ReportWire

Tag: Local governments

  • Study links Amazon’s algorithmic pricing with erratic, inflated costs for school districts

    When it comes to convenience, it’s hard to beat Amazon. And that rationale isn’t limited to consumers: Many local districts shopping for supplies with public funds apply the same logic. But the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) published a study earlier this month (via The American Prospect) that illustrates the cost of that bargain. It suggests that Amazon’s “dynamic pricing” has led many schools and other localities to overpay for supplies.

    Public schools and local governments have historically bought supplies by soliciting competitive bids from local suppliers. Those vendors then respond with fixed price lists, delivery timelines and other terms. This competition — all out in the open, part of the public record — encourages low prices and transparency.

    On the surface, ordering from Amazon appears to offer competition, too. After all, the platform includes third-party vendors fighting for your dollars. But turning taxpayer funds over to Amazon’s algorithms isn’t quite that simple. That’s because the platform’s “dynamic pricing” (algorithmically driven real-time changes) is inherently opaque.

    According to the report, Amazon’s contracts with public entities don’t include fixed price lists. Instead, they include language built around swings. “This contract has a dynamic pricing structure in which the price for items listed on the online digital marketplace is driven by the market,” Amazon’s contract with Utah reads. “This contract will not need to be amended when prices fluctuate.”

    Below are some examples of wild price discrepancies for these districts. All of ILSR’s examples are from localities buying supplies from Amazon Business with public funds in 2023.

    • A City of Boulder, CO employee ordered a 12-pack of Sharpie markers from Amazon Business for $8.99. On the same day, a Denver Public Schools worker ordered the same markers for $28.63.

    • Amazon charged Clark County, WA, $146,000 for 610 computer monitors. On another day, that same order would have cost $24,000 less.

    • Pittsburgh Schools bought two cases of Kleenex for $57.99 each. On the same day, Denver Schools paid $36.91 for a single case.

    • On a single August day, Denver Schools placed two separate orders for bulk cases of dry-erase markers. One cost $114.52. The other was $149.07.

    • In March 2023, Denver Schools paid $15.39 for a Swingline stapler (sold by Amazon). A few days later, the same school system paid $61.87 for the same product (sold by a third-party seller).

    Even in that last example, ILSR says Amazon’s algorithms are the culprit. “It might be tempting to blame the seller for putting a $62 price tag on a stapler or the employee for not noticing the cost,” the nonprofit argues. “But that overlooks Amazon’s pivotal role in the transaction — and the profit it makes. Amazon’s algorithms steer shoppers’ attention, selecting featured products and organizing search results. The platform routinely prompts users to ‘buy it again,’ even when the price has jumped. For busy public school employees, it’s all too easy to simply click the buy button, under the assumption that Amazon is surfacing the best option.”

    Amazon CEO Andy Jassy (Noah Berger via Getty Images)

    One portion of the study looked at repeat orders for 2,500 “high-frequency items.” (These included Amazon-brand copy paper, Elmer’s glue, BIC pens, Lysol cleaning wipes and Crayola crayons.) In total, the jurisdictions in the study spent $3 million on those items. But based on the lowest prices Amazon charged during that period, they would have paid only $2.5 million. Across those same items, one school district could have saved 17 percent (about $1 million) if it consistently received Amazon’s lowest prices.

    What would fair market value have been for those items? Well, it’s hard to say because the algorithms are steering pricing silently in the background. A more thorough study that included the same items, bought exclusively through the traditional procurement method, would tell us much more. And recent history has taught us that trusting Big Tech’s algorithms to serve the public good (rather than its own bottom line) is a fool’s errand.

    In at least some cases, the practice routes public funds away from local vendors and toward overseas ones — and, of course, Amazon itself. In Berkeley County, WV, the school district spent $1.3 million on Amazon Business in 2023. What portion went to sellers in the state? A measly $142.

    On top of all of that, the practice has snuffed out many of the smaller vendors that traditionally competed for these contracts. “The disappearance of these small and mid-sized businesses weakens local economies and tax bases,” the report concludes. “And it leaves governments increasingly dependent on Amazon, paving the way for the kind of monopoly control that ensures higher prices, poorer service, and less innovation.”

    In a statement sent to The Guardian, Amazon disputed the study’s conclusions. “Pricing research is notoriously difficult to conduct accurately and typically lacks reliable methodology, including cherry-picked product selections, mismatched product comparisons and comparing in-stock items with products out-of-stock at competitors,”

    ILSR’s report drew in spending data from 128 local governments (including cities, counties and school districts) and 122 state agencies. It also gathered contract documents and interviewed public officials, procurement experts and vendors.

    Will Shanklin

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  • Start Where You Stand: Why Local Politics Is the Most RadicalKind of Hope

    Some mornings, it feels like the news is designed to make us lose faith.

    Another headline about dysfunction in Washington. Another reminder that systems built to serve people are too tangled in partisanship to help them. It’s exhausting and it’s easy to start believing that nothing we do matters.

    But lately, I’ve been finding hope in smaller places.

    In a Saturday morning park clean-up where neighbors laugh more than they complain. In a school board meeting where parents debate passionately because they care.

    In a quiet moment at my community garden, where greens push through soil that once felt hard and dry.

    That’s where real politics lives. Not in the Capitol or the news crawl, but in the spaces where people still believe they can change something. When federal politics feels like chaos, turning local isn’t giving up, it’s coming home.

    We talk about politics like it’s something distant. Something that happens “up there.”

    But the truth is, most of the decisions that shape our everyday lives are made right here, at home.

    Who decides whether the lot down the street becomes a park or a parking deck?

    Who decides if our public schools get new playgrounds, or if our neighborhoods have sidewalks and trees? Who decides if housing stays aJordable, or if our water stays clean?

    Not Congress. Not the President. Not anyone you’ll see on a debate stage.

    Those decisions belong to local governments. These are our city councils, county commissions, school boards, zoning committees. And yet, most of us barely know their names.

    According to the Center for Civic Innovation’s “VoteATL: Voter Analysis Report”, voter turnout for local elections in Atlanta is alarmingly low compared to state and federal elections. In 2021, Atlanta’s municipal election had a 25% turnout rate. That means in a

    room of four people, one person decided how our neighborhoods grow, what our kids

    learn, and how our tax dollars are spent. The rest of us are living with decisions we didn’t even know were being made.

    And that’s exactly what those in power count on, our distraction. The sense that local politics is too small to matter. But that’s the biggest myth of all. The smaller it feels, the closer the power actually is.

    Atlanta has always been a city of motion. From the civil rights marches on Auburn Avenue to the organizing happening now in community centers, classrooms, and church basements, this is a city that has never stopped pushing. But even here, where movement is in our DNA, local engagement is quietly slipping away.

    This moment matters.

    With major development projects and the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, Atlanta is at a crossroads. We can either continue to let these changes happen tous or we can shape what happens for us.

    That starts with local politics.

    It’s not glamorous. It won’t trend. But it’s where justice begins to take form.

    When national politics feels too heavy to hold, there’s something healing about turning to what’s near. Tending to the things we can touch like soil, getting a street sign, or painting a mural becomes a form of resistance. It’s not just civic engagement. It’s a kind of care work. Because when you focus on what’s nearest to you, you get to see progress in real time. You get to see the sidewalk repaired, the park cleaned, the student succeed. You get to feel the impact of your own hands and voice.

    In a world where national politics often feels like watching a storm you can’t stop, local engagement gives you back the feeling of control and that’s powerful for our wellbeing and our mental health.

    It reminds us that hope isn’t naive. Hope is a practice. And it begins right outside our front door.

    If you’ve ever felt burned out by politics, you’re not alone.

    But here’s what I know: disengagement is exactly what systems of power depend on. If we turn away, they get to move quietly. So instead of tuning out, what if we tuned in? Closer, smaller, and deeper?

    If you’re not sure where to start, try this:

    • Look up who represents your district on the city council, school board, and county commission.
    • Attend one local meeting, just one, and listen.
    • Join a park clean-up, a PTA, a voter drive, or a neighborhood association.
    • Ask your neighbors what they care about and how you can help.
    • VoteintheNovember4thelection.

    Those might seem like small acts, but they’re actually the most radical kind of politics. They remind us that democracy isn’t a performance, it’s a practice.

    Federal politics may always feel out of reach, but the closest kind of change and sometimes the most powerful thing we can do for ourselves is to start where we stand.

    Mckenzie Rae

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  • State lawmakers to consider potential changes to property tax laws, including eliminating them

    Florida state lawmakers are set to meet in Tallahassee next week to consider possible changes to property tax laws, which could include eliminating them entirely.

    One proposal being considered involves raising the homestead exemption to $500,000 for non-school taxes. Additionally, lawmakers will examine changes to caps on annual increases and measures to prevent local foreclosures on homesteaded properties.

    Governor Ron DeSantis emphasized the importance of property tax relief, stating, “The best way we can do to help give people relief, so they are able to do well and make ends meet, is the property tax.”

    Lawmakers could put a constitutional amendment on property taxes before voters in 2026. The amendment might include changes proposed by lawmakers.

    Opponents of abolishing property taxes worry about how local governments would replace the revenue needed for infrastructure, police and fire services. In counties like Orange, property taxes are the main income source.

    Upcoming discussions in Tallahassee hold the promise of shaping important changes in property tax policies, which could benefit homeowners and support local government budgets. The proposed constitutional amendment in 2026 will give voters the chance to have their say on these key issues.

    Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.

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  • Indicators 2025: Government fiscal health in NEPA — a regional overview

    Aug. 23—WILKES-BARRE — Jill Avery-Stoss, President of The Institute, this week said the financial condition of county governments in Northeast Pennsylvania reflects a mix of stable revenues, rising tax collections and varying debt levels, according to recent data from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) and county financial reports.

    Analysis from The Institute covers Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wayne counties, providing insight into how local governments manage public resources, balance budgets, and deliver essential services.

    Avery-Stoss said county fiscal indicators show that overall revenues increased across the region as of 2022, though performance varies by county.

    Lackawanna County reported slightly higher expenses than revenues per capita, driven by increased costs and a slight decline in revenue.

    In contrast, Luzerne County boosted revenue while reducing expenses, and Wayne County saw both revenue and spending rise.

    Taxes per capita climbed in all three counties, reflecting efforts to maintain services and keep budgets balanced.

    Intergovernmental revenue — funding transferred from state or federal sources through grants or shared taxes — also rose for all three counties. Avery-Stoss said these funds help support targeted projects and programs, providing flexibility to local governments facing fiscal pressures.

    Avery-Stoss said debt levels remain an important measure of fiscal health.

    Lackawanna County carries the region’s highest total debt, at roughly $195.9 million, followed by Luzerne County at $166.1 million and Wayne County at $23.8 million.

    When adjusted for population, Lackawanna County again leads with a debt burden of $908 per capita, compared to $510 in Luzerne County and $465 in Wayne County.

    Property taxes form the backbone of county revenue, supporting education, emergency services and public infrastructure.

    “Tax rates in Pennsylvania are assessed in mills, though the way properties are valued differs by county, making direct comparisons difficult,” Avery-Stoss said. “Declining millage rates do not always translate into lower tax bills either, largely because this data does not include school district taxes, which typically represent the largest share of property owners’ obligations.”

    Avery-Stoss said sales tax remittances have trended upward in the region and statewide, underscoring the role of consumer spending in government finance.

    In 2023 — 2024, Luzerne County generated the highest local sales tax remittance at $110.5 million, followed by Lackawanna County at $91.4 million and Wayne County at $21.7 million.

    Pennsylvania as a whole collected $15.8 billion, providing a steady revenue stream to fund state-level services and initiatives.

    Avery-Stoss said employment levels within county governments reflect both the delivery of public services and the sector’s contribution to the regional economy.

    Over the past decade, Avery-Stoss said staffing numbers have fluctuated.

    In 2024, Wayne County employed more government workers than in 2015, while Lackawanna County’s staffing was nearly unchanged. Luzerne County and the Commonwealth reported fewer government employees compared to a decade ago. Across the three-county region, most government workers (41.1%) are employed by local governments, followed by federal (32.9%) and state (26.1%) agencies.

    “All this information points to general fiscal stability, though not without ongoing challenges,” Avery-Stoss said. “Rising tax collections and strong intergovernmental support have bolstered county revenues, but debt burdens and expenditure pressures are persistent. Policymakers can monitor these trends and keep them in mind when making decisions about resource allocation and public service delivery.”

    Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.

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  • $2 billion Baltimore bridge rebuild is test case for new national debate over infrastructure spending

    $2 billion Baltimore bridge rebuild is test case for new national debate over infrastructure spending

    In an aerial view, the remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge are seen as salvage crews continue to work to clean up the wreckage after the bridge collapsed in the Patapsco River on June 11, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. 

    Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

    Three months after Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed – killing six people, shutting a major port and disrupting vehicle traffic along the Eastern Seaboard — local, state and federal officials began a massive effort to make the best out of an unimaginable situation.

    “We’re working with construction companies and designers, and working with the people of our state, to think about what is it that we hope for this almost two-mile long bridge,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore told CNBC.

