ReportWire

Tag: State governments

  • Tennessee alcohol wholesalers are grabbing control of the state’s hemp market

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    Few things are more difficult to eradicate in our system of modern governance than a government-sanctioned monopoly or oligopoly. A recently passed bill in Tennessee, which will allow the state’s alcohol wholesalers to take over hemp distribution in the state, shows that these monopolies are not only difficult to eliminate but also often attempt to expand their reach.    

    The new law sets up a distribution system for hemp—which was legalized at the federal level in the 2018 Farm Bill—that mirrors the notorious three-tier system for alcohol distribution, which requires producers, wholesalers, and retailers to be legally separate entities. The three-tier system restricts producers and suppliers from selling directly to their customers and mandates that they work through a wholesaler to reach the market. This allows wholesalers to operate as functional monopolies or oligopolies in certain parts of states where only one or two wholesalers operate.

    The law, which takes effect on January 1, 2026, also requires all wholesalers and retailers of hemp products to maintain a physical presence within the state. Out-of-state hemp suppliers will be prohibited from engaging in direct-to-consumer shipping to customers in Tennessee, and instead will be forced to work through the state’s wholesaler and retailer tiers. While in-state Tennessee hemp suppliers cannot ship their products to Tennesseans either, they are able to sell on-site directly to their customers, providing a workaround to avoid the three-tier system.

    Cornbread Hemp, a Kentucky hemp supplier that recorded $1 million in Tennessee-based sales last year, is challenging the new law in federal court. Cornbread Hemp argues that Tennessee’s law unconstitutionally discriminates against out-of-state competitors in favor of in-state businesses, which is a violation of the Constitution’s Dormant Commerce Clause.

    Supreme Court observers will recognize how closely the case mirrors Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas (2019). In the case, the majority struck down Tennessee’s requirement that applicants for alcohol wholesaling or retailing licenses must have resided in the state for over two years, finding it to be unconstitutional discrimination against out-of-state economic interests.

    Tennessee’s constitutional rationale for residency requirements in the hemp context is even weaker than with alcohol. The main constitutional defense in support of residency requirements for alcohol is that the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition, devolved alcohol regulation back down to the state and local level. States, therefore, argue that the Constitution’s recognition of state power in the alcohol arena should inoculate residency clauses from Dormant Commerce Clause challenges. While some lower courts have continued to buy this argument, the Supreme Court has refused to go along in recent decades.

    As liquor attorney Sean O’Leary notes, the 21st Amendment allows a discriminatory state law in the alcohol context to face a lower level of constitutional scrutiny than a non-alcohol law. The argument essentially boils down to: Alcohol is uniquely treated under the U.S. Constitution. Hemp has no corollary to the 21st Amendment, meaning a discriminatory hemp law will face a higher level of constitutional scrutiny.

    Now alcohol wholesalers—already a government-sanctioned oligopoly or monopoly in many locales—are trying to expand their control beyond alcohol. The new law makes this power grab particularly blatant, since it moves hemp from under the purview of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to the state Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

    In fact, this change was made “at the behest of the wholesaler lobby,” O’Leary notes. “The wholesaler’s goal is to mandate a three-tier system where they get a piece of the action.” He predicts that, given the power of the alcohol wholesaler lobby in state capitals across America, more state legislatures will be following Tennessee’s lead.

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    C. Jarrett Dieterle

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  • State lawmakers ask Trump administration to end its review of state regs

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    Crews install portraits of state capitol buildings ahead of the National Conference of State Legislatures annual summit on Aug. 4 in Boston. NCSL has asked the Trump administration to stop its review of state laws it says are overly burdensome on business. (Photo by Kevin Hardy/Stateline)

    State lawmakers from across the country are asking the Trump administration to stop its review of state laws it says are overly burdensome on businesses.

    Earlier this week, the National Conference of State Legislatures wrote to federal leaders, citing bipartisan concern about recent federal actions that, in its view, attempt to undermine the authority of state governments.

    “Our members have raised concerns that the federal government does not pay close enough attention to the state impact of their decisions. State laws and regulations are foundational to America’s economic and social infrastructure,” the organization wrote.

    The National Conference of State Legislatures, which represents state legislatures and legislative staff across the country, was responding to an August 15 announcement from the Justice Department and the National Economic Council that they would be seeking to identify state laws that “significantly and adversely affect the national economy or interstate economic activity.”

    In soliciting public comment, the Trump administration referenced the possibility of using existing federal authority or new legislation to preempt state regulations.

    State laws and regulations are foundational to America’s economic and social infrastructure.

    – The National Conference of State Legislatures

    The Justice Department announcement of the review cited an ongoing feud over state animal welfare standards. In recent years, major agricultural industry players and congressional Republicans have taken aim at efforts such as California’s Proposition 12, which requires farms to meet certain standards to provide animals freedom of movement, including cage-free enclosures and minimum floor space.

    California’s voter initiative also bars retailers from selling animal products raised in other states that don’t meet California’s standards — viewed as a major imposition by agriculture interests across the country.

    In July, the Trump administration sued California, arguing its regulations were driving up the cost of eggs across the country because of the state’s outsize role in the national economy.

    “It is one thing if California passes laws that affect its own State, it is another when those laws affect other States in violation of the U.S. Constitution,” U.S. Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a statement at the time.

    In its response to the administration’ recent solicitation, NCSL noted that the Supreme Court in 2023 upheld California’s Proposition 12.

    NCSL said the Justice Department review would contravene the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says powers not specifically delegated to the federal government or prohibited by the Constitution are reserved for states.

    The organization of state lawmakers argues that the foundational concept of federalism allows states to enact regulations and laws that are more responsive and adaptable to local citizens.

    “NCSL urges the Department of Justice to withdraw this unprecedented and broad attempt to undermine state authority,” the organization wrote.

    The letter was signed by four NCSL officers — two Democratic and two Republican state lawmakers.

    Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org. 

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  • Florida applies for federal reimbursement for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ costs despite court warning

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    The state of Florida has asked the federal government to reimburse it for the costs of its “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention camp, despite a recent appeals court ruling that receiving federal funds would trigger environmental reviews that the state ignored when it hastily built the camp.

    “The State of Florida submitted an application for reimbursement to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson says. “FEMA has roughly $625 million in Shelter and Services Program funds that can be allocated for this effort.”

    Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit lifted a lower court’s preliminary injunction shutting down the Everglades detention camp, allowing operations there to resume. It was a victory for Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, but it also complicated the state’s plan to be reimbursed by the federal government for hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses, as DeSantis repeatedly promised would happen.

    The appeals court panel ruled, in response to a lawsuit by the environmental advocacy nonprofits Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, that the detention camp is not subject to environmental impact studies required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because it has so far been entirely paid for by the state of Florida.

    “Here, no federal dollars have been expended on the construction or use of the Facility,” Judge Barbara Lagoa wrote in the majority opinion. “So, the Florida-funded and Florida-operated detention activities occurring at the Site do not conceive a ‘major federal project’ either.”

