Podcasts about muckrock

It was a year in which a Presidential candidate said a chart saved his life, generative AI changed journalism and we worried about whether the field is getting less innovative. Scott Klein is an entrepreneur in residence at Newspack, helping publishers on WordPress and other platforms do great election coverage by building and adopting innovative tools and by working together. He was previously at ProPublica and at THE CITY. He's also on the board of Muckrock. He's based in Brooklyn. ⁠The⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠music this episode⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠ made with⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠TwoTone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, represents snowfall in NYC's Central Park.

Dan and Ellen talk with April Alonso, co-founder and digital editor of Cicero Independiente outside of Chicago. Cicero Independiente and MuckRock won the 2024 Victor McElheny Award for Local Science Journalism, awarded by MIT's Knight Science Journalism Program, for an investigation of air quality called "The Air We Breathe."  April has an extensive background as a multimedia content creator. She was a multimedia fellow for the Chicago Reporter, and served as a multimedia content creator for La Verdad, a bilingual podcast.  Dan has a Quick Take about a town north of Vancouver, in British Columbia, that has learned a bitter lesson about Canada's law forcing Facebook's parent company, Meta, to pay for news. The law has led to a rise in disinformation with fewer effective ways to combat it. Meta's greed is at the heart of this, of course. But so, too, is the failure of government officials to realize that their proposed solution to help local news outlets would backfire in an ugly way. Ellen's Quick Take is on a new philanthropic fund created by the Minnesota Star Tribune. It's called the Local News Fund, and it is soliciting donations supporting statewide journalism that will be matched by a $500,000 grant from a Minnesota foundation.  

Who is still covering Long COVID, and how much is the audience actually growing? That's today's big question, and my guests are Betsy Ladygetz and Miles Griffis, editors and co-founders of The Sick Times, a journalist-founded website chronicling the Long COVID crisis. The Sick Times investigates injustices, challenges powerful institutions, wades through the latest research, assesses COVID-19 data, and offers an essential platform for those most affected by the crisis. Betsy is an independent science, health, and data journalist and writer focused on COVID-19 and the future of public health in general. Prior to The Sick Times, she ran the COVID-19 Data Dispatch. She was recently a journalism fellow at MuckRock, where she contributed to award-winning and impactful COVID-19 investigations, such as the Uncounted Project, investigations into the National Institute of Health's Recover Program, and stories covering public health responses in several states.Miles is an independent journalist and writer who covers Long COVID, science, and LGBTQ plus issues. He developed Long COVID at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and has used his lived experience to report on the disease. So many people are struggling directly or indirectly with Long COVID. Sometimes they don't even know themselves, but with journalism just crumbling around us, new publications like The Sick Times operated by people with very particular essential skills and lived experiences can help make sure that these massive all all-encompassing issues of our lifetimes stay in the news, giving everyone else a way to stay in touch, and of course, to act. -----------Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.comNew here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.-----------INI Book Club:The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor by Hamilton NolanLet the Record Show: A Political History of ACT Up New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah SchulmanFind all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-clubLinks:Subscribe and donate to The Sick TimesFind a Mask Bloc near youSupport the COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy ProjectSupport the Patient-Led Research CollaborativeSupport the Long Covid Action ProjectLearn about diseases related to Long Covid and support

This week Matt Guariglia drops in to talk about Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruises's Minority Report. We also discuss the history of policing in New York City and its impact on other cities. We jump into as eugenics, race and ethnicity in policing, gender dynamics, and the influence of World War I on the evolution of criminality in New York City and the rest of the United States as well as the Italian-American experience and the assassination of Joseph Petrosino. This is a fun talk about a somewhat overlooked Spielberg/Cruise collaboration. I hope you like it.About our guest:Matthew Guariglia is a historian and inter-disciplinary scholar serving as senior policy analyst for surveillance and technology policy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) where he focuses on policy and advocacy related to how local & federal law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and private corporations use technology. He currently holds academic affiliations in the Emory University Department of History and at Indiana University and the Institute of American Thought in support of research into the long history of how the U.S. government collects information on individuals and the relationship between information technologies and punitive state power and activism.His first book Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York is out now from Duke University Press. He is also the co-editor of the Essential Kerner Commission Report (Liveright, 2021). He has a PhD in History from the University of Connecticut where my dissertation was awarded the 2020 Outstanding Dissertation Award by the Immigration and Ethnic History Society.  He is also a researcher with years of experience with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesting. His writing can also be found in the Washington Post, NBC News, TIME, Slate, VICE, MuckRock, and the Urban History Association's blog, The Metropole.

Friday News Flyover, December 8, 2023Intro: On this episode of The Heartland POD for Friday, December 8th, 2023A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:Texas abortion bans creating legal confusion | MO Pastor jailed facing sexual abuse charges | Sen Josh Hawley and Rep Cori Bush speak against defense bill without funds for St. Louis residents exposed to radiation | AL Senator Tommy Tuberville gives up his misguided military holds | Dolly Parton gives books to millions of kids, if you didn't knowWelcome to The Heartland POD for a Flyover Friday, this is Sean Diller in Denver, Colorado. With me as co-host today is Adam Sommer, how you doing Adam?We're glad to have you with us. If you're new to our shows make sure you subscribe and leave a 5 star rating wherever you listen. You can also find Heartland POD content on Youtube and on social media with @ THE heartland pod, and learn more at thehearltandcollective.com Alright! Let's get into the storieshttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/12/06/1217637325/texas-woman-asks-court-for-abortion-because-of-pregnancy-complicationsUpdated Thursday, Dec. 7 at 1:55 p.m."Kate Cox needs an abortion, and she needs it now." Thus began a petition filed in a Texas district court this week, asking a judge to allow the abortion to be performed in the state, where abortion is banned with very limited exceptions.On Thursday, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of Travis County, Texas, ruled from the bench, granting permission for Cox to have the abortion she is seeking. Cox's fetus has a genetic condition with very low chances of survival and her own health and fertility are at risk if she carries the pregnancy to term.The petition was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is the group behind a high profile case heard at the Texas Supreme Court last week.In that case the group's senior staff attorney Molly Duane argued on behalf of 20 patients and two OB-GYNs that the medical exception to the ban on abortion in the state's laws is too narrow and vague, and that it endangered patients during complicated pregnancies. An attorney for the state argued the exception is already clear and that the plaintiffs didn't have standing to sue.On the very day of those arguments, Nov. 28, Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two who lives in the Dallas area, got "devastating" news about her pregnancy, the filing says. At nearly 20-weeks gestation, she learned that her fetus has Trisomy 18 or Edwards Syndrome, a condition with extremely low chances of survival.So, as the Texas Supreme Court considered whether its abortion laws endangered patients with pregnancy complications in the past, Cox was trying to figure out what to do in her present situation.Cox had already been in the emergency room three times with cramping and other concerning symptoms, according to court documents. Her doctors told her she was at high risk of developing gestational hypertension and diabetes, and because she had had two prior cesarean sections, carrying the pregnancy to term could compromise her chances of having a third child in the future, the brief says.Last Thursday, she reached out for the Center for Reproductive Rights. Five days after that, the group filed this petition on her behalf.The filing asked a Travis County district court for a temporary restraining order against the state of Texas and the Texas Medical Board, blocking enforcement of Texas's abortion bans so that Cox can terminate her current pregnancy. It also would block enforcement of S.B. 8, which allows civil lawsuits to be filed against those who help patients receive abortions.That would protect the other plaintiffs in the case, Cox's husband, Justin, and Dr. Damla Karsan, who is prepared to provide the abortion if the court grants their request. Karsan is one of the OB-GYN plaintiffs in the Zurawski v. the State of Texas case.Thursday's ruling will allow Karsan to provide an abortion without threat of prosecution. It only applies to Cox, her husband and Karsan. Issuing the ruling, Judge Guerra Gamble said: "The idea that Ms. Cox wants so desperately to be a parent and this law may have her lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice."There are currently three overlapping abortion bans in Texas. Abortion is illegal in the state from the moment pregnancy begins. Texas doctors can legally provide abortions only if a patient is "in danger of death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function, " the law says."I don't know what that means," Duane says of the language of the medical exception. "But I think [Cox's] situation must fall within whatever it is that that means."The Texas Attorney General's office did not respond to a request for comment on Cox's case, but the office argued in the Zurawski case that the medical exception needs no clarification.Sponsor MessageTexas Alliance for Life, a group that lobbied in the state legislature for the current abortion laws, published a statement about Cox's case Wednesday. "We believe that the exception language in Texas laws is clear," wrote the group's communication director Amy O'Donnell, and accused the Center for Reproductive Rights of pretending to seek clarity while really attempting to "chisel away" at Texas's abortion laws.The timeline of this case was very quick. "I have to be honest, I've never done this before, and that's because no one's ever done this before," Duane says. "But usually when you ask for a temporary restraining order, the court will act very, very quickly in acknowledgement of the emergency circumstances."The hearing was held via Zoom on Thursday morning.The State of Texas cannot appeal the decision directly, says Duane. "They would have to file what's called a writ of mandamus, saying that the district court acted so far out of its jurisdiction and that there needs to be a reversal," Duane explains. "But filing a petition like that is not does not automatically stay the injunction the way that an appeal of a temporary injunction does."In the meantime, the justices of the Texas Supreme Court are considering the Zurawski case, with a decision expected in the next few months. "I want them to take their time to write