    The process passed a major milestone last week when crews managed to reopen the main navigation channel to the Port of Baltimore, the nation’s largest port for vehicles. That process alone was initially forecasted to take up to a year.

    “It didn’t take 11 months. We got it done in 11 weeks, because we work together,” Moore said.

    But now, in many ways, comes the hard part. Officials hope to use the disaster as a chance to reconsider all the infrastructure in the region.

    “This is going to be an important opportunity for our state to look at all of our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our tunnels. You know, our critical infrastructure is imperative for our economic growth and development,” Moore said.

    Reimagining how to rebuild a bridge

    Some of that planning is already underway. Last month, the Maryland Transportation Authority issued its first request for proposals to rebuild the bridge. The plan is to use what officials call a “Progressive Design-Build Approach,” in which the design and construction firms are hired at the same time and work together throughout the process. This efficiency could allow a new bridge to be built in just four years — breakneck speed for a project expected to cost upward of $2 billion. The Maryland Transportation Authority is expected to choose the firms this summer.

    U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNBC the new bridge will be far better than the old one that opened in 1977.

    “We know things that we didn’t know in the 1970s, about how to put up a bridge,” Buttigieg said. “Nobody wanted to be here through this tragic catastrophe that happened. But it does bring an opportunity, and I would say, responsibility, to get things right for the future.”

    Transportation planners have also begun a series of community meetings to gain public input. At a virtual meeting on June 11, questions included whether the new bridge — like the old one — will be a toll bridge (that is the plan) and whether the new bridge will be wider than the old, four-lane structure (no).

    As the process continues, officials have promised an “engagement tour” to get public input.

    The city of Baltimore, meanwhile, hopes to speed up funding for the already-planned reconstruction of the Hanover Street Bridge over the Patapsco River, which has emerged as a key alternate route for travelers who formerly used the Key Bridge.

    A microcosm of the national infrastructure push

    The situation in Baltimore is a vastly sped-up version of processes underway in states and cities across the country, said Buttigieg, who is overseeing some 54,000 projects nationwide funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021.

    “We have funding that goes to projects that come from every state, city, airport authority or transit agency, you can think of,” he said.

    While Buttigieg acknowledged that some of the demand is a result of the huge amount of money being made available — $550 billion in transportation and infrastructure funding over five years — it is also a reflection of the need.

    “To me, it indicates just how much work there is to do in this country,” he said. “We were reminded as a country the hard way how important our infrastructure is, because of the pressures we experienced at the beginning of this decade with Covid. We saw what happens if our supply chains come under strain.”

    New economic development battleground

    Companies seeking to capitalize on the drive — and incentives — to rebuild damaged domestic supply chains are looking for states and localities that have proper infrastructure in place, said site selection consultant John Boyd, Jr., of The Boyd Company. This may help explain why infrastructure has become such a hot topic in the world of United States economic development.

    “Site readiness is a key component when we think about what distinguishes one market versus another, and it very often is such a critical factor, it could tip the scales for a project towards an overall less business-friendly state, if they have a certified site that’s ready to go,” he said.

    A CNBC analysis of all 50 states’ economic development marketing materials shows that infrastructure is the most mentioned attribute by states marketing to attract companies. As a result, Infrastructure is the top-weighted category in CNBC’s annual state competitiveness rankings, America’s Top States for Business.

    Experts say the emphasis on infrastructure will likely stick around for a while.

    “It’s not easy to build out electrical or water or gas or wastewater infrastructure. Those things take time and money,” said Seth Martindale, chairman of the Site Selectors Guild, which supplied some of the data for the CNBC study. “I think it’s going to be five-plus, 10-plus years before we really get it to a point where we feel good about it.”

    Buttigieg noted that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is already halfway through its five-year lifespan, with plenty of needs remaining.

    “I think it’s not too soon to start thinking and talking about what the next five-year package ought to look like,” Buttigieg said, referencing the future of U.S. infrastructure.

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  • A timeline of Elijah McClain's death and the trials of the officers and paramedics accused of wrongdoing | CNN

    A timeline of Elijah McClain's death and the trials of the officers and paramedics accused of wrongdoing | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Three police officers and two paramedics have faced juries on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide stemming from the 2019 death of Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colorado.

    But the path to court was anything but straightforward.

    McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was confronted by police officers on August 24, 2019, after someone reported seeing a person wearing a ski mask who “looks sketchy.” After officers wrestled him to the ground and paramedics injected him with a potent sedative, McClain suffered a heart attack on the way to a hospital and died days later, authorities said.

    Prosecutors initially declined to bring charges in his death, but the case received renewed scrutiny following the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests in spring 2020. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed a special prosecutor to reexamine the case, and in 2021 a grand jury indicted three officers and two paramedics in McClain’s death.

    The defendants have now faced juries in three separate trials in 2023, to different results. Officer Randy Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and assault, while officers Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard were acquitted of all charges. Paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec will soon learn their fate.

    Here’s a timeline of McClain’s death, the resulting investigation, the protests that brought renewed attention to the case and the criminal trials.

    Three White officers stopped McClain in Aurora on August 24, 2019, while he was walking home from a convenience store in the Denver suburb after 10:30 p.m., according to a police overview of the incident.

    Carrying iced tea in a plastic bag, McClain eventually was in a physical struggle with the officers after, police say, he resisted arrest.

    Early in the encounter, an officer told McClain to stop, and when McClain kept walking, two officers grabbed his arms, the overview reads. McClain says, “Let me go … I’m an introvert, please respect the boundaries that I am speaking,” according to body camera footage from one of the officers.

    After an officer asked him to cooperate so they could talk, McClain tells officers he had been trying to pause his music so he could hear them, and tells them to let him go, the overview reads.

    Eventually, one officer is heard telling another that McClain tried to grab his gun.

    All three officers tackled McClain to the ground, and Woodyard placed him in a carotid hold – in which an officer uses their biceps and forearm to cut off blood flow to a subject’s brain – police said in the overview document. McClain briefly became unconscious, and Woodyard released the hold, the document reads, citing the officers.

    Body camera video of the encounter shows McClain at some point saying he couldn’t breathe.

    Because the hold was used, department policy compelled the officers to call the fire department for help, authorities said. Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics arrived and saw McClain on the ground and resisting officers, the overview says.

    Paramedic Cooper diagnosed McClain with “excited delirium” and decided to inject him with the powerful sedative ketamine, the overview says.

    McClain suffered a heart attack on the way to a hospital, authorities said. Three days later, he was declared brain-dead and taken off life support.

    The Adams County coroner’s office submitted an autopsy report on November 7, stating the cause and manner of death were “undetermined.” The report cited the scene investigation and examination findings as factors leading to that conclusion.

    Roughly two weeks later, the Adams County district attorney, Dave Young, declined to file criminal charges against any of the first responders. In a letter to the Aurora police chief on November 22, Young referred to the undetermined cause of death as one of the factors.

    “The evidence does not support a conclusion that Mr. McClain’s death was the direct result of any particular action of any particular individual,” Young wrote. “Under the circumstances of this investigation, it is improbable for the prosecution to prove cause of death beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury of twelve. Consequently, the evidence does not support the prosecution of a homicide.”

    Also on November 22, after the district attorney’s decision, Aurora police released the officers’ body camera videos.

    “We certainly recognize and understand that this has been an incredibly devastating and difficult process for them over these last several weeks,” then-Police Chief Nick Metz said.

    A police review board concluded that the use of force against McClain, including the carotid hold, “was within policy and consistent with training.”

    City officials announced on February 6 they would hire an independent expert to review the case.

    George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was fatally restrained by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Bystander video of the encounter sets off outrage and leads to widespread protests, including in Aurora, under the Black Lives Matter movement.

    In early June, the three officers who confronted McClain were assigned to administrative duties, primarily due to safety concerns because police and city employees were receiving threats, a police spokesperson said.

    On June 9, Aurora police and city officials announced changes to police policies, including a ban on carotid holds.

    Ten days later, Gov. Polis signed police accountability legislation into law, requiring all officers to use activated body cameras or dashboard cameras during service calls or officer-initiated public interactions. The measure also barred officers from using chokeholds.

    Polis also signed an executive order appointing Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate McClain’s case, the governor announced on June 25. More than 2 million people had signed a petition urging officials to conduct a new investigation.

    Demonstrators carried a giant placard during protests on June 27, 2020, outside the police department in Aurora.

    On June 27, protesters in the Aurora area gathered on Highway 225, temporarily shutting it down in a demonstration calling for justice in McClain’s death.

    On June 30, the US attorney’s office for Colorado, the US Department of Justice’s civil rights division and the FBI’s Denver division announced they have been reviewing the case since 2019 for potential federal civil rights violations.

    Aurora police on July 3 fired two officers who they say snapped selfie photographs at McClain’s memorial site, located where he was killed, while they were on duty.

    Officer Rosenblatt also was fired, with police saying he received the photo in a text and replied, “ha ha,” and did not notify supervisors. The photos were taken on October 20, 2019.

    A third officer seen in the photos resigned days before a pre-disciplinary hearing, police said.

    On July 20, the Aurora City Council approved a resolution for an independent investigation of McClain’s death to proceed.

    A mural of Elijah McClain, painted by Thomas

    The McClain family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Aurora on August 11.

    “Aurora’s unconstitutional conduct on the night of August 24, 2019, is part of a larger custom, policy, and practice of racism and brutality, as reflected by its conduct both before and after its murder of Elijah McClain, a young Black man,” the lawsuit stated.

    On the same day, Aurora city officials announced the police department would undergo a “comprehensive review” by external experts on civil rights and public safety.

    Aurora city officials released a 157-page report on February 22, detailing the findings of the independent investigation it commissioned into McClain’s death.

    The report asserted that officers did not have the legal basis to stop, frisk or restrain McClain. It also criticized emergency medical responders’ decision to inject him with ketamine and rebuked the police department for failing to seriously question the officers after the death.

    01 elijah mcclain

    Elijah McClain’s mom has watched the bodycam video ‘over and over’

    Sheneen McClain, Elijah’s mother, cried while reading the report.

    “It was overwhelming knowing my son was innocent the entire time and just waiting on the facts and proof of it,” Sheneen McClain told CNN at the time. “My son’s name is cleared now. He’s no longer labeled a suspect. He is actually a victim.”

    Elijah McClain’s father said the report only confirmed what the family already knew. “The Aurora police and medics who murdered my son must be held accountable,” LaWayne Mosley said after the report’s release.

    In response to the report, city officials began work on establishing an independent monitor to scrutinize police discipline, Aurora City Manager Jim Twombly said.

    “I believe the investigative team has identified the issue that is at the root of the case: the failure of a system of accountability,” Twombly said after the report’s release.

    On September 1, the state attorney general announced a grand jury indicted officers Roedema, Rosenblatt and Woodyard and paramedics Cichuniec and Cooper.

    Each was charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide as part of a 32-count indictment.

    The five people charged in the case are (clockwise, from top left): Randy Roedema, Nathan Woodyard, Jeremy Cooper, Peter Cichuniec and Jason Rosenblatt.

    Roedema and Rosenblatt also were indicted on one count of assault and one count of crime of violence. Cooper and Cichuniec were further indicted on three counts of assault and six counts of crime of violence.

    “Our goal is to seek justice for Elijah McClain, for his family and friends and for our state,” Weiser, the state attorney general, said. “In so doing, we advance the rule of law and our commitment that everyone is accountable and equal under the law.”

    The charges brought McClain’s parents to tears. “I started crying because it’s been two years,” Sheneen McClain said. “It’s been a long journey.”

    “Nothing will bring back my son, but I am thankful that his killers will finally be held accountable,” Mosley, his father, said through the attorney’s release.

    On September 15, the Colorado attorney general’s office released a 112-page report that found the Aurora police had a pattern of practicing racially biased policing, excessive force, and had failed to record legally required information when interacting with the community. The report also found the police department used force against people of color almost 2.5 times more than against White people.

    The state investigation also revealed the fire department had a pattern and practice of administering ketamine illegally, the attorney general’s office said.

    The state attorney general’s office and the city of Aurora agreed November 16 on terms of a consent decree to address the issues raised in the office’s report two months earlier.

    On November 19, the city finalized an agreement to pay $15 million to McClain’s family to settle the federal civil rights lawsuit.

    The cause of death in McClain’s case was changed in light of evidence from the grand jury’s investigation, according to an amended autopsy report publicly released September 23.

    The initial autopsy report had said the cause of death was undetermined. But the amended report listed “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint” as the cause of death.

    The manner of death remained undetermined in the amended report.

    “Simply put, this dosage of ketamine was too much for this individual and it resulted in an overdose, even though the blood ketamine level was consistent with a ‘therapeutic’ concentration,” pathologist Dr. Stephen Cina wrote in the amended autopsy report. “I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine.”

    Cina could not determine whether the carotid hold contributed to the death, but “I have seen no evidence that injuries inflicted by the police contributed,” he wrote.