    “There may come a time when [the Florida Department of Environmental Protection] applies for FEMA funding,” Lagoa continued. “If the Federal Defendants ultimately decide to approve that request and reimburse Florida for its expenditures related to the Facility, they may need to first conduct an [environmental impact statement]. But, having not yet formally ‘committed to funding that project,’ the Federal Defendants have taken no ‘major federal action’ subjecting them to the procedural requirements of NEPA.”

    As the Associated Press reported Wednesday, the ruling created an apparent predicament for the state: “The state can either pass up federal reimbursement for hundreds of millions of dollars spent to build and operate the facility, or take the money and face an environmental review, which would risk halting the center’s operations,” the A.P. reported.

    But Florida has already applied for such funding, according to DHS’ statement to Reason.

    DHS and FEMA did not respond to requests for a copy of Florida’s application. No funds are reported to have been disbursed yet.

    DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment. The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), which is the state agency in charge of the detention camp, responded by sending a link to a DeSantis press conference from last month.

    Friends of the Everglades argues that, although no money has changed hands, the tacit agreement between the federal government and the state of Florida, and the repeated public statements by Florida and DHS officials, clearly show that the federal government has committed to pay for the project.

    In a dissenting opinion, Judge Adalberto Jordan agreed, writing that “the notion that Florida decided to build the detention facility without a concrete funding commitment from the federal government is squarely contradicted by the preconstruction statements of [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem and Governor DeSantis that the United States will pay for the facility.”

    Friends of the Everglades says Florida’s reimbursement application only adds to the pile of evidence that the federal government has always intended to pay for the project.

    “Time will prove the trial judge and Judge Jordan correct—and this evidence will support our case when we return to the trial court,” says Paul Schwiep, the lead counsel for Friends of the Everglades in its lawsuit.

    Federal and Florida officials have had a tacit reimbursement agreement for months.

    In a June 20 email, disclosed last month in a court filing, the Trump administration’s nominee for DHS general counsel, James Percival, wrote to the Florida Attorney General’s Office regarding Florida’s plan to detain aliens under an agreement with the federal government. “If you go forward, we will work out a method of partial reimbursement,” Percival wrote.

    At a June 25 press conference, DeSantis said the federal government would fully reimburse Florida. “This is something that was requested by the federal government, and this is something that the federal government is going to fully fund,” DeSantis said. “From a state taxpayer perspective, we are implementing it…but that will be fully reimbursed by the federal government.”

    Noem also said in public statements over the summer that FEMA funds would be used to reimburse Florida.

    The FDEM estimated in August that a shutdown of the facility would cost it more than $218 million it had already invested.

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    C.J. Ciaramella

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  • The feds own half the western U.S.—and can’t take care of it

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    The federal government owns about a third of America.

    Since we’re on a path to bankruptcy, it would be smart to sell some unused property.

    President Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary says it may be worth as much as $200 trillion. Selling just a fraction of it would reduce our enormous debt.

    Not just that—since government doesn’t manage things well, selling or leasing some would leave it in better condition.

    Federal bureaucrats have been slow to do controlled burns and remove deadwood that becomes fuel for fires.

    “Fires on federal lands accounted for more than half of the acres burned,” says the Congressional Budget Office.

    But whenever a politician suggests selling any land, environmental activists freak out.

    Jennifer Mamola of The John Muir Project says the government must hold on to every bit of land it owns “to solve our biodiversity crisis.”

    “What is a biodiversity crisis?” I ask her in my new video.

    “Human fingerprints are on the scale, and we are out-tipping it!”

    Like many activists, she’s not knowledgeable about science.

    “We are in very tumultuous weather times,” she tells me. “The fact that Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina is just unprecedented!”

    No, it’s not. Hurricanes hit North Carolina all the time.

    “I guess I mean the travel trajectory, right?…[Helene] started in the Gulf and then it went all the way up. Seems pretty unprecedented—going inland.”

    Actually, lots of hurricanes go inland. Floyd caused catastrophic flooding; almost every river basin in eastern North Carolina surpassed 500-year flood levels. Matthew brought record flooding. Florence caused about $17 billion in damages.

    Still, Mamola sees weather changes. “It’s really not that predictable anymore because we have our thumb on the scale….In the nearly 40 years I’ve been alive, we’re definitely seeing a shift!…D.C., I’ve lived there 10 years. We had a drought last summer!”

    But drought isn’t more common. The Environmental Protection Agency says the last 50 years have actually been wetter than average.

    If government sells any land, Mamola says, loggers and mining companies will destroy it.

    Climate media company The YEARS Project peddles a deceitful video that says, “Imagine the Grand Canyon filled with oil rigs. That’s the world Pendley wants to live in.”

    “Pendley” is William Pendley, who ran the government’s Bureau of Land Management during Trump’s first term.

    I confront him with what the activists say:

    “Picture Yellowstone being strip mined for coal. These are the kinds of policies he advocates for.”

    “Absolutely not!” he replies. “We’re not going to do parks. They made it up!”

    He wants to sell, as Congress has done for decades, “multiple-use” land: “It’s supposed to be used [for] oil and gas, mining, grazing.”

    He says private lease holders would manage it better.

    Also, says Pendley, “The best forest managers are tribes and states because they’ve got skin in the game.”

    The governors of Utah and Nevada agree. They, too, want the feds to release some land.

    Most of Utah is federally owned. Utah sued the feds for the right to buy some of it. But so far, no success.

    In Nevada, 80 percent of land is federally owned and controlled. Gov. Joe Lombardo wants “immediate and systematic release of federal land.”

    “Why should it be controlled by the federal government?” I ask Mamola. “What if Utah or Nevada say they can do it better?”

    Mamola replies, “They’re not going to be able to maintain it.”

    But the feds don’t maintain it! The Park Service is $23 billion behind on repairs.

    Despite the incompetence of federal management, Mamola wants the feds to buy even more land.

    “They own 50 percent of the West. Isn’t that enough?” I ask. “What would be enough?”

    “I’m happy to give up some of the East Coast,” she replies.

    Yikes.

    But the silly people win. They’ve convinced voters that no land should ever be sold. Sen. Mike Lee (R–Utah) saw which way the political winds were blowing. He withdrew his proposal to sell public lands.

    Too bad. We’re deep in debt. The feds should at least lease unused land.

    Washington bureaucrats don’t need to control half the West.

    COPYRIGHT 2025 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

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    John Stossel

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  • Walz’s gun plan wouldn’t stop shootings, but it might shred civil liberties

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    Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz announced on Tuesday plans to hold a special legislative session to introduce new statewide gun control measures, including a ban on “assault weapons.” This comes in the wake of last week’s tragic mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, which left 21 injured and 2 dead.