an opinion that gets this right and will protect patients, doctors and their families going forward," Duane says."But the reality is that in the meantime, people are going to continue to be harmed," and Cox couldn't afford to wait for that decision, Duane says.Duane praises Cox for her bravery in publicly sharing her story while in the midst of a personal medical crisis. "She's exceptional – but I will also say that the pathway to this has been paved by all the other women in our lawsuit," she says. "There is strength in numbers."https://www.kmbc.com/article/court-documents-independence-missouri-pastor-charged-child-molestation/46058889Court documents state that multiple people under the age of 18 accused Virgil Marsh of sexually assaulting them between 2011 and 2018.Marsh, 71, is now in the Jackson County jail.He was charged with two counts of first-degree of child molestation and first-degree statutory sodomy.A probable cause statement indicates that Marsh told police he was a current pastor in Independence and admitted he had "inappropriately touched" one of the victims.He did tell police he 'potentially kissed' a second victim on the mouth but denied sexually touching them.He also told police he has asked for forgiveness with God and is no longer the man who "had previously done things to the victim," the probable cause reads.https://missouriindependent.com/2023/12/07/compensation-for-st-louis-victims-of-nuclear-waste-stripped-from-federal-defense-bill/Compensation for St. Louis victims of nuclear waste stripped from federal defense billProvisions that would have compensated those exposed to radioactive waste left over from the Manhattan Project were removed on WednesdayBY: ALLISON KITE - DECEMBER 7, 2023 9:03 AM      A joint investigation by The Independent and MuckRock.U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday he would do everything he could to stop a federal defense spending bill after a provision offering compensation to Americans exposed to decades-old radioactive waste was removed. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, the Missouri Republican called the decision to remove compensation for Americans who have suffered rare cancers and autoimmune diseases a “scar on the conscience of this body.”“This is an injustice,” Hawley said. “This is this body turning its back on these good, proud Americans.”This summer, the Senate amended the National Defense Authorization Act to expand the existing Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include parts of the St. Louis region where individuals were exposed to leftover radioactive material from the development of the first atomic bomb. It would have also included parts of the Southwest where residents were exposed to bomb testing. But the provision was removed Wednesday by a conference committee of senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives working out differences between the two chambers' versions of the bill.Even before the text of the amended bill became available Wednesday night, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri was decrying the removal of the radiation compensation policy. “This is a major betrayal of thousands and thousands of Missourians who have been lied to and ignored for years,” Hawley said in a post on social media Wednesday. Dawn Chapman, a co-founder of Just Moms STL, fought back tears Wednesday night as she described hearing the “gut-wrenching” news from Hawley's staff. Chapman and fellow moms have been advocating for families exposed to or near radioactive waste for years. “I actually thought we had a chance,” Chapman said. But she said the group hopes to get the expansion passed another way. “Nobody has given up on it,” Chapman said.The St. Louis region has suffered from a radioactive waste problem for decades. The area was instrumental in the Manhattan Project, the name given to the effort to build an atomic bomb during World War II. Almost 80 years later, residents of St. Louis and St. Charles counties are still dealing with the fallout. After the war, radioactive waste produced from refining uranium was trucked from downtown St. Louis to several sites in St. Louis County where it contaminated property at the airport and seeped into Coldwater Creek. In the 1970s, remaining nuclear waste that couldn't be processed to extract valuable metals was trucked to the West Lake Landfill and illegally dumped. It remains there today.During the Cold War, uranium was processed in St. Charles County. A chemical plant and open ponds of radioactive waste remained at the site in Weldon Spring for years. The site was remediated in the early 2000s, but groundwater contamination at the site is not improving fast enough, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.For years, St. Louis-area residents have pointed to the radioactive waste to explain rare cancers, autoimmune diseases and young deaths. A study by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found people who lived along Coldwater Creek or played in its waters faced an increased risk of cancer.Chapman said she knew two individuals who made calls to members of Congress while receiving chemotherapy. It's hard to ask people to keep fighting for the legislation, she said. “They're not going to see another Christmas, and they're not going to see the compensation from this,” Chapman said. “This won't help them.” An investigation by The Missouri Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press this summer found that the private companies and federal agencies handling and overseeing the waste repeatedly downplayed the danger despite knowledge that it posed a risk to human health.After the report was published, Hawley decried the federal government's failures and vowed to introduce legislation to help. So did U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis. In a statement Wednesday night, she said the federal government's failure to compensate those who have been harmed by radioactive waste is “straight up negligence.”“The people of St. Louis deserve better, and they deserve to be able to live without worry of radioactive contamination,” Bush said. Missouri's junior senator, Republican Eric Schmitt, grew up near the West Lake Landfill. He said in a statement that the “fight is far from over” and that he will look into other legislation to get victims compensation.“The careless dumping of this waste happened across Missouri, including in my own backyard of St. Louis, and has negatively impacted Missouri communities for decades,” Schmitt said. “I will not stop fighting until it is addressed.”Already, two state lawmakers have pre-filed legislation related to radioactive waste in advance of the Missouri General Assembly reconvening in January. One doubles the budget of a state radioactive waste investigation fund. The other requires further disclosure of radioactive contamination when one sells or rents a house.In July, the U.S. Senate voted 61-37  to adopt Hawley's amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include the St. Louis area. It would have also expanded the coverage area to compensate victims exposed to testing of the atomic bomb in New Mexico. The amendment included residents of New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Guam and expanded the coverage area in Nevada, Utah and Arizona, which are already partially covered.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that expanding the program could cost $147.1 billion over 10 years with St. Louis' portion taking up $3.7 billion of that. The amendment would have also renewed the program for existing coverage areas. Without renewal, it will expire in the coming months. Hawley said, however, the “fight is not over.” “I will come to this floor as long as it takes. I will introduce this bill as long as it takes,” he said. “I will force amendment votes as long as it takes until we compensate the people of this nation who have sacrificed for this nation.” https://www.azmirror.com/2023/12/06/in-bid-to-flip-the-legislature-blue-national-dems-announce-spending-on-az/With Republicans holding the barest of majorities in the Arizona Legislature, national Democrats are already making major investments in a bid to flip the state's legislature blue. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee on Wednesday announced it would spend $70,000 in Arizona to aid in candidate recruitment for key races, hiring staff, digital investments and more. The spending is the start of the DLCC's push in swing states where the committee hopes to either solidify Democratic majorities or pick up seats and win legislative control. The money is part of an initial $300,000 push in swing states by the DLCC, with Arizona and Michigan getting the lion's share of the money. The DLCC is also spending money in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina. In Arizona, Republicans have one-seat majorities in both the 60-member state House of Representatives and the 30-member state Senate. DLCC interim President Heather Williams told the Arizona Mirror that the committee is hoping to flip the House and Senate in part by highlighting the extreme positions of Republican lawmakers. Many proposed law changes inspired by those extreme positions earned vetoes from Gov. Katie Hobbs earlier this year. “The Republican majority in both chambers is vulnerable,” Williams said, adding that this is only the committee's “initial investment,” as the group anticipates spending much more in 2024. Williams did not elaborate on which Arizona races the group plans to target, but mentioned that the group aims to do something similar to what happened in Virginia this year. Last month, Virginia Democrats gained control of the House and solidified their control of the Senate. The DLCC hopes to mirror that in Arizona. In that election, all 140 seats in the Virginia legislature were up for grabs, and Democrat wins will block Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's ability to fully enact his conservative agenda. The DLCC ended up spending more than $2 million in Virginia. “Here is what we know about Republicans, they are legislating in a way across the country that is not where their constituents are,” Williams said, citing access to abortion and health care for women as key. Republicans and Democrats are eyeing a number of key state house races for 2024 but Williams is confident that her party will come out on top, adding that the DLCC intends to have a dialogue with voters and to help people get registered to vote. “I think we feel really strong with our position as an organization,” Williams said, adding that having Hobbs, a former state lawmaker as a Democratic ally in the governorship will offer advantages. https://alabamareflector.com/2023/12/05/tuberville-relents-on-months-long-blockade-of-most-military-nominees-blaming-democrats/WASHINGTON — After blocking hundreds of U.S. military promotions for most of 2023 in protest of a Pentagon abortion policy, Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said Tuesday he will lift his holds on all of them except for a handful of four-star general nominees.The senator, who sits on the Senate Committee on Armed Forces, said he told his fellow Senate Republicans “it's been a long fight” but ultimately he said Democrats were to blame for stalling hundreds of service members from moving up in the chain of command. Tuberville had said repeatedly that Democrats could bring each of the nominees to the floor for votes, which would take hours of debate.“We fought hard. We did the right thing for the unborn and for our military, fighting back against executive overreach, and an abortion policy that's not legal,” Tuberville said after announcing his about-face to his fellow Senate Republicans during their regularly scheduled weekly lunch.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Tuesday that he would move the nominations to the floor “as soon as possible, possibly later this afternoon.”