with the latest is London-based reporter Willem Marx. Thanks for being here.
WILLEM MARX: Thanks for having me.
FADEL: So what reactions are you hearing this morning? And what could this mean politically in Northern Ireland and in the U.K.?
MARX: Well, the vote certification in Belfast and across Northern Ireland was just concluded nearly a couple of hours ago. Now the actual count is underway for the next few hours. There has not been any public statements from politicians in the U.K. while they wait for more clarity on those results. But it's clear that turnout has been relatively high, 54%. And it's been a slightly unsettled few months in Northern Ireland's own politics. The carefully constructed power-sharing government collapsed in February when one of the major parties withdrew. And if Sinn Fein were to emerge from this election with a majority in that local legislature, known as the Northern Ireland Assembly, it might be hard for the local executive power sharing to be reestablished. And without that in place, theoretically, U.K. authorities in Westminster in London could take charge of day-to-day governing. But that would not be a popular move in Northern Ireland. It's something Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government has been unwilling to do.
FADEL: Sinn Fein was long linked to the IRA. How did it gain so much popular support?
MARX: Well, partly, it's focusing on what you guys just called those bread-and-butter issues.
FADEL: Right.
MARX: But it's also partly a consequence of birth rates, changing demographics. For the past couple of decades, parties in favor of Northern Ireland remaining inside the rest of the U.K., known as unionists or loyalists, have held a majority in that Northern Ireland executive because their supporters, largely Protestant, were a bigger proportion of the population. But that's shifting. And that means that the largely Catholic segment of the population that supports Sinn Fein has continued to expand. It's worth noting as well, the leading unionist party - or the Democratic Unionist Party - has taken a very unpopular series of decisions over things like Brexit. And that's helped to erode its popular support as well.
FADEL: Could this actually lead to the island of Ireland becoming one country?
MARX: Well, under that peace deal you guys mentioned - known as the Good Friday Agreement, signed back in '98 - a referendum would need to be held among residents of Northern Ireland, with another separate one held next door to the south in the Republic of Ireland. And that would likely require Sinn Fein to control the levers of government both north and south of that border. And they're not yet the party of government to the south in the Republic of Ireland. Now, if a majority of people in both north and south said they would like to see Ireland reunited, it's not, of course, beyond the realms of possibility one day. And in fact, just coming out of these elections, the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland told voters that they think a Sinn Fein win would accelerate that process.
FADEL: Reporter Willem Marx joining us on Skype from London. Thank you so much.
MARX: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/news-brief-access-to-abortion-jobless-report-preview-northern-ireland-election | 2022-05-12T16:14:00Z |
DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, professor of television studies at Rowan University in New Jersey, in for Terry Gross. Today, Pamela Adlon, the co-creator, director, co-writer and star of the FX comedy series "Better Things." After five seasons, the series ended last month with an emotional and satisfying finale that left all its main characters in better circumstances. It also ended with a charming and eccentric farewell to viewers by having all cast members sing along to Monty Python's "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life." In "Better Things," Adlon played Sam Fox, who, like Adlon, is raising three girls as a single mother while trying to keep her acting career alive and also helping her aging mother who lives next door. Young actresses portray her character Sam's daughters on TV, but in real life, Pamela Adlon's daughters are now 19, 22 and 25 years old.
Adlon herself has been acting since she was 9. She won an Emmy for her voice work as Bobby Hill, the son in the animated series "King Of The Hill," and appeared on seven seasons of the TV series "Californication." She had a long, collaborative relationship with Louis C.K. on his show "Louie" and his earlier show "Lucky Louie." He and Adlon co-created her series "Better Things," but she severed ties after he was accused of sexual misconduct by several women, and he admitted it was true. Terry spoke with Pamela Adlon in 2019.
Let's start with a clip from "Better Things." Adlon's character, Sam, is being examined by her doctor when she starts telling him how stressed out she is by all the mom stuff she has to take care of. And he says, oh, like errands - just let go of it. Everyone's got errands. Here is her response.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "BETTER THINGS")
PAMELA ADLON: (As Sam Fox) No, no. Errands are, like, groceries and going to the post office, the real mom stuff.
USMAN ALLY: (As Dr. Babu) Yeah.
ADLON: (As Sam Fox) Soccer club sign-ups and dance classes and tutors and tuition payments and parent-teacher conferences and schools and camps that I have to get them into and mean girl issues with my youngest at school and birth control with my oldest and cruelty from my middle daughter. And then there's my own mom, who is driving me nuts. And I'm pretty sure she has a mental something disorder. And my middle daughter is hitting puberty hard. And I am definitely going through menopause, yet I still get my period. And I have a beard and two mortgages. So, yeah, Dr. Babu, it's, like - it's a lot. And some mornings, I just...
ALLY: (As Dr. Babu) Oh, my God.
ADLON: (As Sam Fox) ...You know, lay in bed in my room and I stare at the ceiling and I just say, I just can't do it anymore. I just can't. I just can't. I just can't. I can't. I can't. So anyway, could you please just give me some Xanax or Ativans or Ambiens or something - anything you think that'll help me get a full night's sleep? - because that's what I really need, Birju. I need a full night of sleep.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
ADLON: (Laughter).
TERRY GROSS: Pamela Adlon, welcome to FRESH AIR, and congratulations on Season 3 of "Better Things."
ADLON: Thank you so much, Terry.
GROSS: So this season, everyone is going through a change. Like you say, you know, your oldest is going to college. The middle's in puberty. Your youngest is being bullied at school. Your character's mother seems to be in the early stages of dementia. Your character's going through menopause. Are these the personal issues you've been dealing with?
ADLON: You know, I say this about my show - that it's an exaggerated version of my life. So it's like Sam Fox is me in a cape. You know, certainly I'm in a multi-generational situation with all women in my life. My three daughters live at home. My mother lives next door. I'm what I think they call the sandwich generation. And so these issues are all happening to me to a certain extent right now. My own mother isn't going through dementia, but it's an interesting place to go. And I like people to have their own interpretation. And I think that's why people take this show so personally because everybody's going through some version of these different things.
GROSS: I think women over the years have been very uncomfortable talking about getting older, maybe because - I think a lot of women feel devalued with age, and they're no longer considered sexual. So how did you feel about putting it out there, about crossing the threshold of 50?
ADLON: I - you know, it's so exciting to me because I was - I didn't say my real age for years, you know? And...
GROSS: Why not?
ADLON: Because of the taboo of it. And, you know, when people find out, especially being an actor in the industry, it hurts. It hurts you. For a woman, you hit that 40 - you know, it affects you because it is such an agist, sexist industry, which I think is now shifting and changing. It's still not 100% yet, but it's - the irony is not lost on me that my father at - he hit 50, and basically - you know, he was a writer and producer. And the jobs kind of started drying up for him because people wanted younger people. They want young blood, and they valued youth over, you know, ability, even.
And so then I turn 50, and I have my own show. And all of a sudden, it's a whole new world for me professionally, you know, with all the different jobs that I do. And my show is a wonderful - I love my show. It's beautiful. I can tell these stories in an artful, cinematic way. It has great music, great actors. But also, my show is the story about me and how - I know that people are excited. You know, this lady's been kicking around in this business since I'm 9 years old, and she hits it big at 50.
GROSS: So what are some of the things that bother you most and some of the things you find most liberating about having turned 50 a few years ago?
ADLON: You know, only two.
GROSS: Two years ago. OK.
(LAUGHTER)
ADLON: See; it's still sensitive.
GROSS: Two years ago. Yes, I see.
ADLON: You know, it's just - I - you kind of - when you get comfortable with yourself, it's a way of feeling confident and not having to hurry up and catch up and measure up to other people. When you let go of that, the power is incredible. If you look for things that are - you know, that - if somebody's giving you a side-eye and you think they don't like you or anything like that, you look in the mirror and you're like, oh, I guess this is my neck now. OK.
GROSS: (Laughter).
ADLON: Well, let's keep going with that. Or are these jowls? Is this what you would call jowls? That's so interesting. Oh, arm cellulite - that's fun. That's fun. You know, so it's like - you know, you have the physical things, but those things don't matter because your mind is richer. Your experiences are richer. Your life is deeper. Your connections with your friends are deeper. My kids are older now, and our relationships are so much deeper than they used to be. You know, I used to try to get as far away from my kids as I could when they were younger. And now I want them around me all the time, and they want that, too.
GROSS: So in the opening of the first episode, your character's trying on clothes, and none of them fit because your character has put on a few pounds. So it seems like you've put on a few pounds - I think, in that opening scene, there's maybe a few extra pounds than they really were.
ADLON: No, that's all me, Terry.
GROSS: OK. All right.
ADLON: (Laughter).
GROSS: So was that stress eating because this has been such a difficult time with you doing so much to get the show done?
ADLON: You know what? It's very interesting because I wrapped Season 2 of my show, and I went into the editing room and, you know, just a few months went by. My body changed. My body changed. You know, I got thicker. And it's not - I don't feel bad about my body or anything. But it was shocking. And I remember being in my closet and trying on pants. I'm like, I just wore these three months ago. And things were just tighter. And it was a moment that I thought, oh, boy, I'm going to have to do this in my show.
(LAUGHTER)
ADLON: I'm going to - because it's - you know, you get into your 50s, your metabolism does funky things. And, you know, I just - I decided that it would be a very generous thing for me to do - kind of illustrate in in my show so everybody doesn't feel so alone because, you know, that happened to me. And you sit there, and you're by yourself. And, you know - and for people - women in particular - when our bodies don't measure up to what our idea is of what we're supposed to look like with our clothes off in the mirror, that's a shocking thing. You know, it's not our fault. And it's not up to us to maintain some kind of a physical image for anybody but ourselves.
GROSS: I like the fact that when your character realizes her clothes no longer fit her 'cause she's put on a few pounds, she doesn't go, like, so I'm going on a diet now. And I will lose that weight. My goal will be to fit back in these clothes. I mean, she goes about her life...
ADLON: Interesting.
GROSS: ...You know?
ADLON: Yeah.
GROSS: There's not - and also, you, as the star of the show and also the director of the show - you don't have somebody else telling you, Pamela Adlon, if you're going to continue playing this role, you have to lose some weight. No one's telling you that. It's your show.
ADLON: Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that amazing?
GROSS: That's good, right?
ADLON: Also, I mean, I didn't gain that much weight, but...
GROSS: No, I know. I know. But...
ADLON: I - no, I'm kidding. But listen. I remember being a teenage actor and being on a show. I'm not going to say the name. But I remember some girls on the show being pressured to lose weight. And it was extremely inappropriate. And it was extremely damaging, you know, to the psyche of a young girl. I mean, that was - you know, being in the '80s in '80s television, that would be the ultimate era of toxic trying to control the way women are portrayed.
GROSS: So one of the things about your character is that she doesn't hold back when something bothers her, whether it's about her children or about somebody at her children's school or a stranger in a restaurant or - you know, she doesn't have much of a filter. So...
ADLON: Yeah.
GROSS: ...She says what's on her mind. And, you know, there's a fine line between honesty and cruelty. And the girls, though - the girls are always so embarrassed by her - the daughters. Like - this isn't really a spoiler - there's a scene where the girls want to go go-karting in, like, an amusement park. And so you take them even though you don't really want to go. And the the young man who's supposed to be giving the safety talk (whispering) is talking like this, and, like...
ADLON: (Laughter) Yes.
GROSS: ...No one can hear him. And you finally say, like, you're supposed to be protecting us and telling us what to do, and we can't hear you. And your daughters are, like, so horribly embarrassed by the whole thing. Does that happen to you, where, like, you're trying to speak out...
ADLON: Yes.
GROSS: ...To speak up for reasons of, like, you have a right to have something or to expect something, and you're speaking out not just for yourself, but for other people, but your daughters are just kind of withering with embarrassment?
ADLON: Exactly. Yes. This happens quite a bit. But it's like - I mean, come on. So, you know, you're giving me the rules, and, you know, this is a life-or-death situation, and nobody can hear you. And they're not admitting it because they're zoned out anyway. And, you know, it's, like, when Frankie says it's just, like, legal disclaimers that would never hold up in court, and it would - it doesn't matter. And I'm like, it does matter. You know, Sam's saying everything matters, but, you know, it's - I think that this may be more of a single-parent kind of situation because there's no backup. She has no backup. There's nobody there saying, hey; you know, don't give your mother a hard time or something like that. It's just her. So she has no henchmen, no zone defense, nothing. She's got to be the one to make everybody squirm.
BIANCULLI: Pamela Adlon speaking to Terry Gross in 2019. More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF AWREEOH SONG, “CAN'T BRING ME DOWN”)
BIANCULLI: Let's get back to Terry's 2019 interview with Pamela Adlon. She's the star and co-creator of the FX series "Better Things," which concluded its five-season run last month. Adlon herself directed the series finale.
GROSS: Louis C.K. co-created the show with you and was a co-writer with you on the first two seasons. And you parted ways with him after several women went public saying he'd masturbated in front of them, and then he admitted it was true. After those women went public and Louis C.K. confessed to it, you thought of stopping the show because he'd been such a key part of it. Why did you think maybe you should stop, and why did you think that you were going to continue anyways?
ADLON: My personal feelings about what had happened - you know, me trying to wrap my mind around, you know, this cataclysmic event that happened and was directly affecting, how do I keep making this show, you know? I mean, he was my consigliere when I was doing it. You know, I mean, I make this show in California. He lives in New York. We were able to talk out the stories and make the show together. And so we did that for two seasons. So he gets stripped of his executive producer credit, but, you know, we are co-creators of this show, and there's his name. So I say, what do I do? Do I call it "Schmetter Schmings" (ph)? Do I call it "Mo' Better Things" or something and, like, make a new show? I just could not wrap my mind around how I could continue this professionally.
And, you know, it was a whopper. I had to take a knee for some time. The fact that women were hurt by him and that he came out and he talked about it - we were all scratching our heads. I remember, you know, talking to my daughters about it. And I remember thinking about his daughters. And it was just - you know, in general, it was a lot. So I did not know how to kind of put my feet forward, one in front of the other.
GROSS: So what did you change so that you could move forward?
ADLON: Well, I was given the go-ahead by the head of my network, who's the incredible John Landgraf. You know, there was just a certain point that he called me. And he told me some other weird, bad news about, you know, we weren't going to be considered for any award season things. And it was just - we were being affected by this thing. And...
GROSS: Because Louis was affiliated with it.
ADLON: Yeah. Yeah. And so I just said to him at a certain point - I said, I - this doesn't really make sense anymore. I don't think that I can do this show anymore. I don't think that my heart's in it. I don't know how to keep moving forward. And he said, I'm not going to force you to do anything, but I want you to do your show. I want to see your show. I want you to keep doing your show. And he said, just take time and think about it. And it was so kind, you know? They gave me the time to sit and think and get my bearings and figure out how I could do it. And then - you know, I've talked about this. My friend Phil Rosenthal, who created "Everybody Loves Raymond," really helped me - kind of pointed me in a new direction that would help me resurrect my spirit and my passion for making my show again.
GROSS: Instead of coming up with the stories with Louis, you started a writers room and hired women - exclusively women?
ADLON: No. It's interesting because the submissions I was getting were only women. And so, you know, I was getting them from my network. I was getting them from my friends. And I said, hey; you know, my writing partner for the last 10 years has been a man. Please don't send me only women. So I read people, and I ended up hiring two women and two men. And, you know - and, I mean, I'd never been in a writers room, let alone run a writers room. I still don't know if I did it the right way, but I did it the only way I knew how to do it. And Phil was a huge help. He was - he helped coach me.
BIANCULLI: Pamela Adlon speaking to Terry Gross in 2019. Her FX series "Better Things" recently concluded after five seasons. After a break, we'll continue their conversation. Also, I'll review the newest addition to the "Star Trek" universe of TV shows, and film critic Justin Chang reviews a new French film called "Happening," which is set in the 1960s but whose subject is amazingly relevant to what's happening today. I'm David Bianculli, and this is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF DON STIERNBERG, RUSTY HOLLOWAY AND JEFF JENKINS' "PENNIES FROM HEAVEN")
BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, in for Terry Gross. Let's get back to Terry's 2019 interview with actor, writer and director Pamela Adlon. "Better Things," the FX series in which she starred, loosely based on her own life raising three girls with her mother living next door, ended last month with an uncharacteristically but charmingly upbeat finale.
GROSS: Your character sees images of her father sometimes, who kind of gives her advice. Sometimes it's good advice. Sometimes it's really not. And I saw a picture of your father. I can't remember if it was IMDB or someplace else, and he looks a lot like the actor playing the ghost of your father.
ADLON: Yes.
GROSS: I guess that was intentional.
ADLON: I made a my dad.
GROSS: Is that weird for you? - because he's...
ADLON: Well, it was crazy the first time. It was crazy. I mean, I had my friend Zoe Hay, who was the - you know, she was the merkin master on "Masters Of Sex."
GROSS: (Laughter).
ADLON: She created the hairpieces for Adam Kulbersh, who plays my dad. And it was unbelievable. When I did the pilot, I could not get over it. And, you know, I wear a green sweater quite a bit in my show and in - it's in the pilot. That was my dad's sweater. And so it's just - his spirit is all around because, you know, I'm doing what, you know, I watched him do. He was a writer and producer. And I looked up to him my whole life, and I went into acting because that was a natural way to get into the industry. But now this is - what I'm doing is really his legacy. So it's unbelievable to do a scene with somebody who looks exactly like your father from the '70s.
GROSS: And your father died in 1994, I think.
ADLON: That's right.
GROSS: So, like, you've really, like, revived him for the show. Yeah. And he did - he wrote a lot of episodic TV. I'm wondering what his attitude was for the shows that he wrote for, I mean, because IMDB isn't always accurate. But there were...
ADLON: Yeah.
GROSS: ...A lot of shows where it says he did, like, one episode. I don't know if that's true or if that's a mistake.
ADLON: Oh, yeah, he did. Yeah. He wrote one episode of "The Love Boat" or maybe two. He wrote an episode of "The Jeffersons." He wrote an episode of "Chico And The Man." You know, he was a gun-for-hire writer, producer. And you go where the work takes you. And he was - you know, he and his partner, Phil Margo, wrote the illustrious TV movie "Venus Goddess Of Love" (ph) starring Vanna White.
GROSS: (Laughter) Excuse me.
ADLON: And I think that was '80 - what? - I don't even know - '88 or something. It made, like, the top 10 worst...