    Despite assurances that the proposals would not infringe upon Second Amendment rights, Walz’s proposed measures raise significant constitutional concerns. In addition to a ban, Walz proposed a law that would mandate stricter standards for safe storage, increased funding for mental health treatment, and further expansion of Minnesota’s 2023 red flag laws.

    The governor’s statements drew mixed reactions, mostly along partisan lines, with state Democrats largely supportive. Echoing Walz’s call, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, and eight other city leaders urged repeal of Minnesota’s 1985 preemption statute, which bars local governments from enacting stricter gun laws than the state. Even if broader legislation fails, they insist cities must be able to act.

    State Republicans, despite expressing their willingness to work with Democrats to address gun violence, have predictably voiced skepticism toward the proposed measures, citing concerns about potential civil liberties violations, questioning the governor’s intentions, and ultimately doubting that a bipartisan resolution could be reached.

    Walz still seems willing to work with Republicans. But whatever kind of legislation the special session produces—particularly restrictions and/or local bans on common firearms—will likely face constitutional challenges if ratified. 

    The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen established that all state and local-level gun regulations must align with firearm laws that were in place at the time of the Constitution’s framing. Since then, courts have overturned various state-level gun control laws, including bans on so-called “assault weapons,” for not reflecting that standard—among them, Illinois’ attempted prohibition of semiautomatic rifles and Tennessee’s ban on concealed carry in public parks.

    In Minnesota, these complexities extend further. The push to repeal the state’s preemption law—designed to prevent municipalities from passing stricter firearm ordinances than the state—would unravel decades of legal consistency, exposing residents to a fragmented landscape of local regulations and expanding the potential for municipal overreach. However, concerns over state overreach are not merely theoretical.

    Since red flag laws first emerged in 1999, civil liberties advocates have warned of due process erosion, as courts have authorized firearm seizures through ex parte orders with minimal evidentiary standards. In many cases, individuals lose their constitutional rights without being criminally charged or having a chance to dispute allegations. This lack of clarity can lead to deadly misunderstandings, as in 2018, when Maryland resident Gary Willis was killed by police while being served a red flag order issued without his knowledge. Extreme though it was, the case underscores how such laws can escalate risk and undermine core constitutional protections.

    Rather than address these deficiencies, Walz appears ready to double down, suggesting not only an expansion to his earlier red flag laws, but also broader state authority to disarm citizens based on subjective assessments of future risk. If the current trajectory continues, Minnesota may soon serve as a national test case for how far civil liberties can be curtailed in the name of safety.

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    Jacob Swartz

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  • Raw milk debates are turning sour in Florida

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    In the fall of 2024, I predicted that America might be on the brink of having its “raw milk moment” given now Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s political elevation. Since then, hardly a week has passed without unpasteurized milk making headlines across the country. A recent bacterial outbreak in Florida has now heightened the controversy and further solidified raw milk’s central role in America’s broiling culture wars.

    The Florida Department of Health (DOH) issued a press release in early August detailing a campylobacter and E. coli outbreak in the Sunshine State. Officials alerted that “there have been 21 cases since January 24, 2025, including six children under the age of 10, and seven hospitalizations linked to consumption of raw milk.” The DOH explicitly identified Keely Farms Dairy, a small family farm, as the source of the outbreak.

    Weeks later, a Florida woman, represented by a self-described “national food poisoning law firm,” filed suit against Keely Farms, alleging that its raw milk caused her two-year-old son to contract a bacterial infection and fall ill. The woman further alleges that she fell ill herself and developed sepsis, which eventually led to the loss of her pregnancy.

    The details from the lawsuit are heartbreaking, but the more we learn about the situation surrounding Keely Farms, the more bizarre the story becomes. Despite DOH’s definitive declaration that Keely Farms was the source of the bacterial outbreak, it was later found that the agency had reached this conclusion despite not conducting a single test at the farm, nor alerting the farm that it was under investigation. In a Facebook post, Keely Farms said that the department’s press release “blindsided” them. (The DOH’s press release stated that it would “continue working with Keely Farms Dairy,” insinuating that the relevant parties had been working together throughout.)

    Confusing things further, Keely Farms was recently inspected by the Florida Department of Agriculture. “We passed, as always,” Keely Farms posted.

    Selling raw milk for human consumption is illegal in Florida. As a result, milk that has not been pasteurized—the process of heating the liquid to a specific temperature for five to 30 seconds to kill harmful bacteria—can only be sold for livestock feed. Keely Farms’ raw milk was appropriately labeled as “not for human consumption,” meaning that the 21 Floridians who allegedly drank the farm’s milk (and those who also gave it to their children) chose to do so despite this warning.

    It’s unclear how the current litigation involving Keely Farms will ultimately play out, although it’s likely that more follow-on suits will be filed, using the DOH’s press release as evidentiary fodder. 

    Politico recently noted that raw milk has gone from “the darling of the organic liberals, deserving of sympathetic coverage…to the conservative culture war signal that is a sweetheart of deep-red state legislatures.” This is on display in Florida. Despite the DOH targeting Keely Farms for its raw milk, Florida’s Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo—an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the head of the DOH—recently expressed support for human consumption of raw milk in a social media post. 

    On the other hand, Florida’s agriculture commissioner, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, has encouraged Floridians to only drink pasteurized milk, citing the dangers of raw milk. This means that the head of the Florida agency that targeted Keely Farms’ raw milk products is unexpectedly pro-raw milk, while the head of the state agency that inspected and greenlighted Keely Farms’ operations is against raw milk.

    This confusion highlights how raw milk has become a political flashpoint. The state health agency blamed Keely Farms while skipping basic investigative steps, the agriculture department cleared the farm, and their leaders publicly contradicted their own agencies.

    When policy decisions are filtered through the lens of culture wars, the result is not clarity or safety but a muddle of mixed signals. Floridians are left unsure whether raw milk is a health risk, a personal freedom, or just another pawn in America’s endless red vs. blue standoff.

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    C. Jarrett Dieterle

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  • Should we take more kids from their homes or fewer?

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    Some parents abuse their kids.

    Child welfare workers are supposed to stop that to protect the kids.

    But bad things often happen while they watch.

    “Children have a right to safety,” says Tim Keller. “If home is a danger, we as a society have to step in and protect those children.”

    Keller, legal director of the Center for the Rights of Abused Children, is a libertarian.

    “It’s surprising to hear a libertarian argue that government should do more,” I tell him.

    “We don’t like the state involved in family life,” he replies in my new video, but “they’re leaving children in dangerous situations.”

    Lots of parents abuse kids, even when they are on Child Protective Services’ (CPS) radar.

    Maybe it happens because child welfare workers are told, “Whenever possible, keep families together.”

    That’s U.S. policy, and Keller says it wrecks lives.

    But Columbia Law School professor Josh Gupta-Kagan wants welfare workers to take fewer kids from their homes.

    “The horror stories go in all directions,” he says.

    In Massachusetts, after parents brought their young son to the hospital with a fever and X-rays revealed an old, healing rib fracture, child welfare workers took both him and his brother away from their home. They returned the boys after four weeks, but those were a traumatic four weeks.