“I hope no one does this again, and I hope they learned the lesson of Sen. Tuberville. And that is he held out for many, many months, hurt our national security, caused discombobulation to so many military families who have been so dedicated to our country, and didn't get anything that he wanted,” Schumer said.Tuberville has blocked hundreds of nominees since the spring because he opposes a recent Pentagon policy that allows armed services members time off and travel reimbursement should they need to seek an abortion in a state where it remains legal.Roughly 80,000 active-duty female service members are stationed in states where legislatures enacted full or partial bans following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a RAND analysis.The Biden administration and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin maintain the policy is legal, as did a 2022 Department of Justice opinion.The list of nominees affected by Tuberville's months-long hold grew to 451 members of the military as of Nov. 27, according to a Department of Defense official. Majority staff for the Senate Armed Services Committee list 445 affected nominees.Tuberville's agreement to halt his protest means that all but 11 of those nominees are expected to clear final Senate approval, according to figures from committee's majority staff.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Tuesday that GOP senators are “pleased obviously that that situation seems to have been ameliorated by recent announcements by the senator from Alabama.”Sen. Jack Reed, chair of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said in a statement Tuesday he's “glad that hundreds of our nation's finest military leaders will finally receive their hard-won, merit-based promotions.”“They, and their families, have shown us what grace and grit look like in the face of hardship. Senator Tuberville's actions have been an affront to the United States military and the Senate,” said Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island.“He has jeopardized our national security and abused the rights afforded to all Senators. No Senator should ever attempt to advance their own partisan agenda on the backs of our troops like this again.”Threat of Democratic-led procedure changeTuberville's change in course arrived as Schumer was poised to bring to the floor a Democratic-led rules resolution to bypass the Alabama senator's blockade.The proposed temporary change in floor process would have allowed senators to quickly approve large blocs of nominations simultaneously on the floor, saving hours and hours that would have been required to vote on each individually.Tuberville said Tuesday that he and fellow Republican senators decided they did not want to see any changes to Senate floor procedures and that is the reason he decided to lift his blockade.“All of us are against a rule change in the Senate, OK. We're all against it,” Tuberville said.The Alabama senator's own Republican colleagues have grown publicly frustrated with his stalling of military promotions.GOP senators, including Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Joni Ernst of Iowa and Todd Young of Indiana, have on two occasions held the Senate floor into the wee hours bringing forward the names of nominees, only to meet Tuberville's objections.Some frustrated Republicans last week mulled whether to support the Democratic-led effort to override Tuberville's blockade. Democrats would have needed nine of them to pass the change in procedure.“I have said that right now I support Tommy Tuberville, but if he makes a statement that he's going to maintain this posture through this Congress I intend to vote for nominations under the rules suspension,” Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told States Newsroom Nov. 29.https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/12/06/ohio-senate-wants-to-stop-you-from-growing-weed-house-fights-back/Ohio Senate wants to stop you from growing weed; House fights backBY: MORGAN TRAU - DECEMBER 6, 2023 4:55 AMWhile Ohio Senate Republicans move to dramatically change recreational marijuana policy, the House is fighting back in a bipartisan fashion — saying the will of the voters must be followed.On Thursday, adults 21 and older in Ohio will be able to smoke weed and grow up to six plants.When Issue 2 passed in November, state Rep. Jamie Callender (R-Concord) knew he could be part of clarifying public policy. He invited WEWS/OCJ's Morgan Trau to his introduction of H.B. 354 in a “skeleton” session Tuesday morning. Skeleton sessions are when typically two lawmakers gather with the House clerk and take less than five minutes to introduce policy.“We preserve the things that the people voted on,” he told Trau after he banged the gavel and Finance Chair state Rep. Jay Edwards (R-Nelsonville) watched.Callender, who has been an outspoken supporter of marijuana, has been working on recreational implementation for years. Issue 2 came after all of his efforts were purposely stalled in the Statehouse.“The Marijuana Legalization Initiative” allows Ohioans to grow up to six plants, with 12 per household. In addition, the proposal would impose a 10% tax at the point of sale for each transaction. It also establishes the Division of Cannabis Control within the Ohio Department of Commerce.Ohioans voted in favor of the statute 57-43%.“I'm glad it passed and I'm excited that we're going to be able to take some of these measures that make it a more responsible act,” Callender said. “I want to make sure that here in this chamber, the People's House, that we carry out the will of the people — and the people have spoken.”His bill doesn't make major changes, but it does add safeguards — like guidelines on advertising, public smoking bans and provisions that give local governments more of a say in where tax revenue goes. It also explains that home grow must take place at residential addresses.“We've seen folks aggregate those six plants and, in essence, create a mega farm which is simply an aggregation or a co-op of a whole lot of home grows,” he said, saying that he is trying to prevent that.The bill, one that Callendar says has bipartisan support in the House, deeply contrasts the Senate's version.The proposal by state Sen. Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) also includes guard rails to prevent exposure to children, including advertising guidelines. It would require marijuana to be packaged in a child-resistant container and prevents “cartoon character” or other pop culture figures whose target audience is a child from being used in weed marketing.However, those safety guidelines are the end of the common ground.The Senate proposal would reduce how much weed you could possess from 2.5 ounces to 1 ounce and 15 grams of marijuana concentrates to 5 grams; It would make weed less strong by limiting THC levels for plants to 25%, when the minimum was 35%. In addition, it would limit extracts to 50%, when the minimum was 90%; and it would make marijuana more expensive by raising the tax from 10% to 15%.It also changes where the taxes go.As mentioned, it was a 10% tax at the point of sale. It was 36% revenue to the cannabis social equity and jobs fund; 36% to the host community cannabis fund to provide funds to jurisdictions with adult-use dispensaries; 25% to the substance abuse and addiction fund; and 3% to the division of cannabis control and tax commissioner fund. Issue 2 capped the number of dispensaries permitted at once to 350, but the bill cuts that down to 230.The Senate version ups to 15% tax at the point of sale. It is 30% to the law enforcement training fund, 15% to the marijuana substance abuse treatment and prevention fund, 10% to the safe driver training fund, and the remaining 45% goes to the grand revenue fund — aka, the state lawmakers.“The social equity program — when you really got down to the nuts and bolts of it — it was tax revenue being collected to be put right back into the hands of the industry,” McColley said. “It was a tax grab by the industry to prop up more dispensaries within the industry.”The “Social Equity and Jobs Program” was established by Issue 2. It is designed to fix “the harms resulting from the disproportionate enforcement of marijuana-related laws” and “reduce barriers to ownership and opportunity” to those “most directly and adversely impacted by the enforcement of marijuana-related laws,” according to the initiative.The most significant change is the proposal eliminates home grow.“The opposition has been all around the black market,” McColley said. “It's been around, ‘how do we keep these plants from then being transferred and sold illegally?'”After facing backlash, McColley assured he wasn't going against the will of the people, since he believes that the voters didn't really know everything that they were voting on.“I think what the voters really voted for would have been access to products,” the senator added.Clearly, the voters want home grow, Callender argued. Access to products means access to home grow, he said.It isn't just Callender who is frustrated with the legislation moving through the other chamber. Dozens of Republican and Democratic representatives are infuriated with the Senate.One with a unique perspective is state Rep. Jeff LaRe (R-Violet Twp.) The Senate took his legislation, H.B. 86, that revised the limit on the gallons of spirituous liquor that a micro-distillery may manufacture each year and added their marijuana proposal onto his bill.“Slap in the face of Ohio voters,” LaRe told WEWS/OCJ.The lawmaker doesn't support recreational marijuana, but he does respect the will of Ohioans, he added.“It's unfortunate they want to use a bill that is focused on helping certain small businesses recover from the pandemic to fast-track language that changes the intent of the ballot initiative,” he said. “I believe we should look into where the tax dollars are spent, but this goes way beyond those details.”Democrats agree. House Minority Whip State Rep. Jessica Miranda (D-Forest Park) says she can't and won't support the Senate version.“I'm not a fan of turning my back on the Ohio voters and the will of what they said when they overwhelmingly passed Issue 2,” Miranda said.When asked what happens if the two chambers don't reach a compromise, Callender said he will be in better standing — since the House can just block the Senate version.“I'm okay with just letting the initiated statute go into effect, which is a pretty strong bargaining position,” he said. “If we don't come up with an agreement, I'll trust the rule-making process, trust Commerce to make good rules to do this.”The Senate is expected to pass the marijuana bill out of committee Wednesday morning, putting it on the floor for a full vote later in the day. The House version is set to be heard Wednesday, as well.This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.https://capitolnewsillinois.com/NEWS/dolly-parton-imagination-library-officially-launches-statewide-in-illinoisPritzker says goal is to send free books to all children, ages 0-5By PETER HANCOCKCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.comSPRINGFIELD – Illinois families with infants and toddlers now have access to free children's books that can be sent directly to their home, regardless of their income.Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday announced the official launch of the state's partnership with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a program founded by the country music legend in 1995 in her home county in east Tennessee. It now sends free books every month to nearly 3 million children in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.“Today, I couldn't be prouder to announce that the Imagination Library is working with the state of Illinois to begin our journey to provide every child under the age of five an opportunity to receive a free book delivered to them every single month,” Pritzker said at an event at the Bloomington Public Library.Pritzker first announced in June that the state had formed a partnership with the Dollywood Foundation, Parton's philanthropic organization, after Illinois lawmakers included $1.6 million in this year's budget to fund the state's share of the program. Other funding comes from the Dollywood Foundation and local, county-based organizations.Since then, about 44 local programs have been operating in the state, serving roughly 4 percent of eligible children. But Dollywood Foundation executive director Nora Briggs said the goal is to reach all of the estimated 755,000 children under age 5 in Illinois.“We know that nothing is more basic, more essential, more foundational to a child's success in life than the ability to read,” Briggs said. “The research is clear. We cannot wait until kindergarten for children to have access or exposure to books. It must happen early. It must start in the home environment. And reading at home requires books.”People who are interested in enrolling their child in the program can find their local provider on the “check availability” tab located at imaginationlibrary.com. From there, applicants submit basic information including their address, their child's name and date of birth, and the parents' information.Once a child's eligibility is approved, they will start receiving one book each month, addressed to them. Each child within an age group receives the same monthly book. Books on the distribution list are chosen by a panel of early childhood literacy experts who review potential titles for inclusion in the distribution list. In addition to funding the Imagination Library program this year, lawmakers also approved Pritzker's “Smart Start Illinois” initiative that will provide $250 million this year for early childhood programs, including expanded access to preschool, wage support for child care workers, early intervention programs, and home visiting programs.“We're making our mark on every aspect of early childhood, and working with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library literacy efforts will begin now at the earliest ages,” Pritzker said. “Illinois is well on its way to solidifying our status as the number one state in the nation to raise young children.” Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.Stories in today's show originally appeared in the Missouri Independent, Capitol News Illinois, Alabama Reflector, Michigan Advance, Arizona Mirror, KMBC9 Kansas City, Ohio Capital Journal, and NPR News @TheHeartlandPOD on Twitter and ThreadsCo-HostsAdam Sommer @Adam_Sommer85 (Twitter) @adam_sommer85 (Post)Rachel Parker @msraitchetp (Post) Sean Diller (no social)The Heartland Collective - Sign Up Today!JOIN PATREON FOR MORE - AND JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORK!“Change The Conversation”Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium http://www.americanaquarium.com/