    On September 20, Roedema and Rosenblatt, two of the officers who arrested McClain, stood trial on charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault.

    Prosecutors said they used excessive force on McClain, failed to follow their training and misled paramedics about his health status. In contrast, defense attorneys placed blame on McClain for resisting arrest and on the paramedics who treated him.

    Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and assault. Rosenblatt was acquitted of all charges.

    On October 16, the third officer, Woodyard, stood trial on charges of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Like in the earlier trial, prosecutors argued he used excessive force on McClain, while defense attorneys argued the force was necessary and blamed the paramedics.

    Woodyard was found not guilty on all charges.

    McClain’s mother Sheneen told CNN affiliate KUSA she no longer has faith in the justice system after Woodyard’s acquittal.

    “It lets us down, not just people of color, it lets down everybody,” she said. “They don’t do the right thing, they always do the bare minimum.”

    Cooper and Cichuniec, the paramedics who treated McClain, stood trial on charges of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

    Both paramedics testified they believed McClain was experiencing “excited delirium” during his confrontation with Aurora police officers, and their treatment protocol was to administer a ketamine dose they believed was safe and would not kill a person.

    Prosecutors said the paramedics “didn’t take any accountability for any single one of their actions” while testifying at their trial.

    “They both stood there while Elijah got worse and worse and did nothing,” Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson said. “They are both responsible.”

    Cooper and Cichuniec were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide Friday.

    Cichuniec was also found guilty of a second-degree unlawful administration of drugs assault charge.

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  • What the DeSantis and Newsom Debate Really Revealed

    What the DeSantis and Newsom Debate Really Revealed

    The best way to understand last week’s unusual debate between Governors Gavin Newsom of California and Ron DeSantis of Florida is to think of them less as representatives of different political parties than as ambassadors from different countries.

    Thursday night’s debate on Fox News probably won’t much change the arc of either man’s career. DeSantis is still losing altitude in the 2024 GOP presidential race, and Newsom still faces years of auditioning before Democratic leaders and voters for a possible 2028 presidential-nomination run.

    What the debate did reveal was how wide a chasm has opened between red and blue states. The governors spent the session wrangling over the relative merits of two utterly divergent models for organizing government and society. It was something like watching an argument over whether the liberal government in France or the conservative government in England produces better outcomes for its people.

    “The way the debate will be heard is the nationals of each country cheering their guy on,” Michael Podhorzer, a progressive political strategist and a former political director for the AFL-CIO, told me.

    The sharp disagreements between the governors pointed toward a future of widening separation between red and blue blocs whose differences are growing so profound that Podhorzer has argued the sections should be understood as fundamentally different nations.

    As Podhorzer and other analysts have noted, this accelerating separation marks a fundamental reversal from the generally centralizing trends in American life through the late 20th century. Beginning with the New Deal investments under Franklin D. Roosevelt (such as agricultural price supports, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Social Security), and continuing with massive expenditures on defense, infrastructure, and the social safety net after World War II (including Medicare, Medicaid, and federal aid for K–12 and higher education), federal spending for decades tended to narrow the income gaps between the southern states at the core of red America and the rest of the country.

    After World War II, in a dynamic that legal scholars call the rights revolution, the federal government nationalized more civil rights and liberties and limited the ability of states to constrain those rights. Through Supreme Court and congressional actions that unfolded over more than half a century, Washington struck down state-sponsored segregation and racial barriers to voting across the South, and invalidated a procession of state restrictions on abortion, contraception, interracial marriage, and same-sex relationships, among other things.

    But both big unifying trends reshaping the economy and the rules of social life have stalled and are moving in the opposite direction. Podhorzer has calculated that the convergence in per capita income between the South and other regions plateaued in 1980 and then started widening again around 2008. And, as I’ve written, the axis of Republican-controlled state governments, the GOP-appointed majority on the Supreme Court, and Republican senators wielding the filibuster are actively reversing the rights revolution that raised the floor of personal freedoms guaranteed in all 50 states.

    On issues including voting, LGBTQ rights, classroom censorship, book bans, public protest, and, most prominent, access to abortion, red states are imposing restrictions that are universally rejected in blue states. As Newsom argued in an interview with me a few hours before he went onstage, “This assault on our rights and the weaponization of grievance” is designed to “bring us back to … the pre-1960s world” in which people’s rights depended on their zip code. Under DeSantis, Florida has been a leader in that process, creating policies, such as limits on classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, widely emulated across other red states.

    Thursday night’s debate revolved around the differences between Florida and California, though the Fox moderator Sean Hannity hardly presented an accurate picture of the comparison. Both states have their successes and failures. But Hannity focused his questions entirely on measures that favor Florida (such as unemployment rate, violent-crime rate, and homelessness numbers) while ignoring all the contrasts that favor California (which has a much higher median income, far fewer residents without health insurance, and, according to the CDC, much lower rates of teen birth, infant mortality, and death from firearms, as well as a longer life expectancy). Hannity essentially joined in a tag team with DeSantis to frame the debate in terms familiar to his Fox audience that blue states are a chaotic hellhole of crime and “woke” liberalism; when Newsom pushed back against that characterization, or challenged DeSantis’s approach, Hannity often cut him off or steered the conversation in a different direction.

    Read: The Republican axis reversing the rights revolution

    The narrow focus on California and Florida made sense in a debate between their two governors. But those comparisons can obscure the bigger story, which is the expanding divergence between all the states in the red and blue sections.

    Podhorzer has documented that gap in an array of revealing measures. He divides the nation between states in which Republicans or Democrats usually hold unified control of the governorship and state legislature, and those in which control of state government is usually divided or frequently changes hands. That classification system yields 27 red states, 17 blue states (plus the District of Columbia), and six purple states. By these definitions, the red states account for just under half the population and the blue states just below two-fifths, while the blue states contribute slightly more of the nation’s GDP.

    Podhorzer’s data show that on many key measures, blue states as a group are producing far better outcomes than the red states.

    In new results provided exclusively to The Atlantic, Podhorzer calculates that the economic output per capita and the median family income are both now 27 percent higher in the blue section than in the red, while the share of children in poverty is 27 percent higher in the red states. The share of people without health insurance is more than 80 percent higher in the red states than in the blue, as are the rates of teen pregnancy and maternal death in childbirth. The homicide rate across the red states is more than one-third higher than in the blue, and the rate of death from firearms is nearly double in the red. Average life expectancy at birth is now about two and a half years higher in the blue states. On most of these measures, the purple states fall between red and blue.

    Read: America is growing apart, possibly for good

    (Podhorzer also groups the states by their voting behavior in federal elections, which results in 24 red-leaning states, 18 blue ones, and eight purple states. But the comparisons between the two big sections don’t change much under that definition.)

    On most of these measures, Podhorzer calculates, the gap between the red and blue states has widened over the past 15 years. He attributes the expansion mostly to the kind of policy differences that DeSantis and Newsom debated. The difference in health outcomes, for instance, is rooted in disparities such as the continuing refusal of 10 red states, including Florida, to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act (which every blue state has done). As other economic analysts have noted, with their higher concentrations of college graduates, blue states—and the large blue metropolitan areas of red states—are benefiting the most from the nation’s transition into an information-age economy.

    As DeSantis and Hannity did in the debate, defenders of the red-state approach point to other measures. Housing costs are typically much lower in red states than in blue, as are taxes. Those are probably the central reasons many of the blue states, despite their stronger results on many important yardsticks, are stagnant or shrinking in population, while several of the red states, especially those across the Sun Belt, have been adding middle-income families. Lower housing costs are also one reason homelessness is less of a problem in red states than in blue metros, especially along the West Coast.

    But the relative superiority of either model is probably less important to the nation’s future than the widening separation, and growing antagonism, between them that was displayed so vividly in the debate.

    Most experts I spoke with agree that there is now no single difference between the red and blue sections as great as the gulf during most of the 20th century between the states with and without Jim Crow racial segregation, much less the 19th-century distance between the slave and free states.

    But the number of issues dividing the states is reaching a historic peak, many of those same experts agree. Although civil rights and racial equity have made up the most important dividing line between the states for most of U.S. history, “the way in which these issues line up today—on everything from abortion to library books to the question of how much power states ought to have over their local governments … I think there’s not been since the founding such a far-reaching debate,” Donald Kettl, a former dean of the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, told me.

    To Kettl, the new wave of restrictive social legislation spreading across red states challenges the traditional idea that local variation benefits the country by allowing states to function as the fabled “laboratories of democracy.” “It strikes me as being incredibly dangerous,” Kettl said. “The good old arguments about the laboratories of democracy is that individual states would try different ideas, find out what works, and throw out the ones that didn’t work. We are not talking about that at all. We are talking about an effort to push a particular agenda and to push it as far as possible.”

    David Cole, the ACLU’s national legal director, likewise sees the erosion of a national floor of civil rights and liberties as the most ominous element of the widening red-blue separation. “We are supposed to be one nation, committed to a common set of fundamental rights,” Cole told me in an email. “But we have increasingly become two nations, with substantial rights protections for some, and robust repression for others. Federalism was designed to allow for some play in the joints, some variations among states—but not on the fundamental constitutional rights to which we are all entitled as human beings and U.S. residents.”

    It’s not clear that in the near term anything will close the space between red and blue states. Neither party has many realistic chances to win power in states that now prefer the other side. And particularly in red states, the dominance of the conservative media ecosystem makes it difficult for Democrats even to present their arguments, as the debate demonstrated.

    In the interview a few hours before he went onstage, Newsom told me that the principal reason he accepted the debate was not so much to rebut DeSantis as to reach Fox viewers. “I want to make the case in their filter bubble,” he told me. “We’ve got to get into their platforms.” Though the forum allowed Newsom to assert some positive facts about President Joe Biden’s record rarely heard on the network, any progress in reaching Fox viewers was likely blunted by Hannity’s framing of every issue as proof of the superiority of red over blue. After the debate, Newsom’s aides said they believed he had achieved his mission of evangelizing to Fox’s audience. But in the end, the evening may have validated Barack Obama’s lament during his presidency that it was virtually impossible for Democrats to communicate with red-state voters except through the negative filter that conservative media build around them.

    Podhorzer is among those skeptical that anything will reverse this process of separation in the foreseeable future. He views the late-20th-century trend toward convergence as the anomaly; “the default position” through most of American history has been for the states we now consider the red bloc to pursue very different visions of moral order, economic progress, and the role of government than those we now label as blue. To Podhorzer, the disagreements on display at the DeSantis-Newsom debate were just the modern manifestation of the deep divisions between the free and slave states, or the Union and the Confederacy.

    In the 2024 presidential race, Biden and the leading Republican candidates have each endorsed new national laws that would reverse our separation by imposing the dominant laws in one section on the other. Biden and other Democrats are backing federal bills to restore a national floor of abortion, LGBTQ, and voting rights in every state; Republicans in turn want to impose red-state restrictions on all those issues in blue states.

    Podhorzer believes that the differences between the states have hardened to the point where setting common national rules on these issues in either direction has become extremely risky. “Any compromise on any of these big issues,” he told me, “means half the country will see a loss in some aspect of what they like about the way they live.” From his perspective, courting that backlash might be worth the effort to restore core civil rights, such as access to abortion, nationally. But he warns that no one should underestimate the potential for fierce red-state resistance to such an effort, extending even to violence.

    It won’t be easy for either side to pass legislation nationalizing the social- and civil-liberties regime in their section; at the least, it would require them to not only hold unified control of the White House and Congress but also end the Senate filibuster, which remains an uncertain proposition. The more likely trajectory is for red and blue states to continue careening away from each other along the pathways that Newsom and DeSantis so passionately defended last week. “Without some major disruption, this cycle” of separation “hasn’t played itself out fully,” Podhorzer told me, in a view echoed by the other experts I spoke with. “There are hurricane-force winds in that direction.” Thursday’s gusty debate between these two ambitious governors only hinted at how hard those gales may blow in the years ahead.

    Ronald Brownstein

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  • You Really Don’t Want to Be Thirsty in a Heat Wave

    You Really Don’t Want to Be Thirsty in a Heat Wave

    The heat—miserable and oppressive—is not abating. Today, a third of Americans are under a heat alert as temperatures keep breaking records: Phoenix has hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks straight, while this weekend Death Valley in California could surpass the all-time high of 130 degrees.

    Even less extreme heat than that can be dangerous. Recently, in Texas, Louisiana, part of Arizona, and Florida, there have been reports of deaths from heat, and many more hospitalizations. The toll of a heat wave is not always clear in the moment: A new report suggests that last summer’s historic heat wave in Europe killed more than 60,000 people.

    Ideally, you’d stay in the air-conditioned indoors as much as possible. That’s not an option for everyone. The other thing to do is stay hydrated. The importance of getting enough fluid is hard to overstate—and often underappreciated: Last month, the Texas state legislature banned local governments from mandating water breaks for construction workers. In the heat, hydration “impacts everything,” Stavros Kavouras, the director of the Hydration Science Lab at Arizona State University, in Phoenix, told me. And with temperatures continuing to rise, it’s essential to get it right.