    It happens because American law requires social workers, doctors, nurses, teachers, and other professionals to report anything suspicious. Those who don’t report may be fined or even jailed.

    Gupta-Kagan says this leads health care workers to report too many instances of possible abuse.

    “See something, say something. It’s surveillance, investigatory, and sometimes it leads to an unnecessary separation.” Those can be as traumatic as abuse.

    “About 37 percent of all children are going to be the subject of a CPS hotline call. Fifty-three percent of all African American children.…Where my clients live…the CPS agency is a constant presence.…Folks are scared of them.”

    “We certainly don’t want a situation where we’re going to say, ‘We’re not going to protect this child because he is African American,’” replies Keller. “But 2,000 children a year are dying in their homes, and most of those are known to Child Protective Services.”

    Gupta-Kagan disagrees: “I don’t think I’ve seen any evidence that removing more children from parents saves lives. Child fatality numbers, unfortunately, have remained stubborn.”

    In 2023, more than 100,000 kids were taken from their homes. Still, about 2,000 die from abuse or neglect.

    Child welfare workers are overwhelmed.

    “Millions of CPS hotline calls coming in,” says Gupta-Kagan. “If you want to find the needle in the haystack, we have to stop putting so much hay on the stack.”

    Texas recently changed the definition of “neglect” to say that kids must be in “immediate” danger of harm before a child can be taken.

    As a result, Texas now has far fewer children removed from their homes.

    Keller calls that a mistake. “By the time a child is in imminent harm, they’ve already suffered so much trauma.”

    Keller, who has been a foster parent himself, wants more kids taken from their biological parents and put in foster homes sooner.

    “That child only gets one childhood. We need to make sure that that child is in a safe, loving, permanent home as quickly as we can.”

    That’s a noble goal. It’s horrible when kids are abused.

    But some foster parents are abusive.

    This is one conflict where I have no idea who is right.

    Government is best when it governs least.

    But when children are abused, we want government to step in.

    What do you think?

    COPYRIGHT 2025 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

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    John Stossel

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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

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    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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  • East Coast mayors call for more office-to-apartment conversions

    East Coast mayors call for more office-to-apartment conversions

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    Mayors in cities across the U.S. want to loosen rules that can slow the pace of office-to-residential conversions. In some instances, cities have offered generous tax abatements to developers who build new housing.

    “We have a great opportunity to change the uses in the downtown,” said Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser at a December 2022 news conference in support of her housing budget proposals.

    “It’s absolutely a budget gimmick” said Erica Williams, executive director at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, referring to Bowser’s 2023 proposal to increase the downtown developer tax break. “We fully support the idea that some of these buildings could be turned into residential properties or into mixed-use properties, but that we don’t necessarily need to subsidize that.”

    In New York City, a task force of planners assembled by Mayor Eric Adams is studying the effects of zoning changes, and possible abatements for developers who include affordable units in conversions.

    Cities like Philadelphia have previously embraced these policies to revitalize their downtowns. In Philadelphia, homeowners and investors received more than $1 billion in tax breaks for their renovation projects.

    A small collective of developers have taken on this challenging slice of the real estate business. Since 2000, 498 buildings have been converted in the U.S., creating 49,390 new housing units through the final quarter of 2022, according to real estate services firm CBRE.

    Prominent investors Societe Generale and KKR have worked with developers like Philadelphia-based Post Brothers to finance institutional-scale office conversions in expensive central business districts.

    “Capital has gotten much more limited,” said Michael Pestronk, CEO of Post Brothers. “We’re able to get financing today. … It is a lot more expensive than it was a year ago.”

    Many experts believe local governments will alter zoning laws and building codes to make these conversions easier over the years.

    “Our rules are in the way, and we need to fix that,” said Dan Garodnick, director of New York City’s Department of City Planning.

    Watch the video above to learn how cities are getting developers to convert more offices into apartments.

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  • Here’s what’s stopping cities from converting offices into apartments

    Here’s what’s stopping cities from converting offices into apartments

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    Some U.S. mayors are loosening up rules that determine how developers convert office buildings into apartment complexes. The conversion trend sped up in the 2020s, as the Covid pandemic remote work boom reshaped cities. Declines in office leasing activity is constraining funding for services like education and transit, leading some local leaders to prioritize conversion of dated buildings. These rule changes may create some additional housing supply in regions like the U.S. East Coast.

    11:46

    Sat, Jul 15 20237:00 AM EDT

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  • Prosecutors in Whitmer kidnap plot say life sentence fits

    Prosecutors in Whitmer kidnap plot say life sentence fits

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    Federal prosecutors told a judge Monday that a life prison sentence would be justified for the leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, saying his goal to turn the country upside down in 2020 was a forerunner of rampant anti-government extremism.

    “If our elected leaders must live in fear, our representative government suffers. A plan to kidnap and harm the governor of Michigan is not only a threat to the officeholder but to democracy itself,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler wrote.

    Adam Fox “fanatically embraced the cause and persistently pushed his recruits to action,” Kessler said.

    The court filing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, came a week before U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker is scheduled to sentence Fox for conspiracy crimes. He and co-defendant Barry Croft Jr. were convicted in August.

    Fox’s attorney hadn’t filed a sentencing memo yet. At trial, Christopher Gibbons portrayed him as hapless and virtually homeless, a man with a loud, vile mouth who was living in the basement of a Grand Rapids-area vacuum shop.

    Jonker has much flexibility in determining Fox’s punishment, though Kessler noted that his sentencing score is “off the chart,” greatly enhanced by a conviction for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in the scheme.

    “The guidelines provide for a life sentence because Congress recognized kidnapping is an extremely serious offense,” Kessler said. “When the aim of that kidnapping is to terrorize the people and affect the conduct of government, it is so pernicious that only the most serious sanction is sufficient.”

    In 33 pages, the prosecutor highlighted what FBI agents and informants revealed at trial, repeatedly citing Fox’s own violent words, which were secretly recorded or plucked from text messages and social media.

    “Fox’s plot was a harbinger of more widespread anti-government militia extremism,” Kessler said.

    Fox and others trained with guns inside crudely built “shoot houses” in Wisconsin and Michigan and made trips to Elk Rapids to scout Whitmer’s second home. The strategy included blowing up a bridge to slow down police officers responding to an abduction, according to evidence. The FBI broke up the plan with arrests in October 2020.

    The government said Fox’s rage at elected officials was fueled by Whitmer’s COVID-19 restrictions.

    “We want a revolutionary war,” he said in a June 2020 video. “We want to get rid of this corrupt, tyrannical … government. That’s what we want to get rid of.”

    Croft, a trucker from Bear, Delaware, will be sentenced on Dec. 28. Two more men pleaded guilty to the kidnapping conspiracy and testified against Fox and Croft, while two other men were acquitted last spring.