Friday News Flyover, December 8, 2023Intro: On this episode of The Heartland POD for Friday, December 8th, 2023A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:Texas abortion bans creating legal confusion | MO Pastor jailed facing sexual abuse charges | Sen Josh Hawley and Rep Cori Bush speak against defense bill without funds for St. Louis residents exposed to radiation | AL Senator Tommy Tuberville gives up his misguided military holds | Dolly Parton gives books to millions of kids, if you didn't knowWelcome to The Heartland POD for a Flyover Friday, this is Sean Diller in Denver, Colorado. With me as co-host today is Adam Sommer, how you doing Adam?We're glad to have you with us. If you're new to our shows make sure you subscribe and leave a 5 star rating wherever you listen. You can also find Heartland POD content on Youtube and on social media with @ THE heartland pod, and learn more at thehearltandcollective.com Alright! Let's get into the storieshttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/12/06/1217637325/texas-woman-asks-court-for-abortion-because-of-pregnancy-complicationsUpdated Thursday, Dec. 7 at 1:55 p.m."Kate Cox needs an abortion, and she needs it now." Thus began a petition filed in a Texas district court this week, asking a judge to allow the abortion to be performed in the state, where abortion is banned with very limited exceptions.On Thursday, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of Travis County, Texas, ruled from the bench, granting permission for Cox to have the abortion she is seeking. Cox's fetus has a genetic condition with very low chances of survival and her own health and fertility are at risk if she carries the pregnancy to term.The petition was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is the group behind a high profile case heard at the Texas Supreme Court last week.In that case the group's senior staff attorney Molly Duane argued on behalf of 20 patients and two OB-GYNs that the medical exception to the ban on abortion in the state's laws is too narrow and vague, and that it endangered patients during complicated pregnancies. An attorney for the state argued the exception is already clear and that the plaintiffs didn't have standing to sue.On the very day of those arguments, Nov. 28, Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two who lives in the Dallas area, got "devastating" news about her pregnancy, the filing says. At nearly 20-weeks gestation, she learned that her fetus has Trisomy 18 or Edwards Syndrome, a condition with extremely low chances of survival.So, as the Texas Supreme Court considered whether its abortion laws endangered patients with pregnancy complications in the past, Cox was trying to figure out what to do in her present situation.Cox had already been in the emergency room three times with cramping and other concerning symptoms, according to court documents. Her doctors told her she was at high risk of developing gestational hypertension and diabetes, and because she had had two prior cesarean sections, carrying the pregnancy to term could compromise her chances of having a third child in the future, the brief says.Last Thursday, she reached out for the Center for Reproductive Rights. Five days after that, the group filed this petition on her behalf.The filing asked a Travis County district court for a temporary restraining order against the state of Texas and the Texas Medical Board, blocking enforcement of Texas's abortion bans so that Cox can terminate her current pregnancy. It also would block enforcement of S.B. 8, which allows civil lawsuits to be filed against those who help patients receive abortions.That would protect the other plaintiffs in the case, Cox's husband, Justin, and Dr. Damla Karsan, who is prepared to provide the abortion if the court grants their request. Karsan is one of the OB-GYN plaintiffs in the Zurawski v. the State of Texas case.Thursday's ruling will allow Karsan to provide an abortion without threat of prosecution. It only applies to Cox, her husband and Karsan. Issuing the ruling, Judge Guerra Gamble said: "The idea that Ms. Cox wants so desperately to be a parent and this law may have her lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice."There are currently three overlapping abortion bans in Texas. Abortion is illegal in the state from the moment pregnancy begins. Texas doctors can legally provide abortions only if a patient is "in danger of death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function, " the law says."I don't know what that means," Duane says of the language of the medical exception. "But I think [Cox's] situation must fall within whatever it is that that means."The Texas Attorney General's office did not respond to a request for comment on Cox's case, but the office argued in the Zurawski case that the medical exception needs no clarification.Sponsor MessageTexas Alliance for Life, a group that lobbied in the state legislature for the current abortion laws, published a statement about Cox's case Wednesday. "We believe that the exception language in Texas laws is clear," wrote the group's communication director Amy O'Donnell, and accused the Center for Reproductive Rights of pretending to seek clarity while really attempting to "chisel away" at Texas's abortion laws.The timeline of this case was very quick. "I have to be honest, I've never done this before, and that's because no one's ever done this before," Duane says. "But usually when you ask for a temporary restraining order, the court will act very, very quickly in acknowledgement of the emergency circumstances."The hearing was held via Zoom on Thursday morning.The State of Texas cannot appeal the decision directly, says Duane. "They would have to file what's called a writ of mandamus, saying that the district court acted so far out of its jurisdiction and that there needs to be a reversal," Duane explains. "But filing a petition like that is not does not automatically stay the injunction the way that an appeal of a temporary injunction does."In the meantime, the justices of the Texas Supreme Court are considering the Zurawski case, with a decision expected in the next few months. "I want them to take their time to write an opinion that gets this right and will protect patients, doctors and their families going forward," Duane says."But the reality is that in the meantime, people are going to continue to be harmed," and Cox couldn't afford to wait for that decision, Duane says.Duane praises Cox for her bravery in publicly sharing her story while in the midst of a personal medical crisis. "She's exceptional – but I will also say that the pathway to this has been paved by all the other women in our lawsuit," she says. "There is strength in numbers."https://www.kmbc.com/article/court-documents-independence-missouri-pastor-charged-child-molestation/46058889Court documents state that multiple people under the age of 18 accused Virgil Marsh of sexually assaulting them between 2011 and 2018.Marsh, 71, is now in the Jackson County jail.He was charged with two counts of first-degree of child molestation and first-degree statutory sodomy.A probable cause statement indicates that Marsh told police he was a current pastor in Independence and admitted he had "inappropriately touched" one of the victims.He did tell police he 'potentially kissed' a second victim on the mouth but denied sexually touching them.He also told police he has asked for forgiveness with God and is no longer the man who "had previously done things to the victim," the probable cause reads.https://missouriindependent.com/2023/12/07/compensation-for-st-louis-victims-of-nuclear-waste-stripped-from-federal-defense-bill/Compensation for St. Louis victims of nuclear waste stripped from federal defense billProvisions that would have compensated those exposed to radioactive waste left over from the Manhattan Project were removed on WednesdayBY: ALLISON KITE - DECEMBER 7, 2023 9:03 AM      A joint investigation by The Independent and MuckRock.U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday he would do everything he could to stop a federal defense spending bill after a provision offering compensation to Americans exposed to decades-old radioactive waste was removed. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, the Missouri Republican called the decision to remove compensation for Americans who have suffered rare cancers and autoimmune diseases a “scar on the conscience of this body.”“This is an injustice,” Hawley said. “This is this body turning its back on these good, proud Americans.”This summer, the Senate amended the National Defense Authorization Act to expand the existing Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include parts of the St. Louis region where individuals were exposed to leftover radioactive material from the development of the first atomic bomb. It would have also included parts of the Southwest where residents were exposed to bomb testing. But the provision was removed Wednesday by a conference committee of senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives working out differences between the two chambers' versions of the bill.Even before the text of the amended bill became available Wednesday night, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri was decrying the removal of the radiation compensation policy. “This is a major betrayal of thousands and thousands of Missourians who have been lied to and ignored for years,” Hawley said in a post on social media Wednesday. Dawn Chapman, a co-founder of Just Moms STL, fought back tears Wednesday night as she described hearing the “gut-wrenching” news from Hawley's staff. Chapman and fellow moms have been advocating for families exposed to or near radioactive waste for years. “I actually thought we had a chance,” Chapman said. But she said the group hopes to get the expansion passed another way. “Nobody has given up on it,” Chapman said.The St. Louis region has suffered from a radioactive waste problem for decades. The area was instrumental in the Manhattan Project, the name given to the effort to build an atomic bomb during World War II. Almost 80 years later, residents of St. Louis and St. Charles counties are still dealing with the fallout. After the war, radioactive waste produced from refining uranium was trucked from downtown St. Louis to several sites in St. Louis County where it contaminated property at the airport and seeped into Coldwater Creek. In the 1970s, remaining nuclear waste that couldn't be processed to extract valuable metals was trucked to the West Lake Landfill and illegally dumped. It remains there today.During the Cold War, uranium was processed in St. Charles County. A chemical plant and open ponds of radioactive waste remained at the site in Weldon Spring for years. The site was remediated in the early 2000s, but groundwater contamination at the site is not improving fast enough, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.For years, St. Louis-area residents have pointed to the radioactive waste to explain rare cancers, autoimmune diseases and young deaths. A study by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found people who lived along Coldwater Creek or played in its waters faced an increased risk of cancer.Chapman said she knew two individuals who made calls to members of Congress while receiving chemotherapy. It's hard to ask people to keep fighting for the legislation, she said. “They're not going to see another Christmas, and they're not going to see the compensation from this,” Chapman said. “This won't help them.” An investigation by The Missouri Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press this summer found that the private companies and federal agencies handling and overseeing the waste repeatedly downplayed the danger despite knowledge that it posed a risk to human health.After the report was published, Hawley decried the federal government's failures and vowed to introduce legislation to help. So did U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis. In a statement Wednesday night, she said the federal government's failure to compensate those who have been harmed by radioactive waste is “straight up negligence.”