GROSS: Oh, gosh.
ADLON: ...TV movie lists of '88 or something like that. And he was so excited. He was like, we're part of the conversation.
GROSS: (Laughter).
ADLON: Yes. We're top 10. Top 10 anything is good.
GROSS: Was it discouraging for you to see him work so hard and just do episodes of, like, some good shows and some bad shows?
ADLON: It wasn't discouraging for me. I - it was work. I was seeing somebody working. You know, it's - and before that, he was writing comic books, and he was producing a daytime talk show. And my mother was working as well. My mother was working to support us while my dad was looking for income jobs. So my mother was a travel agent, and she was working for a composer, and she was working for a publisher. And so - she was a realtor.
And I have been modeled to working parents my whole life. So, you know, this little kind of scattershot career that I've built comes from all of these little things that I would see my parents do. And I've been working my whole life not just as an actor but doing other odd jobs. When I was - I was on "Facts Of Life" for one season, and then they got rid of me. And I was in a flower store. And my agent at the time - he walked in, and he's like, what are you doing here? And I'm like, I should ask the same thing about you.
GROSS: Oh, you were working in the flower store.
ADLON: Why am I working in a flower store?
GROSS: Yeah.
ADLON: But I like work.
GROSS: (Laughter).
ADLON: You know, that was my thing. I mean, I worked at Alice Underground in New York. I liked working in retail. I - anything to keep my income, you know, going. And now, of course, I get the ultimate gift, which is doing something that I love.
GROSS: You've told the story to interviewers about how when you were in your teens and you were working - I think on a sitcom, maybe a movie - there was a scene where you were wearing a towel, and...
ADLON: Yeah.
GROSS: ...The director said, oh, you know what would be really hilarious is if you dropped the towel. But I don't think you've said, like, what did you do? Did you do what the director asked you, or did you refuse?
ADLON: You know, I was about 15 years old, and I was wearing a towel. So we're supposed to be post-swim because we've broken into somebody's house. And he said that to me. And by some - I don't know - grace of some inner strength, I said, oh, no, I don't feel comfortable doing that.
GROSS: What was it like being a teenager - you were - what? - 15.
ADLON: I was 15.
GROSS: So you're 15, and you're telling the director, who's supposed to be telling you what to do - and that's his job. And you're telling him no.
ADLON: Yeah, he wanted to see my butt. He wanted me to drop my towel.
GROSS: So...
ADLON: He said we'd only see your butt. And I just was so uncomfortable.
GROSS: Has the #MeToo movement led you to rethink some of the things you experienced in your past and kind of see them in a different light?
ADLON: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. You know, when all of it was going down, I was haunted by, you know, memories. I was kind of, like, flipping through the Rolodex of my experiences and looking at them and going, huh (ph), that's really - that's just not OK. Or, you know, you know, I mean, I have three daughters, you know, and I want them to be protected. And I also want them to speak up for themselves and advocate for themselves because, you know, for me in particular, I've gotten hurt, you know, by being, you know, forced into doing something physical. But it's not a "stunt," quote, unquote, you know?
GROSS: You mean physically hurt, not emotionally hurt.
ADLON: Exactly. And I remember meeting an old - my old friend Steve Antin, who was in the movie "The Goonies." And one day, we were in a store, and we were just comparing scars where we got hurt at work. And so when I would be on jobs and I'd meet young people, I would say, don't ever, ever do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe. You just walk away if anybody tries to pressure you.
GROSS: But then you risk losing the job, right?
ADLON: Yeah. That's the thing. And, you know, it's why I have my dad say - the dad character in my show say, you know, don't be a whistleblower, you know, and I do the opposite because people are still afraid to speak up. You know, and there's a lot of...
GROSS: How come you're not?
ADLON: Well, I don't know. It used to get me in trouble, and now it got me a show.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSS: Your character on the show - again, a single mother of three - and in your series, the middle daughter almost bullies her mother, your character. And she's so - like, the children, the three children are, like, so not curious about their mother's life, you know? And...
ADLON: Oh, my God, that's amazing that you said that (laughter).
GROSS: But they're not. They're really not. You know, like, you could be going through the most, like, extraordinary or excruciating thing. And it's, like, they don't even want to know about it. And you could go out of your way to do, like, something great for, say, the middle daughter and get her tickets to something she's been dying to see.
ADLON: Yeah.
GROSS: And she'll just be rude to you about it. Or, like - so is that something that you've experienced? And how do you explain that? - because I know a lot of parents feel that way.
ADLON: It's just - I'm so glad you brought it up because it's just a very - you know, I describe it as being alone within the chaos. So they're all talking about their situations and everything. And I'm sitting there going, OK, well, I had, you know, this kind of really amazing thing happen today, or I feel bad about this, or I just went on a trip. I want to tell you guys about it. They really don't want to know (laughter).
So it's like that thing when people say when - if a kid says to you, how was your day, it's shocking. You're stunned. Oh, my God. Thank you for asking. My day - wait. Whew. Be still my heart. Let me take a seat. I mean, it's just they are extremely self-absorbed. That's the way they are. They're, you know, molding and changing, and they're losing their amniotic sacs daily and becoming - going in the direction of each other.
And, you know, I remember when my kids were younger, something - you know, one of my kids said something like, oh, you don't know who David Bowie is, Mom. And I was like, I will kill you because I invented the, you don't tell me who David Bowie is; I told you. And it's - you - there's this feeling of obsolescence when you have children who are, you know, gathering strength and momentum, and you're like, well, you guys pretty much don't need me anymore. You know, you're ready to go. It's a crazy kind of feeling. It's like, you know, you can be lonely and be living in a family. You know, I think it's particularly a single parent phenomenon.
GROSS: So when we started the interview, we played a clip from "Better Things" in which your character is telling her doctor that she needs something to help her sleep because one daughter's going through puberty, another is going to college, and she has to - and your character has to pay tuition. And your character is going through menopause, and it's just like, too much, and you can't sleep. So you yourself have been through a lot of that. Add on that you also went through the trauma of everything that happened with Louis. Are you getting any sleep?
ADLON: I do get sleep. I sleep pretty good, I got to tell you. I do the thing that I said in the scene with Dr. Babu. I don't sleep anymore. I pass out.
GROSS: (Laughter) Thank you so much for talking with us. I love talking with you.
ADLON: Thank you so much, Terry, for having me. It was awesome to talk to you.
BIANCULLI: Pamela Adlon speaking to Terry Gross in 2019. Her TV series "Better Things" presented its finale last month after a five-year run on FX. All episodes can now be seen on the streaming service Hulu. Coming up, I review "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," the new Paramount+ series that takes the "Star Trek" narrative back to its original origins. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF AMANDA GARDIER'S "FJORD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/pamela-adlon-says-better-things-has-been-an-exaggerated-version-of-her-life | 2022-05-12T16:14:06Z |
The Supreme Court's leaked draft opinion on Roe v. Wade is having ripple effects across the nation: folks rally in support of abortion rights or celebrate a potential victory for an unborn child.
Read the full story at NCPR.org
Copyright 2022 NCPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/people-in-a-town-in-new-yorks-adirondack-mountains-are-divided-over-abortion | 2022-05-12T16:14:12Z |
BILKA, Ukraine — For Ukrainian farmer Anatolii Kulibaba, this year's planting season comes with anguish. Kulibaba is among many who were forced to flee their land as Russian forces moved in with their tanks.
In the first few days of the war, Russian soldiers delivered an even crueler blow: They killed Kulibaba's son, Oleksandr, as he was traveling to their village of Bilka, 25 miles from the Russian border.
"He was just 45. He had his whole life ahead of him," Kulibaba says.
Two months later, Kulibaba, 70, is still trying to work through the pain, but it's a struggle. He desperately misses his son, who also led most of the farm duties.
Kulibaba says he could really use Oleksandr's help right now, trying to restart production after Russian forces took over and destroyed parts of their farm.
Ukraine is one of the biggest producers of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, and the war has wreaked havoc on the so-called "breadbasket of Europe." Ukraine and Russia together account for over a quarter of the world's wheat exports. Ukraine's Ministry of Agriculture now says that 30% of the country's farmland is occupied or unsafe.
Kulibaba says Russian troops slept in his barn, slaughtered and cooked his pigs and parked their tanks in his cornfields.
"My fields were destroyed by the shelling," Kulibaba says.
By the time he returned to the farm in April, about four weeks after he fled, the Russians had used his tractors to dig trenches and ripped up much of his 494 acres with their heavy tanks. They stole more than 2,600 gallons of his fuel and grabbed the batteries from his combines.
He thinks maybe he can farm half of his land now, but he doesn't really know. There's no safe way for him to assess.
"We're afraid to go out there," he says. "We don't know where the mines are."
Ukraine's export routes are blocked
In Ukraine, it's not just those on the front line, like Kulibaba, who've been affected. Gas prices are surging and farmers are struggling to find fertilizer to grow new crops. And whatever they produce is going to be even harder to sell.
Ukrainian grains have been stuck in makeshift silos across the country and particularly by port cities like Odesa, along their main export route, the Black Sea. The Russians have blocked ships from departing, and — according to the Ukrainians — left naval mines for those that try to sneak past.
"This year, we're going to have much less harvest," says Sergii Leshchenko, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff. "But it's important to [have a harvest], at least to cover internal needs."
Leshchenko says the government is working to help with global needs. They've tried to expand new export routes to the west by train, and south via small ports along the Danube River. But he says it's far from sufficient.
"There is still [a] bottleneck for proper export of Ukrainian food," he says. "It's impossible without making the Odesa region work properly."
Experts warn of food shortages and price increases
The war's disruptions have led to surging prices and raised fears of food shortages in parts of the developing world. Kyiv-based trade analyst Elena Neroba warns the global impacts will be profound, as families in developing nations who relied on Ukrainian crops will struggle to afford more expensive wheat.
She points to places like Indonesia, which imports 28% of its wheat from Ukraine, and Bangladesh, which gets 21%. Egypt imports almost 80% of its wheat from Ukraine and Russia.
"The Russian invasion will lead not just to deaths in Ukraine," she warns. "But in a few months, people will start dying all over the world from hunger."
The war has set the Ukrainian agriculture sector back by years, especially after gains made in developing healthier and organic crops, according to Mariia Bogonos, the head of the Center for Food and Land Use at the Kyiv School of Economics.
She says it was hard enough trying to recover from the 2014 Russian invasion in the east.
"It's painful," Bogonos says. "How much effort was put into developing this sector. So, moving from [the] Soviet past to this market-oriented way of living. And now we have to stop all this and talk about food security in the country again."
While the United States does not import Ukrainian wheat, it will not be immune to the supply shock.
Joe Glauber, a former chief economist for the Department of Agriculture, says American consumers will likely see prices go up on wheat-based products, from bread to cereals to pizza.
"The loss of Ukraine right now, in the sense that no grain is moving out of their ports, has pushed up prices to 25% over price levels, which were already high and rising," says Glauber, a senior fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, referring to increases since the beginning of the war. "And that's critical to this story in the sense of markets were already tight with low inventories and very high prices, the highest prices we've seen in about 10 years for a lot of commodities, even prior to the Russian invasion."
Getting family farms back up and running will be arduous
Kulibaba's son-in-law, Valerii Kyselov, motions to the barn where the Russians spent most of their time while they occupied the family farm in Bilka. Spent munitions and discarded meal packs litter the ground under a rickety trailer.
Kyselov promises there are no mines inside and climbs to the second floor. The bales of hay upstairs still have impressions from where the Russians slept.
On the wall, a scratched-out message refers to NATO soldiers in a sexual act and insults the Pentagon.
It's been weeks since the farm produced any income, Kyselov says. The family is starting to worry about whether Kulibaba will be able to pay back loans he used to purchase his combine and other expensive equipment, some of which has been stolen.
"If you can plan, you can pay your loan," Kyselov said. "But the Russians took away the possibility to earn money."
He also worries how his father-in-law is dealing with the trauma of losing his son.
Kulibaba insists the farm will survive. It will take time to clear the mines, but he vows it will produce again.
What's harder, he says, is dealing with the loss of Oleksandr, and just trying to understand why all this had to happen.
"We are peaceful people," he says. "We did not attack anyone. We are on our own land."
Olena Lysenko contributed to this story from Bilka, Ukraine.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/russians-wreak-havoc-on-ukrainian-farms-mining-fields-and-stealing-equipment | 2022-05-12T16:14:18Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In Northern Ireland, the Sinn Fein party is seeking an historic election victory. Vote totals are still coming in, but a win would make it the first Irish Nationalist Party to lead the government. And that could pave the way for Northern Ireland to leave the U.K. Following the election for us is London-based reporter Willem Marx. Thanks for being here.
WILLEM MARX: Thanks for having me, Leila.
FADEL: So what reactions are you hearing this morning and what could this mean politically in Northern Ireland and the U.K.?
MARX: Well, the vote certification happened about 3 hours ago in Belfast and across Northern Ireland. That's now finished.
FADEL: OK.
MARX: The actual count is underway for the next few hours. So really, there's not actually been any major public statements from politicians here in the U.K. while they wait for more clarity on those results. But it's clear from what we do know that turnout has been relatively high, around 54%, and that's after a slightly unsettled few months in Northern Ireland's own politics.
The carefully constructed power sharing government collapsed when one of the major parties withdrew in February. And if Sinn Fein were to emerge from this election with a majority in the local legislature known as the Northern Ireland Assembly, it would be hard for the local executive power sharing to be reestablished. And without that executive in place, theoretically it would be U.K. authorities in Westminster, in London who could take charge of day-to-day governing.
But that would be both an unpopular move amongst people in Northern Ireland and also something that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government has been pretty unwilling to do.
FADEL: Now, Sinn Fein was long linked to the IRA. Can you talk about how it built this popular support?
MARX: Well, partly, it's focusing on what you term bread and butter issues, but it's also partly a consequence in Northern Ireland of birthrates and changing demographics for the past couple of decades. Parties in favor of Northern Ireland remaining inside the rest of the U.K., known as unionists or loyalists, have held a majority in the Northern Ireland executive because their supporters, largely Protestants, were a bigger proportion of the population.
But that's changing. And that means that the largely Catholic segment of the population that supports Sinn Fein has continued to expand. And it's also worth noting the leading Unionist Party, the Democratic Unionist Party, has taken a very unpopular decision over issues around Brexit. That's helped to erode its own popular support a little, as well.
FADEL: Now, could this actually lead to the island of Ireland becoming one country?
MARX: Well, under the peace deal known as the Good Friday Agreement signed back in 1998, a referendum would need to be held among residents of Northern Ireland with another separate one held next door to the South in the Republic of Ireland. That would likely require Sinn Fein to control the levers of government both North and South of that border. And they're not yet a party in government to the South in the Republic of Ireland.
If a majority of people in both said they would like to see Ireland reunited, it's not beyond the realms of possibility one day. And in fact, the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland told voters ahead of these elections they think a Sinn Fein win would actually accelerate that process, Leila.
FADEL: So I'm sure we'll be speaking to you more as we know more about the results. Willem Marx covering the elections in Northern Ireland. He spoke to us from London. Thank you so much.
MARX: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/sinn-fein-is-poised-to-become-the-1st-irish-nationalist-party-to-lead-the-government | 2022-05-12T16:14:24Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Since Texas passed an anti-abortion law in September, more and more women have been going to unregulated pharmacies in Mexican border towns to get abortion pills. As NPR's John Burnett reports, this last-resort option could be a sign of what's to come for many others if the Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade.
JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: The main street of Nuevo Progreso, Mexico - just across the sluggish Rio Grande from Weslaco, Texas - is a chaotic border bazaar that caters to American day-trippers.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Hey, sir, you looking for something? Dental procedure...
BURNETT: Prescription eyeglasses, dental fillings, switchblades, tequila shots and over-the-counter medicine.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Pharmacy?
BURNETT: You can buy many medications in pharmacies here without a prescription, including the pills that have transformed the way women are ending pregnancies. Today, more than half of all abortions in the United States are achieved by what's called a medication abortion, as opposed to a traditional surgical abortion. The FDA has approved mifepristone and misoprostol as safe and effective in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
An employee in Garcia's Pharmacy named Walter Garza has noticed a sharp increase in a certain clientele.
WALTER GARZA: You should see how many girls come and try to get an abortion. A lot - like, crazy.
BURNETT: He says the two-pill combination, along with his consultation about how to use them, is $400. But he's not a doctor. He's not even a pharmacist.
And where did you learn how to give them advice - medical advice?
GARZA: A doctor, you know (laughter)?
BURNETT: The doctor told you.
GARZA: Yeah.
BURNETT: But you're not trained to give them advice.
GARZA: No. No, I'm not.
BURNETT: A Texas law that went into effect last September all but outlaws abortions after six weeks. And with the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, these bans are expected to become more common nationwide. A woman down in the Rio Grande Valley who wants to visit a clinic with the fewest restrictions has to drive 14 hours to Las Cruces, N.M., or she can drive a half hour to the border and visit a Mexican pharmacy.
Under the new law, physicians in Texas are forbidden from prescribing abortion pills. Planned Parenthood and other organizations have posted detailed information online about how to take abortion pills and what to expect, but some customers may just rely on the pharmacy clerk for their information.
CARLA ANGULO-PASEL: And the problem with that, of course, becomes the regulation aspect.
BURNETT: Carla Angulo-Pasel is a political scientist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
ANGULO-PASEL: We don't know if they have been FDA approved, and then you have the problem of not even needing a prescription, so there is no actual medical attention given to these women. Women are just - you know, out of desperation.
BURNETT: There can be complications, says Dr. Roberto Diaz-Gonzalez, an OB/GYN at the Brownsville Community Health Center.
ROBERTO DIAZ-GONZALEZ: Probably the most common complication with the medication will be incomplete abortion. That means that not all the tissue came out. And if the patient doesn't go and look for care, that can create an infection.
BURNETT: With Texas' strict anti-abortion law, women in the Rio Grande Valley have had a foretaste of a post-Roe world, but activists have resisted. Nancy Cardenas-Pena is Texas state director for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice.
NANCY CARDENAS PENA: People in red states still deserve access to abortion care, and so we'll continue fighting every single step of the way in areas like the Rio Grande Valley.
BURNETT: She offers two examples of pushing back. When the city of Edinburg, Texas, tried to declare itself a, quote, "sanctuary for the unborn" last summer, after hours of public comments against the ordinance, it went nowhere. And last month, when a 26-year-old woman was arrested and jailed for murder in Rio Grande City for having a self-induced abortion, the abortion rights community swung into action to win her release. Ultimately, the charges were dropped.