    In October, in state court, three members of a paramilitary group called the Wolverine Watchmen were convicted of providing support for Fox.

    ———

    Follow Ed White at http//:twitter.com/edwritez

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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

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    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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  • Report blasts Virginia schools’ handling of sex assaults

    Report blasts Virginia schools’ handling of sex assaults

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    LEESBURG, Va. — A special grand jury convened at the direction of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has issued a scathing report against a northern Virginia school system accusing it of mishandling a student who sexually assaulted classmates at two different high schools last year.

    The grand jury report accuses the Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent of lying to the public to cover up what occurred, and authorities of ignoring multiple warning signs that could have prevented an assault.

    “It is our considered judgment that (the second assault) never should have occurred,” the grand jury states in the report. “Had any one of a number of individuals across a variety of entities spoke up … then the sexual assault most likely would not have occurred. But nobody did.”

    Youngkin issued an executive order on his first day in office in January requesting an investigation of the school system’s conduct in connection with the assaults. The school system sought to quash the investigation, calling it politically motivated. But the Virginia Supreme Court ruled earlier this year it could move forward.

    The school system’s conduct became a major issue in the 2021 gubernatorial campaign, as Youngkin cited Loudoun schools as an example of administrators who placed social justice initiatives above student safety and educational fundamentals.

    The assaults received outsize attention because the student who was convicted in both attacks is a biological male who wore a skirt in one of the attacks, playing into a national debate over how schools should treat transgender students and whether they should be allowed to use restrooms different than their biological sex.

    The report also accuses school administrators and lawyers of stonewalling the special grand jury’s investigation. The report notes that school board members went out of their way in testimony to describe the assailant’s attire as a kilt rather than a skirt, something the report suggests was a coordinated effort by the school system’s legal team to push a coordinated narrative about what occurred.

    A school system spokesman said the district would issue a statement responding to the report later Monday.

    The first assault occurred in a girls’ bathroom stall at Stone Bridge High School in May 2021. The student was charged in juvenile court and barred by court order from returning to Stone Bridge. Administrators then transferred him to nearby Broad Run High School, where the second assault occurred in October 2021.

    The grand jury report accuses the school system superintendent, Scott Ziegler, of lying about the assault at a school board meeting in June 2021, after the first assault occurred.

    As the school board debated policies governing transgender students and whether they can use the restroom of their preference, a school board member asked Ziegler if the schools had a problem with sexual assaults occurring in bathrooms.

    Ziegler responded that “to my knowledge we don’t have any record of assaults in our restrooms.” But emails show that Ziegler had been informed of the Stone Bridge assault and in fact had sent an email to board members informing them of the incident.

    The report says teachers at both schools warned administrators of the student’s disturbing conduct weeks before each assault occurred. Even the student’s grandmother spoke up and warned the student’s probation officer, referring to her grandchild as a “sociopath,” according to the report.

    Two weeks before the first assault, a teaching assistant wrote an email to another teacher and administrator noting that the boy sat on girls’ laps during study hall “and seems to have a problem with listening and keeping his hands to himself.”

    The email resulted in a call to the student’s mother, but the grand jury report shows administrators seemed as concerned with whether the teaching assistant followed proper protocol in reporting her concerns as they were about the student’s conduct.

    And the report faults administrators for passing the student off to Broad Run with insufficient communication about the risk he posed. At Broad Run, an art teacher reported to the principal that girls in the class were uncomfortable because the student was following them. Separately, he asked multiple students about posting nude photos online, according to the report.

    The only punishment was an admonishment and requiring him to “write on a piece of paper that he would not commit such conduct again,” according to the report.

    Attorney General Jason Miyares, whose office conducted the investigation, thanked grand jurors and said he looks “forward to the positive change in LCPS resulting from their work.”

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  • Keep COVID military vaccine mandate, defense chief says

    Keep COVID military vaccine mandate, defense chief says

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    Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin introduces the B-21 Raider stealth at Northrop Grumman Friday, Dec. 2, 2022, in Palmdale, Calif. America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber made its debut Friday after years of secret development and as part of the Pentagon’s answer to rising concerns over a future conflict with China. The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber aircraft in more than 30 years. Almost every aspect of the program is classified. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

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  • EXPLAINER: What do we know about the Colorado bomb threat?

    EXPLAINER: What do we know about the Colorado bomb threat?

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    DENVER — More than a year before police say Anderson Lee Aldrich killed five people and wounded 17 others at a gay night club in Colorado Springs, Aldrich was arrested on allegations of making a bomb threat that led to the evacuation of about 10 homes.

    Aldrich, who uses the pronoun they and is nonbinary according to their attorneys, threatened to harm their own family with a homemade bomb, ammunition and multiple weapons, authorities said at the time. They were booked into jail on suspicion of felony menacing and kidnapping, but the case was later sealed and it’s unclear what became of the charges. There are no public indications that the case led to a conviction.

    Officials refuse to speak about what happened, citing the sealing law, which was passed three years ago to help prevent people from having their lives ruined if cases are dismissed and never prosecuted. It was passed as part of a nationwide movement aimed at addressing the “collateral consequences” from people’s run-ins with law enforcement that often make it difficult for them to get jobs or housing.

    Amid a flurry of questions about the incident after Aldrich was identified as the suspect in the Nov. 19 shooting at Club Q, District Attorney Michael Allen said during a Nov. 21 news conference that he “hoped at some point in the near future” to share more about the incident, raising expectations that he wanted the information to be made public.

    But 11 days later, Allen still hasn’t shed light on the incident and the documents remain sealed despite a petition to make them public submitted by a coalition of media organizations including The Associated Press.

    Here is a closer look at what is known about the incident, the records and what is being done to make them public as a grieving community clamors for more information.

    ———

    WHY ARE THE CASE DOCUMENTS SEALED?

    There had been ways to seal criminal records in Colorado for decades, but in 2019, state lawmakers changed the law to allow records to be automatically sealed when a case is dropped and defendants aren’t prosecuted. Before that law was passed, anyone seeking to seal their records would’ve had to petition the court in what was an opaque process that was difficult for many to navigate, said one of the sponsors, Democratic state Rep. Mike Weissman.

    Weissman said he thinks Colorado’s law strikes the right balance with a mechanism to ask for documents to be unsealed, but that speeding up the process for unsealing cases that draw intense public interest could be a possible improvement.

    Law enforcement agencies are still able to access sealed records, though they are limited in what they can share publicly. The law prevents authorities from even acknowledging the existence of such sealed cases when someone from the public asks about them. Allen has cited the 2019 law in his refusal to discuss what happened.

    ———

    CAN SEALED RECORDS BE MADE PUBLIC?

    Yes, but it isn’t easy. Colorado law allows anyone to ask a court to unseal a record if they believe the benefit outweighs the defendant’s right to privacy. But that can only be done if someone has reason to believe a record may exist, since court officials can’t disclose such information to the public.