“The people of St. Louis deserve better, and they deserve to be able to live without worry of radioactive contamination,” Bush said. Missouri's junior senator, Republican Eric Schmitt, grew up near the West Lake Landfill. He said in a statement that the “fight is far from over” and that he will look into other legislation to get victims compensation.“The careless dumping of this waste happened across Missouri, including in my own backyard of St. Louis, and has negatively impacted Missouri communities for decades,” Schmitt said. “I will not stop fighting until it is addressed.”Already, two state lawmakers have pre-filed legislation related to radioactive waste in advance of the Missouri General Assembly reconvening in January. One doubles the budget of a state radioactive waste investigation fund. The other requires further disclosure of radioactive contamination when one sells or rents a house.In July, the U.S. Senate voted 61-37  to adopt Hawley's amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act expanding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include the St. Louis area. It would have also expanded the coverage area to compensate victims exposed to testing of the atomic bomb in New Mexico. The amendment included residents of New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Guam and expanded the coverage area in Nevada, Utah and Arizona, which are already partially covered.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that expanding the program could cost $147.1 billion over 10 years with St. Louis' portion taking up $3.7 billion of that. The amendment would have also renewed the program for existing coverage areas. Without renewal, it will expire in the coming months. Hawley said, however, the “fight is not over.” “I will come to this floor as long as it takes. I will introduce this bill as long as it takes,” he said. “I will force amendment votes as long as it takes until we compensate the people of this nation who have sacrificed for this nation.” https://www.azmirror.com/2023/12/06/in-bid-to-flip-the-legislature-blue-national-dems-announce-spending-on-az/With Republicans holding the barest of majorities in the Arizona Legislature, national Democrats are already making major investments in a bid to flip the state's legislature blue. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee on Wednesday announced it would spend $70,000 in Arizona to aid in candidate recruitment for key races, hiring staff, digital investments and more. The spending is the start of the DLCC's push in swing states where the committee hopes to either solidify Democratic majorities or pick up seats and win legislative control. The money is part of an initial $300,000 push in swing states by the DLCC, with Arizona and Michigan getting the lion's share of the money. The DLCC is also spending money in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina. In Arizona, Republicans have one-seat majorities in both the 60-member state House of Representatives and the 30-member state Senate. DLCC interim President Heather Williams told the Arizona Mirror that the committee is hoping to flip the House and Senate in part by highlighting the extreme positions of Republican lawmakers. Many proposed law changes inspired by those extreme positions earned vetoes from Gov. Katie Hobbs earlier this year. “The Republican majority in both chambers is vulnerable,” Williams said, adding that this is only the committee's “initial investment,” as the group anticipates spending much more in 2024. Williams did not elaborate on which Arizona races the group plans to target, but mentioned that the group aims to do something similar to what happened in Virginia this year. Last month, Virginia Democrats gained control of the House and solidified their control of the Senate. The DLCC hopes to mirror that in Arizona. In that election, all 140 seats in the Virginia legislature were up for grabs, and Democrat wins will block Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's ability to fully enact his conservative agenda. The DLCC ended up spending more than $2 million in Virginia. “Here is what we know about Republicans, they are legislating in a way across the country that is not where their constituents are,” Williams said, citing access to abortion and health care for women as key. Republicans and Democrats are eyeing a number of key state house races for 2024 but Williams is confident that her party will come out on top, adding that the DLCC intends to have a dialogue with voters and to help people get registered to vote. “I think we feel really strong with our position as an organization,” Williams said, adding that having Hobbs, a former state lawmaker as a Democratic ally in the governorship will offer advantages. https://alabamareflector.com/2023/12/05/tuberville-relents-on-months-long-blockade-of-most-military-nominees-blaming-democrats/WASHINGTON — After blocking hundreds of U.S. military promotions for most of 2023 in protest of a Pentagon abortion policy, Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said Tuesday he will lift his holds on all of them except for a handful of four-star general nominees.The senator, who sits on the Senate Committee on Armed Forces, said he told his fellow Senate Republicans “it's been a long fight” but ultimately he said Democrats were to blame for stalling hundreds of service members from moving up in the chain of command. Tuberville had said repeatedly that Democrats could bring each of the nominees to the floor for votes, which would take hours of debate.“We fought hard. We did the right thing for the unborn and for our military, fighting back against executive overreach, and an abortion policy that's not legal,” Tuberville said after announcing his about-face to his fellow Senate Republicans during their regularly scheduled weekly lunch.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Tuesday that he would move the nominations to the floor “as soon as possible, possibly later this afternoon.”“I hope no one does this again, and I hope they learned the lesson of Sen. Tuberville. And that is he held out for many, many months, hurt our national security, caused discombobulation to so many military families who have been so dedicated to our country, and didn't get anything that he wanted,” Schumer said.Tuberville has blocked hundreds of nominees since the spring because he opposes a recent Pentagon policy that allows armed services members time off and travel reimbursement should they need to seek an abortion in a state where it remains legal.Roughly 80,000 active-duty female service members are stationed in states where legislatures enacted full or partial bans following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a RAND analysis.The Biden administration and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin maintain the policy is legal, as did a 2022 Department of Justice opinion.The list of nominees affected by Tuberville's months-long hold grew to 451 members of the military as of Nov. 27, according to a Department of Defense official. Majority staff for the Senate Armed Services Committee list 445 affected nominees.Tuberville's agreement to halt his protest means that all but 11 of those nominees are expected to clear final Senate approval, according to figures from committee's majority staff.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Tuesday that GOP senators are “pleased obviously that that situation seems to have been ameliorated by recent announcements by the senator from Alabama.”Sen. Jack Reed, chair of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said in a statement Tuesday he's “glad that hundreds of our nation's finest military leaders will finally receive their hard-won, merit-based promotions.”“They, and their families, have shown us what grace and grit look like in the face of hardship. Senator Tuberville's actions have been an affront to the United States military and the Senate,” said Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island.“He has jeopardized our national security and abused the rights afforded to all Senators. No Senator should ever attempt to advance their own partisan agenda on the backs of our troops like this again.”Threat of Democratic-led procedure changeTuberville's change in course arrived as Schumer was poised to bring to the floor a Democratic-led rules resolution to bypass the Alabama senator's blockade.The proposed temporary change in floor process would have allowed senators to quickly approve large blocs of nominations simultaneously on the floor, saving hours and hours that would have been required to vote on each individually.Tuberville said Tuesday that he and fellow Republican senators decided they did not want to see any changes to Senate floor procedures and that is the reason he decided to lift his blockade.“All of us are against a rule change in the Senate, OK. We're all against it,” Tuberville said.The Alabama senator's own Republican colleagues have grown publicly frustrated with his stalling of military promotions.GOP senators, including Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Joni Ernst of Iowa and Todd Young of Indiana, have on two occasions held the Senate floor into the wee hours bringing forward the names of nominees, only to meet Tuberville's objections.Some frustrated Republicans last week mulled whether to support the Democratic-led effort to override Tuberville's blockade. Democrats would have needed nine of them to pass the change in procedure.“I have said that right now I support Tommy Tuberville, but if he makes a statement that he's going to maintain this posture through this Congress I intend to vote for nominations under the rules suspension,” Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told States Newsroom Nov. 29.https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/12/06/ohio-senate-wants-to-stop-you-from-growing-weed-house-fights-back/Ohio Senate wants to stop you from growing weed; House fights backBY: MORGAN TRAU - DECEMBER 6, 2023 4:55 AMWhile Ohio Senate Republicans move to dramatically change recreational marijuana policy, the House is fighting back in a bipartisan fashion — saying the will of the voters must be followed.On Thursday, adults 21 and older in Ohio will be able to smoke weed and grow up to six plants.When Issue 2 passed in November, state Rep. Jamie Callender (R-Concord) knew he could be part of clarifying public policy. He invited WEWS/OCJ's Morgan Trau to his introduction of H.B. 354 in a “skeleton” session Tuesday morning. Skeleton sessions are when typically two lawmakers gather with the House clerk and take less than five minutes to introduce policy.“We preserve the things that the people voted on,” he told Trau after he banged the gavel and Finance Chair state Rep. Jay Edwards (R-Nelsonville) watched.Callender, who has been an outspoken supporter of marijuana, has been working on recreational implementation for years. Issue 2 came after all of his efforts were purposely stalled in the Statehouse.