John Burnett, NPR News, McAllen, Texas. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/texas-abortion-law-led-some-to-get-abortion-pills-in-mexico-with-grim-consequences | 2022-05-12T16:14:30Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine is preparing for two big transitions. First, the embassy is about to return to Kyiv. They evacuated to Poland early in the war. And the other big change? President Biden has nominated a veteran diplomat to fill the post that's been vacant for three years. In the meantime, the acting U.S. ambassador is shuttling back and forth across the Ukraine-Poland border. And she joins us now from the Polish city of Rzeszow. Kristina Kvien, it is good to talk to you again.
KRISTINA KVIEN: Hello, Ari. It's great to join you today.
SHAPIRO: You've been a U.S. diplomat in Ukraine for more than two years. And this week you returned for the first time since Russia started its assault in late February. What was it like for you to set foot back in the country?
KVIEN: It was amazing to be back. I had been wanting to go back since we left, and I was thrilled that my security folks told me that the situation was such that it was safe to go back. We did a day trip to Lviv. I met with a wide variety of folks, including the mayor, the governor and also some of the international organizations and NGO implementers of the humanitarian assistance that has been flowing in. So it was a terrific trip, and I look forward to taking more of them soon.
SHAPIRO: Russia was driven back from Kyiv about a month ago, in early April. Why return to the embassy now? And when I say now, I'm actually curious when exactly you are planning to return to the embassy because that's been a little unclear.
KVIEN: Well, we hope to return in the next few weeks. We're doing our final assessments that would allow us to determine that the security situation is permissive to go back. Even though the Russians did pull back from Kyiv, of course, it continues to be hit by missiles, and I would say that the situation is still not 100% safe. So we have been doing careful reviews of the situation to make sure that when we do go back, that we can be as safe as possible.
SHAPIRO: Can you give us an example of something you're looking forward to being able to do from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv that you haven't been able to do remotely from Poland?
KVIEN: I think the most important thing is to be able to meet with Ukrainian leaders face-to-face. Of course, we've continued to talk on the phone, on video conferencing, but it's not the same as sitting down with someone face-to-face and being able to have an in-person conversation. So I think that's going to be the most valuable thing for me is to be able to sit down with my contacts, most of whom I've known a long time, so they're - I consider many of them friends not just contacts - and really have a good conversation and get a sense of where things are.
SHAPIRO: The last time we spoke, you talked about the many people in Ukraine who you're close to. Are they all safe, as far as you know?
KVIEN: Well, unfortunately, very sadly, we lost one of my bodyguards.
SHAPIRO: Oh.
KVIEN: He was fighting in the east, in the military, and he was killed by the Russians.
SHAPIRO: My goodness.
KVIEN: So it's incredibly sad and tragic for the embassy and also obviously for his family. But he was a hero. I mean, he was fighting in the east for his country when he was killed. And so I would say that the death has touched us, even in the embassy. And we don't take for granted - we have many other embassy employees who are fighting. And so we do not take any of that for granted, and we think of them every day and send them our best wishes.
SHAPIRO: Wow. Could you share his name with us?
KVIEN: His name was Volodya (ph). We don't use last names just for the privacy of the family, but his name was Volodya.
SHAPIRO: Now, President Biden has nominated Bridget Brink to be ambassador and take over for you. She still has to be confirmed by the Senate. But what is your first piece of advice for her going to be after you've filled this job in an acting capacity during such an eventful time of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship?
KVIEN: Rest up and get lots of sleep (laughter).
SHAPIRO: (Laughter) While you still can?
KVIEN: It's a very busy job, especially these days. Listen. I've known Bridget for over 15 years. She and I worked together in the past. She's fantastic. She's high energy. She's smart. She knows Ukraine, and she knows the whole region. And she'll be a terrific ambassador when confirmed by the Senate. So honestly, I don't have to give her a lot of advice 'cause I think she knows the reason - region so well already that she can just step right in and be fully effective on the first day.
SHAPIRO: Are you planning to stay at the embassy in Ukraine after she's confirmed?
KVIEN: Yeah. Actually, you know, it's a three-year assignment, and my three-year assignment is up this summer. So I will probably stay just long enough to help her transition and then move on.
SHAPIRO: Now, the last time you and I spoke, I met you in the Polish hotel that's been your base of operations. And you noted that although you have a lot of diplomatic experience, you had not served in a war zone before.
KVIEN: It's definitely a different kettle of fish. I mean, there are things you need to learn and challenges you need to take on that are different than in a country that is at peace. I've learned a lot of military terminology that I didn't know before. I've learned a lot about weapons that I didn't know before. And obviously, I would say that all of us on my team here are imbued with the feeling that what we're doing is incredibly important for the health and safety and survival of people. And that really motivates us.
So whether it's helping to provide more weapons so that the Ukrainians can defend themselves or provide humanitarian support either to those that are inside Ukraine but internally displaced or in need of food, water and basics, or people who have had to leave Ukraine and helping them outside of the country - all of those things, everything we do every day is really focused on helping people and supporting them in a very physical way that I think we don't normally do in a normal environment. So it really motivates us and is one of the reasons that we keep going, you know, more than 12 hours a day, I would say, for most of us; because we feel that our work is really helping people on the ground.
SHAPIRO: When you look at the state of the war at this point, do you see a way for Russia to win?
KVIEN: You know, already, frankly, Russia has failed. Russia came into the war thinking that they could quickly overrun Ukraine, that they could perhaps topple the government - they certainly tried to do that at the beginning - that they could take Kyiv and other strategic cities. And for the most part, they failed. They've been driven back away from Kyiv. President Zelenskyy and his government are still in place, working hard and fully functional. And now Russia has had to rethink what their objectives are, and they are definitely significantly smaller than they set out to be. So do I think Russia can win? I think Russia's already lost, certainly if you judge it by what their initial objectives were.
That doesn't mean, though, that Ukraine doesn't have a hard fight ahead of it and that Russia will stop trying sometime soon. So that's why we continue to send in weapons and other material and supplies to Ukraine - to help them continue to fight the fight against Russia and hopefully drive them out of the country completely. That's certainly, I know, what Ukraine's objective is, and we want to help them in meeting that objective.
SHAPIRO: Kristina Kvien is the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Thank you for speaking with us once again.
KVIEN: Thank you, Ari. It was good to see you again.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHOENIX'S "DEFINITIVE BREAKS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/the-acting-u-s-ambassador-to-ukraine-is-preparing-for-2-big-transitions | 2022-05-12T16:14:37Z |
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The European Union is taking aim at Russia's main revenue source - oil. In response to the ongoing war, over the next six months, the EU plans to wind down imports worth hundreds of millions of dollars a day. That means extra oil on the market that others might buy. But many countries and companies are distancing themselves from Russian oil. NPR's international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: For energy companies, Russia has always been a challenging but potentially lucrative place to operate. The rewards were often worth the risks. But shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, that changed. George Voloshin is a Paris-based analyst for the global consultancy Aperio Intelligence. He says BP was the first to announce it was pulling out.
GEORGE VOLOSHIN: It was quite, I think, surprising to many observers at such an early stage in the conflict. Then there were Exxon Mobil on the American side. There was then Shell and, more recently, TotalEnergy (ph). And basically, it's all about withdrawing from the market.
NORTHAM: It costs the energy companies, in some cases, billions of dollars to pull out of Russia. But oil traders, shippers and insurance companies, as well as refineries, are also distancing themself from Russia.
Gary Peach, an analyst with London-based Energy Intelligence, says they're worried about reputational risk. They have shareholders and governments to answer to.
GARY PEACH: These companies do not want to be hit - you know, like, sort of a black eye for, you know, buying oil that will essentially go to Moscow and help finance the war effort. So as the war drags on and it gets worse and the images out of Ukraine emerge on TV screens, the pressure is only going to intensify.
NORTHAM: Russia is still pumping roughly 11 million barrels of crude a day, but it's much harder to move now. And it's started running out of storage space. Tankers filled to the brim are waiting on open waters for buyers for the excess oil. All this will be exacerbated once the EU's embargo kicks in by the end of the year, putting roughly 2 million barrels a day back on the market. But Peach says there will still be some buyers.
PEACH: Because oil demand isn't going anywhere. It's needed worldwide, and traders will find loopholes. And, you know, Russia will find out ways - invent creative ways to sell its oil.
NORTHAM: Robert McNally, the president of Rapidan Energy Group, says buyers for the extra oil are already emerging.
ROBERT MCNALLY: The main one everyone's looking at is India. India has started to take a lot more Russian oil.
NORTHAM: But because there's so much Russian oil available, India can get it at a discount, meaning less money for Moscow. Still, McNally says India isn't buying that much.
MCNALLY: India can't just sort of drop its other suppliers, like in the Persian Gulf, and decide to deal only with Russia, right? That'll get them crosswise with the Gulf producers. So I don't think India can offset the loss of Europe.
NORTHAM: Then there's China with its voracious appetite for oil. Voloshin, with Aperio Intelligence, says China is also getting a bargain. But he says some Chinese refineries and oil companies are also distancing themself from Russia.
VOLOSHIN: We're seeing that these companies are also reluctant to get in the crosshairs of U.S. regulators. They also fear that they will just get into financial trouble because the banks aren't willing to lend money anymore because of, you know, Russia's isolation from the world's financial system.
NORTHAM: Voloshin says there could still be some underground sales of Russian oil. But right now, Moscow's options to sell its most profitable commodity are narrowing.
Jackie Northam, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ...OF SINKING SHIPS' "IT'S EASIER WITH NO DESTINATION") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/the-european-union-is-taking-aim-at-russias-main-revenue-source-oil | 2022-05-12T16:14:43Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
A broad, multigenerational coalition of voters powered Democratic victories in the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential election. But with six months to go until this year's midterms, younger voters have soured on Democrats. Some party leaders hope that the prospect of a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade could re-energize them. NPR's Juana Summers reports.
JUANA SUMMERS, BYLINE: After a draft opinion suggested that the Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade, President Biden and other Democrats called on voters to elect pro-abortion rights elected officials in November. For Arekia Bennett-Scott, those words fell flat.
AREKIA BENNETT-SCOTT: It didn't feel like an urgency for the White House, a fight that they want to, like, get out in front of.
SUMMERS: Bennett-Scott is the executive director of Mississippi Votes, a youth advocacy group. Her state's only abortion provider is at the center of the case that could strike down the landmark law.
BENNETT-SCOTT: The rest of the country is going to wake up in Mississippi the day Roe v. Wade is overturned.
SUMMERS: Democrats are hoping the news will give them momentum in the fight for control of Congress, where the party is defending slim majorities. And Biden is facing diminished enthusiasm among a number of key groups, including the young voters he overwhelmingly won in 2020. Polling shows that most young people oppose completely overturning Roe v. Wade. This is Laphonza Butler, the head of Emily's List.
LAPHONZA BUTLER: We have got to, in my opinion, connect these generations so that the experiences of pre-Roe v. Wade can be made much more clear and tangible to young voters, you know, who haven't lived a time without Roe v. Wade being the law of the land.
NICOLE HENSEL: While young people today may not have technically lived without Roe on the books, that doesn't mean that young people don't know what it feels like to live without access to abortion.
SUMMERS: That's Nicole Hensel. She's the executive director of New Era Colorado.
HENSEL: This fight is about power. It's about control and the ability to control other people's bodies. And that is something that young people are very fearful of and also energized to resist.
SUMMERS: But she also said that while the prospect of the Supreme Court striking down Roe is launching young people to action, that action doesn't always equal voting. It could mean things like protesting, having conversations with family members or people in their communities, getting involved at the local level.
HENSEL: If we want young people to mobilize for the midterms, then politicians can't pay lip service to these issues. They need to show that they're willing to take bold action.
SUMMERS: Hensel said she wants to see the Senate vote to codify abortion rights into law, something the Senate plans to hold a vote on next week. The legislation does not have the support to be enacted.
MELISSA STIEHLER: There's a lot of anger and distrust in political institutions right now, but we know that we can't cede that ground.
SUMMERS: That's Melissa Stiehler, the advocacy director for Loud Light, a Kansas-based organization focused on engaging young people. In Kansas, the right to an abortion is currently protected by the state's constitution. But that could change in August, when the state's voters have their say on a constitutional amendment. She says young voters are looking for unapologetic leadership.
STIEHLER: Every poll shows that the majority of voters do not want Roe overturned, and that is more real than ever. These are not hypothetical things.
SUMMERS: And, facing headwinds in the midterms, Democrats will need a message that can mobilize these young voters to the polls in November. Juana Summers, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRYCE DESSNER'S "IMAGINING BUFFALO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/the-threat-to-abortion-rights-could-mobilize-young-voters-democratic-leaders-hope | 2022-05-12T16:14:49Z |
It would be hard to overstate the timeliness of the new abortion-themed drama Happening. Then again, this harrowing movie, directed with great tension and intimacy by the French filmmaker Audrey Diwan, would feel timely and urgent under any circumstances. Based on an autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux, it unfolds over several weeks in the life of Anne, a 23-year-old literature student in the French town of Angoulême, who discovers she's pregnant after a brief fling.
It's 1963, and most working-class women in Anne's position would be forced to drop out of school, give up their careers and/or get married. But Anne doesn't want to do any of those things. She wants to continue her studies, and so she decides to seek out an abortion, even though the procedure is illegal.
Anne is played by the superb French-Romanian actor Anamaria Vartolomei, whose piercing blue eyes register her character's mounting desperation. But behind that terror, she also shows us Anne's quiet determination. "I'll manage," Anne tends to say whenever she encounters a setback, which is often.
The father in question doesn't care what she does about the pregnancy, so long as it doesn't involve him. Anne sees two male doctors; the first is sympathetic to her situation but unable to help. The second prescribes her shots that he says will start her period; she later finds out he lied and the drugs have actually strengthened the embryo.
Anne turns to some of her school friends for help, but they give her the cold shoulder. A male classmate makes a pass at her, figuring that, since she's already pregnant, she might as well throw caution to the wind. Happening is especially perceptive in portraying the social stigma of being a sexually active woman in the early '60s. Anne's friends think and talk about sex constantly, while remaining extremely judgmental of anyone who actually has sex. In one uncomfortable scene, Anne is harassed in the dorm showers by a classmate who accuses her of being "a loose woman" and spreading sexually transmitted diseases.
Many of these details come directly from Ernaux's memoir (also called Happening), and Diwan and her co-writer, Marcia Romano, bring us deep inside Anne's experience. We are with her at every step as her body begins to change and her academics and relationships begin to suffer. The movie becomes a clock-ticking thriller, with regular on-screen reminders of how many weeks she is into her pregnancy. The camera follows Anne in long, uninterrupted tracking shots that create a remarkable level of tension. That tension kicks into overdrive when Anne takes matters into her own hands, first by attempting the abortion herself, and then by turning to the black market. These scenes are not for the faint of heart, but as graphic as they are, they never feel exploitative.
Happening joins a strong field of abortion-themed movies including the 2007 drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and the more recent Never Rarely Sometimes Always. In each of these movies we see a young woman struggling to deal with an impossible situation, whether in communist Romania or present-day Manhattan. Happening itself sometimes feels ambiguous in terms of its setting; you can tell the era from the actors' clothes and the pay phones, but Diwan doesn't overdo the '60s trappings. It's as if she's saying this re-creation of the past might very well be a window into the future.
Copyright 2022 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/timely-and-urgent-happening-is-a-film-that-speaks-to-todays-abortion-debate | 2022-05-12T16:14:55Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
This week a judge in Oklahoma ruled that a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa for its role in the 1921 race massacre can go forward. The plaintiffs include the last three known survivors, who lived through the attack as children more than a century ago. Reporter Chris Polansky of member station KWGS was in the courtroom for the judge's ruling. Thanks for joining us.
CHRIS POLANSKY, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.
FLORIDO: So this massacre from over a hundred years ago - remind us what happened.
POLANSKY: Sure. In 1921, a mob of white Tulsans attacked the Black neighborhood of Greenwood, which was pretty well-known in its time for being a district of Black wealth and culture. You've probably heard of it being called Black Wall Street. This mob destroys virtually the entire neighborhood, looting homes and stores, setting fires. And they kill as many as 300 people. Afterwards, the city and insurance companies reject claims for compensation for the victims. There are even some explicit calls for the neighborhood not be allowed to be rebuilt. And the neighborhood never does build back into what it was, and victims are never given restitution.
FLORIDO: So let's fast-forward to this week. What is this lawsuit seeking?
POLANSKY: So the plaintiffs include descendants of massacre victims as well as the three last known living survivors. There's Hughes Van Ellis. They call them Uncle Red. He's 101. And Viola Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle are each 107.
FLORIDO: Wow.
POLANSKY: They're suing the city, the state of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma National Guard, the local chamber of commerce among others, all under Oklahoma's public nuisance statute. They're saying these organizations aided and abetted the massacre, creating a nuisance in Greenwood that continues to this day in the form of various inequities. They want the defendants to make it right with things like a victims' compensation fund and a tax exemption for descendants. The entities being sued, meanwhile, acknowledge the massacre was horrible but say that there is no ongoing nuisance in a legal sense. Their attorneys kept saying in court that they're being asked to solve racism. Keni Ukabiala, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, says that's not accurate.
KENI UKABIALA: That is absolutely not what we're asking to do. If you look at the facts that we have alleged in our complaint and then look at the relief that we have requested, you can see that it is very clearly tied to the conduct of the massacre and the resulting harm that the defendants have instituted through their policies over the hundred years following the massacre.
POLANSKY: So as an example, the plaintiffs note a hospital was destroyed during the massacre and never rebuilt. And today, health outcomes are demonstrably worse in Greenwood than in other parts of Tulsa. So they're asking for health care access in the neighborhood as part of their abatement plan.
FLORIDO: So after the judge's ruling allowing this lawsuit to go forward, where do things stand right now?
POLANSKY: Well, the city and other defendants had asked the judge to throw out the lawsuit entirely. As you noted, she did not do that, and so now the lawsuit moves ahead. And that means experts like historians, economists, archaeologists, developers even will likely be called upon to come to Tulsa and figure out a plan to present to the court to address these issues. Lead attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons has been working on this for a long time, and he's trying to move quickly. He got a little emotional talking to reporters after the hearing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DAMARIO SOLOMON-SIMMONS: We want them to see justice in their lifetime. I personally have seen so many survivors die in my 20-plus years working on this issue. I just don't want to see the last three die without justice.