    The process happens behind closed doors with no docket to follow. It isn’t even known which judge is considering the request. All of that makes it impossible to know when a decision could come.

    David Loy, legal director at the First Amendment Coalition, said it seems troubling that the public is unable to follow the petition request to unseal the documents.

    “It’s sort of a black box as to who the judge is, we don’t normally have secret judges, we don’t normally have secret courts, for very important reasons,” he said.

    Getting access to records is important for learning the details of cases and whether the justice system worked as it should have, including whether a red flag order should have been pursued to remove any firearms, said Jeff Roberts, who heads the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition,

    “You don’t truly know the circumstances until you can see what law enforcement authorities wrote about what happened,” he said.

    ———

    WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE BOMB THREAT INCIDENT?

    Most of what is known about the June 18, 2021, incident in Colorado Springs comes from a news release put out that night by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

    In it, the office said that a woman calling from the street where Aldrich’s grandparents lived reported that “her son” was threatening to harm her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons and ammunition. Aldrich was later found at house about a mile (1.6 kilometers) away, on the block where his mother lived. The release noted that no explosives were found, but it didn’t mention if any other weapons were found.

    Ring doorbell video obtained by the AP shows Aldrich arriving at their mother’s front door with a big black bag, telling her the police were nearby and adding, “This is where I stand. Today I die.”

    Two squad cars and what appears to be a bomb squad vehicle later pull up to the house, and a barefooted Aldrich emerges with hands up.

    ———

    WHAT HAPPENED AFTER ALDRICH’S 2021 ARREST?

    It’s not clear, because case records are sealed. What is known is that in August, Aldrich told a reporter for The Gazette in Colorado Springs that they had spent two months in jail after the 2021 arrest, though it is unknown if that is true. The reporter called Aldrich in response to a voicemail Aldrich had left with the newspaper asking that its previous story about the bomb threat be removed or updated, asserting that the case had been dropped.

    ———

    SHOULD COLORADO’S RED FLAG LAW BEEN USED?

    That is difficult to say, largely because of the lack of public details about what happened after Aldrich’s arrest and what other evidence authorities might have gathered. And it isn’t clear when Aldrich acquired the semi-automatic rifle and handgun investigators recovered at the scene of last month’s shooting.

    The law allows a law enforcement agency or household member ask a court to order someone to surrender their firearms if they pose a significant risk to themselves or others.

    Had a red flag order been issued against Aldrich, any firearms they had at the time would have been taken away and they would have been prevented from buying additional weapons from a gun dealer required to perform a background check.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Jesse Bedayn contributed to this report. Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Nonprofits strain to support voters in Georgia Senate race

    Nonprofits strain to support voters in Georgia Senate race

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    When the closely watched Georgia Senate race went to a runoff, nonprofit organizations that educate voters strained to ramp up operations again after Election Day.

    “It’s not just, ‘Find new canvassers and recruit new volunteers.’ It’s also, ‘Find new money,’” said Kendra Cotton, CEO of New Georgia Project — founded by Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who lost her second campaign to become the state’s governor last month. The project’s goal was to raise $1 million to inform voters about the runoff, help them find out where and how to vote through phone banking and text banking, as well as voter protection at the polls. As of Monday, they have raised $797,000.

    Grassroots groups have missed the mark in educating donors, Cotton said, explaining that she’ll hear from even high dollar donors that they don’t need to donate to her group because they’ve already given to Abrams or to Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock, who will take on Republican challenger Herschel Walker in the runoff.

    Many don’t understand, she said, that their political donations do not trickle down and that grassroots nonprofits cannot work with campaigns or advocate for candidates.

    However, the group believes their efforts are essential, especially in this case. Many voters don’t know there is a runoff and are confused about whether they are eligible to vote in it, Cotton said. Canvassers will say, “’Yes, ma’am or yes sir, you might have already voted on November 8th, but there is another election on December 6th,’ and they’re like, ‘What the hell? Between who?’” Cotton said.

    In Georgia, where district boundaries and voting rules have changed since 2020, this kind of voter outreach and education is vitally important and not something most political campaigns focus on, she said. Her organization put together a map of the hours and locations of early voting sites in every county, which numerous other nonprofits are using.

    Other grassroots organizations like Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta are also involved in voter education, targeting what Phi Nguyen, the organization’s executive director and a civil rights attorney, called “high potential, low propensity” voters, especially in Asian American and Latino communities.

    “We will be knocking on doors, we’ll be texting, we’ll be phone banking, and we’ll be doing election protection,” said Nguyen, whose sister Bee Nguyen was the Democratic nominee for secretary of state in Georgia. In that race, the incumbent Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was reelected.

    Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta also provide interpreters for people at polling sites in 10 counties, including five in the Atlanta area.

    The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) support dozens of organizations like these in five southern states. In June 2020, SPLC announced it would grant $30 million from its endowment to fund grassroots organizations “to increase voter registration and participation among people of color with a lower propensity to vote.” Last December, it added another $100 million over 10 years, again from its endowment, to its Vote Your Voice grant program, which the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta is overseeing.

    The project is part of SPLC’s mission of achieving racial justice in the South, said senior advisor Amy Dominguez-Arms. Contributions to SPLC more than doubled from 2016 to 2017, the year Donald Trump was elected president, from $58 million to $136 million according to nonprofit information source Candid.

    Philanthropic funding for tax exempt nonprofits that do nonpartisan voter registration or mobilization is often concentrated in the two months before Election Day, but this support is long term. Participation in a democracy doesn’t just happen when it’s time to vote, Dominguez-Arms said.

    Major philanthropic conveners like the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation are encouraging donors who want to fund civic engagement or democracy portfolios to unlink their funding from the political calendar.

    “Organizations, if they’re really going to be building civic engagement in democracy, small ‘d’ democracy, the money is needed year round,” said Paul Ryan, deputy executive director of the FCCP.

    Political donations that are not tax exempt are also pouring into the Georgia runoff, even though Democratic control of the Senate is already decided. The IRS rules that govern nonprofit activity allow nonpartisan voter registration and mobilization as well as things like education on the voting process, creating candidate questionnaires and supporting or opposing ballot measures.

    Nonprofits are prohibited from supporting political campaigns in any way whether that is through donations, the sharing of resources or written or verbal endorsement.

    The rules for nonprofit activity around elections have come under scrutiny especially after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan made a $400 million donation in 2020 to two nonprofits that then granted funds to help elections officials administer the vote during the pandemic when neither vaccines nor effective treatments were available.

    Lawson Bader, president and CEO of DonorsTrust, whose mission is to safeguard the philanthropic intent of self-described conservative and libertarian donors, said his organization hasn’t tracked an increase in donations around the midterms, though he wouldn’t be surprised if there was more interest in helping elections become more efficient.

    He said it’s worrisome that frustration with money’s influence in politics has spilled over from the world of political action committees and 501(c)4 nonprofits, whose work is not tax exempt, into nonpartisan work.