“The Marijuana Legalization Initiative” allows Ohioans to grow up to six plants, with 12 per household. In addition, the proposal would impose a 10% tax at the point of sale for each transaction. It also establishes the Division of Cannabis Control within the Ohio Department of Commerce.Ohioans voted in favor of the statute 57-43%.“I'm glad it passed and I'm excited that we're going to be able to take some of these measures that make it a more responsible act,” Callender said. “I want to make sure that here in this chamber, the People's House, that we carry out the will of the people — and the people have spoken.”His bill doesn't make major changes, but it does add safeguards — like guidelines on advertising, public smoking bans and provisions that give local governments more of a say in where tax revenue goes. It also explains that home grow must take place at residential addresses.“We've seen folks aggregate those six plants and, in essence, create a mega farm which is simply an aggregation or a co-op of a whole lot of home grows,” he said, saying that he is trying to prevent that.The bill, one that Callendar says has bipartisan support in the House, deeply contrasts the Senate's version.The proposal by state Sen. Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) also includes guard rails to prevent exposure to children, including advertising guidelines. It would require marijuana to be packaged in a child-resistant container and prevents “cartoon character” or other pop culture figures whose target audience is a child from being used in weed marketing.However, those safety guidelines are the end of the common ground.The Senate proposal would reduce how much weed you could possess from 2.5 ounces to 1 ounce and 15 grams of marijuana concentrates to 5 grams; It would make weed less strong by limiting THC levels for plants to 25%, when the minimum was 35%. In addition, it would limit extracts to 50%, when the minimum was 90%; and it would make marijuana more expensive by raising the tax from 10% to 15%.It also changes where the taxes go.As mentioned, it was a 10% tax at the point of sale. It was 36% revenue to the cannabis social equity and jobs fund; 36% to the host community cannabis fund to provide funds to jurisdictions with adult-use dispensaries; 25% to the substance abuse and addiction fund; and 3% to the division of cannabis control and tax commissioner fund. Issue 2 capped the number of dispensaries permitted at once to 350, but the bill cuts that down to 230.The Senate version ups to 15% tax at the point of sale. It is 30% to the law enforcement training fund, 15% to the marijuana substance abuse treatment and prevention fund, 10% to the safe driver training fund, and the remaining 45% goes to the grand revenue fund — aka, the state lawmakers.“The social equity program — when you really got down to the nuts and bolts of it — it was tax revenue being collected to be put right back into the hands of the industry,” McColley said. “It was a tax grab by the industry to prop up more dispensaries within the industry.”The “Social Equity and Jobs Program” was established by Issue 2. It is designed to fix “the harms resulting from the disproportionate enforcement of marijuana-related laws” and “reduce barriers to ownership and opportunity” to those “most directly and adversely impacted by the enforcement of marijuana-related laws,” according to the initiative.The most significant change is the proposal eliminates home grow.“The opposition has been all around the black market,” McColley said. “It's been around, ‘how do we keep these plants from then being transferred and sold illegally?'”After facing backlash, McColley assured he wasn't going against the will of the people, since he believes that the voters didn't really know everything that they were voting on.“I think what the voters really voted for would have been access to products,” the senator added.Clearly, the voters want home grow, Callender argued. Access to products means access to home grow, he said.It isn't just Callender who is frustrated with the legislation moving through the other chamber. Dozens of Republican and Democratic representatives are infuriated with the Senate.One with a unique perspective is state Rep. Jeff LaRe (R-Violet Twp.) The Senate took his legislation, H.B. 86, that revised the limit on the gallons of spirituous liquor that a micro-distillery may manufacture each year and added their marijuana proposal onto his bill.“Slap in the face of Ohio voters,” LaRe told WEWS/OCJ.The lawmaker doesn't support recreational marijuana, but he does respect the will of Ohioans, he added.“It's unfortunate they want to use a bill that is focused on helping certain small businesses recover from the pandemic to fast-track language that changes the intent of the ballot initiative,” he said. “I believe we should look into where the tax dollars are spent, but this goes way beyond those details.”Democrats agree. House Minority Whip State Rep. Jessica Miranda (D-Forest Park) says she can't and won't support the Senate version.“I'm not a fan of turning my back on the Ohio voters and the will of what they said when they overwhelmingly passed Issue 2,” Miranda said.When asked what happens if the two chambers don't reach a compromise, Callender said he will be in better standing — since the House can just block the Senate version.“I'm okay with just letting the initiated statute go into effect, which is a pretty strong bargaining position,” he said. “If we don't come up with an agreement, I'll trust the rule-making process, trust Commerce to make good rules to do this.”The Senate is expected to pass the marijuana bill out of committee Wednesday morning, putting it on the floor for a full vote later in the day. The House version is set to be heard Wednesday, as well.This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.https://capitolnewsillinois.com/NEWS/dolly-parton-imagination-library-officially-launches-statewide-in-illinoisPritzker says goal is to send free books to all children, ages 0-5By PETER HANCOCKCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.comSPRINGFIELD – Illinois families with infants and toddlers now have access to free children's books that can be sent directly to their home, regardless of their income.Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday announced the official launch of the state's partnership with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a program founded by the country music legend in 1995 in her home county in east Tennessee. It now sends free books every month to nearly 3 million children in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.“Today, I couldn't be prouder to announce that the Imagination Library is working with the state of Illinois to begin our journey to provide every child under the age of five an opportunity to receive a free book delivered to them every single month,” Pritzker said at an event at the Bloomington Public Library.Pritzker first announced in June that the state had formed a partnership with the Dollywood Foundation, Parton's philanthropic organization, after Illinois lawmakers included $1.6 million in this year's budget to fund the state's share of the program. Other funding comes from the Dollywood Foundation and local, county-based organizations.Since then, about 44 local programs have been operating in the state, serving roughly 4 percent of eligible children. But Dollywood Foundation executive director Nora Briggs said the goal is to reach all of the estimated 755,000 children under age 5 in Illinois.“We know that nothing is more basic, more essential, more foundational to a child's success in life than the ability to read,” Briggs said. “The research is clear. We cannot wait until kindergarten for children to have access or exposure to books. It must happen early. It must start in the home environment. And reading at home requires books.”People who are interested in enrolling their child in the program can find their local provider on the “check availability” tab located at imaginationlibrary.com. From there, applicants submit basic information including their address, their child's name and date of birth, and the parents' information.Once a child's eligibility is approved, they will start receiving one book each month, addressed to them. Each child within an age group receives the same monthly book. Books on the distribution list are chosen by a panel of early childhood literacy experts who review potential titles for inclusion in the distribution list. In addition to funding the Imagination Library program this year, lawmakers also approved Pritzker's “Smart Start Illinois” initiative that will provide $250 million this year for early childhood programs, including expanded access to preschool, wage support for child care workers, early intervention programs, and home visiting programs.“We're making our mark on every aspect of early childhood, and working with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library literacy efforts will begin now at the earliest ages,” Pritzker said. “Illinois is well on its way to solidifying our status as the number one state in the nation to raise young children.” Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.Stories in today's show originally appeared in the Missouri Independent, Capitol News Illinois, Alabama Reflector, Michigan Advance, Arizona Mirror, KMBC9 Kansas City, Ohio Capital Journal, and NPR News @TheHeartlandPOD on Twitter and ThreadsCo-HostsAdam Sommer @Adam_Sommer85 (Twitter) @adam_sommer85 (Post)Rachel Parker @msraitchetp (Post) Sean Diller (no social)The Heartland Collective - Sign Up Today!JOIN PATREON FOR MORE - AND JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORK!“Change The Conversation”Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium http://www.americanaquarium.com/

More than 21 million Americans are breathing air that's dirtier than official records indicate. That's according to a new investigation from the California Newsroom, MuckRock and the Guardian. An obscure rule in the Clean Air Act allows regions to strike so-called “natural” and “exceptional events,” like wildfires, from their pollution data on grounds that they are beyond the control of local air regulators. Since 2016, counties in California have had 166 days of pollution forgiven. And this past summer during the Canadian wildfires, more than 20 other states invoked it. As wildfires become more frequent amid worsening climate change, air regulators are expecting to use the “exceptional events” rule more often, and some lawmakers are even trying to make filing easier. We'll hear more about the investigation's findings and answer your questions. Related link(s): Smoke, Screened — The Clean Air Act's Dirty Secret: An Investigation From the California Newsroom, Muckrock and the Guardian Guests: Molly Peterson, editor, The California Newsroom; has covered science with a focus on climate change for KQED News; co-author, “Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act's Dirty Secret" Emily Zentner, data journalist, The California Newsroom; co-author, “Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act's Dirty Secret"