POLANSKY: So you can tell they're really hoping these survivors are around to see a win in court and some sense of justice even if it has taken over a century.
FLORIDO: That's Chris Polansky of member station KWGS in Tulsa, Okla. Thanks very much.
POLANSKY: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALT-J SONG, "3WW") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/tulsa-race-massacre-reparations-lawsuit-can-proceed | 2022-05-12T16:15:01Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
We got some good news and some not-so-good news about the job market today. Employers are adding a lot of jobs, and wages are going up at a rapid pace. But those wage gains are not keeping pace with the high cost of living, and there's a danger that rising wages will make inflation even worse. NPR's Scott Horsley joins us with details on today's jobs report. Hey, Scott.
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: Hi.
SHAPIRO: Job growth has been really strong for some time now. What stands out about April's numbers?
DETROW: That's right. U.S. employers added more than 400,000 jobs for the 12th month in a row in April. It's been a really remarkable string of gains. That's more than double the average number of jobs we were adding in the year before the pandemic. Last month saw lots of hiring in factories, in restaurants and warehouses. Hotels added 22,000 jobs in April. Bharat Patel is a second-generation hotel owner in Sarasota, Fla. He says hotels need more front desk clerks and housekeepers because a lot more people are traveling right now. And so more of his rooms are booked.
BHARAT PATEL: Rates are through the roof. People want to travel. And so instead of going abroad or - they're really enjoying the beaches and the national parks and state parks. And, you know, people just want to get out.
DETROW: Like a lot of employers, Patel says he's boosting wages to attract the workers he needs. Average wages in April were up 5.5% from a year ago. So this remains a really hot job market. In fact, it's a little too hot for the inflation watchdogs at the Federal Reserve.
SHAPIRO: Why too hot? What is the Fed worried about?
DETROW: The Fed's concerned that employers are going to pass these costs of higher wages along in higher prices. And that could make inflation, which is already at a 40-year high, even worse. That's why this week the Fed raised interest rates by half a percentage point in hopes of cooling off inflation. The Fed also telegraphed additional similar-sized rate hikes could be in store in June and July.
SHAPIRO: And how will rising interest rates affect the job market?
DETROW: Well, the rising cost of borrowing is designed to temper demand. And we might be getting a sneak preview in the housing market. The average cost of a home mortgage has jumped sharply in anticipation of the Fed's actions. It's now above 5.25%. And Robert Dietz, who's chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders, says the industry is feeling that pinch.
ROBERT DIETZ: The housing market is definitely slowing at this point. The rise in mortgage rates has harmed housing affordability, particularly for prospective first-time buyers. It's not just the rate itself, but it's the down payment.
DETROW: Now, Dietz doesn't expect a collapse in housing. But, you know, construction companies added only 2,000 workers last month, which is a big slowdown from the months before. Some other businesses that thrived during the pandemic, like Amazon and Clorox, have also reported a slowdown in their need for workers. And this is kind of what the Fed wants to see throughout the economy - some cooling of demand and inflation but not so much cooling that it tips the economy into recession.
SHAPIRO: So on balance, was this a good jobs report?
DETROW: It was. It was very good. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.6%. That's the lowest since the start of the pandemic. Unemployment among African Americans and Latinos actually declined. One disappointing piece in this report, though - the labor force actually shrank in April after big gains in February and March. You'd like to see the labor force growing to provide some additional breathing room in what remains a very, very tight labor market.
SHAPIRO: That's NPR's chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley. Thank you.
DETROW: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/wages-are-rising-but-cant-keep-up-with-cost-of-living-and-could-worsen-inflation | 2022-05-12T16:15:07Z |
The LA band Warpaint was not, of course, able to tour for the past two years. But the time did give its members – singer and guitarist Emily Kokal, bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg, guitarist and singer Theresa Wayman and drummer Stella Mozgawa – a chance to put the finishing touches on a fourth album, Radiate Like This, out today.
Morning Edition's Rachel Martin spoke to Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman from member station KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif. about learning how to parent while an active musician, what they've learned about that process from one another and the one song on the new album that's their favorite (spoiler, it's "Hips").
You can listen to this conversation using the audio player at the top of this page.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/warpaint-returns-radiating | 2022-05-12T16:15:14Z |
Some 300 young musicians from around the country are in New York for Jazz at Lincoln Center's annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival. They're attending workshops and jam sessions, meeting professional musicians and competing.
Skylar Tang, 16, has already won her award. The San Francisco Bay Area trumpet player is the winner of the Dr. J. Douglas White Composition and Arranging Contest, an honor bestowed on an original composition written and arranged for big bands by a high school student.
Tang said the vibe of her winning piece, Kaleidoscope, is kind of "frantic," a bit like her life right now. "There's a lot of stress in the tune. I go to school. I have assessments and tests. Maybe that has something to do with it," she said.
It took her about seven months to create her work. Composing for big band is "quite a process," Tang said. As a result of her win, she'll receive $1,000 and a composing and arranging lesson with Grammy winner and longtime Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra member, Ted Nash. The orchestra also recorded Tang's piece.
To determine the winner, Nash listened for "several factors like the strength of their thematic material, their harmony, their use of the instruments, the overall feeling of the music."
Tang's entry was remarkable for its maturity, Nash said. "You have the melody, you have solos, you have backgrounds, you have a development, sometimes we call it a 'shout chorus,'" he said. "She has all of these important elements in the piece, but it's deeply personal as well."
Nash is thrilled that students have come from all over the country to participate in the Essentially Ellington Festival. "We've gone through a period where people weren't that interested in big bands," he said.
Nash credited Wynton Marsalis, managing and artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, with reversing that trend by "understanding the importance of having an orchestral vision and orchestral voice in jazz."
Tang said she's inspired by all kinds of music from different time periods, videos of which she devours on the Internet. Her training began with classical piano when she was a little girl; she started playing in her school jazz bands in sixth grade. She said she "absolutely loves" trumpet player Roy Hargrove and admires contemporary artists like pianist Aaron Parks and drummers and composers Terri Lynne Carrington and Kendrick Scott Oracle.
During quarantine, Tang learned how to make split screen videos to share her cover arrangements online. In her cover of Do You Wanna Do Nothing With Me by Lawrence, she plays trumpet, guitar, drums and keyboards.
"That's what I love about music. It's about creating. It's about expressing yourself and it's about innovation," she said.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-06/who-says-big-band-jazz-is-for-old-people-not-this-teenage-composer | 2022-05-12T16:15:20Z |
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
1970, the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, peace, love, rock 'n' roll. And a 21-year-old Michael Brody, heir to a fortune made by oleomargarine, pledges to give his $25 million inheritance away.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "DEAR MR. BRODY")
MICHAEL BRODY: Well, I personally think that maybe I'll be setting a new trend. Like, I think if people like Onassis or the Kennedys or some of these people use some of their money and give to the poor, and if everybody just gave $1 million, if every millionaire gave $1 million to one foundation and said, look; let's really go into this...
SIMON: Michael Brody wrote a few checks, scattered hundred dollar bills into crowds. He went on "The Ed Sullivan Show," opened for the Grateful Dead, offered to finance an end to the war in Vietnam, and invited people to send him letters from all over the world, into which they poured their fondest dreams and most desperate needs. But his fame soon curdled, and then he died within three years after being hospitalized for mental health issues. The story of his brief celebrity and the appeal sent to him are told in Keith Maitland's new documentary, "Dear Mr. Brody." And Keith Maitland joins us from Austin. Thanks so much for being with us.
KEITH MAITLAND: Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: As we learn in this film, most of the letters sent to Michael, he never read, never even opened.
MAITLAND: That's right. The story has been more than 50 years in the making in a lot of ways, but for the letters at the heart of our storytelling, most of these stories are just seeing the light of day now as we're opening them.
SIMON: Yeah. And give us some idea the range of stories. And they're all postmarked, I guess, January 1970.
MAITLAND: That's right. Well, you know, Michael Brody said to the world, if you need money, I want to help. Just tell me what you'll do with it, and I'll send you a check. And so the stories range literally every facet of want, desire and need you can imagine. The ones that spoke to us are the personal stories, are the very wonderful, almost diary-like entries that paint a picture of what life was like for the letter writer and, you know, as a whole, what life was like in the world at that time.
SIMON: Lots of people send pictures of children. People have trouble paying their hospital bills. There's stories of love and loss, addiction. The mother and daughter both wrote, not knowing the other one had.
MAITLAND: It's pretty incredible. And, you know, our producer, Melissa Robin Glassman, who discovered these letters in the storage locker in Los Angeles, she started seeing, as she opened the letters, the stories you just laid out. She saw a letter from a little girl who had never had a winter coat. She asked for $5. We saw stories from parents whose children were in college and were in debt. We saw parents whose sons were in Vietnam. There were letters from hippies looking to buy land out West to start a commune. There were letters from entrepreneurs and artists and filmmakers looking for a chance to begin their professional lives. Every human fate you can imagine is represented in some way in these letters.
SIMON: Yeah. It was a little uncomfortable for me, I've got to tell you, to see these families. And it was hard for me not to feel some - well, maybe I'm not entitled, but some anger that Michael Brody had invited them to pour out their souls and then the letters weren't even opened.
MAITLAND: I mean, I think that's a fair reaction. But I take a different tack. I take a look at what Michael Brody intended when he made this big offer. And I look at what befell him as reality came crashing down and swirled all around him. I think that he offered hope to the world and unfortunately was not able to follow through on that offer. But I don't get the sense that most people who wrote letters truly believed that he was their only option or that they would really - you know, would really find this pot of gold at the end of Brody's rainbow.
SIMON: The feel-good story began to sour astonishingly quickly, didn't it?
MAITLAND: Everything in the story moved fast. Michael and Renee were literally the first instance...
SIMON: Renee was Michael's wife. yeah.
MAITLAND: Yeah. Michael and Renee Brody, they were the first instant celebrities of the 1970s. And at that moment in history, there's a reckoning that's coming. You know, the 1960s were so turbulent. They offered so much desire for change. The generation gap, you know, and the gap between the haves and the have nots were all kind of churning all at this exact moment. And then here comes Michael Brody, who says, let's start anew; let's start fresh. People seized on it. They jumped on it. And, yes, it moved fast.
SIMON: But within days, he was raising his middle finger at crowds and saying people were trying to kill him. What were the pressures that began to work on him? What went wrong?
MAITLAND: People who start off with a good intention of wanting to spread money around to help often find it overwhelming. There's just so much want. There's so much need. And people are so desperate at that moment in time and in every moment in time that I'm not surprised that Brody was overwhelmed walking down the street. You know, he gave out his home address. He gave out his home phone number. So when it came to a head as quickly as it did, I think that's human nature unfolding. You know, nobody was there to pump the brakes and say, let's break this thing down. Let's be logical. Let's call the lawyers and the accountants and do things, you know, the right way.
SIMON: To a degree that would have been buying into the system he didn't want any part of, right?
MAITLAND: That's right. Yeah.
SIMON: He seemed to have an odd idea of how much money he really had, too.
MAITLAND: Yeah, it's a real cavalcade of numbers. You know, it starts at 25 million and quickly becomes 50 million, 100 million, a billion, a trillion. You know, as Andy Janquitto, the author of the manuscript, "The Oleomargarine Heir," says in the film, Michael was not very good with numbers. And then we do see an unraveling that occurs that is only exacerbated by drugs, only exacerbated by the crush of the crowds and the pressure of the media relationship that he cultivated very quickly.
SIMON: I guess we should get specific, too, about the drugs. It was PCP.
MAITLAND: Yeah, it's really the introduction of PCP that changes Michael's view of himself and changes, you know, really the way the story goes.
SIMON: All these years later, why make a film about this man and this episode? What does it say about our lives today, do you think?
MAITLAND: Well, you know, I don't know that we would have made a film about Michael if it weren't for the letters. I mean, actually, I do know that we wouldn't have made a film just about Michael if it weren't for the letters.
SIMON: You made the film, after all. You're in a position to say that, yeah.
MAITLAND: Yeah, that's right. The human condition is just laid bare in very personal missives. But it wasn't just that this is a story of something that happened 50 years ago. I can't think of a single letter that I read that couldn't apply to the world I live in today. And knowing that there's that much want and need, knowing that people are living in that much desperation, it's a reminder that the world as we know it is still desperately in need of change.
SIMON: Keith Maitland is director of the documentary "Dear Mr. Brody," now streaming on Discovery Plus. Thank you so much for being with us.
MAITLAND: Thank you, Scott. It's my honor.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/a-millionaire-wanted-to-give-away-his-money-dear-mr-brody-shows-how-it-went-awry | 2022-05-12T16:15:26Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court signaling an intention to overturn Roe v. Wade makes HBO's upcoming documentary "The Janes" extremely timely. It chronicles the real-life story of a group of women who helped those seeking abortions in Chicago more than 50 years ago. NPR's Mandalit del Barco has this report.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Heather Booth was on vacation when she got the news that the Supreme Court may soon rule that abortion is once again illegal in the U.S.
HEATHER BOOTH: I was horrified but not surprised. For years, illegitimate authorities have been chipping away, state by state, rule by rule, impacting women's lives on the most intimate decision of our life.
DEL BARCO: Booth, who is 76 years old, has been fighting for women's reproductive rights since she was a 19-year-old college student. After helping organize Black voters in Mississippi, she turned her activism to women with unwanted pregnancies.
BOOTH: A friend of mine said that his sister was pregnant, nearly suicidal, not prepared to have a child. Could I help her find someone to arrange for an abortion?
DEL BARCO: Until the Supreme Court decision in 1973, abortion was a felony in the state of Illinois, as in most of the country. Booth says she found a willing doctor who promised safe, secure procedures.
BOOTH: And word spread, and someone else called. And at that point, I realized we better set up a system.
DEL BARCO: Booth gathered an underground collective of women who called themselves Jane. Some were anti-war activists or women's lib members, some were homemakers and at least one was a nun. They say that between 1968 and 1973, they provided free or low-cost abortions to more than 11,000 women. Booth tells her story in "The Janes." The documentary begins with a cautionary tale. Dorrie Barron tells us what it was like for her to get an abortion before the Janes and Roe v. Wade came along. Barron says someone in the Chicago mob took her to a seedy motel with another young, pregnant woman.
DORRIE BARRON: I was petrified. They spoke all of three sentences to me the entire time. Where is the money? Lie back and do as I tell you. Get in the bathroom. That was it. I was just laying there trying to, you know, get my breath, and I knew I was bleeding. And all of a sudden, they were gone. They just left.
DEL BARCO: The film shows how the Jane Collective was different. Judith Arcana was one of them.
JUDITH ARCANA: Women did awful things out of fear and desperation. We knew that some would be injured. Some would die. So we thought, we can be of use. You need an abortion. We'll help you. Call this number, and ask for Jane.
DEL BARCO: Posting the phone number on bulletin boards and underground newspapers, the Janes set up a clandestine system. In the film, they describe taking turns helping the women who called. One Jane would drive them to a home they called the front, where another Jane would counsel them.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: We would try to have refreshments, talk to them, try to keep a pleasant atmosphere for people that were probably terrified out of their minds.
DEL BARCO: Then they'd move to another Jane's home, what they called the place.
BOOTH: The person who was doing the abortion came in. He explained exactly what he was doing. This is going to hurt, but it won't hurt for long. Try some deep breathing - very reassuring.
ARCANA: For the women coming through, they were putting their trust in somebody who was breaking the law.
DEL BARCO: The Janes say their clients included wives and girlfriends of police officers. Eventually, the Janes learned to perform the procedure themselves. Filmmakers Tia Lessin and Emma Peldes.
TIA LESSIN: There's audacious women who outmaneuvered the Chicago Police and the Catholic Church and the Chicago mob to help other women in need.
EMMA PILDES: They want people to feel like they could do this, too.
DEL BARCO: In 1972, police raided the operation and arrested seven of the Janes, including Arcana, who told NPR she was a nursing mother at the time.
ARCANA: When abortion is not health care, it's felony homicide. So we had about over 100 counts of felony homicide against us, each of us.
DEL BARCO: The Janes hired an attorney who had represented the Black Panthers. She delayed the case for months, and charges were dropped when the Supreme Court ruled abortion was legal in 1973. Nearly 50 years later, Roe v. Wade could be overturned. Three of the Janes - Heather Booth, Judith Arcana and Marie Lerner - say they hope their story inspires others.
ARCANA: I think that folks who watch this film will be prompted to ask themselves, what would I do?
BOOTH: I'm hoping that it's actually a call to action. Anybody can be a catalyst for change.
MARIE LERNER: We need to turn the anger, the fear, the concern we've got into protest.
DEL BARCO: "The Janes" airs on HBO next month. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/a-timely-new-hbo-doc-chronicles-a-secret-group-of-women-who-provided-abortions | 2022-05-12T16:15:32Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. By now, you've surely heard about this week's bombshell report out of the Supreme Court, a leaked draft opinion circulated among the justices that suggests that the court is ready to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion nationwide nearly 50 years ago. Although the leak itself came as a surprise, the conclusion of the draft decision really did not. A solid conservative court majority and the reversal of Roe has been a top conservative project for years, steered by conservative academics and activists, facilitated by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and cemented by President Trump's election to office. But now McConnell and his allies professed to be furious over what they say is a breach of the court's protocols.
We wanted to know more about how the Supreme Court reached this point and what this moment could mean for future polarizing social issues, so we called David Kaplan. He is a former editor at Newsweek who has written about the court for years. He's the author of "The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside The Supreme Court In The Age Of Trump." And he is with us now. David Kaplan, welcome. Thank you for joining us.
DAVID KAPLAN: Glad to join you again.
MARTIN: So if you would just start by telling me your reaction to the draft opinion, what struck you about it?
KAPLAN: It was predictable. If you listen to the oral argument, this is the direction in which they were going, and they sort of made good on what we all thought they were going to do. Now, liberals have been crying wolf about what the court would do for Roe for years, and 30 years ago, they pulled back from overturning Roe. But bottom line is, I'm not surprised. I'm, of course, shocked by the leak.
MARTIN: Well, tell me more about the tone of the decision itself. I noticed you had some thoughts about that.