    Serious dehydration is really, really bad for you. Your blood volume decreases, which makes your heart work less effectively. “Your ability to thermoregulate declines,” Kavouras told me, “so your body temperature is getting higher and higher.” You might feel weak or dizzy. Your heart rate rises; it gets harder to focus. The worst-case scenario is heatstroke, when your body stops being able to cool itself—a  potentially fatal medical emergency.

    In extreme temperatures, heat injuries can happen quicker than you might think. Given that the human body is mostly water, you might assume that there is some to spare, but inconveniently, this is not the case. “If you lose even 10 percent of [the water] your body has, you are entering the zone of serious clinical dehydration,” Kavouras said. “And if you look at optimal health, even losing just 1 percent of your body weight impacts your ability to function.” There are two basic ways your body cools itself when it gets hot. One is to send more blood to the skin, which releases heat from the core of your body, and is the reason you turn red when you’re overheated. The other is to sweat. It evaporates off your body, and in the process, your body loses excess heat. You can’t cool yourself as effectively if you’re not properly hydrated. At the same time, one of your main cooling mechanisms is actively dehydrating, which means the goal is not just to be hydrated, but to stay that way.

    What that takes depends on many factors rather than a single universal rule, but in general, the danger zone is “high humidity with anything above 90 degrees,” Kavouras said, at which point, “it’s actually dangerous” just to be outside. The more active you are in the heat, and the hotter and more humid it is, the greater the risk—and the more important proper hydration becomes. The standard water target in the U.S. during non-heat-wave times is 3.7 liters a day for men and 2.7 liters for women. When it’s very, very hot out, you need more. Even if you spend most of the day in the bliss of AC, you are almost certainly leaving the house at some point.

    Instead of trying to figure out what that precise amount should be, Kavouras recommends you focus on two things instead. “No. 1, keep water close to you. If you have water close to you, or whatever healthy beverage, you’ll end up drinking more, just because it’s closer,” he said. And second: Keep an eye on how often you pee—pale urine, six to seven times a day, or every two to three hours, is good. You want it to be “basically like a Chablis, a Riesling, Pinot Grigio, or champagne-colored,” John Higgins, a sports cardiologist at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, in Houston, told me. “If you notice the urine is getting darker, like a Chardonnay- or Sauvignon Blanc–type of thing, that generally means you are dehydrated.”

    Certain groups are especially at risk. Older adults are more prone to dehydration, as are young children, people who are pregnant, and people taking certain medications—blood-pressure medications, for example. None of this requires you to take in extra fluids per se, just that you need to be even more careful that you’re getting enough.

    As for what to drink, as a go-to beverage, straight water is hard to beat. Water with fruit slices floating in it has the benefit of feeling like something from a luxury hotel. Carbonated water is also good—you might not be able to drink quite as much of it, which is a potential drawback, but “there is no mechanism in your GI system that will make sparkling water less effective at hydrating you,” Kavouras said. You probably want to avoid downing giant buckets of coffee—caffeine is a diuretic in large quantities and Higgins warns against sugary drinks for the same reason. (A daily iced coffee is fine.) If you’re doing hours of heavy sweating, then you might work in some (less sugary) sports drinks. But for the majority of people, water remains the ideal. Food can also be a fluid source: “Make sure you’re eating a diet that’s rich in vegetables and fruits that have water content,” William Adams, the director of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Hydration, Environment and Thermal (H.E.A.T) Stress Lab, advised. Alcohol, which causes you to lose fluid, is definitively unhelpful.

    There are lots of water myths out there. Can you go too hard? Technically, it’s possible to over-hydrate, causing an electrolyte imbalance, but all three experts agreed that for most people, this isn’t really a concern. You can find arguments for drinking hot drinks in the summer—the idea being that they increase the amount you sweat, thereby promoting cooling. But Kavouras is emphatic that you’re better off with cold drinks, which cool your body, he said. In the moments before a race, marathon runners will sometimes take it one step further, slurping ice slurries to lower their body temperature. For good old-fashioned drinking water, about 50 degrees Fahrenheit is best—roughly the temperature of cool water from the tap.

    One final key to staying hydrated: Start early. A lot of people, Higgins said, are lightly dehydrated all the time, heat wave or not. “So particularly when you first wake up in the morning, typically you are in a dehydrated state.” Accordingly, he recommends that people drink about a standard water bottle’s worth—roughly 17 ounces—as soon as they wake up. The other thing people forget about, he said, is what happens when they come back inside after enduring the outdoors. “You keep sweating,” he pointed out. In other words: hydrate, and then keep hydrating.

    As crucial as hydration is, it is not a miracle. “It doesn’t mean that you can say, ‘I hydrate well, so I’ll go out for a run in the 120-degree weather, and I’ll be fine because I’m drinking a lot,’” Kavouras said. “It doesn’t work this way.” Still, it is a simple but effective tool. As heat waves like this one become even more frequent, many more people will need to learn how to become attuned to their hydration. And perhaps adequate water can be a perverse sort of comfort: You can’t control the unrelenting heat, but you likely can control your water intake. In a heat wave, it helps to have a glass-half-full attitude—and an emptied glass of water.

    This story is part of the Atlantic Planet series supported by HHMI’s Science and Educational Media Group.

    Rachel Sugar

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  • This Pennsylvania city hopes Biden’s infrastructure law can help revitalize its downtown | CNN Politics

    This Pennsylvania city hopes Biden’s infrastructure law can help revitalize its downtown | CNN Politics


    Reading, Pennsylvania
    CNN
     — 

    Reading, the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania, may be most recognized for the iconic Monopoly board game’s Reading Railroad property.

    The railroad was one of the first in the US and was one of the biggest companies in the world in its heyday, connecting northeast Pennsylvania’s coal region with Philadelphia and the rest of the country.

    But the Reading Railroad went bankrupt in 1971. The last passenger train left Reading a decade later, and the city found itself detached from the rest of the country.

    Now Reading, a working-class city, is looking to regain its footing with a big investment in a new iteration of transportation: electric vehicle charging stations.

    City officials have a multimillion-dollar plan to install dozens of EV charging stations, with high hopes of revitalizing the city by making it easier for more workers and visitors to go to Reading and perhaps attract a new, younger generation of residents as well.

    To help make it happen, city officials are seeking federal money provided by the massive infrastructure law passed by Congress in 2021. The law not only provides funding for roads and bridges but also allocates billions of dollars to build a nationwide network of plug-in electric vehicle chargers – a key climate priority for the Biden administration.

    The measure garnered bipartisan support, despite facing some backlash from a handful of Republicans. After many previous administrations had failed to get a comprehensive infrastructure package through Congress, the Biden administration celebrated the law as a huge legislative win.

    In late May, Reading submitted an application for a new grant known as the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure program. The program will provide $2.5 billion over the next five years to local governments – and Reading officials hope to get a piece of that pie.

    The city recently exited a state oversight program for “financially distressed” cities after nearly 13 years, and seeking federal and state funding for a variety of projects is key to helping it rebuild.

    “We don’t give up,” said Mayor Eddie Moran, noting that it was a no-brainer for the city to apply for the federal grant.

    “We know these opportunities exist that can give us a better future,” he said.

    Mayor Eddie Moran speaks during the State of the City address at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Reading, Pennsylvania, on January 28, 2022.

    An electric vehicle revolution could be on the horizon, but there are reasons to be skeptical.

    EVs made up just 5.8% of new car sales last year, according to Kelley Blue Book.

    In addition to being expensive, it’s not always easy for drivers to find a charging station when they need one. There are currently only about 63,000 EV chargers publicly available in the US. Tesla has an extensive nationwide network, including a handful at a hotel in Reading, but those chargers are currently only compatible with Tesla vehicles.

    And let’s face it: EV plug-in chargers are of no use to people who don’t own electric vehicles. But Moran argues Reading’s proposed EV charger plan is an “encouragement” for people to buy EVs.

    There is federal money available for drivers too. The Inflation Reduction Act – a sweeping, federal climate and health care law passed last year – revamped a federal EV tax credit worth up to $7,500 for consumers who purchase certain vehicles.

    The Biden administration has also proposed ambitious new car pollution rules that could require electric vehicles to account for up to two-thirds of new cars sold in the US by 2032.

    “Electric vehicles still have a long way to go; there’s still a lot of bugs that need to be worked out,” said Donna Reed, president of the Reading City Council.

    “But if you’re going to be an economic development leader or political leader, you always have that eye to the future,” she said.

    And while the number of EVs on the road is small, it’s been growing.

    In 2022, the number of registered electric and hybrid vehicles jumped more than 75% compared with the prior year in Berks County, where Reading is the county seat, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

    Other than the Reading Railroad, there’s another fun fact about the city. A seven-story pagoda atop Mount Penn overlooks the city. Originally meant to be a luxury hotel when it was built in 1908, the unique landmark now serves as a symbol of Reading – and is one of the seven locations where city officials have proposed installing EV chargers.

    Overall, Reading has asked for nearly $2.6 million from the federal grant program to help install more than 30 public electric vehicle chargers and expects to find out later this year whether it will receive the grant money.

    The city will be on the hook for covering at least 20% of the project, but it can use other grants and in-kind contributions, such as land value and city workers’ salaries, to make up that amount.

    The Pagoda in Reading, Pennsylvania.

    The plan calls for two mobile charging trailers that would be tested at the pagoda. The site draws visitors to the area, and there’s access to hiking and biking trails nearby. The road up the mountain is also home to two annual hill-climb races in which cars race up Duryea Drive, named for an automobile maker who used the road to test his cars in the early 1900s.

    But building the needed infrastructure up the mountain could prove challenging. The mobile chargers will help the city evaluate whether there is demand for permanent EV chargers at that location.

    Permanent EV chargers are planned for two city parks and Albright College’s campus.

    The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, the former site for a safety goggles manufacturer, is another proposed location for EV chargers. It features dozens of resident artists, holds workshops and has a number of studios for trades such as ceramics, woodworking and photography.

    The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center located in Reading, Pennsylvania.

    City officials expect chargers at city hall and the public works department to be the first ones up and running, operable in late 2024. Installation at these locations may move the quickest because existing electricity sources can be utilized.

    Currently, Reading spends about $800,000 annually on fuel for city-owned vehicles – a cost that could be reduced with the pivot to electric vehicles, according to Jamar Kelly, the city’s director of finance and deputy managing director.

    Additionally, the EV chargers could help the city reach its sustainability goals.

    The grant would be “instrumental in us starting and leading the City of Reading and the County of Berks to a safer, healthier, ecofriendly community,” the application reads.

    Whenever a massive federal spending law is enacted, there’s concern over whether the money will go out fairly – reaching small towns, rural areas and urban metropolises alike.

    While there may be plenty of money to go around, smaller cities may lack the staffing needed to prepare and submit applications. The infrastructure law offers nearly 400 different funding programs.

    For Reading, a boot camp offered by the Local Infrastructure Hub – which helps cities access the funds provided by the federal infrastructure law – was invaluable. It provided tips on how to apply, the ins and outs of how EV chargers work, and how other cities have had success or challenges installing chargers previously.

    “Seeing how people in other places have already addressed these issues allows us to be able to write a better grant,” said Lisa Unrath, Reading’s former grant coordinator.

    She learned how to structure the grant so that if Reading receives the money, it can complement projects funded by other grants. The city can apply for more money from the same federal grant again over the next five years, creating an opportunity for the city to plan for the future now.

    The Local Infrastructure Hub is sponsored by a variety of groups, including Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Kresge Foundation, as well as the National League of Cities and the US Conference of Mayors, among others.

    “Working with already more than 950 municipalities across the US, we’re placing a concentrated focus on America’s traditionally underserved areas who each have ambitious dreams, but need the expertise, resources, and network the Hub offers to put forward competitive applications,” said James Anderson, who leads the government innovation programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies.

    “It’s about getting as many of the so-called left-behind places a once-in-a-generation foothold in the new economy – and we’re well on our way,” he added.

    This headline has been updated.

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  • Montana man sentenced to 18 years in prison for shooting at and threatening LGBTQ residents in his town, officials say | CNN

    Montana man sentenced to 18 years in prison for shooting at and threatening LGBTQ residents in his town, officials say | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Montana man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after his conviction on federal hate crime and firearm charges related to a “self-described mission to rid the town of Basin of its lesbian, queer and gay community,” officials said.

    John Russell Howald was convicted in February for firing an AK-style rifle at the home of a woman who openly identified as a lesbian, the US Department of Justice said in a news release. The woman was inside the home during the March 2020 incident.

    Howald was armed with two assault rifles, a hunting rifle, two pistols and multiple high-capacity magazines that were taped together for faster reloading, the release said.

    “Hoping he had killed her, Howald set off toward other houses occupied by people who identify as lesbian, queer or gay,” the release said.

    Some residents who knew Howald spotted him and stalled him long enough for a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputy to respond, prosecutors said.

    Howald was recorded “yelling and firing more rounds with the same rifle, expressing his hatred toward the community’s gay and lesbian residents and his determination to ‘clean’ them from his town,” the release said.