    “I don’t think anyone disagrees that it would be great if this didn’t have to be philanthropy and it could be resourced through the government. But unfortunately, that’s not where we’re at,” said Ashley Spillane, senior advisor at Power the Polls, an initiative that started in 2020 to help recruit poll workers when the pandemic was keeping many, especially older poll workers, from participating.

    Her organization recruited potential poll workers on Election Day this year and is continuing to recruit for the runoff in Georgia.

    Voters have less than three weeks to receive and return absentee ballots and at least five days of early voting during the last week of November. That’s a narrow timeframe, Spillane said.

    “Voters in Georgia are going to have to show up to polling locations,” Spillane said. “And making sure that they are incredibly well staffed and that there aren’t any gaps or polling location closure closings is absolutely critical in an election like that.”

    The Warnock campaign sued successfully to allow for early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, though only some decided to open polling stations that day, leading to long lines and hours-long waits.

    Political affiliations vary among the communities that Nguyen’s organization reaches, she said, given the range of ethnicities, languages and migration backgrounds that shape people’s worldviews.

    “When we’re out there doing nonpartisan voter registration and getting out the vote, it really could be that the person is voting for anyone,” she said, adding, “It’s absolutely a nonpartisan issue to want every Georgian and every eligible voter to be able to access the ballot.”

    ———

    Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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  • Prayers? Bombs? Hawaii history shows stopping lava not easy

    Prayers? Bombs? Hawaii history shows stopping lava not easy

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    HONOLULU — Prayer. Bombs. Walls. Over the decades, people have tried all of them to stanch the flow of lava from Hawaii’s volcanoes as it lumbered toward roads, homes and infrastructure.

    Now Mauna Loa — the world’s largest active volcano — is erupting again, and lava is slowly approaching a major thoroughfare connecting the Big Island’s east and west sides. And once more, people are asking if anything can be done to stop or divert the flow.

    “It comes up every time there’s an eruption and there’s lava heading towards habited areas or highways. Some people say ‘Build a wall’ or ‘Board up’ and other people say, ‘No don’t!,’” said Scott Rowland, a geologist at the University of Hawaii.

    Humans have rarely had much success stopping lava and, despite the world’s technological advances, doing so is still difficult and dependent on the force of the flow and the terrain. But many in Hawaii also question the wisdom of interfering with nature and Pele, the Hawaiian deity of volcanoes and fire.

    Attempts to divert lava have a long history in Hawaii.

    In 1881, the governor of Hawaii Island declared a day of prayer to stop lava from Mauna Loa as it headed for Hilo. The lava kept coming.

    According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Princess Regent Lili’uokalani and her department heads went to Hilo and considered ways to save the town. They developed plans to build barriers to divert the flow and place dynamite along a lava tube to drain the molten rock supply.

    Princess Ruth Ke’elikōlani approached the flow, offered brandy and red scarves and chanted, asking Pele to stop the flow and go home. The flow stopped before the barriers were built.

    More than 50 years later, Thomas A. Jaggar, the founder of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, asked U.S. Army Air Services to send planes to bomb a Mauna Loa vent to disrupt lava channels.

    Lt. Col. George S. Patton (who later became famous as a general in Europe during World War II) directed planes to drop 20 600-pound (272-kilogram) demolition bombs, according to a National Park Service account of the campaign. The bombs each had 355 pounds (161 kilograms) of TNT. The planes also dropped 20 smaller bombs that only had black powder charge.

    Jagger said the bombing helped to “hasten the end of the flow,” but Howard Stearns, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist onboard the last bombing run, was doubtful. In his 1983 autobiography, he wrote: “I am sure it was a coincidence.”

    According to the park service, geologists today also are doubtful the bombing stopped the lava flow, which didn’t end with the bombing. Instead, the flows waned over the next few days and didn’t change paths.

    Rowland said authorities could use a bulldozer to pile a big berm of broken rock in front of Daniel K. Inouye Highway. If the terrain is flat, then lava would pile up behind the wall. But the lava may flow over it, like it did when something similar was attempted in Kapoho town in 1960.

    Rapidly moving lava flows, like those from Kilauea volcano in 2018, would be more difficult to stop, he said.

    “It would have been really hard to hard to build the walls fast enough for them. And they were heading towards groups of homes. And so you would perhaps be sacrificing some homes for others, which would just be a legal mess,” he said.

    He said he believes most people in Hawaii wouldn’t want to build a wall to protect the highway because it would “mess with Pele.”

    If lava crosses the highway, Rowland said officials could rebuild that section of the road like they did in 2018 when different routes were covered.

    Hawaii County’s director of civil defense, Talmadge Magno, said Wednesday the county has no current plans to try to divert the flow, though he has had some discussions about it.

    Hawaii Gov. David Ige, who was governor during the 2018 Kilauea eruption, told reporters his experience showed him it’s not possible to overcome nature and Pele.

    Thinking you should physically divert lava is a Western idea rooted in the notion that humans have to control everything, said Kealoha Pisciotta, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner. She said people need to adjust to the lava, not the other way around.

    “We are not separate from nature,” she said. “We are a part of nature.”

    ———

    Associated Press writers Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.

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  • Report: California gun data breach was unintentional

    Report: California gun data breach was unintentional

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s Department of Justice mistakenly posted the names, addresses and birthdays of nearly 200,000 gun owners on the internet because officials didn’t follow policies or understand how to operate their website, according to an investigation released Wednesday.

    The investigation, conducted by an outside law firm hired by the California Department of Justice, found that personal information for 192,000 people was downloaded 2,734 times by 507 unique IP addresses during a roughly 12-hour period in late June. All of those people had applied for a permit to carry a concealed gun.

    The data was exposed just days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people have a right to carry guns in public. The decision invalidated a California law that said people must give a reason for wanting to carry a concealed weapon, such as a threat to their safety. Lawmakers then tried to pass new restrictions for concealed carry permits, but failed.

    Investigators said they “did not uncover any evidence that the timing of the (data breach) was driven by a nefarious intent or was personally or politically motivated in any way.” Instead, they said state officials planned to publish what they thought was anonymous data “to meet anticipated heightened public interest in firearms-related data” following the court ruling.

    An intentional breach of personal information carries more stiff fines and penalties under California law, according to Chuck Michel, an attorney and president of the California Rifle & Pistol Association. Michel said his group is preparing a class action lawsuit against the state. He noted the leaked data likely included information from people in sensitive positions — including judges, law enforcement personnel and domestic violence victims — who had sought gun permits.

    “There is a lot of gaps and unanswered questions, perhaps deliberately so, and some spin on this whole notion of whether this was an intentional release or not,” he said. “This is not the end of the inquiry.”

    The Department of Justice contracted with the Morrison Foerster law firm to investigate the data exposure. The firm said it had “the mandate and autonomy to conduct an independent investigation that followed the facts and evidence wherever they led.”