Michigan AG files felony charges against 16 fake Trump electors | Missouri regulators say federal radioactive groundwater contamination efforts are not working | MO Gov Mike Parson signs bill easing restrictions on retired educators' ability to teach | Illinois Supreme Court rules SAFE-T Act Constitutional, making Illinois the first state to ban cash bail | Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announces 800,000 student loan borrowers to receive forgiveness in the next month. Support this show and all of the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the patreon link to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month and goes up from there with extra shows and special access at the higher levels. Heartlandpod.com, click the patreon link or just go to Patreon and search for the heartland pod. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.INTRO: Welcome to Flyover View, a member of the Heartland Pod family of podcasts and a look at heartland news from 30,000 feet. I'm your host, Sean Diller, and I want to thank you for joining me today.Here we go! DETROIT NEWS:16 false Trump electors face felony charges in MichiganCraig MaugerBeth LeBlancThe Detroit NewsLansing — Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed felony charges against 16 Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Donald Trump won Michigan's 2020 presidential election, launching criminal cases against top political figures inside the state GOP.Each of the 16 electors have been charged with eight felony counts, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election law forgery, according to Nessel's office.The revelation capped six months of investigation and produced the most serious allegations yet in Michigan over the campaign to overturn Trump's loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, but Trump and his supporters maintained false claims that fraud swung the result.As part of the push to undermine Biden's victory, Trump supporters gathered inside the Michigan Republican Party headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, and signed a certificate, claiming to cast the state's 16 electoral votes for Trump.Eventually the false certificate was sent to the National Archives and Congress. The document falsely claimed the Trump electors had met inside the Michigan State Capitol on Dec. 14.  But that's not what happened. In fact Dec. 14 at the real state capitol is where the real electors met to cast their real electoral votes for the real winner, Joe Biden. The Michigan Attorney General said "The false electors' actions undermined the public's faith in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan.""My department has prosecuted numerous cases of election law violations throughout my tenure, and it would be malfeasance of the greatest magnitude if my department failed to act here in the face of overwhelming evidence of an organized effort to circumvent the lawfully cast ballots of millions of Michigan voters in a presidential election."Ryan Goodman, a law professor New York University School of Law, called the charges "a strong case" and noted the fake electors signed a sworn statement attesting "we convened and organized in the State Capitol.""In truth, they met (secretly) in GOP headquarters basement," Goodman wrote on Twitter.The felony complaints indicate the warrants for each of the electors were signed Thursday and Friday of last week, according to copies of the documents.The names and positions of the electors are available in news articles, and include several current and former state GOP committee chairs and local elected officials.Each of the 16 electors is charged with eight felonies: two counts of election law forgery; two counts of forgery; and one count each of uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery. Conspiracy to commit forgery carries one of the steepest penalties, punishable by up to 14 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.The conspiracy charges allege the defendants worked with specific named others to falsely make a public record: which was the false certificate of votes of the 2020 fake electors from Michigan.The 16 fake electors convened in the basement of Michigan GOP headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, and produced a certificate that claimed Trump had won the state's 16 electoral votes.An affidavit prepared by Michigan AG Nessel's office in support of the complaint indicated Republican staffers in interviews with investigators said that non-electors were blocked from entering the building and the electors themselves were required to surrender their cellphones to prevent any recording of the event. GOP elector Mayra Rodriguez would later tell the Jan. 6 Select Committee that Trump campaign aide Shawn Flynn was present and spoke to the fake electors at the site.Attorney Ian Northon attempted to deliver a manila envelope similar to the size of the false electoral vote certificate to the Michigan Senate, claiming it contained the Republican electoral votes, the filing said. The U.S. National Archives and U.S. Senate Archives reported receiving a copy of the false certificate as well. Michigan election law bans someone from knowingly making or publishing a false document "with the intent to defraud."Each defendant, or their attorneys, has been notified of the charges, and the court will provide each with a date to appear in Ingham County district court for an arraignment. In a statement, AG Nessel's office also said "This remains an ongoing investigation, and the Michigan Department of Attorney General has not ruled out charges against additional defendants," Nessel's office said.YIKES: 14 years for conspiracy to commit forgery. And I'm not a practicing attorney, but I would bet anyone connected to Rudy Giuoini, Sydney Powell, Lindsey Graham, and some of these other goofballs could be looking at conspiracy charges as well. Because the tough thing about conspiracy crimes - so here it's conspiracy to commit election forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery - so the tough part if you're a defendant, is that once you talk with another person about the plan, and anyone involved takes even the smallest step toward moving on it, the crime of conspiracy is complete. You'll be found guilty if the prosecutor can prove it. MISSOURI INDEPENDENT: Something in the water.BY: ALLISON KITE - JULY 17, 2023 4:40 PM     A joint investigation by The Independent and MuckRock.In 2021, Missouri environmental regulators warned the federal government that radioactive contamination of groundwater from a uranium processing site near St. Louis was not improving despite cleanup efforts, according to documents reviewed by The Missouri Independent and MuckRock.Officials with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy in May 2021, responding to the agency's five-year review of its cleanup efforts at a Weldon Spring site where uranium was refined during the Cold War.While the radioactive waste and contaminated debris from the uranium processing site have been contained, Missouri regulators said contamination in the surrounding groundwater wasn't getting better.The letter, which has not been reported publicly, is the latest example of Missouri officials pushing the federal government to do more to protect the health of St. Louis-area residents near the litany of World War II and Cold War-era nuclear sites in the region. A six-month investigation by The Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press found that federal agencies and private companies, for decades, downplayed concerns about radiological contamination or failed to investigate it fully at sites in St. Louis and St. Charles counties.St. Louis and surrounding areas played a key role in the development of the first atomic bomb during World War II. Uranium processed in downtown St. Louis was used in the first sustained nuclear reaction in Chicago. After the war, Mallinckrodt, which operated the downtown plant, started similar operations at a new facility on Missouri Highway 94 just north of the Missouri River.The more than 200-acre site has been contaminated for decades by radium, thorium and uranium as well as dangerous non-radioactive chemicals from its use to manufacture explosives and process uranium ore. The Weldon Spring plant was demolished and the debris buried, along with residue leftover from uranium processing, in a 41-acre containment cell covered with rock. The containment cell, the highest point in St. Charles County, is accessible to the public and has a monument to the communities displaced by the war effort and information on the cleanup effort at the top.Closer to the Missouri River, a quarry the federal government used to store radioactive waste was also contaminated. It's separated from the main site but part of the same cleanup and monitoring effort.Remediation of the plant is complete, but monitoring has shown uranium contamination is not decreasing. The Environmental Protection Agency shared some of the state's concerns that the groundwater monitoring network was insufficient and the groundwater is not projected to be restored in a reasonable timeframe. Beyond that, the state says, the extent of the contamination hasn't been sufficiently defined, meaning it could be more widespread than the Department of Energy knows based on its sampling. The federal sampling program, the state argues, is inadequate.Missouri regulators, in their letter, repeatedly corrected the Department of Energy when the federal agency said uranium levels were falling in groundwater wells at the site.In a response to the state, the federal government said it would revise its conclusion that the remedy was working. MISSOURI INDEPENDENT: Pulled out of retirementNew law tackles Missouri teacher shortage by encouraging retirees to return to classroomGov. Mike Parson signed legislation last week that allows educators to return to work without losing retirement benefitsBY: ANNELISE HANSHAW - JULY 13, 2023 9:00 AMMissouri's school districts are struggling - not just with a teacher shortage but a scarcity of bus drivers, custodians and other essential personnel.In the most recent school year, teachers with inadequate teaching certification taught over 8% of Missouri public school classes, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.The crisis has led larger school districts to consider adopting four-day school weeks to address teacher retention and recruitment problems.Sen. Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe, has been working on one way to address the problem for four years. And last week, the governor signed a bill into law, set to take effect Aug. 28, that will allow retired public-school staff to work full-time for a district for up to four years without losing retirement benefits.Prior to Black's legislation, teachers and non-certificated staff could work full-time for only two years post-retirement without losing benefits.The law also addresses other positions, like bus drivers and janitors. Retired school employees can work in positions that don't require a teaching certificate for more hours. CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS:UPDATED: Cash bail will end in Illinois as state supreme court rules the SAFE-T Act is constitutionalTuesday, July 18, 2023By JERRY NOWICKICapitol News Illinoisjnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.comSPRINGFIELD – A landmark criminal justice reform that eliminates cash bail in Illinois is constitutional, the state's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, paving the way for the change to take effect Sept. 18. The 5-2 decision – handed down on partisan lines – means that an individual's wealth will no longer play a role in whether they are incarcerated while awaiting trial. Judges can still order someone to be detained as they await trial, but the new system will instead be based on an offender's level of risk of reoffending or fleeing prosecution. With the new law's implementation, Illinois will become the first state in the U.S. to fully eliminate cash bail – and all provisions of the SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform will have taken full effect.Short for Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today, the wide-ranging measure was an initiative of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus that passed in the wake of a nationwide reckoning with racism in the criminal justice system following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.The act reformed police training, certification and use-of-force standards, expanded detainee rights, and gave the attorney general's office authority to investigate alleged civil rights violations by law enforcement. It also requires body cameras at all police departments by 2025. Some larger departments are already required to use body cameras under the law.State Rep. Justin Slaughter, a Chicago Democrat who sponsored the measure in the House, said the pretrial detention overhaul addresses an “overly punitive criminal justice system” for impoverished Illinoisans – especially those in Black and brown communities.It's a system that often forces innocent individuals to take plea deals – and to accept a criminal record – to obtain their freedom when they don't have money to post bail.“So this is not about being tough on crime or soft on crime,” he said. “This is about being smart on crime, reworking our system, streamlining our system to address those higher-level, more violent, dangerous alleged offenses. It's not about having someone unnecessarily sit in jail.”While opponents of the new law have argued it will strain smaller court systems and hinder judicial discretion, the lawsuit centered on the meaning of two mentions of the word “bail” in the Illinois Constitution, and the interplay between branches of government.The Supreme Court ruled on a set of consolidated cases filed against Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Gov. JB Pritzker and the state's Democratic legislative leaders by state's attorneys and sheriffs from over 60 counties.The lawsuit specifically cited Article VIII of the state constitution, which states, “all persons” accused of crimes “shall be bailable by sufficient sureties.” Any changes to the language, the lawsuit argued, would require a constitutional amendment to be approved by voters.While a Kankakee County judge ruled with the state's attorneys and sheriffs late last year, Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, writing for the majority, said the lower court misinterpreted the state constitution..  