KAPLAN: It's pure Alito. Any attempt at moderation, at just the bare facts, just the fact that we're overturning Roe isn't in there. You'd have a very different opinion if, for example, it came from Chief Justice Roberts. And Alito was sort of built for this moment, and he'll go down in history for this opinion, for the good or for the bad, depending on your perspective.
MARTIN: President Biden called the draft opinion radical, and he's not alone in that. And why - I know that you're not speaking for him, but why does he and why do others call it that? And have we seen opinions like this in modern court history?
KAPLAN: I wouldn't say quite like this, given how important an issue Roe is, but I would argue that the court's radicalism isn't brand-new. In their decisions over the last 15 years, when they largely gutted the Voting Rights Act, when they largely got rid of McCain-Feingold campaign finance, when they got rid of the District of Columbia's gun control law, the court has demonstrated disdain for what other branches have done. And the irony, of course, is that in those rulings, the court ignored what the, quote-unquote, "people's elected representatives" wanted to do. And then, of course, now in overturning Roe in this draft opinion, we hear Sam Alito talking about fidelity to the people's elected representatives. I would use less the word radical. I would use the word hypocritical.
MARTIN: So talk about how we got to this point. I mean, it's not escaped anybody's attention, I think, who's following this issue that this court has become the focus of so much attention. There's a recent - you know, confirmation hearings have become so sort of poisonous that digging into people's pasts, assigning views to them that they may or may not have this sort of thing. I mean, I don't - nobody seems to be happy about the process. And that's a reflection of the fact that the court is sort of at the focal point of these very difficult issues. So how did we come to that, especially given that - you know, playing - you know, the play on the title of your book, "The Most Dangerous Branch," I mean, the reason you called it that is because it was originally supposed to be the least dangerous branch. So how did we get to this point, as briefly as you can?
KAPLAN: Well, we got to this point because we have had a triumphalist court for 50 years. And whether you're a liberal politically or a conservative, I think that's a bad thing. I think for better and for worse, we ought to be leaving most of our tough social issues to the political branches. You don't have to think well of Congress, and I surely don't these days, to think that they are still the most legitimate branch of government to be resolving these issues. And I argued in the book that Roe in the first place should not have been considered by the court 50 years ago. They should have ducked the issue.
That isn't because I'm anti-abortion. If I were a legislator, I would be - vote for extremely lenient abortion laws. But it's because I don't think these issues belong at the Supreme Court. And the price we've paid for that is the politicization of the court over the last 50 years and it becoming the focal point of confirmation hearings and of at least the radical right's whole electoral campaign. That's what Trump partially ran on in 2020, and he - part of the reason he won in 2020 was because of the Supreme Court. That's bad for the court, and it's bad for the country.
MARTIN: So going forward, do you think this will affect future rulings? Of course, the argument now is that however much this draft ruling may deny it, people look at this and say that this presents a dangerous precedent for the erosion of other things that are now part of society, like same-sex marriage, for example, access to contraception, you know, for example, even interracial marriage, you know, for example. Do you think that that's true?
KAPLAN: Yes. I'm not always known for my short answers, but I think, in short, this now radical conservative majority is feeling its oats. I don't think interracial marriage is at stake. I don't think contraception is at stake. I don't think there's much political will in the country to look at those issues. I'm inclined to think that's even true for same-sex marriage, but I think perhaps in other areas, you'll see this court unbridled. They will use their five votes to go after precedents they don't like.
You know, the great liberal lion of the 20th century, William Brennan, liked to hold up his five fingers. If you talked to him, and I did over the years, he'd hold up his five fingers and say, you know, around here, with five votes, you can do anything. He said it with a smile, but he was deadly serious. And I think the conservatives, now firmly in control of the court with five or six votes, will take out that majority for a spin. They've done it here, and the court will survive. They'll - it'll survive the leak. It'll survive Roe. Its legitimacy will be eroded, but they still have the votes.
MARTIN: That is David Kaplan. He's the author of "The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside The Supreme Court In The Age Of Trump." David Kaplan, thank you so much for joining us.
KAPLAN: My pleasure.
MARTIN: Religious conservatives have been critical to the effort to overturn Roe v Wade. On tomorrow's program, we'll learn how abortion became a key issue among the religious right. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, an historian who studies religion and gender, says the path is not as clear-cut as people may think. Tune in tomorrow to hear that conversation. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/abortion-doesnt-belong-at-the-supreme-court-says-most-dangerous-branch-author | 2022-05-12T16:15:38Z |
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
California hit a major milestone for clean energy last weekend. For part of an afternoon, the state produced enough renewable energy to meet 100% of demand for the first time. But that doesn't mean fossil fuels are going away quickly. Solar and wind power have been booming, but getting off fossil fuels completely could take decades, even in California. Lauren Sommer from NPR's climate team joins us. Lauren, thanks so much for being with us.
LAUREN SOMMER, BYLINE: Hi there.
SIMON: Even if only for a moment, how did California set the record?
SOMMER: So California has been installing a lot of wind and solar. Renewables have more than tripled in the last 15 years. And the day that record fell had ideal conditions. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, and it wasn't too hot yet, so the state didn't need a huge amount of power for air conditioners. But there's a catch. Natural gas power plants were still running at that time. California was making more power than it needed, so it was sending some out of state. So technically it was enough renewable energy for 100% of demand in state because even if California wanted to, it can't actually turn off all the natural gas power plants.
SIMON: Why can't they turn them off if they're getting enough from solar and renewables?
SOMMER: Yeah. It has to do with a very tricky time of day, which is when the sun sets. All that solar power goes away quickly, and California has to replace it with something. Natural gas power plants fill in that gap, but that means a lot of them run all day because these huge industrial facilities take hours to turn on. So if you need them in the evening, you can't turn most of them off, even if you have solar power you could be using instead.
SIMON: California's looking at other technologies that might replace natural gas?
SOMMER: Yeah, and that's mostly giant batteries. So the idea is to store solar and renewable energy in batteries during the day and then use it later in the evening when it's needed. Batteries are growing, but they're still a small fraction of what's needed. So when I talk to fossil fuel companies in California, they don't sound too nervous. Alex Makler is a vice president at Calpine, which runs a number of natural gas power plants.
ALEX MAKLER: We very much support, you know, new technologies and innovation and decarbonizing the grid. But there are certain things that the natural gas fleet, you know, does very well and that cannot be easily or, at this point, economically replaced.
SIMON: So what does this mean for California's goal to become carbon neutral? Is there a projection for how long fossil fuels will still be here?
SOMMER: Yeah, that's what's interesting here. California has led the country in climate change policy. You know, the state's trying to reach 100% carbon-free power by 2045. Energy experts I speak to, you know, like Mark Specht at the Union of Concerned Scientists, say that renewables and batteries have come a long way and they're going to keep making progress.
MARK SPECHT: We should be doing everything we can to build huge amounts of solar, huge amounts of wind, huge amounts of energy storage. And that's going to get us at least, like, 90% of the way there to a clean grid. It's really that last 5 to 10% where it starts to get much harder.
SOMMER: That's because there are rare events, like, you know, going many days without sunshine or wind where you would need something else. That could be energy storage that lasts a long time. It could be using natural gas power plants if you're burying the carbon emissions underground so they don't warm the planet. You know, California's really a bellwether in this quest to go carbon-free. And it shows even where there's been a lot of progress, the road to fully eliminating fossil fuels is, you know, still being figured out.
SIMON: Lauren Sommer from NPR's climate team, thanks so much for being with us.
SOMMER: Yeah, thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/for-a-brief-moment-calif-fully-powered-itself-with-renewable-energy | 2022-05-12T16:15:44Z |
Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:
Alexander Skarsgård lost his voice — and found catharsis — as a Viking berserker: The Swedish actor describes himself as "quite a mellow guy." Playing a Viking warrior in the film The Northman gave Skarsgård a chance to tap into his animalistic nature.
Bonnie Raitt extends the boundaries of her signature sound with 'Just Like That ...': More than 50 years after the release of her first album, Raitt's voice remains a subtle instrument: earthy with an ache around the edges. Its sly intimacy is, as always, a deep pleasure.
Comedy writer Jessi Klein reflects on the disorienting experience of new motherhood: Having a baby changes everything: "There's just no way to comprehend how completely your old identity vanishes," Klein says. Her new book is I'll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife & Motherhood.
You can listen to the original interviews and review here:
Alexander Skarsgård lost his voice — and found catharsis — as a Viking berserker
Bonnie Raitt extends the boundaries of her signature sound with 'Just Like That'
Comedy writer Jessi Klein reflects on the disorienting experience of new motherhood
Copyright 2022 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/fresh-air-weekend-actor-alexander-skarsgard-comedy-writer-jessi-klein | 2022-05-12T16:15:51Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Last year, an EPA study found that Indigenous people are far more likely than non-Indigenous people to lose land due to the expectation of future sea level rise. And African Americans are 40% more likely than non-African Americans to live in areas where extreme temperatures could lead to an increase in deaths. That's the kind of evidence that suggests that communities of color are more likely to be affected by environmental conditions than others and to be affected more severely, which is why activists call these matters of environmental justice. But a recent study conducted by The New School and a nonprofit found that only a tiny fraction, just over 1%, of the funds donated by top donors to environmental causes focus on environmental justice.
To help close that funding gap, the Donors of Color Network called on the top philanthropic organizations to pledge 30% of their environmental grants to Black, Indigenous and people of color-led groups. Last month, they announced a significant milestone - that they've secured $100 million in funds to benefit climate-related projects in communities of color. To learn more, we called Isabelle Leighton. She is the interim executive director of the Donors of Color Network. Isabelle Leighton, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.
ISABELLE LEIGHTON: Thank you, Michel.
MARTIN: So I just wanted to establish some data on the argument that communities of color are more affected by climate change for people who aren't familiar with this concept. For example, last year, an EPA study found that African Americans are 40% more likely to live in areas with the highest expected increase in deaths related to extreme temperature. Indigenous people are 48% more likely to live where the highest percentage of land is projected to be lost to sea rise. So if I could just ask, how did you know about this? How did people in your network become aware of these of this kind of information? I'm just not sure that this is something that most people think about.
LEIGHTON: In 2019 - actually, earlier - we realized that a lot of philanthropy was not really telling the stories of how people of color who - many of whom they themselves have experienced racial and ethnic discrimination. Those individuals and those families and those in some cases foundations were actually making a really big difference. And so for us, we wanted to make sure that there was a place for these donors to connect with each other. We found that there are 1.32 million people of color with assets over a million dollars who are in the U.S., and that there's a great opportunity to organize and raise the voices of this work.
And for us, that means we have to take a 360 approach, which not only includes people of color who have wealth, but also making sure that bipoc communities that are doing the work to actually create racial equity and racial justice are at the seat at the table for a lot of the conversations within philanthropy. When we came together and were founded in 2019, we came up with four priorities. And this was from our members. We focused on climate justice, politics and democracy, culture and arts. And we have a new group on regenerative economy and economic justice. And so this Climate Funders Justice Pledge came out of the members who really wanted to organize around climate justice.
MARTIN: So when you approached donors, how did that conversation go? How did they - I mean, to the degree you feel comfortable, I'd just love to know what those conversations were like. Did you - did they understand immediately what you were saying? Did you feel like you had to connect some dots?
LEIGHTON: A lot of the members that we have are people of color themselves, so they have the lived experiences either personally or within their families or within their communities of a lot of these injustices, including what happens when there's some sort of, you know, climate disaster in your community like air quality. You know, for example, I've heard one of our groups, Green Latinos, they often mention that 68% of Latinos in the U.S. live in neighborhoods with air quality that's below the federal standards. So people of color across all wealth spectrum and all income levels are aware of these inequities - right? - and aware of the strategies that communities of color have been putting forth.
But once we started to have these conversations within philanthropy and, you know, mainstream philanthropy - and, of course, it's not surprising that there was a lot of bias when we started these conversations, right? Because of the way that mainstream philanthropy is structured, a lot of the decision-makers are not living very, you know, connected to these communities. They aren't centering people of color in their decision-making, whether that's within their own leadership or with the type of groups that they have relationships with. So, of course, they're not going to have very sophisticated understanding of what these movements are capable of.
MARTIN: So philanthropic organizations aren't the only groups that fund climate change initiatives. I mean, there's corporate money. There's state and federal government funds. I mean, the EPA has an Office of Environmental Justice. Well, why put the focus on philanthropy?
LEIGHTON: We realized that there is actually a lot of work to be done in philanthropy to address the historic white supremacy that exists. And what I mean by that is structurally there are biases that the decision-makers within philanthropy make when they - those biases, if they're not able to have voices of people of color at the decision-making table or have access to some of the great work that we're trying to share with them, they're going to continue to repeat the harms that have happened for decades. And plus, it's not just what we say. It's not just a checkmark for diversity, equity and inclusion. This is actually the way that we will have a more winning strategy, an effective strategy for climate, right?
So for us, we think that this is why philanthropy is important, because first of all, it's our sector. And we feel that we have to be accountable within the sector that we work. Second, that there is a lot of opportunity for philanthropy to move quickly and to really fund these groups. They're doing the long game, you know, in creating different solutions and actually doing policy development. And they just need the resources that these philanthropic institutions have access to.
MARTIN: Isabelle Leighton is the interim executive director of the Donors of Color Network. Isabelle Leighton, thank you so much for talking with us.
LEIGHTON: Thank you.
MARTIN: If you want to hear more of our conversation, plus how activists are trying to connect the fight to save the planet with the fight for racial justice, you can download last week's Consider This podcast from NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/fund-secures-100-million-to-benefit-climate-change-initiatives-for-people-of-color | 2022-05-12T16:15:57Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now to Eastern Europe, where first lady Jill Biden is in the middle of a four day trip to Romania and Slovakia, two NATO allies that border Ukraine. It's the most high-profile trip of Biden's time as first lady, and she spent the day meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Bucharest, Romania's capital. NPR's Scott Detrow is traveling with the first lady, and he's with us now from Bratislava, Slovakia, where they just landed. Scott, welcome. Thank you for joining us.
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: Hey, Michel. Always good to talk to you.
MARTIN: You know, I'm excited to report that I understand that one of the people the first lady met today in Romania was a woman that we spoke with when we were reporting from Bucharest just a few weeks ago. And I hope people remember Anastasiia Konovalova.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
ANASTASIIA KONOVALOVA: We came three weeks ago, and it was still a horrible mess at the border. And I think subconsciously we already knew we were opening a school because we brought math books. I brought one sweater and a big box of math books.
MARTIN: So today, she met with the first lady. Tell us about it.
DETROW: Yeah, as most people probably know, Jill Biden is a teacher. In fact, she's kept her full-time job teaching at a Virginia community college. And the first lady of Romania, Carmen Iohannis, is also a teacher. So they toured a school in Bucharest together. It's a school that's brought Ukrainian refugee students in. And they met with students in classrooms. They also had a roundtable with teachers working with Ukrainian children and Anastasiia was part of it. She sat two seats over from Biden, and she told her a lot of the same story that she told you a few weeks ago. And afterwards, Biden told us she was really moved by that story.
JILL BIDEN: As a teacher, I so appreciated what that one teacher did by saying, I'm a teacher? We're going to you know, we're going to organize this. We're going to get it together. And I think, you know, really, in a lot of ways, the teachers are the glue that helps these kids deal with their trauma and deal with the emotions and help give them a sense of normalcy.
DETROW: And several of the teachers that Dr. Biden saw today are refugees themselves. And so many of them said the same thing, that this helps children acclimate. And it also provides stability and a little bit of normalcy right now.
MARTIN: Well, so tell me, what other moments stood out to you today?
DETROW: There was one moment in the first classroom that Biden visited. It was younger kids, 5 to 7-year-olds. They were doing an arts and crafts project where they were cutting - they were using their hands to cut out hands of Ukrainian or Romanian flags. Then they were taping them together to make butterflies and then writing messages on them. And Biden was talking to a 7-year-old Ukrainian girl named Mila (ph), and she brought Mila over to the press, basically right in front of my microphone.
BIDEN: You want to hear her message? Tell them your message.
MILA: (Through interpreter) I want to return to my father.
DETROW: And it's just a reminder that, you know, most Ukrainian men are not allowed to leave the country right now in case the military needs them. So many of these refugees are women and children. In fact, the U.N. estimates about a third of the refugees in Romania right now are Ukrainian children.
MARTIN: So remind us of what the broader context of the visit is.
DETROW: Well, the U.S. has supported Ukraine, of course, since the war began. But you've seen this this gradual increase in just how overt that support has become, especially military support. And the U.S. and other NATO allies have increased the amount and the firepower of the military support that they're providing. And at this moment, the first lady is the latest in a long line of high-profile U.S. officials to come to Eastern Europe to show support for Ukraine and support for the allies doing the bulk of the work taking in and helping refugees like Romania and Slovakia. So tomorrow, Biden will be in eastern Slovakia, touring the Ukraine-Slovakia border. And she's also going to be making the point to meet with Ukrainian mothers on Mother's Day.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Scott Detrow. He's joining us from Bratislava, Slovakia, where he is traveling with first lady Jill Biden. Scott, thank you so much.
DETROW: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/jill-biden-tours-romanian-school-that-brought-in-ukrainian-refugees | 2022-05-12T16:16:03Z |
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
WFH has become a WOL, way of life, for many of us these past couple of years. Kurt Vile has been making music back home in Philadelphia in his home studio. And his latest album, "Watch My Moves," has a more relaxed and raw sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PALACE OF OKV IN REVERSE")
KURT VILE: (Singing) Palace of OKV in reverse dreaming up a storm in my soul. There's a great flood of blood pumping through to my heart that goes out to the world
SIMON: The new album is extensive and thoughtful, 15 tracks that explore his mind as he juggles the business of everyday life. Kurt Vile joins us now.
Thanks so much for being with us.
VILE: Wow. Thank you so much.
SIMON: What was it like to be making music in a place so familiar to you?
VILE: Well, I mean, that's kind of where I come from. My earlier records are recorded from different homes. But, you know, around 2016, I moved to Mount Airy, a really forested part of Philadelphia. It's not the suburbs. Ever since I moved there, I was dreaming of taking it easy. You know, I was trying to get back to my home recording roots that I started in the early 2000s. It was amazing to finally be at home and not worry about getting on a plane.
SIMON: Well, let's listen, if we could, to a little of "Mount Airy Hill."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MOUNT AIRY HILL")
VILE: (Singing) Standing on the top of Mount Airy Hill. Think about flying.