    Howald pointed his rifle at a responding deputy, “nearly starting a shootout in downtown Basin,” before running into surrounding hills, according to the release.

    He was arrested the next day, armed with a loaded pistol and a knife. “In Howald’s car, officers found an AR-style rifle and a revolver. During a search of Howald’s camper, officers found an AK-style rifle, a hunting rifle, and ammunition,” prosecutors said.

    “Motivated by hatred of the LGBTQI+ community and armed with multiple firearms and high-capacity magazines, this defendant sought to intimidate – even terrorize – an entire community by shooting into the victim’s home trying to kill her for no reason other than her sexual orientation,” ATF Director Steven Dettelbach said in the release.

    Howald’s 18-year prison sentence, to be followed by five years of supervised release, was announced during Pride Month and comes as the Human Rights Campaign has declared a national state of emergency for the LGBTQ+ community in the US.

    “The multiplying threats facing millions in our community are not just perceived – they are real, tangible and dangerous,” the group’s president, Kelley Robinson, said. “In many cases they are resulting in violence against LGBTQ+ people, forcing families to uproot their lives and flee their homes in search of safer states, and triggering a tidal wave of increased homophobia and transphobia that puts the safety of each and every one of us at risk.”

    Howald hoped to inspire similar attacks around the country, said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

    “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend the rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to be free from hate-fueled violence,” Clarke said in the release. “This Pride Month, we affirm our commitment to using the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act to hold perpetrators of hate-fueled violence targeting the LGBTQI+ community accountable.”

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  • Colorado’s Ingenious Idea for Solving the Housing Crisis

    Colorado’s Ingenious Idea for Solving the Housing Crisis

    On a Wednesday afternoon in March, the Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, in Denver’s South Park Hill neighborhood, was packed. The local chapter of the progressive group Indivisible was sponsoring a mayoral-candidate forum. Five candidates had been invited to attend. The moderator asked the usual questions about crime and public safety, homelessness and guns. Then came a question comprehensible only to a close observer of Denver politics: “Do you support releasing the city-owned conservation easement on the Park Hill Golf Course to allow the currently proposed redevelopment of this site?”

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    Four candidates raised their hands, a couple only halfway, as if that sign of reluctance might lessen the coming disapproval. It didn’t. The crowd booed.

    In 1997, Denver paid the owners of the Park Hill Golf Course $2 million to place a conservation easement on the property, limiting how it could be used. More than 20 years later, Westside Investment Partners bought the by-then-defunct golf course for $24 million. After a contentious community-input process, lawsuits, and allegations of stolen lawn signs, the company settled on a proposal to build 2,500 homes (including a significant number of affordable, family, and senior units) as well as some commercial space. It also promised to reserve two-thirds of the 155-acre property as open space. In 2021, Denver voters approved a ballot measure giving themselves the power to decide the easement’s fate.

    On April 4 of this year, voters declined to lift the easement. The split was 59–41, not exactly close. Some observers have taken this outcome as a signal that the people of Denver (or, at least, the fewer than 100,000 who voted down the proposal) reject new development. But in that same election, voters sent two candidates who supported the proposal to a mayoral runoff. Back in the 2022 statewide election, almost a quarter million Denver voters supported Democratic Governor Jared Polis, who campaigned on increasing housing supply and dismantling local roadblocks to construction in order to get a handle on Colorado’s housing-affordability crisis. Also that year, nearly 1.3 million Coloradans voted to dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars to increasing affordable housing. In Denver, the measure won 70–30. Deciding “what the people believe” is not so easy.

    Colorado is short an estimated 127,000 homes. The Denver metro area alone is short nearly 70,000 homes. The housing shortage is the main driver of the region’s affordability crisis, and housing-policy experts—though they remain divided on many questions—are nearly unanimous in their belief that resolving it will require bringing many more homes to market. From 2012 to 2017, the region permitted only one new home for every 5.4 new jobs; over the same period, home prices in Denver jumped by 50 percent.

    When someone who favors new development in theory opposes a specific project near where they live, we call them a NIMBY. NIMBYism is regularly characterized as a case of revealed preferences: Talk is cheap, and support for policies in the abstract is worthless. Voting for a candidate who champions pro-housing policies is one thing; agreeing to new development in your neighborhood is another.

    Conflicting desires do not by themselves prove hypocrisy, however. Some people really do want to see more housing in general, even if they don’t want construction next door. The problem is that the local institutions charged with land-use decisions are attuned to parochial complaints, not large-scale needs.

    Jerusalem Demsas: Housing breaks people’s brains

    The level of government at which we choose to resolve a conflict shapes public opinion and the eventual outcome. The same question posed at a town hall, at a county-council meeting, in the governor’s office, or by Congress will not be answered the same way in each venue. The tools available, the norms of debate, and the architecture of accountability change drastically from place to place. Americans believe that housing is a local issue. And it is a local issue. But it is also a regional issue, a state issue, and a national issue. By restricting the debate to the hyperlocal level, we’ve blocked out our big-picture values.

    Across metro areas, in states led by Democrats and Republicans alike, the same pattern emerges: Local governments decide what gets built and where, and they use that power to ban multifamily housing, entrench economic segregation, and perpetuate a national affordability crisis.

    It’s tough to admit, but sometimes NIMBYs have a point. In Denver, I spoke with dozens of community leaders, elected officials, and voters who live near the Park Hill Golf Course. Opponents of the project raised concerns about preserving open spaces, about gentrification, about the democratic process itself.

    Former Mayor Wellington Webb told me he opposes developing the Park Hill site because it’s “the last piece of open space, land, in Denver.”

    Leslie Herod, a Colorado state representative and an unsuccessful candidate in this year’s mayoral race, also opposes the proposal. She told me she had identified more than 80 underutilized city-owned lots already zoned for residential development where she would rather see housing built.

    The Denver city-council member Candi CdeBaca made a version of the “other places” argument too, questioning why development efforts are never focused on wealthy neighborhoods. “We’re not talking about development in places where people have privilege,” she told me. “Those places are protected with their zoning, those places are protected with their level of engagement, those places are protected by the people they have elected to represent them.”

    Some voters told me they simply distrusted the process. “There’s no guarantee that if the conservation easement is lifted that the [developer] will honor what they’ve said with creating a park, creating affordable housing,” a landscape architect with an antidevelopment yard sign said.

    Of course, no project can solve every problem or skirt every concern. Comparison shopping for umbrellas is fine on a sunny day. When you’re caught in a torrential downpour, it’s wise to take what’s available and run for cover.

    For their part, proponents of the Park Hill project, in their eagerness to win votes, tended to oversell what it could accomplish. Some described it as a blow against racism or climate change, or a way to help the working class. In my conversations with the plan’s backers, I sometimes had to remind myself that we were talking about a 155-acre lot, not the fate of the republic.

    Land-use regulations and development patterns are a key driver of inequality, pollution, and financial strain. But whether or not the Park Hill plan was approved would have a negligible impact on these larger crises, which will require collective action beyond the scope of any one project. Asking a neighborhood or municipality to bear the responsibility for a housing crisis and its knock-on effects is asking for failure. Local government simply wasn’t built to do this.

    Local government is about what you can do for me, right now. Because local officials have a narrow jurisdiction, engaged voters have a direct line to them and significant influence on their decisions. This tight relationship is good for handling issues like broken streetlights and potholes, but it doesn’t lend itself to managing society-wide problems, such as a housing crisis. This is why the political logic of building a lot more housing rarely carries the day at the local level.

    Who would have lived in the Park Hill housing development, had voters approved it? No one knows. It could have been a recent University of Colorado at Boulder graduate or empty-nesters from the suburbs looking to downsize. Many of the people who would most benefit from the new housing don’t yet live in Denver—so they don’t have a vote.

    Local housing-policy debates are thus asymmetrical. Construction projects have no readily identifiable beneficiaries, but they do levy clear harms, in the form of excessive noise and street closures and changing neighborhood aesthetics.

    Just a small fraction of people even engage in local housing fights. Many of those who do are extreme voices or otherwise unrepresentative of the broader community. Look at Fort Collins, Colorado. After more than five years of community engagement, and many months of work by city planners, a 5–2 majority on the city council voted to liberalize land-use policies to allow more housing. But a small group of opponents pressured the council to reverse itself, gathering 6,500 petition signatures—this in a city of more than 160,000. And they won. The council voted again, this time 7–0 to repeal the change.

    In interviews, both the head of the Colorado Municipal League, Kevin Bommer, and Denver’s current mayor, Michael B. Hancock, touted regional collaboration as a solution to the affordability crisis. But just as one town cannot ensure that the entire region maintains adequate green space while increasing density, it cannot force neighboring towns to work together to find the right balance. The incentive is too strong for an individual government to say to its neighbor, “You can have all the apartments—we’ll just keep our parks.”

    In addition to the Colorado Municipal League, Colorado has several influential regional associations, including the Metro Mayors Caucus and Colorado Counties Inc. Yet greater Denver is still tens of thousands of housing units short of its needs.

    The Denver metro area is particularly desperate for small multifamily dwellings (two to nine units) to meet the demand for affordable housing. According to Carrie Makarewicz, a professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, roughly 10 percent of homes in the region meet this criteria. By contrast, 85 percent of residentially zoned land is reserved for single-family homes. By this measure, too, the regional associations have come up short.

    Collective-action problems require a body that can hold everyone accountable. Regional associations—which rely on voluntary participation—aren’t going to cut it.

    The democratic process begins by defining the democratic body. And when it comes to housing, the body of concern does not end at a town’s boundary line. People moving to the Denver metro area look across the city and into the suburbs for a place to live. One suburb’s opposition to building more housing directly affects prices miles away, because it constrains the supply in a market that spans municipalities. Local governments, in seeking to satisfy local concerns, undermine statewide goals. At least, they do in the absence of state intervention.

    State government is also about what you can do for me, but on average: That’s the electoral reality of representing voters across geographic constituencies. Governors and other statewide officials are forced to see the bigger picture because they’re accountable not only to the people who live in a particular community, but also to past residents priced out of and displaced from that community, and to future residents as well. (Nor are newcomers overwhelmingly from out of state, as many seem to believe; census data reveal that about 82 percent of moves happen within states.) Denver’s city council represents the people of Denver, not Aurora, and vice versa. The state represents them all. And in recent polling, 60 percent of registered voters supported eliminating local restrictions to allow for multifamily housing.

    The Colorado state capitol is just a short drive from Park Hill and a brisk walk from city hall, but feels miles away from the thrum of local politics. I went there two days after the Indivisible forum to interview Governor Polis. From across a large round table in his office, Polis told me that “housing, transit, travel, roads: These are interjurisdictional issues because really, very few Coloradans live their whole lives in one jurisdiction.” Unencumbered by the need to defend any one project or developer, the governor reiterated a simple point: “Demand has exceeded supply for the last couple decades, and prices have gone up.” Colorado has to “create more housing now.”

    Soon after providing that clean summary of what Colorado needs, Polis announced his best shot at providing it. Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, Montana, and Massachusetts have, to varying degrees, pulled authority for land-use decisions up to the state level. Following their lead, he proposed a bill compelling local governments to adjust their land-use policies to meet housing goals, a process that state officials would oversee. The bill addressed climate, infrastructure, and equity concerns; included provisions for increasing and preserving affordable and multifamily housing; encouraged development near transit; and removed onerous parking requirements.

    I asked the governor how he would deal with the political opposition to his bill. “People across the board—Republican, Democrat, independent—housing costs is one of the top items of concern,” he replied. I asked again. “People understand that housing needs to be built,” he told me.

    Polis’s original proposal was greeted by fierce opposition from local governments, though not because of objections to open space, affordability, or new parking rules. The fight was over where the power to make land-use decisions should lie.

    Kevin Bommer, of the Colorado Municipal League, offered a pithy synthesis of local governments’ position: “Respectfully, get off our lawn,” he told me.

    I asked Bommer about his policy disagreements with the governor, but he kept stressing the issue of local control. “My members statewide don’t necessarily disagree with a lot of [Polis’s] goals, but to start with saying that the state gets to set a model code and the state gets to regulate and the state will be in charge of land use going forward is a nonstarter,” he said.

    Bommer pointed me to an old amicus brief filed in defense of a local moratorium on fracking by then-Representative Polis. It defended local government’s authority over land-use decisions as both a state-constitution matter and a policy matter. Polis wrote that local democracy allows for “widespread citizen input and broad stakeholder involvement,” as well as “more opportunities for public participation.”

    The fact that Representative Polis disagrees with Governor Polis is exactly the point. A congressman represents his district; he has little reason to care that local control can harm the rest of the state. A governor has a wider remit. If Polis the representative was right, and localities really are the best transmitters of their residents’ housing preferences, then what explains clear, widespread discontent with the outcomes of those decisions? Colorado’s housing crisis is undeniable, and its land-use authority has rested with local government virtually unquestioned for decades.

    Colorado’s legislative session ended on May 8. The bill died in the Senate without a final vote.