    Officials at the California Department of Justice did not know about the breach until someone sent Attorney General Rob Bonta a private message on Twitter that included screenshots of the personal information that was available to download from the state’s website, the investigation said.

    State officials at first thought the report was a hoax. Two unnamed employees — identified only as “Data Analyst 1″ and “Research Center Director” — investigated and mistakenly assured everyone that no personal information was publicly available.

    Meanwhile, the website crashed because so many people were trying to download the data. Another group of state officials worked to bring the website back online, unaware of the breach. They got the website working again at about 9:30 p.m.

    State officials would not disable the website until about noon the next day. By then the information had already been downloaded thousands of times.

    State officials thought they were providing anonymous information in the aggregate for research and media requests about the use of guns in California. But the employee who created the website included several datasets that contained personal information.

    Investigators found that no one — neither the employee who compiled the data nor the officials that supervised the employee — knew the proper security settings to prevent the data from being available for public download.

    “This was more than an exposure of data, it was a breach of trust that falls far short of my expectations and the expectations Californians have of our department,” Bonta, the attorney general, said in a news release. “I remain deeply angered that this incident occurred and extend my deepest apologies on behalf of the Department of Justice to those who were affected.”

    Other information was also mistakenly released, including data from firearms safety certificates, dealer record of sale and the state’s assault weapons registry. That data included dates of birth, gender and driver’s license numbers for more than 2 million people and 8.7 million gun transactions. But investigators said there wasn’t enough information in those datasets to identify anyone.

    Investigators recommended more training and planning for state officials, including a review and update of policies and procedures.

    “This failure requires immediate correction, which is why we are implementing all of the recommendations from this independent report,” Bonta said.

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  • Colorado governor visits shooting site as community heals

    Colorado governor visits shooting site as community heals

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    COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In a crowded brewery, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis embraced Richard Fierro, the veteran hailed as a hero after tackling a shooter who killed five people and injured 17 others at the LGBTQ enclave Club Q last week.

    There was a festive atmosphere Tuesday at Atrevida Beer, owned by Fierro, where patrons clutched pints of beer, a long line stretched across the room to the door, and above the bar was printed a message: “Diversity, it’s on tap.”

    Fierro’s event, where Polis and the Colorado Springs mayor both made an appearance, was the paradigm of a catchphrase Fierro has repeated since the shooting: “Be nice, hug each other, take care of your neighbor.”

    The hugs seemed contagious. Fierro squeezed Wyatt Kent, a drag queen whose 23rd birthday was being celebrated the night of the shooting, and chatted with his family.

    Kent, who’s drag name is Potted Plant, was still reeling from the horrific night. Kent remembered shots, then collapsing below Kelly Loving, who had been shot in the chest. Squeezing her hand as they asked Siri to call 911, Kent then held Loving’s head, repeating “one more breath, just one more breath” before paramedics arrived.

    The bleeding from Loving’s chest, was “like a hole in an air mattress,” said Kent, pausing and looking away. Loving was among the five dead, along with Daniel Aston, who Kent was in a relationship with. Aston had left strawberries, roses and a card for Kent’s birthday before he was killed.

    Kent, who’d written 119 poems about Aston, went completely numb in the days afterward. Then, they began connecting with Aston’s family and friends, those “who loved him, it’s really healing,” they said.

    Club Q’s community had been a steadfast support network, said Kent, one which has continued to undergird the community’s healing since the tragedy.

    “If I pour myself out into others they will pour themselves out back into me,” said Kent, “and that’s what this community has always done.”

    The broader Colorado Springs community is pouring out support for the survivors, too. At his brewery, Fierro was honored with $50,000 from a local credit union.

    “I’ve never had that much money in my life,” said an astonished Fierro, who reiterated that “everyone in (Club Q) was a hero.”

    Matt Gendron, chief engagement officer at Ent Credit Union and who’s employee had been in Club Q that night, said that Fierro “saved the lives of many people, including one of our family members.”

    Earlier that day, Polis solemnly walked along a line of flowers, crosses and signs bearing the photos and names of the victims outside Club Q in Colorado Springs.

    When he reached the end, he picked up a piece of pink chalk and drew a heart and wrote “We remember” on the pavement in front of the memorial, which had been covered with tarps to protect it from snow until his arrival.

    “Five people are lost forever. We celebrate their lives. We mourn them,” Polis said while speaking to reporters afterward at the site.

    Polis, who spoke earlier in the day to relatives of those killed as well as the injured, wore a gay pride ribbon pinned to the zipper of his puffy jacket. The Democrat, who became the first openly gay man elected governor in the U.S. in 2018, said he was concerned about rhetoric associating mainly transgender people with grooming and pedophilia and feared it could “inspire acts against the LGBTQ community.”

    But he was also optimistic about the future of the club, a sanctuary for the LGBTQ community in the mostly conservative city of 480,000, located about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Denver.

    “Club Q will be back and the community will be back,” he said.

    The attacker opened fire Nov. 19 with a semiautomatic rifle inside the gay nightclub before being subdued by patrons and arrested by police who arrived within minutes, authorities have said.

    The motive remains under investigation and one person is in custody.

    Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, was being held without bond on suspicion of murder and hate crimes. Aldrich was arrested at the club after being stopped and beaten by patrons.

    Hate crime charges would require proving that the shooter was motivated by bias, such as against the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

    Prosecutors have not yet filed formal charges against Aldrich, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, according to court filings by his lawyers.

    Aldrich was arrested last year after a relative reported Aldrich was threatening her with a homemade bomb and other weapons, according to authorities.

    Ring doorbell video obtained by The Associated Press shows Aldrich arriving at their mother’s front door with a big black bag the day of the 2021 bomb threat, telling her the police were nearby and adding, “This is where I stand. Today I die.”

    Authorities at the time said no explosives were found.

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  • Oxford school shooting trial delayed by appeal by parents

    Oxford school shooting trial delayed by appeal by parents

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    DETROIT — The Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday postponed the January trial for the parents of the teenager who killed four students at his high school, a victory for defense lawyers who argue that involuntary manslaughter charges don’t fit.

    The court ordered the state appeals court to hear an appeal from James and Jennifer Crumbley.

    The order coincidentally emerged a day before the one-year anniversary of the shooting at Oxford High School. Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time, killed four students and injured six more plus a teacher.

    The now 16-year-old recently pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism.

    The teen’s parents are accused of ignoring his mental health needs and making a gun accessible at home. Defense lawyers argue that the Crumbleys can’t be held criminally responsible for Ethan Crumbley’s independent acts.

    The Supreme Court said the appeal is limited to whether there was “sufficient evidence of causation” to send the Crumbleys to trial.

    Jury selection in Oakland County court had been scheduled for Jan. 17.

    “The Crumbleys did not counsel EC in the commission of the school shooting or act jointly with EC in any way,” attorney Shannon Smith said in a court filing, using Ethan Crumbley’s initials. “To the contrary, the Crumbleys had no knowledge that their son intended to commit multiple homicides.”

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