SIMON: Now, some people like to record in the studio because they say it's a neutral backdrop. Tell us about your studio. Is it a neutral backdrop or do you have homey things all around?
VILE: I don't know. It depends what you mean by neutral, but it's very just comfortable. And at first the concept is like a dream, and it's comfortable. Like, I can't wait till I have my perfect space at home and it'll be so relaxed. And then you finally build it for a couple of years, and then your friends come over and they're like, all right, Kurt, what do you got? And you can't even think because your studio is in your home and you got to just keep trucking until some alchemy happens. And actually, the song you just played, "Mount Airy Hill," that's really when we like a song, was fully formed, you know, at home in my basement. And I just couldn't believe it.
SIMON: Help us understand what that alchemy feels like when it happens.
VILE: Yeah. Alchemy is like - for instance, I'll be sitting at home writing a song. And when I write a song and it comes together, it sounds beautiful. I feel it. Right away, and often you'll take that to the studio, and it's always going to sound way different than what you thought. But that alchemy is that moment where you once again capture whatever it is you might be good at, or you might just even stumbled upon not knowing you're good at it. It's just when everybody in the room knows it's a special tune. For "Mount Airy Hill," my drummer, he said looks like we're going to get away with this one.
SIMON: (Laughter) That's a compliment coming from a drummer, isn't it?
VILE: Yeah, it is.
SIMON: There are a lot of travel on this album playing strings, hitting the road. But that probably wasn't the case when you were making the album, was it?
VILE: Yeah, well, the start of this album literally was me dreaming of getting out of that life anyway, which is ironic because, you know, that was granted, you know?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOIN ON A PLANE TODAY")
VILE: (Singing) Going on a plane today. Going to chug a beer and curse my name. See you on the other side either on the tarmac or the afterlife.
There are two sessions I did while I was still touring the previous record. One was in November 2019. One was January 2020. My studio had been built then, and I knew I was going home and I was planning not to leave, you know, but a couple more months later nobody was going anywhere, you know, or at least not without being freaked out. But it's been my whole life traveling. And it's funny because I've jumped right back into it since then. I've been flying every day for the last couple of weeks on this tour, but I'm so grateful that I was home living a normal life. It really reset me.
SIMON: How did it reset you? Did it come at a time where you needed to be reset, recharged?
VILE: I think in the past I would just go on tour and come back and be completely depleted without knowing it and not even have any kind of schedule, any kind of routine at home, you know, because it's been like 10 years or something since I've been on the road. And I kind of forgot what it was like to just live a normal life. And I really needed it. Turns out, my family did too. We've always been close but just being there every day as a dad turns out it does make a difference, you know?
SIMON: Oh, boy. That's wonderful. That's - if you can get through a pandemic and have that, that's just great. You've been making music for two decades. What's the difference between Kurt Vile now and Kurt Vile then?
VILE: My first release was a best of my own home recordings, and I'm always trying to stay true to my roots where there's like an urgency because I was trying to get to a place where I could make a living off my music. And I was producing it from home. And I feel like it's an interesting and even quest to stay true to your roots and be yourself but evolve all the time, you know? Polish your craft. But don't polish it too much.
SIMON: You write about music in some of these songs. Let's listen to a little bit of the song, "Jesus On A Wire."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JESUS ON A WIRE")
VILE: (Singing) So I ring a couple chords out on my Martin Double O. And I see them floating upward and I watch them as they go into the pockets of Judas Iscariot in the sky.
SIMON: That must be quite a sensation, making music and watching it go kind of leave your heart and out into the world.
VILE: Yes. Well, that's a nice way to put it. That song in particular, I remember I was in a - I took my guitar to the hotel room somewhere in Europe when I had a day off. And I didn't touch it, the guitar, the whole time until, you know, the last second the morning was time to get back on the bus. And I just played the D Chord to the C chord, which is the same chords as my songs, like on tour song I have. And I'm like, oh, well, another song, the same chords. But the lyrics come pretty quick sometimes and you just got to be receptive to it, keep it sort of open. And it's sort of a meditation thing. So i like those type of songs. They come to you real quick. So I think that's probably why I sing about playing the music within the song, because it just kind of let it come into your brain, you know? Naturally.
SIMON: That sounds like quite a gift in life.
VILE: You know what? You're right. It is, actually.
SIMON: Yeah.
VILE: Thank you.
SIMON: Kurt Vile - his new album, "Watch My Moves."
Thank you so much for being with us.
VILE: Wow. Thank you so much. It's an honor. Really good to talk to you.
(SOUNDBITE OF KURT VILE SONG, "COOL WATER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/kurt-vile-chronicles-the-juggling-of-everyday-life-in-new-album-watch-my-moves | 2022-05-12T16:16:09Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Mother's Day is this weekend. If you are celebrating, you're a mom, a mom to be, a mother figure or maybe yourself, a beautiful bouquet goes a long way toward making the day a little brighter. And while it's great to support your local florist, you could let your own creativity blossom this year. Life Kit's Andee Tagle has tips for you on how to elevate that grocery store bouquet with a personal touch.
ANDEE TAGLE, BYLINE: Alexander Campbell, better known by his handle @acfloralstudio, has over a million followers on TikTok, and it's easy to understand why.
Hey. I have a hard question for you. What is your most favorite flower?
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL: I mean, my favorite flower changes all the time, if I'm perfectly honest with you, kind of I fall in love with a new flower every day.
TAGLE: Campbell's feed features stunning creations for every season and storyline. He's got a bouquet of black and white blooms inspired by Cruella de Vil, a rainbow arrangement for pride, another with spiky silver spray-painted leaves reminiscent of Wolverine for his X-Men series. When it comes to flowers, he's an equal opportunity florist.
CAMPBELL: I use hydrangeas a lot, and I really love carnations, which is a quite an unpopular opinion.
TAGLE: Why do carnations get such a bad rap?
CAMPBELL: I don't know. I mean, like I live in Spain, right? So in Spain, they're always associated with being like a very, very cheap flower. But I think that's so great.
TAGLE: There are no bad blooms, says Campbell. That's the first thing to remember when trying your hand at a homemade arrangement. Go for the flowers and colors that bring you the most joy. And then from there, Campbell has a few simple tips to transform that generic $10 grocery store bouquet into a better, prettier arrangement for mom - or anyone else, for that matter. First, freshness is key. Are your ends nice and green? Are your leaves still perky or starting to wilt? Pay close attention to the flowers themselves, too.
CAMPBELL: Give them a bit of a touch. Give them a bit of a squeeze. If they're nice and firm, that means that they're great. If you touch the flowers and they're quite soft, then they're not good.
TAGLE: Next, think about your presentation. A finished bouquet should have a variety of flowers and textures.
CAMPBELL: Because if you think they're all the same, they're all the same level or the same sort of size, you're going to create a very two-dimensional bouquet. And it always looks better if that's kind of movement and it's a bit more dynamic. So you can achieve that with different sized flowers, different colors flowers.
MARTIN: Or even by combining different ready-made bouquets. When you're on the hunt, keep these three elements in mind - filler like greenery.
CAMPBELL: Could be like a very cheap flower. Hydrangeas are a great filler flower because they take up a lot of space in an arrangement.
TAGLE: Then consider height and depth.
CAMPBELL: Like, have some flowers which are higher, some flowers which are lower, some which are coming out to the left, some which are going out to the right. Delphiniums, which are really tall, clematis, which are so beautiful. Spray roses are really nice as well.
TAGLE: And finally, flowers that have star power.
CAMPBELL: The really amazing ones, the ones that kind of most spoke to you at the supermarket when you found them or at your florists, and then put those in last kind of as a finishing touch.
TAGLE: Once you've made your picks, don't forget to cut all of your stems at a 45-degree angle.
CAMPBELL: So when that cut, no matter how you put the flowers in the vase, they're always going to be able to drink, so an extra layer of guarantee.
TAGLE: Then it's time to build and play. When your creation's complete, keep your bouquet lasting longer by removing any leaves below the waterline and changing out your water every day. Flower food is great too, of course. But the most important ingredient?
CAMPBELL: When you do it yourself, you put extra love, extra care, extra time into making that. And I think that's the key ingredient.
TAGLE: Be it for Mother's Day, wedding season or just because here's your reminder to stop, smell and then maybe arrange the roses. For NPR's Life Kit, I'm Andee Tagle.
MARTIN: For more tips and life hacks, go to npr.org/lifekit. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/life-kit-arrange-your-store-bought-flowers-like-a-florist | 2022-05-12T16:16:15Z |
It's a simple schoolyard insult.
For eons, people — often men — hurled "mama's boy" at each other as an emasculating put-down. To be called the son of a mother suggested an essential unmanliness. "Mama's boys" were comically inept, even pathological, in movies and television shows ranging from the pathetic Buster Bluth in Arrested Development to The Waterboy's Bobby Boucher to Norman Bates in Psycho.
Looking way, way back, Beowulf's Grendel could even be called the mother of literary mama's boys.
But a new generation of men seems to be rejecting the toxic masculinity inherent in the phrase and radically reinventing it.
"I am a proud mama's boy," declares Sahil Bloom. The glamorous 31-year-old tech entrepreneur is now awaiting the birth of his own infant son. "I expect him to be a mama's boy, in the same way. In the old sense of the phrase, it was about being a wuss or weak. But there's nothing more powerful than a mother's love."
"I am definitely a mama's boy because I love my mom," agrees college soccer star Shaquan Reid. The 21-year-old Chicago State University sophomore says he owes everything to his mother's encouragement and care. "I like having her around, motivating me, consoling me."
Reid adds that plenty of athletes are self-proclaimed mama's boys, and that's certainly true of such NFL stars as Victor Cruz, John Elway, Terrell Davis, Kurt Warner, Donovan McNabb and Michael Strahan. All starred in mama's boy-themed ads for Campbell's soup. Not long ago, Miami Dolphins linebacker Jerome Baker went viral when he couldn't find his mother in the stands during a 2019 game.
"It's OK to be a mama's boy. There's nothing wrong with it," Baker told NPR. "Everybody knew I was a mama's boy [growing up]. People did try to make fun of me. But I was different. I was proud. Lots of people wasn't proud to be a mama's boy."
These days, plenty of strong, loveable male characters who are confidently close to their moms populate screens and pages. Proud fictional mama's boys range from Percy Jackson, of Rick Riordan's young adult series, to Detective Jake Peralta in Brooklyn Nine-Nine to Luke Smith in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Mama's Boy pride is the subjects of songs and speeches.
All this is a far cry from when psychologist and bestselling author Harriet Lerner, the bestselling author of books such as The Mother Dance, first started her practice.
"During my career, mothers received the message, including from therapists, that her closeness to her sons, her failure to 'separate' and to 'let go' of her son, especially around his adolescence and then onward — that that would be a danger to the boy," she says. "That could turn him into a mama's boy and damage her son in his journey to manhood. Another false belief that shamed mothers — and made mothers even more anxious — was the belief that single mothers or households without a man could not raise sons. Because who would teach that boy to become a man?"
Such sexist double standards, Lerner suggests, can also be gleaned from comparing long-held cultural assumptions about "mama's boys" and "daddy's girls."
"Being a daddy's girl is seen as a good thing," she observes. "It means you're adorable and loved, and know how to flirt with men."
Back in the 1980s, when Lerner's two sons were children, Lerner often saw cute little girls wearing t-shirts reading 'Daddy's girl.'
"I didn't know why there weren't any t-shirts that said 'mama's boys,' " she says dryly.
These days, such shirts for boys are easy to find. In fact, Google searches for "mama's boy shirt" have notably climbed for the past few years.
Men who include 'momma's boy' on their profiles have a 7% higher probability of exchanging phone numbers with another user.
It wasn't difficult to find data proving we've evolved in our use of the phrase "mama's boy." After all, this is 2022. Every single thing is tracked by some major company, it seems, and "mama's boy" is no exception.
"There's been over 3 million mentions of terms like 'momma's boy' on people's profiles over the past few years," wrote Michael Kaye, the associate director of global communications at OkCupid, in an email. "Between December and April there was a 20% increase in these terms being mentioned. Men who include 'momma's boy' on their profiles have a 7% higher probability of exchanging phone numbers with another user."
Kaye (who also was quick to identify himself as a proud mama's boy in a phone interview) said sure, seven percent might not seem like much. "But when you think about there being millions and millions of people on dating apps like OkCupid, it's actually a pretty high success rate," he points out.
"It's a very clever strategy," agrees Helen Fisher. She's chief science advisor for Match.com. Fisher did not crunch any numbers specifically for the term "mama's boy," but she checked Match.com data about men who reference their moms in their profiles.
"It's only 1.4 percent of men who actually used the terms 'my mother,' my mom' or 'my mamma' but those 1.4 percent of men had a 26 percent increase in the likelihood to resign from the site because they had met somebody," she announced.
That sounds about right to Garret Watts, a 32-year-old YouTube personality and proud mama's boy. When he sees guys using that self-descriptor on dating apps, there's really just one word that comes to mind: honest.
After all, Watts points out, the vast majority of men are technically mama's boys, including himself. "Go ahead and call me a mama's boy," he says. " You're just calling me a human. You're just calling me a base-level emotionally responsible human."
Watts is pleased more people are reclaiming the expression "mama's boy" as a point of pride, but he says fundamentally, it's antiquated. "Let the stigma go," he says. "I say, let the phrase 'mamma's boy' burn. That belongs in the past."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/mamas-boy-is-a-flex-not-an-insult-for-a-new-generation-of-men | 2022-05-12T16:16:21Z |
Campaigning in front of a group of seniors in Brentwood, Mo., Democrat Ray Reed has no idea whether the people he's asking to vote for him will ever see his name on their ballot.
Brentwood currently sits in the 2nd Congressional District, represented by Republican Ann Wagner. It's the district Reed hopes to win in November, but thanks to a monthslong redistricting fight between Republicans in the Missouri legislature, Reed and other candidates are in the dark about the boundaries of their districts.
"Republicans control just about everything in Jeff City," says Reed, referring to Missouri's capitol. "It really kind of speaks to their incompetence that you have all the power and all the votes — and you guys can't get something as simple as a constitutionally required congressional map done."
It's possible that Republican lawmakers could come up with a last-minute plan before the legislative session is done for the year. But if that doesn't happen, it's not clear how — or whether — courts will intervene, even though everyone agrees the lines drawn in 2011 would be unconstitutional for the August primary in 2022.
State Rep. Trish Gunby, a Democrat, has had a front-row seat to what she calls the "dysfunction." She is also trying to unseat Wagner and says the redistricting process is unlike anything she's seen or expected in her legislative career.
"I started serving during the pandemic," Gunby says. "I thought that was going to be the weirdest time. We came back last year — still weird. We thought things would normalize. And I have spoken to people who have been in the building for longer than I [have]. They've been around 20 or 30 years, and they say this is the most dysfunction they've ever seen."
Dysfunction junction
Like every other state, Missouri was late to redraw its eight congressional districts thanks to delays in U.S. Census data. But as of this week, Missouri lawmakers still haven't come up with final lines for a multitude of reasons — from disagreements on where to put military bases, to a tussle between Republicans about how GOP-leaning to make the overall plan.
The biggest fight, though, is what to do with the 2nd Congressional District, which contains portions of St. Louis' metro area. Some want to keep the district primarily suburban, while others want to add rural counties that have voted decisively for Republicans in recent years.
Ben Samuels is also running for the 2nd District as a Democrat. He's raised more than a million dollars, hired staffers and is trying to connect with voters in a decidedly suburban district that's split relatively evenly between Republicans and Democrats.
Like Reed and Gunby, Samuels is bewildered as to why Missouri is such a straggler when it comes to finishing redistricting.
"The craziest part about this whole process is no one even gives lip service to 'let's do something that's best for the voters, ' " Samuels says.
Because of the impasse, candidates around the state are having to visit places that may not end up in the final version of the voting map for Congress.
State Rep. Sara Walsh is running for a heavily Republican district that takes in portions of central and western Missouri. She was at a Lafayette County GOP gathering recently, even though there's no guarantee that Republicans there will get the chance to vote for her in the 4th District.
"Just as is the story of my life, you just work extra hard," Walsh said at the gathering.
GOP state Sen. Rick Brattin, who is also seeking the 4th District seat, says the redistricting stalemate is similiarly affecting his congressional campaign. Both Walsh and Brattin are campaigning in a district that, no matter which way it's drawn, will be wider than the state of Connecticut.
"You just have to expand where the lines may be," Brattin says. "I try to use the current 4th Congressional as the guide."
State lawmakers are trying to revive the process by moving an alternative map through the legislature, but the proposal is still likely to engender opposition from both parties, especially since it splits a number of counties.
Republican state Rep. Dan Shaul says that he is hoping that lawmakers can pass a map before they adjourn for the session.
"I think there's motivation ... on both sides of the aisle to be in control of what the map looks like — to fulfill our constitutional obligation," says Shaul, who is in charge of a House committee overseeing congressional redistricting.
Cloudy resolution
If lawmakers don't pass something before May 13, there's no question that Missouri would be violating both state and federal guidelines around how congressional districts need to have equal populations.
What the remedy to that problem is, though, isn't so clear.
There have been state and federal lawsuits over the lack of progress on congressional redistricting. But Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, notes there's nothing in the Missouri Constitution giving judges the authority to draw congressional lines. (By contrast, there is very specific language stating that a panel of appellate judges draw state legislative maps if state Senate and state House commissions deadlock.)
"They don't just get to decide we're going to do something we don't have the authority to do," Ashcroft says. "I don't get to decide I have the authority to just pull people over like I'm a highway patrolman. I'm not."
Ashcroft says there is precedent for federal judges to redraw congressional districts. But he contends there's a good chance they may leave the current map in place because of a judicial precedent known as the Purcell principle. That's when judges don't intervene in election-related matters close to the date voters go to the polls.
"If we don't get a map that's passed, neither the state courts nor the federal courts have the authority to change it," Ashcroft says. "And we'd just follow [federal law] that says 'if you don't come up with a new map, you just follow the old map.' "
But it's possible that the Purcell principle wouldn't apply in Missouri's case, according to Travis Crum of Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Unlike other states in which it was invoked, like Alabama, Missouri lawmakers have failed to produce any sort of map. He says the likely outcome is that either a panel of federal judges or a "special master" will end up drawing the lines.
"What would happen in a state like Missouri is the judges would draw a 'least changed' map," Crum says. "They would look at the map. They would make very minor adjustments to achieve population equality, and they would let that map go into place."