    Afterward, the governor told me he intends to keep fighting. States that have passed land-use reforms, such as California and Washington, suffered multiple defeats before seeing a first victory. Polis told me he’s frustrated by communities that said, No, we should do it. “The thing is, they’re not doing it!” he said with a laugh. Polis returned again to his central argument: “It’s beyond the capabilities of [local government] even if there’s a city council or mayor with the best of intentions … We have to figure this out together.”

    Annie Lowrey: Everything is about the housing market

    Two citywide votes, multiple lawsuits, and accusations of racism, classism, and harassment that divided Denver. What was the point? The property owner is now promising that the former golf course will become … an active golf course. (This despite the fact that the company has never developed a golf course; its founder told me they’re “doing research on it now.”) Well-meaning objectors judge proposals against a hypothetical better option, but in reality, the alternative to a decent project is often no project at all.

    Kelly Brough, who supported the development project and was in the runoff to become Denver’s next mayor, is nevertheless hesitant to embrace state interference. “I can’t say Denver should not control its destiny … I’m just not ready to give it up yet.”

    This power struggle is playing out across the country. It’s ostensibly a struggle over housing affordability, but it is also a fight over how we see voters. In polls and interviews, voters express deep empathy for people experiencing homelessness and deep frustration with widespread housing unaffordability. But that’s not the part of us that local government can hear. Instead local politics magnifies our selfish concerns: How will this affect my parking availability? What will this do to my view?

    Everyone has a little NIMBY in them. It doesn’t have to be the part that wins.

    This article appears in the July/August 2023 print edition with the headline “Local Government Has Too Much Power.”

    Jerusalem Demsas

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  • Americans in most states will no longer receive Covid exposure notifications on phones

    Americans in most states will no longer receive Covid exposure notifications on phones

    Americans in most states will no longer receive Covid exposure notifications on their smartphones now that the U.S. public health emergency has ended. 

    Since 2020, nearly 30 states have used a Bluetooth system developed by Apple and Google to track the spread of Covid infections and send push alerts to any smartphone user who came in close contact with a person who tested positive for the virus. 

    The Association of Public Health Laboratories hosted the national server that the system ran on. 

    On Thursday, the organization said “the majority of states” stopped using the exposure notification system after the Biden administration ended the public health emergency on May 11. 

    APHL added it will no longer support the system, which aimed to help millions of Americans trace their exposures and make decisions about isolating and testing for the virus.

    In a joint statement, Apple and Google did not address states’ decisions to stop using the system.

    The tech giants told CNBC the system helped public health departments fight Covid in a way that preserves privacy, referring to how it tracks infections without collecting the location or identity of users. 

    California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado are among the states that said they will no longer use the system after the end of the U.S. emergency declaration. 

    “These systems were timed to shut down on the same date that the nation’s COVID-19 State of Emergency ends,” the California Department of Public Health said in a statement late Thursday. 

    Several states used the system to create apps that smartphone users could download, such as CA Notify and WA Notify.  

    States also provided exposure notifications through a built-in feature on Apple and Google’s operating systems. 

    For that method, state health departments had to submit a configuration file with their contact information and Covid guidance to Apple and Google. The two tech companies would use the file to set up a feature on phones that users could activate to receive notifications. 

    On Friday, some Apple users who opted in for that feature received push alerts informing them that their iPhones “will no longer log nearby devices and you won’t be notified of possible exposures.” 

    One Apple user shared in a Twitter post that their alert said, “Your Health Authority Turned Off Exposure Notifications.”

    But not all Apple and Google users in states that stopped using the exposure notification system have received similar alerts, as of Friday afternoon.

    Neither Apple or Google addressed why some users received alerts while others did not.

    There is no clear tally of how many Americans activated the exposure notification feature on their phones or downloaded apps over the past three years. 

    Virginia estimates that more than 3 million users have downloaded the state’s app or used the notification feature since those tools launched in 2020.

    New Mexico said the “majority” of residents activated the notification feature on their phones. More than 1.5 million alerts were sent to users who may have been exposed to Covid, according to the state. 

    Washington said the state generated more than 2.5 million exposure alerts through its app or the notification feature. 

    Researchers in Washington found that the state’s notification tools saved an estimated 30 to 120 lives and likely prevented about 6,000 Covid cases during the first four months after they launched in November 2020. 

    Despite these benefits, some Americans have been skeptical of the Covid exposure notification tools. 

    A 2021 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office said that the public expressed concerns about privacy. The report said the public may not trust both local governments and technology companies to handle sensitive health information.

    State decisions to end Covid exposure notifications are part of a broader shift in how the country responds to the pandemic. 

    Health departments last year loosened Covid restrictions like masking and social distancing as more Americans got vaccinated and boosted against the virus. 

    That culminated in the end of the public health emergency, which phased out much of the funding and flexibility that helped expand Covid testing, insurance coverage and access to care during the pandemic.

    Still, more than 1,000 Americans are still dying each week from Covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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  • The Tennessee Expulsions Are Just the Beginning

    The Tennessee Expulsions Are Just the Beginning

    The red-state drive to reverse the rights revolution of the past six decades continues to intensify, triggering confrontations involving every level of government.

    In rapid succession, Republican-controlled states are applying unprecedented tactics to shift social policy sharply to the right, not only within their borders but across the nation. Just last Thursday, the GOP-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel two young Black Democratic representatives, and Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, on Saturday moved to nullify the verdict of a jury in liberal Travis County. In between, last Friday, a single Republican-appointed federal judge, acting on a case brought by a conservative legal group and 23 Republican state attorneys general, issued a decision that would impose a nationwide ban on mifepristone, the principal drug used in medication abortions.

    All of these actions are coming as red states, continuing an upsurge that began in 2021, push forward a torrent of bills restricting abortion, LGBTQ, and voting rights; loosening controls on gun ownership; censoring classroom discussion of race, gender, and sexual orientation; and preempting the authority of their Democratic-leaning metropolitan cities and counties.

    This flood of legislation has started to erase the long-term trend of Congress and federal courts steadily nationalizing more rights and reducing the freedom of states to constrict them—what legal scholars have called the “rights revolution.” Now, across all these different arenas and more, the United States is hurtling back toward a pre-1960s world in which citizens’ basic rights and liberties vary much more depending on where they live.

    Read: The Republican axis reversing the rights revolution

    “We are in the middle of an existential crisis for the future of our burgeoning multicultural, multiethnic democracy,” and the extreme events unfolding in Tennessee and other states “are the early manifestations of an abandonment of democratic norms,” Janai Nelson, the president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, wrote to me in an email.

    The past week’s events in Tennessee and Texas, and the federal court case on mifepristone, extend strategies that red states have employed since 2020 to influence national policy. But these latest moves show Republicans taking those strategies to new extremes. Together these developments underscore how aggressively red states are maneuvering to block the federal government and their own largest metropolitan areas from resisting their systematic attempt to carve out what I’ve called a “nation within a nation,” operating with its own constraints on civil rights and liberties.

    “It shows there really is no limit, no institution that is quote-unquote ‘sacred’ enough not to try to use to their advantage,” Marissa Roy, the legal team lead for the Local Solutions Support Center, a group opposing the broad range of state preemption efforts, told me.

    This multipronged offensive from red states seeks to reverse one of the most powerful currents in modern American life. Since the 1960s, on issues including the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage and the banning of discrimination on grounds of race or gender, the Supreme Court, Congress, and federal agencies have broadened the circle of rights guaranteed nationwide and reduced the ability of states to limit those rights.

    Over the past decade, Republican-controlled states have stepped up their efforts to reverse that arrow and restore their freedom to impose their own restrictions on rights and liberties. Nelson sees this red-state drive as continuing the “cycle of progress and retrenchment” on racial equity through American history that stretches back to Reconstruction and the southern resistance that eventually produced Jim Crow segregation. “The current pendulum swing is occurring both in reaction to changing politics and changing demographics, making the arc of that swing that much higher toward extremism,” she told me.

    The vote in the Tennessee House of Representatives, for instance, marked a new level in the long-term struggle between red states and blue cities. In most red states, Republicans control the governorship and/or state legislature primarily through their dominance of predominantly white non-urban areas. Over the past decade, those red-state Republicans have grown more aggressive about using that statewide power to preempt the authority of, and override decisions by, their largest cities and counties, which are typically more racially diverse and Democratic-leaning.

    These preemption bills have removed authority from local governments over policy areas including minimum wage, COVID masking requirements, environmental rules, and even plastic-bag-recycling mandates. Legislatures have accompanied many of these bills with other measures, such as extreme gerrymanders, meant to dilute the political clout of their state’s population centers and shift influence toward exurban and rural areas where Republicans are strongest. In Tennessee, for example, the legislature voted to arbitrarily cut the size of the Nashville Metropolitan Council in half, a decision that a state court blocked this week. Many of the bills that red states have passed since 2020 making it harder to vote have specifically barred techniques used by large counties to encourage participation, such as drop boxes or mobile voting vans.

    Republicans who control the Tennessee House took this attack on urban political power to a new peak with their vote to expel the two Black Democratic representatives, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who represent Memphis and Nashville, respectively. Though local officials in each city quickly moved this week to reappoint the two men, the GOP majority sent an ominous signal in its initial vote to remove them. The expulsions went beyond making structural changes to diminish the power of big-city residents, to entirely erasing those voters’ decision on whom they wanted to represent them in the legislature. Conservative legislatures and governors “have become so emboldened [in believing] that they can tread on local democracy,” Roy said, “that they are going all out and perhaps destroying the institution altogether.”

    One of the most aggressive areas of red-state preemption this year has been in moves to seize control of policing and prosecutorial powers in Democratic-leaning cities and counties, which typically have large minority populations. In Georgia, for instance, both chambers of the GOP-controlled state legislature have passed bills creating a new oversight board that would be directed by state officials and have the power to recommend removal of county prosecutors. In Mississippi, both GOP-controlled chambers have approved legislation to expand state authority over policing and the courts in Jackson, the state capital, a city more than 80 percent Black. The Republican governor in each state is expected to sign the bills.

    Tennessee legislators passed a bill in their last session increasing state authority to override local prosecutors. This week they went further. Although it didn’t attract nearly the attention of the expulsion vote, the Tennessee House Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday approved a bill to eradicate an independent board to investigate police misconduct that Nashville residents had voted to create in a 2018 referendum.

    In 2019, the GOP legislature had already stripped the Nashville Community Oversight Board of the subpoena power that was included in the local referendum establishing it. The new legislation approved this week, which is also advancing in the State Senate, would replace the board and instead require that citizen complaints about police behavior in Nashville and other cities be directed to the internal-affairs offices of their police departments. The legislation is moving forward just weeks after five former police officers were indicted in Memphis for beating a Black man named Tyre Nichols to death. “You would think that while the Tyre Nichols case is going on … that we would be really wanting more oversight, not less,” Jill Fitcheard, the executive director of the Nashville oversight board, told me. Coming so soon after the vote to expel the two Black members, the attempt to eradicate the oversight board, she said, represents “another attack on democracy in Nashville.”

    Texas has joined this procession with bills backed by Governor Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick advancing in both legislative chambers to make it easier for state officials to remove local prosecutors who resist bringing cases on priorities for the GOP majority, such as the measures banning abortion or gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

    But Abbott last Saturday introduced an explosive new element into the red-state push to preempt local law-enforcement authority. In a statement, Abbott directed the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole to fast-track consideration of a pardon for a U.S. Army sergeant convicted just one day earlier of killing a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020. Abbott, who had faced criticism from conservative media for not intervening in the case, promised to approve the pardon, and criticized the Democratic district attorney who brought the case and the jury that decided it in Travis County, an overwhelmingly blue county centered on Austin.

    Although many Republicans are seeking ways to constrain law-enforcement officials in blue counties, Abbott’s move would invalidate a decision by a jury in such a Democratic-leaning area. And whereas the preemption legislation in Texas and elsewhere targets prosecutors because of the cases they won’t prosecute, Abbott is looking to override a local prosecutor because of a case he did prosecute.

    Read: America is growing apart, possibly for good

    Gerry Morris, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers now practicing in Austin, told me that Abbott’s move was especially chilling because it came before any of the normal legal appeals to a conviction had begun. Morris said he can think of no precedent for a Texas governor intervening so peremptorily to effectively overturn a jury verdict. “I guess it means if you are going to kill somebody in Texas,” Morris said, “you need to make sure it’s somebody Governor Abbott thinks ought to be killed; because if that’s the case, then he’ll pardon you.”

    The past week’s third dramatic escalation came from District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump with ties to the social-conservative movement. Kacsmaryk’s ruling overturning the FDA’s approval in 2000 of mifepristone was in one sense unprecedented. “Never has a court actually overturned an FDA scientific decision in approving a drug on the grounds that [the] FDA got it wrong,” William Schultz, a former deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said on a press call Monday.

    But in another sense, the case merely extended what’s become a routine strategy in the red states’ drive to set their own rules. Nearly two dozen Republican state attorneys general joined the lawsuit in support of the effort to ban mifepristone. That continued a steady procession of cases brought by Republican-controlled states to hobble the exercise of federal authority, or to erase rights that had previously been guaranteed nationwide.

    The most consequential example of this trend is the case involving a Mississippi abortion law that the Republican-appointed Supreme Court majority used to overturn Roe v. Wade last summer. But shifting coalitions of GOP state attorneys general have also sued to block environmental regulations proposed by President Joe Biden, and to prevent him from changing Trump-administration immigration-enforcement policies or acting to protect LGBTQ people under federal antidiscrimination laws. Red states “have been very interested in opposing virtually every rule or guidance that would provide nondiscrimination protection to LGBTQ people,” says Sarah Warbelow, the legal director for the Human Rights Campaign.

    All of these legal and political struggles raise the same underlying question: Can Democrats and their allies defend the national baseline of civil rights and liberties America has built since the 1960s?

    Democrats have found themselves stymied in efforts to restore those rights through legislation: While Democrats held unified control of Congress during Biden’s first years, the House passed bills that would largely override the red-state moves and restore a set of national rules on abortion, voting, and LGBTQ rights. But in each case, they could not overcome a Republican-led Senate filibuster.

    The Biden administration and civil-rights groups are pursuing lawsuits against many of the red-state rights rollbacks. But numerous legal experts remain skeptical that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court majority will reverse many of the red-state actions. The third tool available to Democrats is federal executive-branch action, such as the Title IX regulations the Education Department proposed last week that would invalidate the blanket bans against transgender girls participating in school sports that virtually all the red states have now approved. Yet federal regulations that attempt to counter the red-state actions may prompt resistance from that conservative Supreme Court majority.

    And even as Democrats search for strategies to preserve a common baseline of rights, they face the prospect that Republicans may seek to nationalize the restrictive red-state social regime. Congressional Republicans have introduced bills to write into federal law almost all of the red-state moves, such as abortion bans and prohibitions on classroom discussion of sexual orientation or participation in school sports by transgender girls. Several 2024 GOP presidential candidates are starting to offer similar proposals.

    The past week has seen Republicans reach a new extreme in their effort to build a nation within a nation across the red states. But the next time the GOP achieves unified control of Congress and the White House, even this may seem like the beginning of an attempt to impose on blue states the rollback of rights and liberties that continues to burn unabated through red America.

    Ronald Brownstein

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  • East Palestine residents voice frustrations, frequently interrupt train company official at tense town hall | CNN

    East Palestine residents voice frustrations, frequently interrupt train company official at tense town hall | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Angry residents repeatedly interrupted a railroad company official at a contentious town hall in East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday, with questions and concerns regarding cleanup efforts at the site of a toxic train derailment nearly one month ago.

    “We’re going to do the right thing, we’re going to clean up the site,” said Norfolk Southern representative Darrell Wilson as shouts were raised from those in attendance. “We’re going to test until we get all the contamination gone.”

    “No, you’re not!” one voice cried out.

    Norfolk Southern, the operator of the train that derailed on the evening of February 3, has faced continued criticism from residents in the area, some of whom report illnesses they believe stem from the crash.

    After the derailment, the dangerous chemical vinyl chloride was released and burned to prevent a potentially deadly explosion, and other chemicals of concern that were being transported are feared to have leaked into the surrounding ecosystem in Ohio and Pennsylvania – with potentially damaging health consequences. Crews involved in the cleanup have also reported medical symptoms, according to a letter on behalf of workers’ unions.

    During Thursday’s town hall, officials with the Environmental Protection Agency said Norfolk Southern’s plans to remediate the site were under consideration that night, and Mark Durno, Regional Response Coordinator for the EPA, told CNN’s Brenda Goodman that teams were poised to approve it.

    That paved the way for the process to begin on Friday morning. The EPA has ordered the freight rail company to fully clean up the site of the wreck.

    Remediation started Friday a quarter mile from the derailment site on the south track, video from CNN’s Miguel Marquez shows.

    The process will involve removing one side of the tracks, digging out the contaminated soil, conducting sampling, and then replacing the tracks. The same would then be done on the other side of the tracks.

    While work is being done on the south track, trains will continue to run on the north track where there are still tank cars that can’t be removed until they’re inspected, Wilson said.

    “The sooner they pick it up, the sooner they can get it out of town,” EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said at the town hall. “This is going to be a complicated, big project.”

    Officials are hoping to begin the process on the north side around March 28, with the entire process finishing by the end of April, Wilson said.

    Approximately 2.1 million gallons of liquid waste and approximately 1,400 tons of solid waste have already been removed from the derailment site, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office announced in a news release Thursday, citing the state’s EPA. The wastewater and solid waste have been transported to sites in Ohio and elsewhere, including Michigan, Indiana and Texas, according to the release.

    “We’re very sorry for what happened. We feel horrible about it,” Wilson said – which spurred an uproar from the crowd.

    Last week, Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted had suggested the company should temporarily or permanently relocate residents who feel unsafe.

    “I think that the railroad should consider buying property of people who may not feel safe or would want to relocate as a result of the spill,” he told CNN on February 23. “This is the railroad’s responsibility, and it’s up to the government officials at the federal, state and local levels to hold them accountable and do right by the citizens of East Palestine.”

    In response to a resident’s question at the town hall meeting, Wilson said there has not been any talk about relocating residents.

    “This will be an evolving conversation that’s going to go on for quite a while,” he said, adding the company will continue to collect data to inform its decisions.

    This week, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw sold $448,000 worth of the company’s stock and Shaw personally set up a $445,000 scholarship fund for seniors at East Palestine High School that an unspecified number of students will be able to use to attend college or vocational schools.

    Norfolk Southern did not respond to request for comments about the stock sale, and whether Shaw plans to reduce or donate more of his salary in the wake of the accident.

    In addition to the site cleanup, the EPA is requiring Norfolk Southern to test directly for the presence of dioxins – compounds considered to have significant toxicity and can cause disease. The testing will be conducted with oversight by the agency, according to a statement released Thursday.

    The EPA will direct immediate cleanup of the area if dioxins are found at a level that poses any unacceptable risk to human health or the environment, according to the statement. The EPA will also require Norfolk Southern to conduct a background study to compare any dioxin levels around East Palestine to dioxin levels in other areas not impacted by the train derailment.

    The agency noted dioxins may be found in the environment as a result of common processes such as burning wood or coal, and they break down slowly, so the source of dioxins found in an area may be uncertain.

    The effort comes in direct response to concerns the EPA heard from East Palestine residents, the statement said.

    “This action builds on EPA’s bipartisan efforts alongside our local, state, and federal partners to earn the trust of this community and ensure all residents have the reassurances they need to feel safe at home once again,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said.

    As of February 28, the EPA had collected at least 115 samples in the potentially impacted area, which include samples of air, soils, surface water, and sediments, the statement said.

    To date, EPA’s monitoring for indicator chemicals has suggested a low probability for release of dioxin from this incident, according to the statement.

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  • Chinese city claims to have destroyed 1 billion pieces of personal data collected for Covid control | CNN

    Chinese city claims to have destroyed 1 billion pieces of personal data collected for Covid control | CNN


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    A Chinese city says it has destroyed a billion pieces of personal data collected during the pandemic, as local governments gradually dismantle their coronavirus surveillance and tracking systems after abandoning the country’s controversial zero-Covid policy.

    Wuxi, a manufacturing hub on China’s eastern coast and home to 7.5 million people, held a ceremony Thursday to dispose of Covid-related personal data, the city’s public security bureau said in a statement on social media.

    The one billion pieces of data were collected for purposes including Covid tests, contact tracing and the prevention of imported cases – and they were only the first batch of such data to be disposed, the statement said.

    China collects vast amounts of data on its citizens – from gathering their DNA and other biological samples to tracking their movements on a sprawling network of surveillance cameras and monitoring their digital footprints.

    But since the pandemic, state surveillance has pushed deeper into the private lives of Chinese citizens, resulting in unprecedented levels of data collection. Following the dismantling of zero-Covid restrictions, residents have grown concerned over the security of the huge amount of personal data stored by local governments, fearing potential data leaks or theft.

    Last July, it was revealed that a massive online database apparently containing the personal information of up to one billion Chinese citizens was left unsecured and publicly accessible for more than a year – until an anonymous user in a hack forum offered to sell the data and brought it to wider attention.

    In the statement, Wuxi officials said “third-party audit and notary officers” would be invited to take part in the deletion process, to ensure it cannot be restored. CNN cannot independently verify the destruction of the data.

    Wuxi also scrapped more than 40 local apps used for “digital epidemic prevention,” according to the statement.

    During the pandemic, Covid apps like these dictated social and economic life across China, controlling whether people could leave their homes, where they could travel, when businesses could open and where goods could be transported.

    But following the country’s abrupt exit from zero-Covid in December, most of these apps faded from daily life.

    On December 12, China scrapped a nationwide mobile tracking app that collected data on users’ travel movements. But many local pandemic apps run by the municipal or provincial governments, such as the ubiquitous Covid health code apps, have remained in place – although they are no longer in use.

    Wuxi claims to be the first municipality in China to have destroyed Covid-related personal data from citizens. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, users called for other local governments to follow suit.

    Yan Chunshui, deputy head of Wuxi’s big data management bureau, said the disposal was meant to better protect citizens’ privacy, prevent data leaks and free up data storage space.

    Kendra Schaefer, the head of tech policy research at the Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China, said the data collection related to local-level Covid apps was often messy, and those apps were difficult and expensive to manage for local governments.

    “Considering the cost and difficulty managing such apps, coupled with concerns expressed by the public over data security and privacy – not to mention the political win local governments get by symbolically putting zero-Covid to bed – dismantling those systems is par for the course,” Schaefer said.

    In many cases, she added, the big data departments at local governments were overwhelmed dealing with Covid data, so scaling back simply makes sense economically.

    “Many cities have not yet deleted their Covid data – or have not done so publicly – not because I believe they intend to keep it, but because it simply hasn’t been that long since zero-Covid was halted,” Schaefer said.

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  • Bodies found in apartment building believed to be those of 3 Michigan rappers missing almost two weeks, city official says | CNN

    Bodies found in apartment building believed to be those of 3 Michigan rappers missing almost two weeks, city official says | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Three bodies found Thursday in the Detroit area are believed to be those of three rappers missing for almost two weeks, a municipal spokesperson said.

    The bodies were found in a “rat infested,” abandoned apartment complex in Highland Park, roughly 6 miles northwest of Detroit, said Michigan State Police, which is leading the investigation.

    The Michigan State Police Second District tweeted Friday afternoon that the homicide task force identified the three bodies but are not releasing names until the families have been notified.

    The state police tweeted a day earlier that the agency has yet to confirm a manner of death.

    “Please remember all victims have families and we don’t have the luxury of guessing on their identity and then retracting if we didn’t get it right. Once information is confirmed we will update,” the state police tweeted on Thursday.

    Lt. Mike Shaw said via Twitter Friday morning that “due to weather conditions and the conditions of the victims” their identities were “unable to be determined just by sight alone.”

    The missing men – Armani Kelly, 28; Dante Wicker, 31; and Montoya Givens, 31 – were associates whose January 21 performance at a Detroit club was canceled, police have said. Activity on their cell phones stopped early on January 22, according to authorities.

    Police were first alerted to their disappearance by Kelly’s mother, who reported him missing the next day, said Michael McGinnis, commander of major crimes at the Detroit Police Department.

    “That mother became very proactive in the investigation and started searching for her vehicle through OnStar,” McGinnis said this week.

    She found the car in Warren, Michigan, just a few miles from Highland Park, McGinnis said, and authorities recovered the car on January 23.

    As the story of Kelly’s disappearance gained media attention, “other family members of the other missings come to realize that that’s a friend of their loved ones and they haven’t seen them either, so then they both get reported missing,” McGinnis said.

    A homicide task force was at the Highland Park complex Thursday evening, state police said.

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  • Tyre Nichols’ family has watched video of his arrest by Memphis police just days before his death, city officials say | CNN

    Tyre Nichols’ family has watched video of his arrest by Memphis police just days before his death, city officials say | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Tyre Nichols’ family on Monday met with Memphis, Tennessee, officials and viewed footage of his arrest earlier this month, giving them an opportunity to see what happened before he was taken in critical condition to a hospital, where he died days later.

    Memphis Police confirmed in a statement on Twitter that police and city officials met with Nichols’ family to let them view the video recordings, which Chief Cerelyn Davis indicated would be released publicly at a later time.

    “Transparency remains a priority in this incident, and a premature release could adversely impact the criminal investigation and the judicial process,” she said. “We are working with the District Attorney’s Office to determine the appropriate time to release video recordings publicly.”

    Benjamin Crump, the attorney representing Nichols’ family, said in a statement the family would hold a news conference Monday afternoon.

    The death of Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, follows a number of recent, high-profile cases involving police using excessive force toward members of the public, particularly young Black men.

    The Memphis Police Department has terminated five police officers, all of whom are Black, in connection with Nichols’ death January 10, three days after the department says officers pulled over a motorist, identified as Nichols, for alleged reckless driving the previous day.