Election uncertainty
Regardless of whether the map remains the same as it's been since 2011 or is changed slightly, the 2nd Congressional District (Wagner's district) would still be fairly competitive, which means the winner of the Democratic primary could have access to national resources after August. If lawmakers come up with some sort of deal, it's likely that the 2nd District will be relatively safe for the GOP.
For her part, Wagner said in a statement that she hopes the legislature "can come to an agreement and do their constitutional duty which is to draw a congressional map as they are supposed to do in conjunction with the census every 10 years." Wagner won in 2020 against a top-tier Democratic opponent by more than 6 percentage points in 2020.
"I am a filed candidate for Missouri's 2nd congressional district," Wagner said. "I am going to run, I am going to win, I am pleased and honored to serve in any district that the Missouri legislature decides to draw."
Candidates aren't the only ones irked by the lack of a redistricting resolution. Election officials like Rick Stream say that they're running into hard deadlines before the Aug. 2 primary — including a June one to send out ballots to overseas military personnel.
Stream says the lack of clarity is not only making it difficult to inform candidates which precincts they're in — it's also a disservice to voters.
"I don't know what the legislature is thinking about when they've got candidates in their own legislature that are running for positions in their own congressional districts," Stream says. "It's just going to make it even more of a mess and delay it even further."
Copyright 2022 St. Louis Public Radio | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/missouri-u-s-house-candidates-hit-the-campaign-trail-without-set-districts-or-voters | 2022-05-12T16:16:27Z |
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: As the country prepares for a Supreme Court ruling that could overturn Roe v. Wade, people are envisioning what the future might look like. TV writers have been bringing those stories into American homes for decades, as NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.
BLAIR: Steph Herold studies depictions of abortion in popular culture. She's a researcher with the nonprofit Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health. She says TV mostly gets it wrong.
STEPH HEROLD: Most of those characters are white, are not parenting at the time of their abortions, are wealthy, are young - kind of the exact opposite of the reality of who's getting abortion in the U.S.
BLAIR: Think HBO's "Sex And The City."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SEX AND THE CITY")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Did you really want to have a child with a guy who serves burgers on roller skates?
BLAIR: More recently, scripted TV shows have portrayed medical abortions in which a woman takes pills. In "Law & Order" last year, a teenager is taken to the hospital when she's found bleeding on the street.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LAW & ORDER")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) But what happened to her?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) She was hemorrhaging. Her tox screen shows misoprostol and mifepristone.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) The abortion pill.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) We had to do a DNC.
BLAIR: The FDA approved the use of those drugs to terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks. For Herold, this is an example of depicting extremes, not reality.
HEROLD: Showing these kind of devastating medical consequences to taking abortion pills, to me, is extremely irresponsible because we know that abortion pills are very safe.
BLAIR: Herold says a more realistic portrayal aired last year in an episode of ABC's "A Million Little Things."
HEROLD: You know, we actually see her take the pill, put it in her mouth. She sits on the couch. She's surrounded by pillows and blankets. The guy she had sex with actually flies over to Boston from the U.K. to be with her during her abortion.
BLAIR: Abortion has come up in comedies like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "BoJack Horseman." In "Jane The Virgin," Jane is a 23-year-old who was accidentally artificially inseminated.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "JANE THE VIRGIN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Are you ready for your insemination?
DIANA MARTINEZ: Jane is actually dealing with this wild telenovela premise.
BLAIR: Film scholar Diana Martinez says it was groundbreaking for "Jane The Virgin" to include conversations about abortion.
MARTINEZ: Particularly because this is a taboo subject within Latino households. You know, there's a political divide. There's a generational divide.
BLAIR: Jane's mother had Jane when she was 16. Jane's grandmother is a strict, devout Catholic. Jane assumes the only reason she's alive is because her grandmother would have forbidden her daughter to get an abortion. Turns out her grandmother did suggest her daughter have an abortion.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "JANE THE VIRGIN")
IVONNE COLL: (As Alba Villanueva, speaking Spanish).
BLAIR: Her grandmother tells Jane, but I carry that shame in my heart every day.
MARTINEZ: It's powerful because it allows for this duality to exist, that people of faith can also believe in a women's choice.
BLAIR: Balancing different viewpoints is something producer Norman Lear and actress Bea Arthur tried to do when the sitcom "Maude" became the first primetime TV show to address abortion. In 1972, not long before Roe v. Wade was decided, Maude becomes pregnant at age 47.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MAUDE")
BEA ARTHUR: (As Maude Findlay) Oh, yes, Carol. You see, on top of everything else, I'm preggy (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
BLAIR: Jokes aside, Maude agonizes over what to do. Ultimately, she and her husband decide they are too old to have a child. The story also featured a character who is the same age as Maude and also pregnant. She decides to have the child. She already has four children.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MAUDE")
ELISABETH FRASER: (As Lorraine) Actually, we had planned at stopping at four.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) Four is a nice family, Lorraine. Why didn't you?
FRASER: (As Lorraine) I couldn't do that. I mean, each to his own, but I couldn't. I don't think it's right for me to make that kind of a decision.
BLAIR: Whose decision is it? The court is considering that question. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOAN SHELLEY SONG, "OVER AND EVEN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/more-tv-shows-depict-abortion-but-few-resemble-real-life | 2022-05-12T16:16:33Z |
My father, who was a comedian, used to advise me when I was in a school play, "Don't worry if the audience walks out on you. Just if they start coming toward you."
In March, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock before an audience of millions at the Oscars, after Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, his wife.
And this week, Dave Chappelle was tackled onstage at the Hollywood Bowl by a man with a knife inside a replica gun. Security guards chased down the attacker and pulled him offstage. The Los Angeles city attorney's office has filed charges.
Dave Chappelle has been criticized for transphobic jokes in his standup sets and Netflix specials. He returned to that theme after the Hollywood Bowl incident, joking that his attacker was a trans man.
Chris Rock also happened to be on the bill, and came onstage when the assailant had been subdued, to ask, "Is that Will Smith?"
Other comedians are watching, and worrying.
"My first reaction when I saw Dave attacked was: 'Here we go again,'" said Curtis Shaw Flagg, who runs Chicago's Laugh Factory. "My second reaction was, 'Nobody's safe."
Mr. Flagg says there's been a recent increase in people trying to charge the stage at his club. He's hired more security, but knows that's hard for smaller clubs, which are staffed mostly by young, part-time servers.
"You have to give comics the opportunity to try and fail," he said. "Not every joke's going to work. Someone's always going to be offended."
Comedy can often challenge our views, or cement them. Jokes can make us grimace and squirm as we laugh...or don't. These days, anyone who objects to a routine can tweet a response, put a little scowling face on Facebook or post a 5000-word essay on Medium.
People in an audience can boo. Or just walk out, without committing assault.
Matt Walsh, the comic actor and founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade told us, "Even when Romans watched martyrs battle lions, they didn't jump in the arena to slap or stab the Christians for poor combat technique. If they were bored, they would leave early and tell their friends to meet up later at the vomitorium. Or as Cicero once wrote, 'Just shut your mouth and watch the show.'"
I'm not sure about his history, but I get the joke.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/opinion-for-comedians-safety-is-a-growing-concern | 2022-05-12T16:16:40Z |
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Lots of talk on how voters may react to the draft opinion indicating the Supreme Court might overturn the Roe v. Wade decision. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin wanted to know how things stand with health care providers and patients. Selena, thanks for being with us.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Hi, good morning, Scott.
SIMON: And let me ask you to begin with what we know that's in the statistics. Who is getting abortions in the U.S. today?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Well, people of every race, age, class in every state get abortions. Here's Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood in Great Plains, which covers Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and western Missouri. When I talked to her, she was in Wichita.
IMAN ALSADEN: We see people that are homeless. We see people that live in mansions. We are actually seeing, like, literally the full gamut of who needs abortions in our clinics.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: According to CDC, most patients in the U.S. who get abortions are in their 20s. More than 90% of abortions are done early in pregnancy before week 13. According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2020, more than half of abortions were what's called a medication abortion, which involves taking pills. Also, most people who get abortions are already parents, which kind of debunks the narrative that it's mostly teenagers who aren't ready for children.
SIMON: And you've been speaking with abortion providers about the range of circumstances by which patients come to them. What did you learn?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Right, so one OB-GYN I spoke with is Dr. Jamila Perritt here in Washington, D.C. She's president and CEO of the groups Physicians for Reproductive Health.
JAMILA PERRITT: We can go through a laundry list - you know, broken condoms, missed pills, travel, missed appointments. We can talk about sexual assault. We can talk about all kinds of reasons - genetic abnormalities, maternal indications.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: That's just a quick list, but regardless of the circumstances, Dr. Perritt and the other providers I talked with pushed back on the idea of unwanted or unplanned pregnancies. These adjectives just don't capture what's going on in people's lives. So to explain, I talked with Dr. Jennifer Kerns, who works at the University of California, San Francisco, and travels to Oklahoma to provide abortions, and here's what she told me about one of her patients.
JENNIFER KERNS: I saw a patient in Oklahoma who had four kids. She was in her mid-20s. She had been unemployed for a while. She had just gotten a job. And she found herself pregnant. And as much as she, I think, felt connected to the pregnancy and connected to her identity as a mom, she knew that she would be a better mom to the four kids and that she would be better able to care for them if she didn't bring another kid into the world.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: So she said she talks to her patients with the understanding that people know best what's the right next step in their lives.
SIMON: Of course, abortion is still legal in the U.S. now. If Roe were to be overturned and half of the states ban or restrict abortion, what could that mean for health care?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Right, so let's just run through some of the clinical situations in which someone might need abortion services - if they have a miscarriage, if their water breaks too early and they're at risk of infection, if they receive a serious diagnosis like cancer and they need to begin chemo, if fetal anomalies are detected. In all of those situations, state laws restricting abortion can have serious clinical impact on a patient's care. Our colleague Sarah McCammon told the story of one woman whose water broke at 19 weeks. She was at risk of hemorrhage or septic shock. And she had to fly from Texas to Colorado to receive care. And people who can't travel may seek unsafe abortions and face serious health consequences because of that or even die. So we will likely hear more and more situations like this when the ruling becomes final and more state restrictions take effect.
SIMON: NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin, thanks very much for being with us.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/people-of-every-age-race-and-class-in-every-state-get-abortions | 2022-05-12T16:16:46Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And finally today, singer-songwriter PJ Morton has a new album out. It's called "Watch The Sun."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WATCH THE SUN")
PJ MORTON: (Singing) Just wait till the morning. I know it's been so...
MARTIN: It's his first solo album in more than two years. And he says the journey to this moment began with the start of the COVID pandemic. In his other life, PJ Morton is a keyboardist for Maroon 5, and he was on tour at the time.
MORTON: I had been pretty busy prior to the shutdown. I was with the band over in South America, and, you know, things started getting shut down in real time. We had to fly back to the U.S. We weren't sure how long it would be - felt like maybe a month at the latest. And so I was still kind of in my mode of being overly creative and like, overly busy and just, you know, doing all of that.
MARTIN: So he didn't slow down. He continued to work on new songs, trying to make the most of the unexpected downtime.
MORTON: My laptop crashed right in the middle of it, and all the new songs that I had started to work on I completely lost, and it was devastating. It started to seep in for me that, yo, we're going to be sitting down for a little while. And so maybe you don't have to just jump into work. Maybe process everything that's happened. Like, just be present. That was the big takeaway, and it kind of started me on my path to "Watch The Sun."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WATCH THE SUN")
MORTON: (Singing) Watch the sun come out, come shining...
(SOUNDBITE OF PJ MORTON SONG, "BE LIKE WATER")
MORTON: I kind of felt like I needed a break from the break, even though I did start ideas in New Orleans, you know, in my house and then at Gumbo Studios. And me and my engineer became familiar with this historic studio that wasn't that far from us but far enough to be far, you know, about two hours from New Orleans. And, man, it was exactly what I needed. I mean, the magic was almost immediate.
MARTIN: One of the tracks on the new album is called "Be Like Water."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BE LIKE WATER, FEAT. NAS AND STEVIE WONDER")
MORTON: (Singing) Be like water. Let it flow.
MARTIN: ...Featuring the rapper Nas and one of PJ Martin's musical heroes, Stevie Wonder. And when Morton describes what inspired him to write the song, it speaks to the kind of soul-searching many people have gone through during the pandemic.
MORTON: I was listening to a podcast on happiness, and they were talking about Taoism, where that concept of be like water came from. And of course, I had heard it from Bruce Lee, but I don't know that it connected with me until we were shut down and forced to be like water, you know, and pivot and not know exactly which way we're going.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BE LIKE WATER")
MORTON: (Singing) Just let go. Be like water. Where we'll end up we don't know. Water. Just let it flow.
MORTON: I don't feel like any rapper could have just rapped on it, you know? And I kept hearing Nas's voice in my head. And I just happened to be working with Stevie on his record, and I was in the studio with him. So we were communicating often, and I let him hear it really just because I felt like it was very Stevie. I'm like - so I was like, Steve, check this out, man, you know? And he was like, if you want me to be on it, I'm down to do it. I'm like, oh, my God. You know? So Stevie actually - I actually ended up recording Stevie on it first, even though I asked Nas first.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BE LIKE WATER, FEAT. NAS AND STEVIE WONDER")
MORTON: (Singing) Be like water. Yeah, let it flow. Water...
I mean, Stevie was the biggest thing I ever, you know, shot for. And so to get Stevie to sing on a song these days is pretty, pretty rare, you know? And so that's how it came together. And I just - I couldn't believe it, really. And it just - you know, it's a full-circle moment, and it's a literal dream come true. I mean, there - I don't really have words for it. Not to mention I'm an independent artist, you know? I mean, you know, to be able to accomplish this at this level is just really special and says a lot for me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE BETTER BENEDICTION")
MORTON: Everybody on your feet. You know, just wanted to take this with you.
MARTIN: That was Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and keyboardist PJ Morton. His new solo album, "Watch The Sun," is out now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE BETTER BENEDICTION")
MORTON: ...Going to get better. (Singing) Don't worry about it. Leave it alone because it will get better, better. Hope you believe it by the end of this song. It will get better, better. Oh, you've been fighting for way too long. Better, better. You got to keep going, keep going on. It gets better, better. Oh, it ain't no need to worry. It will. Better, better. You're just adding more to your story. It will. Better, better. Oh, hang on in there. Just hang on in there. Better, better. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/pj-morton-on-new-album-watch-the-sun | 2022-05-12T16:16:52Z |
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And now it's time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: NBA playoffs, the WNBA season begins with an important absence and Shohei Ohtani making history. Howard Bryant of Meadowlark Media joins us.
Howard, thanks so much for being with us.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: Howard, conference semifinals are underway in the NBA, and - fear the deer, and bring on the leprechaun - the Boston-Milwaukee series is tied at 1-1. They play again this afternoon. How do you see this series?
BRYANT: I see it as going all the way to the wire. The Milwaukee Bucks are the defending champions. And they're playing like it. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the best player in the world, and he's playing like it. There's so much great basketball taking place. I love this matchup. But there's so much great stuff happening in the Eastern Conference, and the Western Conference as well. And even in other sports, this is just a great, great moment for - you know, this is a great time of year. The NHL playoffs is also fantastic right now. So so much to watch if you're a sports fan.
SIMON: Staying on the subject of basketball - WNBA season began yesterday. Brittney Griner, the superstar center for the Phoenix Mercury, still detained in Russia over alleged drug charges. U.S. State Department declared this week she's been, quote, "wrongfully detained." What's the latest?
BRYANT: Well, that is the latest. And I think that what's been really disturbing about this is the change in tactics. I think that people have been trying to be very respectful of the process and hoping that by not making of an international deal out of it that the political process or the legal process would take its course. Obviously, Brittney Griner is the No. 1 priority. You saw that the Phoenix Mercury had Brittney Griner patches on their uniforms, and people now are beginning to be more vocal about it. But this is going to also have a major ripple effect on the economics of the WNBA and of the women playing over there.
The reason why she was there in the first place is the reason why so many other women play over there, is because she could earn a million dollars playing in Russia, but the salary here is $230,000. So I think this is going to - also, in addition to what is happening to Brittney Griner on a personal level - and, you know, that is obviously enough. But this is also going to, you know - it's going to restart an extremely important conversation on equal pay because most of those women - for their safety, they don't need to be over there anyway. They should be paid here in the United States and should be able to earn the type of salary so they're not putting themselves in danger trying to eke out a living playing basketball - or make a better living playing basketball.
SIMON: Kentucky Derby's today. But I want to ask you finally about a real champion.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Shohei Ohtani pitched seven...
BRYANT: Unbelievable.
SIMON: ...Shutout innings for the Angels on Thursday against the Red Sox - struck out 11 players, batted in two hits himself. I think he also performed an appendectomy in the clubhouse after the game. Is there anything he can't do?
BRYANT: He can do everything. And he is the most unique player. And I got to say, this goes back to New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, who has been saying this ever since Ohtani got on the scene. He is the greatest player of all time. It sounded like hyperbole. But CC sent me a text the other day that was really true. He says, look, this guy is doing things that we did as Little Leaguers. He's turning the big leagues into the - into Little Leagues. And he's hitting. He's pitching. He's dominating as a pitcher and then dominating as a hitter as well. He won the MVP last year. And he's doing the stuff that we did when we were 12.
SIMON: Howard Bryant, thanks so much. You did them when you were 12, not me.
BRYANT: Ha, yeah. Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/saturday-sports-nba-playoffs-underway-brittney-griner-misses-wnba-start | 2022-05-12T16:16:58Z |
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
You can meet people in strange places, form bonds just because you're around each other all the time. And sometimes those are the friendships that can be the hardest to let go. KUT's Matt Largey has a story of a friendship like that. It begins at a thrift store in Texas.
MATT LARGEY, BYLINE: When Laura Young went into a Goodwill store in Austin, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. She's an antiques dealer, and she goes to thrift stores a lot looking for treasures. It's August 2018. And there's Laura, browsing the aisles, when she sees him.
LAURA YOUNG: He was sitting under a table.
LARGEY: Chiseled, strong jaw line.
YOUNG: Clearly old.
LARGEY: All white, a little banged up.
YOUNG: The hairstyle, like, looked kind of Greco-Roman.
LARGEY: Made of marble.
YOUNG: And he was gorgeous. Like, he looked great.
LARGEY: The price tag was stuck right on his face - 34.99. A bargain, right?