    A confrontation followed, and “the suspect fled the scene on foot,” police said in a statement on social media. Officers chased him and another confrontation took place before the suspect was taken into custody, the statement said.

    “Afterward, the suspect complained of having a shortness of breath, at which time an ambulance was called to the scene. The suspect was transported to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition,” officials said.

    Nichols died a few days later, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating. The Department of Justice and the FBI have also opened a civil rights investigation.

    Details about Nichols’ injuries and the cause of his death have not been released. CNN has reached out to the Shelby County coroner for comment.

    The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office expects to release the video of Nichols’ arrest either this week or next week, a spokesperson told CNN on Monday, about a week after city officials said video recorded by officers’ body-worn cameras would be released publicly after the police department’s internal investigation was completed and the family had a chance to review the recordings.

    “(The video) should be made public, it’s just a matter of when,” Director of Communications Erica Williams said, adding the Nichols family was expected to meet with the DA around 12 p.m. ET Monday.

    Williams declined to characterize the nature of the video, saying it would be inappropriate to comment on it before the family sees it.

    Asked if officials anticipated charges against the five officers involved in Nichols’ arrest, Williams said, “charges, if any, will be announced later this week.”

    The Memphis Police Department’s administrative investigation found the five officers terminated – identified by the department as Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith – violated policies for use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid, the department said in a statement.

    “The egregious nature of this incident is not a reflection of the good work that our officers perform, with integrity, every day,” Police Chief Cerleyn “CJ” Davis said.

    The Memphis Police Association, the union representing the officers, declined to comment on the terminations beyond saying that the city of Memphis and Nichols’ family “deserve to know the complete account of the events leading up to his death and what may have contributed to it.”

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  • Misery in El Paso: Hundreds of homeless migrants live in squalor amid deportation fears | CNN

    Misery in El Paso: Hundreds of homeless migrants live in squalor amid deportation fears | CNN


    El Paso, Texas
    CNN
     — 

    One-year-old Brenda’s tiny feet are bare on the cold asphalt of an El Paso parking lot as the harsh reality starts to sink in for her parents. They are undocumented. They are homeless. And their daughter barely escaped death when they crossed the Rio Grande.

    “My daughter would have died because she was super frozen,” said Glenda Matos.

    Matos’ pain is clear in her eyes as she recalls her daughter being drenched, in the freezing cold, all while crying hysterically. Matos and her husband, Anthony Blanco, say they had nothing to keep their daughter warm, not even body heat, because they, too, were wet and cold.

    Matos says she hugged Brenda tightly and ran from house to house begging for help until they finally found a kind El Paso resident who helped them with clothes and shelter.

    “I asked God for help,” Glenda said. “God… put those people in my way.”

    For Matos, the tiny red rosary with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, hanging from Brenda’s ancle, saved them. Matos says she wrapped the religious token on her daughter’s little body for protection when they left their native Venezuela.

    Brenda and her parents are some of the hundreds of migrants living in squalor in the streets of downtown El Paso around Sacred Heart Parish. The makeshift camp – with its piles of blankets, strollers and tents lining both sides of a busy street – has city officials expressing concerns about safety and public health given the area is packed with migrants who have no running water or proper shelter.

    The surge of migrants aggregating here started a few weeks ago, when anxiety about the scheduled end of the Trump-era pandemic public health rule known as Title 42 prompted thousands of migrants to turn themselves in to border authorities or to cross into the United States illegally in a very short period of time.

    Title 42 allows immigration authorities to swiftly return some migrants to Mexico. The policy was scheduled to lift last week, but a Supreme Court ruling kept the rule in place while legal challenges play out in court.

    While the impact of the ruling has sent ripples throughout the southern border, the scene in El Paso is one of a kind. It’s the only U.S. border town where hundreds of migrants are living in the streets longer than expected. It’s a new phenomenon that city officials say had never happened during prior migrant surges.

    It’s driven, in part, by the anxiety created by the uncertainty of Title 42, which motivated some migrants to cross the border illegally. These migrants don’t have family or sponsors in the US to receive them. And many also fear that traveling out of town without the proper paperwork could lead to apprehension by US immigration authorities.

    Evelyn Palma sits with her five children in the streets of El Paso, Texas.

    The misery around Sacred Heart Parish is palpable. Evelyn Palma has blankets hooked and draped on a chain-linked fence to keep the cold and the drizzle from hitting her five children, ages 1 to 8, some of them shirtless. She’s been living on the street for eight days. But Friday was especially miserable because it was 40 degrees and it poured overnight.

    “We woke up drenched,” Palma said.

    The 24-year-old mother from Honduras says she and her children turned themselves in to immigration authorities earlier this month, but they were swiftly returned to Mexico, likely under Title 42. That’s why, she says, that a week ago she decided to evade authorities by crossing the river.

    She is part of the growing number of migrants who El Paso city officials say have decided to enter the US illegally and, for various reasons, have not left the city.

    “They are people who came into the country in anticipation of Title 42 going away,” said Mario D’Agostino, El Paso’s deputy city manager.

    The living conditions Palma and other migrants are enduring has officials concerned about their safety and overall public health. City spokesperson Laura Cruz-Acosta says that the spread of disease is top of mind.

    “We are still in the middle of what is being called a ‘tripledemic,’ with continuing high infection levels of upper respiratory infections across the community,” Cruz-Acosta said.

    Evelyn Palma receives gifts for her children in the streets of El Paso, Texas.

    And while the city has space for about 1,500 migrants at shelters that have been erected at the convention center and at a public school, those beds are only offered to migrants who have turned themselves in to border authorities and have been allowed to stay in the US pending their immigration cases. Those migrants receive documentation from US Customs and Border Protection that allows them to travel within the country.

    Migrants who enter the country illegally are not offered city-provided shelter because federal dollars are being used to foot the bill. And those monies can’t be used to serve people who entered the country illegally, according to D’Agostino.

    City officials have been referring undocumented migrants to non-profit organizations and churches like Sacred Heart Parish, which turns into a shelter when night falls.

    That’s why hundreds of migrants aggregate on the streets around the church, hoping to score one of the 120 to 130 slots to enter the church for the night.

    Around 6 p.m., a line of migrants forms outside the church’s gymnasium. Parents can be seen clutching their children to try to keep them warm. Women and men with children are given priority, according to Rafael García, the priest that runs the shelter. García says it’s tough to send people away but that his church has limited resources to serve the growing need.

    Angello Sánchez and his 4-year-old son Anyeider were allowed into the shelter for the night several times this week. The Colombian father says he was trying to protect his son from the cold because his little face still had windburn from being out in the elements during the recent freeze.

    “I got here from southern Mexico on a train. It was so cold and he wasn’t wearing any jacket,” Angello said.

    Palma, the mother of five, says she was offered entry into the shelter with her children but decided not to take the offer because a pregnant friend who is accompanying her was denied access.

    El Paso, which means “The Pass” in Spanish, has historically been a gateway for migrants passing through into the United States.

    “For hundreds of years people have been passing through and it’s just part of their journey,” D’Agostino said. “In normal times the community doesn’t even realize it.”

    But this migrant surge is different because migrants are staying for days and even more than a week, city officials say.

    Besides lacking family or sponsors in the US to receive them, many migrants don’t have money to pay for their transportation out of the city. And in the makeshift migrant camp around Sacred Heart Parish, word is spreading about another factor that has some undocumented migrants hunkering down in El Paso: The fear of getting detained at immigration checkpoints located in the interior of the US.

    In the last week, at least 364 undocumented migrants who were traveling in commercial buses headed to northern cities were detained at these immigration checkpoints, according to tweets posted by El Paso’s border patrol chief.

    Palma says she heard about the checkpoints and the apprehensions and decided to stay in El Paso longer while she figures out what to do.

    “If immigration detains me, they’ll return me,” Palma said.

    Juan Pérez, from Venezuela, was down the street and said that “immigration is in the exits [of the city]… they’ll return us and send us to Mexico.”

    The US has 110 Border Patrol checkpoints in the southern and northern borders, where vehicles are screened for the “illegal flow of people and contraband,” according to a recent US Government Accountability Office report. The checkpoints are usually between 25 and 100 miles from the border, according to the same report.

    Anthony Blanco holds a hand-written sign asking for a job while his wife, Glenda Matos, plays with Brenda in the streets of El Paso, Texas.

    Anthony Blanco says he’s not afraid of being detained at these interior checkpoints.

    “I’ve walked through many different countries without documents. I don’t think we’re going to be detained, but if that happens, it was God’s will,” Blanco said.

    For days this week, Blanco has been holding a sign on the street corner that reads, “Help me with work so I can support my wife and baby,” and asking drivers who pass by for money for bus tickets to Denver.

    Why Denver? He says word has spread that there is work there and living is more affordable.

    Friday morning, a day which was especially miserable because it was cold after a hard overnight rain, Blanco was all smiles. He says he had collected enough money to continue his journey to Denver.

    “Thank God,” Blanco said.

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  • Trial begins over death of Ugandan woman killed in Utah park

    Trial begins over death of Ugandan woman killed in Utah park

    SALT LAKE CITY — Ludovic Michaud was driving around the scenic red rock landscapes of Utah’s Arches National Park on a windy spring day in 2020 when something unthinkable happened: A metal gate whipped around, sliced through the passenger door of his car and decapitated his new 25-year-old wife, Esther Nakajjigo.

    The tragic accident is now the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit Michaud and Nakajjigo’s family are pursuing, in which they argue that the U.S. Park Service was negligent and did not maintain the gates at the entrances and exits to the parks, leading to Nakajjigo’s death.

    In opening statements Monday in Salt Lake City, attorneys representing Michaud and Nakajjigo’s family said they were seeking $140 million in damages from the government.

    The family’s lawsuit claims when the national parks reopened in April 2020 after being shuttered due to COVID-19, rangers at the national park in Utah didn’t secure the gate in place, which in effect “turned a metal pipe into a spear that went straight through the side of a car, decapitating and killing Esther Nakajjigo.”

    United States attorneys do not dispute that park officials shouldered blame, but argued the amount the family should be awarded is far less and called into questions the ways in which the damages being sought were calculated. They said claims by the family’s lawyers that Nakajjigo, who was 25 at the time of her death, was on track to be a non-profit CEO shortly were too speculative to be used as a basis for damages.

    “We don’t know with any level of certainty what her plans were,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nelson said.

    Attorney Randi McGinn, representing Nakajjigo’s family, on Monday described the death in gruesome detail. After requesting that the family leave the courtroom, she recounted the moment Michaud realized his wife had been killed, when he inhaled the copper-tinged smell of blood, turned to figure out what it was and saw she was dead.

    Opening statements previewed how the trial will hinge less on varying accounts of the accident and instead focus on Nakajiigo’s biography and earning potential, which is used to calculate a portion of the damages. McGinn said if her life hadn’t been cut short that Nakajjigo’s trajectory suggested she would have gone on to become a non-profit CEO who could eventually have netted an annual income in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — or millions.

    She described Nakajjigo as a prominent women’s rights activist who rose from poverty to become the host of a solutions-oriented reality television series in Uganda focused on empowering women on issues such as education and healthcare.

    Nakajjigo worked on fundraising to open a hospital in an underserved part of Kampala, Uganda’s capital, became a philanthropic celebrity and immigrated to the United States for a fellowship at the Boulder, Colorado-based Watson Institute for emerging leaders.

    Nelson, the government’s attorney, said an appropriate award would be $3.5 million, far less than the $140 million being pursued. He said he didn’t deny Nakajjigo was an extraordinary person, but argued it was difficult to speculate what kind of work she would have gone on to do. He noted she had recently worked as a host at a restaurant around the time of her death and didn’t have a Bachelor’s degree.

    Arches National Park is a 120-square-mile (310-square-kilometer) desert landscape near Moab, Utah, that is visited by more than 1.5 million people annually. It’s known for a series of sculpture-like fins and arches made of an orange sandstone that wind and water have eroded for centuries.

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  • Airplane crash in Gulf of Mexico leaves 2 dead, 1 missing

    Airplane crash in Gulf of Mexico leaves 2 dead, 1 missing

    VENICE, Fla. — A private airplane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast Saturday night, with two people confirmed dead as authorities searched for a third person believed to have been on the flight, police said.

    Authorities in Venice, Florida, initiated a search Sunday after 10 a.m. following a Federal Aviation Administration inquiry to the Venice Municipal Airport about an overdue single-engine Piper Cherokee that had not returned to its origin airport in St. Petersburg, Florida.

    Around the same time, recreational boaters found the body of a woman floating about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) west of the Venice shore, city of Venice spokesperson Lorraine Anderson said in a statement.

    Divers from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office located the wreckage of the rented airplane around 2 p.m. about a third of a mile offshore, directly west of the Venice airport, Anderson said.

    Rescuers found a deceased girl in the plane’s passenger area. A third person, believed to be a male who was the pilot or a passenger, remained missing Sunday, Anderson said.

    The county sheriff’s office, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Sarasota Police Department, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the District 12 Medical Examiner’s Office and the National Transportation Safety Board were involved in the investigation, Anderson said.

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