YOUNG: That's actually a pretty high price for Goodwill. But this was the Goodwill Boutique, which, of course, is the fancier Goodwill.
LARGEY: But this was fancy even for Goodwill Boutique - a marble portrait bust of a man, great condition and more significant than she could have imagined at the time. She bought him, got him out to the car.
YOUNG: And I strapped him in the front seat with a little seatbelt, tried to keep him safe, and I drove him home.
LARGEY: It was the start of a nearly four-year ordeal trying to get rid of it. When Laura got him home, she did some Googling. She contacted someone at an auction house in London who confirmed that he was old - like, from the first century old, 2,000 years old. Another auction house found the head in a catalog of items from a German museum in the 1930s, listed as a portrait bust of a man named Drusus Germanicus. So how did a 2,000-year-old sculpture of a Roman general's head wind up in a Goodwill in Austin, Texas?
STEPHENNIE MULDER: There are plenty of Roman portrait sculptures in the world. Yeah. There's a lot of them around. They're generally not in Goodwills.
(LAUGHTER)
LARGEY: Stephennie Mulder is an art history professor at the University of Texas.
MULDER: So the object itself is not terribly unusual. But the presence of it here, of course, is what makes it extraordinary.
LARGEY: We can't know exactly how it wound up at Goodwill, but we can guess. This particular piece was last known to be at a museum called the Pompejanum in the German city of Aschaffenburg. There's a photo of it there in the 1930s. But in World War II, Aschaffenburg was the site of a brutal battle between the Nazis and the U.S. Army.
MULDER: So we know that many of the objects were either destroyed in the bombing or looted afterwards.
LARGEY: So maybe the head comes to the U.S. in a soldier's duffle bag, maybe to Texas or maybe somewhere else. Then we can assume it sits in someone's house for decades. And somehow someone decided they didn't want it anymore, so they anonymously donated it to Goodwill - which brings us back to Laura. And she has a problem now. She's in possession of a looted ancient artwork. She can't keep it. She can't sell it. And giving it back to its rightful owners is a lot harder than it sounds.
YOUNG: At that point, I realized I was probably going to need some help. I was probably going to need an attorney.
LARGEY: So she hired a lawyer in New York who specializes in international art law. Then the negotiations began. The sculpture belongs to the Germans, so they had to work out a deal for its return. It's more complicated than you'd think. It takes a long time to figure all this stuff out.
So where is the head during this time?
YOUNG: It's at my house, in my living room.
LARGEY: Like, on your coffee table?
YOUNG: It was on a small credenza close to the entryway of our house. Every time you walk into the kitchen, you pass the head. Every time you walk into the house, he greets you. He's there. He was a constant presence.
LARGEY: And in a weird way, Laura started to get attached. She named him after the Dennis Reynolds character from the TV show "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia." He and the head have a lot in common.
YOUNG: He was attractive. He was cold. He was aloof. I couldn't really have him. He was difficult. So, yeah, my nickname for him was (laughter) Dennis Reynolds.
LARGEY: So there Dennis sat for a couple years. It might have been frustrating for Laura, but Dennis didn't seem to mind. Time works differently when you're a 2,000-year-old head. Finally, they get a deal. The Germans would take Dennis back. Last month, the movers came to get him.
YOUNG: It hurt a little for it to finally be done. But yeah, he needs to go home. He wasn't supposed to be here.
LARGEY: The terms of the deal are confidential. But the Germans agreed to let Dennis stay in Texas for one more year. So for now he lives at the San Antonio Museum of Art, on display with other Roman art. Next June, he'll get boxed up and, after 75 years, go back to Germany.
(SOUNDBITE OF HEINZ KIESSLING'S "TEMPTATION SENSATION")
LARGEY: You're still going in that Goodwill?
YOUNG: Yeah, I have gone. You know, I'm not finding Roman heads. And, yeah, it's tough when I just don't want to go to Goodwills anymore. It's like, but...
LARGEY: Yeah.
YOUNG: ...You have to (laughter).
LARGEY: Yeah.
When you find something like that, she says, you just have to keep going.
For NPR News, I'm Matt Largey in Austin.
(SOUNDBITE OF HEINZ KIESSLING'S "TEMPTATION SENSATION") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/she-found-a-2-000-year-old-sculpture-at-goodwill-it-took-years-to-get-rid-of-it | 2022-05-12T16:17:04Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
As cities around the country pursue their climate change goals, some states are passing legislation to protect the oil and gas industry. Tennessee's legislature just approved a bill that preempts local governments from banning fossil fuel projects or even regulating pipeline safety. Caroline Eggers of member station WPLN has this report.
CAROLINE EGGERS, BYLINE: Tennessee lawmakers passed that bill after Memphis stopped a planned oil pipeline through mostly Black neighborhoods and above the city's drinking water. Among those opposing the project was former Vice President Al Gore.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AL GORE: This pipeline project is a reckless, racist ripoff.
EGGERS: This was an unusual environmental justice victory in a country where many Black and brown neighborhoods have historically lived with disproportionate levels of pollution. And as Memphis environmentalist Justin Pearson says, Tennessee lawmakers swiftly responded to it.
JUSTIN PEARSON: By stripping that power away and handed it to executives who don't care about Tennessee, who don't live here, and are only using our land for their own profit gains.
EGGERS: During the legislative session, Republican Representative Kevin Vaughan defended the bill with fossil fuel industry talking points.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KEVIN VAUGHAN: It provides certainty to the regulated community, local governments as well as the general public to ensure that necessary critical infrastructure can be developed.
EGGERS: Focusing on economic arguments for developing fossil fuel infrastructure, he said...
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VAUGHAN: Markets, rather than governments, are driving future energy innovation, and that all of Tennessee's citizens have access to affordable and reliable energy.
EGGERS: But Vaughn skipped over some important details, like the impact of fossil fuels on the climate, environment and people. For example, the bill blocks cities from regulating or enforcing pipeline safety. Since gas pipelines on rare occasions can explode, neighbors often want them far away. While the bill was explicit in some areas, like excluding solar energy, it's vague in others. The bill never defines what would be considered a prohibition on fossil fuel siting or development. George Nolan, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, says courts may have to interpret the text.
GEORGE NOLAN: There's some broad language in this bill that pipeline companies, energy companies could use to intimidate local governments from standing up for their communities.
EGGERS: By intimidate, he means threatened with lawsuits. This legislation follows a trend in Tennessee of mostly white state leaders limiting the influence of local governments with large Black populations, notably in Memphis and Nashville. Sarah Houston, a Memphis water advocate, also spoke against the fossil fuel infrastructure bill, saying this should be a national concern.
SARAH HOUSTON: Though we do believe this is a bill from industry that they're trying to have replicated in multiple states in order to just route their infrastructure without any local opposition.
EGGERS: Energy legislation like this has been tested in Tennessee before. After Berkeley, Calif., became the first city to ban natural gas service in new buildings, Tennessee became one of the first states to pre-empt such an action. Now, at least 21 states have this type of law. For NPR News, I'm Caroline Eggers in Nashville. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/tennessee-passes-bill-that-protects-oil-and-gas-industry | 2022-05-12T16:17:10Z |
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Ukrainians continue to flee cities in search of shelter, food and safety. Some international aid groups are trying to provide civilians with essential supplies on the ground - food, clothing and, critically, cash.
David Miliband is the CEO and president of the International Rescue Committee, which has been working with local Ukrainian organizations. He joins us now from Brussels. Of course, he's also Britain's former foreign secretary. Mr. Miliband, thanks so much for being with us.
DAVID MILIBAND: Thank you very much, Scott. Great to be with you.
SIMON: You've recently been in central Ukraine. Please tell us what you saw and heard.
MILIBAND: I found a nation really living in fear. We traveled to Moldova, where about 400,000 Ukrainians have passed through - 100,000 stayed - but we then went into central Ukraine. And the people who are fleeing are remarkable for their resilience and their courage, but I want to remind your listeners it's all women and children because the men have stayed behind to fight. And so in addition to the obvious health needs, the economic needs, there is just this trauma very close to the surface of people who've said goodbye not just to their homes, but to their loved ones, and they don't know whether they're going to see them again.
SIMON: What do they need? What can the world provide?
MILIBAND: Some of them have quite acute health needs. Some of them have noncommunicable diseases and need medical supplies. Others need trauma support. There's a big need for psychological support because of what they've been through. And then, of course, the Ukrainian government has mandated obviously that schools are closed, but they're keeping going online classes, but the kids who are taking those online classes need educational support. And then there's a need for cash to keep the economy going and to help people pay their bills. And that's why the cash distribution that you mentioned is so important.
SIMON: Well, help us understand that, because that's - in my experience as a reporter overseas in war zones - is often overlooked, but it's absolutely vital to keep a kind of semblance of society going, isn't it?
MILIBAND: Yes, and this is a different kind of conflict in a number of ways. It's a conflict in a middle-class society where people have bank accounts, and so you can deliver cash into those bank accounts. But they're not in their own homes. They're not in their own hometowns. They've not got their jobs anymore. And keeping the economy going is absolutely vital. It's as vital as making sure that humanitarian supplies reach the besieged areas. Now, no one has reached the besieged city of Mariupol, which has been obliterated, pulverized. But in other cities, there is humanitarian access, and it's vital that we're able to reach people there because some people are disabled or old and can't get out and need to stay in their homes.
SIMON: You just spoke to the European Council on Foreign Relations and touched on what you see as what could be the impact of this war and urge Western countries to begin to plan, I guess, for what amounts to geopolitical consequences. You are very familiar in that realm. Help us understand what you sketched out for people.
MILIBAND: Yeah, the title of my speech at the European Council on Foreign Relations was "United West, Divided World," question mark. And there has been remarkable unity of action facilitated by the Biden administration, with European nations standing tall and standing up in a very strong way both on the economic front as well as the military front. But the global situation is that more than half the world's population have leaders who've refused to condemn the Russian invasion - democracies like Brazil, democracies like India. And I think it's very important that while we can't yet know how the war will end, we need to understand that the geopolitical consequences are severe and call for organizations like the Group of Seven leading industrialized democracies that are meeting next month to establish a different kind of framing for the way in which this war is understood. And my own view is that it needs to be understood in the framing of law versus impunity, law versus anarchy, and it needs to be followed up with consistency and strategy from the liberal democratic world in a way that builds a much more inclusive coalition to defend the rule of law from the kind of flagrant attempts to undermine it that we've seen recently.
SIMON: Do you have any concern, Mr. Miliband, that the IRC and other international assistance groups will be able to maintain the degree of support and conscientious support, given what could be the length of this engagement?
MILIBAND: Well, the outpouring of support for Ukrainians has been overwhelmingly strong. But I do have real fears both about the sustenance of that support and about the fact that Ukraine isn't the only crisis in the world today. Afghanistan, Syria, Ethiopia - those other crises provide a real challenge to international humanitarian aid groups. And one of the very important things the International Rescue Committee can do to help combat the sense that somehow there's a hypocrisy in the West, that we're only concerned about people in Europe or who are under siege, is to make sure that our programs in Ethiopia and in Syria and in Afghanistan are sustained while we tool up for a massive effort in Ukraine, and we're determined to do that.
SIMON: David Miliband is CEO and president of the International Rescue Committee, speaking from Brussels. Thanks so much for being with us.
MILIBAND: Thanks very much, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/the-latest-on-the-refugee-crisis-in-ukraine | 2022-05-12T16:17:16Z |
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Voters in the Philippines go to the polls on Monday. Vice President Leni Robredo is campaigning hard in the final stretch of her bid for the presidency with raucous rallies.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: It's party time.
SIMON: And there's another familiar name on the ballot - Marcos. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., known as Bongbong, son of the late dictator who ruled the country for two decades. NPR's Southeast Asia correspondent, Julie McCarthy, is covering the campaign and joins us now from Manila. Julie, thanks for being with us.
JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE: Thank you.
SIMON: Ferdinand Marcos Sr. - his wife and her famous closet, Imelda, were run out of the country by a popular uprising 35 years ago. How is it that this family that has come to personify corruption, in many ways, is staging a comeback?
MCCARTHY: Yeah, it is remarkable. Going from political exile to presidential favorite is a remarkable turn. And the Marcos family - they were early and adept users of social media. And they used it to recast their legacy, which airbrushed out the human rights abuses under Marcos Sr. and the kleptocracy of he and his wife, Imelda.
SIMON: And what does the current Marcos say he would like to do for his country?
MCCARTHY: Well, you know, he's campaigned on improving the country's pandemic response, but it's really not clear how Bongbong Marcos intends to govern. Instead, on the stump, he's relied on this one theme. Let's listen.
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FERDINAND MARCOS JR: (Non-English language spoken).
MCCARTHY: "Unity," he said in this final week of campaigning. "That's what will improve the lives of Filipinos. Unity." Now, there's a lot left blank there. And, of course, his critics say this talk of unity is nonsense when the family itself never apologized for its crimes, which were extremely divisive.
SIMON: And for the past decades, the Philippine government has been trying to recover some of the riches stolen by the Marcos family. Does that just stop if Bongbong Marcos wins?
MCCARTHY: Well, that's the worry, right? The government has recovered over $3 billion in Marcos's ill-gotten wealth, and they're still recovering. Now, Marcos Jr. claims he never possessed or even benefited from that wealth. But his opponents worry that if elected, he could find a way to defang or even kill the commission that's reclaimed what's been stolen.
SIMON: What can you tell us about Marcos's main election rival, the outgoing vice president, Leni Robredo?
MCCARTHY: Leni Robredo has cast herself, Scott, as the counterpoint to Marcos, and the two are in a blood feud. She beat him six years ago for the vice presidency in an upset victory that Marcos has not forgotten. But Robredo, who is this kind of earth mother figure, has ignited a grassroots movement that clamors for clean, honest government. And she draws huge crowds projecting that. Here she is in her hometown last night.
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LENI ROBREDO: (Non-English language spoken).
MCCARTHY: "We know that if there's a clean government, it's the people who benefit from it," she says. And the people who support her are thronged in the streets just outside my window, hoping that Leni Robredo can pull off another long-shot victory over Marcos Jr. on Monday. It's a thrilla in Manila.
SIMON: NPR's Julie McCarthy in Manila. Thanks so much.
MCCARTHY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/the-philippines-will-elect-a-new-leader-monday | 2022-05-12T16:17:22Z |
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Chief Justice John Roberts has called the leaked draft opinion around Roe v. Wade an egregious breach. The draft did not disclose his own opinions. Joan Biskupic is legal analyst at CNN and author of the book "The Chief: The Life And Turbulent Times Of Chief Justice John Roberts." Thanks so much for being with us.
JOAN BISKUPIC: Wonderful to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: What do you think this leak tells you, an expert court watcher, about the court right now?
BISKUPIC: There's been a real breakdown. First of all, the opinion itself - it's labeled a first draft, but to even be proposing to do what it says - reverse a half-century of abortion rights - is startling, and then the way it was disclosed to the American public - through a leak from a news entity - was totally unprecedented. Never before in the history of the Supreme Court has there been an early draft of this magnitude released at this stage of the process. So it's all quite disruptive to the institution and to Americans, no matter what side they're on.
SIMON: How disruptive could the investigation the chief justice promised be? I mean, these are people who work with each other.
BISKUPIC: That's absolutely right. And I have to tell you that we're not sure how deep this investigation can even go. The person who's been charged with leading it is the marshal of the court, who does oversee a police force, but it's - this is not a deep investigatory group. And here's the other thing - will the justices themselves consent to extensive interviews? What about their law clerks? Will phone logs and email trails be scrutinized? Justices communicate with outsiders. Justices communicate with reporters, and they communicate with advocates, but in a kind of a general way. They're not releasing information about opinions, but they might not want just some generic communications revealed to the marshal of the court or to the chief justice's office.
SIMON: From what you've read of the draft, does it suggest to you any particular interest on the court would have more to gain from leaking it?
BISKUPIC: I don't think it serves either side. First of all, in some ways, it would appear to present this as a pretty final document just because it's now out there. And maybe in that respect, it could benefit the conservatives who really want this outcome of reversing the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. But the outrage that it has provoked would probably cause some pause. But then from the liberal end, the three remaining liberals on the court - Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan - first of all, from what I know of them, they would never have been party to anything like this, and I doubt that their clerks would have been.
SIMON: Chief Justice Roberts is famed for saying, look, there's no such thing as an Obama judge, no such thing as a Bush judge, no such thing as a Trump judge. We are all appointed an independent. He was trying to make the case that the Supreme Court is not a political institution. Has that been damaged?
BISKUPIC: Oh, most certainly, and I think it was damaged even before this point. Donald Trump so undermined the integrity of the judiciary in that he acted as if judges who he appoints were automatically going to rule for him, and judges who were appointed by Democratic presidents would automatically rule against him. In many respects, individual judges and justices are a product of the president who appointed them. But what the chief was trying to say with that is that once an individual dons the black robe, he or she is supposed to be an impartial decider of the law. And that is a message that in recent years, it has continually been undermined, including by the Supreme Court itself, Scott, given that their lineups on religion cases, on racial cases often divide exactly along the lines of the Republican appointees in the majority and the Democratic appointees in dissent. And John Roberts is part of that. John Roberts has had a very strong agenda on trying to have more interaction between church and state. But what he is trying to argue to people is that these are not politically motivated decisions. They are based on laws and facts and the ideology much more than politics.
SIMON: This is a chief justice, after all, who saved Obamacare, who has often voted differently than some of the other conservative justices. Recognizing that we have no idea how he may cast a vote now, what - is his influence less on the court than it used to be?
BISKUPIC: It's very much less on the court. After Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018 and until the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chief Justice John Roberts was not only sitting in the center chair of the court - he was at the ideological middle, and he could control cases across the board. Now that he has far-right conservatives to his right, they don't need him. And on this case, when this Mississippi case was teed up, the state wasn't even asking for reversal of Roe v. Wade. It was only asking that its 15-week ban be upheld. I do not believe in this Mississippi case that he wanted to go this far so fast. He would vote to uphold the 15-week restriction, but wait for another case to truly decide the fate of Roe v. Wade when it had been squarely presented to the justices and it wasn't such a lunge to the right.
SIMON: Joan Biskupic is a legal analyst at CNN and a Supreme Court biographer. Thanks so much for being with us.
BISKUPIC: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-07/the-supreme-court-opinion-leak-will-go-down-in-chief-justice-roberts-legacy | 2022-05-12T16:17:29Z |
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