She wrote, “The Illinois Constitution does not mandate that monetary bail is the only means to ensure criminal defendants appear for trials or the only means to protect the public,”Theis' majority opinion also said that the pretrial release provisions “expressly take crime victims into account.”“As we have already mentioned, those provisions require a court to consider the ‘nature and seriousness of the real and present threat to the safety of any person or persons that would be posed by the defendant's release,' including crime victims and their family members,” she wrote.  The pretrial detention changes – often referred to as the Pretrial Fairness Act, or PFA – will create a “presumption” in favor of pretrial release, meaning “the state bears the burden of establishing a defendant's eligibility for pretrial detention,” Theis wrote.Advocates say the intent of that provision is to divert lower-level nonviolent offenders from pretrial incarceration while giving judges authority to detain individuals accused of more serious crimes if they are deemed dangerous or at risk of fleeing prosecution.Another facet of the reform entitles defendants to a more intensive first appearance in court. During that appearance, defendants will now have a right to legal representation and prosecutors can detail their reasons for continued detention.The new hearings replace standard bail hearings, which often last less than five minutes and end with a judge deciding the conditions of release, including how much money the defendant must post to be released.Advocates for the bail reform have noted that it gives judges greater authority to detain individuals accused of crimes such as domestic battery and violations of orders of protection prior to trial than does prior law.Kaethe Morris Hoffer, the executive director of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, spoke in favor of the reform at a virtual news conference Tuesday.  “I want to be clear – safety and interests and voices of people who have endured rape and violence in the sex trade have never been prioritized when the criminal legal system is asked to make decisions about the liberty of people who are accused of serious crimes of violence. This changes that.”While the new law directs law enforcement officers to cite and release anyone accused of a crime below a Class A misdemeanor, they would maintain discretion to make an arrest if the person is a threat or if making the arrest is necessary to prevent further lawbreaking.Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart was one of two state's attorneys in Illinois who backed the SAFE-T Act alongside Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. He noted that many smaller jurisdictions will lose revenue from cash bail payments when the system is eliminated – a point that reform advocates have repeatedly noted shows a flaw in the system.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.KANSAS REFLECTOR: Promises made, promises kept.White House announces more than 800,000 student loan borrowers to have debt forgiven. You heard that right. BY: ARIANA FIGUEROA - JULY 14, 2023 10:41 AM    WASHINGTON — The $39 billion in debt relief will come through fixes to mismanagement of the agency's income-driven repayment plans. Many long-time borrowers, including those who had been making payments for 20 years or more, were denied relief they were eligible for under the repayment plans. This happens when qualified payments were made but aren't being counted accurately. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness,” The Department of Education has already begun to notify those 804,000 borrowers of their forgiveness, and within 30 days their debts will be wiped out.The plan includes borrowers with Direct Loans or Federal Family Education Loans held by the department who have reached a forgiveness threshold specified by the department.Cardona said “By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve, just as we have already done for public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, veterans and other borrowers with permanent disabilities”A 2022 NPR investigation found numerous problems with the agency's handling of IDR plans, which are meant to help low-income borrowers. Loan servicers failed to keep track of borrowers' progress toward forgiveness and payment histories were not properly transferred from one loan servicer to another. In January of this year, The Department of Education announced plans to overhaul the income-driven repayment plan.Under the new plan, monthly payments would decline to 5% of a borrower's income — down from 10% — and the repayment timeline for loan forgiveness would be decreased to 10 years from 20 or 25 if the initial loan is less than $12,000.The announcement Friday followed the Supreme Court's decision in late June to strike down the Biden administration's student debt relief program that would have canceled up to $20,000 in student loan debt for some borrowers.Under the Biden administration, the Department of Education has canceled about $116 billion in student loan debt for borrowers who were misled by for-profit institutions, borrowers with disabilities and those with loans in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.Welp, that's it for me. From Denver I'm Sean Diller, original reporting for the stories in todays show is from Capitol News Illinois, Missouri Independent, Detroit News, and Kansas Reflector.

Michigan AG files felony charges against 16 fake Trump electors | Missouri regulators say federal radioactive groundwater contamination efforts are not working | MO Gov Mike Parson signs bill easing restrictions on retired educators' ability to teach | Illinois Supreme Court rules SAFE-T Act Constitutional, making Illinois the first state to ban cash bail | Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announces 800,000 student loan borrowers to receive forgiveness in the next month. Support this show and all of the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the patreon link to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month and goes up from there with extra shows and special access at the higher levels. Heartlandpod.com, click the patreon link or just go to Patreon and search for the heartland pod. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.INTRO: Welcome to Flyover View, a member of the Heartland Pod family of podcasts and a look at heartland news from 30,000 feet. I'm your host, Sean Diller, and I want to thank you for joining me today.Here we go! DETROIT NEWS:16 false Trump electors face felony charges in MichiganCraig MaugerBeth LeBlancThe Detroit NewsLansing — Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed felony charges against 16 Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Donald Trump won Michigan's 2020 presidential election, launching criminal cases against top political figures inside the state GOP.Each of the 16 electors have been charged with eight felony counts, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election law forgery, according to Nessel's office.The revelation capped six months of investigation and produced the most serious allegations yet in Michigan over the campaign to overturn Trump's loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, but Trump and his supporters maintained false claims that fraud swung the result.As part of the push to undermine Biden's victory, Trump supporters gathered inside the Michigan Republican Party headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, and signed a certificate, claiming to cast the state's 16 electoral votes for Trump.Eventually the false certificate was sent to the National Archives and Congress. The document falsely claimed the Trump electors had met inside the Michigan State Capitol on Dec. 14.  But that's not what happened. In fact Dec. 14 at the real state capitol is where the real electors met to cast their real electoral votes for the real winner, Joe Biden. The Michigan Attorney General said "The false electors' actions undermined the public's faith in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan.""My department has prosecuted numerous cases of election law violations throughout my tenure, and it would be malfeasance of the greatest magnitude if my department failed to act here in the face of overwhelming evidence of an organized effort to circumvent the lawfully cast ballots of millions of Michigan voters in a presidential election."Ryan Goodman, a law professor New York University School of Law, called the charges "a strong case" and noted the fake electors signed a sworn statement attesting "we convened and organized in the State Capitol.""In truth, they met (secretly) in GOP headquarters basement," Goodman wrote on Twitter.The felony complaints indicate the warrants for each of the electors were signed Thursday and Friday of last week, according to copies of the documents.The names and positions of the electors are available in news articles, and include several current and former state GOP committee chairs and local elected officials.Each of the 16 electors is charged with eight felonies: two counts of election law forgery; two counts of forgery; and one count each of uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery. Conspiracy to commit forgery carries one of the steepest penalties, punishable by up to 14 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.The conspiracy charges allege the defendants worked with specific named others to falsely make a public record: which was the false certificate of votes of the 2020 fake electors from Michigan.The 16 fake electors convened in the basement of Michigan GOP headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, and produced a certificate that claimed Trump had won the state's 16 electoral votes.An affidavit prepared by Michigan AG Nessel's office in support of the complaint indicated Republican staffers in interviews with investigators said that non-electors were blocked from entering the building and the electors themselves were required to surrender their cellphones to prevent any recording of the event. GOP elector Mayra Rodriguez would later tell the Jan. 6 Select Committee that Trump campaign aide Shawn Flynn was present and spoke to the fake electors at the site.Attorney Ian Northon attempted to deliver a manila envelope similar to the size of the false electoral vote certificate to the Michigan Senate, claiming it contained the Republican electoral votes, the filing said. The U.S. National Archives and U.S. Senate Archives reported receiving a copy of the false certificate as well. Michigan election law bans someone from knowingly making or publishing a false document "with the intent to defraud."Each defendant, or their attorneys, has been notified of the charges, and the court will provide each with a date to appear in Ingham County district court for an arraignment. In a statement, AG Nessel's office also said "This remains an ongoing investigation, and the Michigan Department of Attorney General has not ruled out charges against additional defendants," Nessel's office said.YIKES: 14 years for conspiracy to commit forgery. And I'm not a practicing attorney, but I would bet anyone connected to Rudy Giuoini, Sydney Powell, Lindsey Graham, and some of these other goofballs could be looking at conspiracy charges as well. Because the tough thing about conspiracy crimes - so here it's conspiracy to commit election forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery - so the tough part if you're a defendant, is that once you talk with another person about the plan, and anyone involved takes even the smallest step toward moving on it, the crime of conspiracy is complete. You'll be found guilty if the prosecutor can prove it. MISSOURI INDEPENDENT: Something in the water.BY: ALLISON KITE - JULY 17, 2023 4:40 PM     A joint investigation by The Independent and MuckRock.In 2021, Missouri environmental regulators warned the federal government that radioactive contamination of groundwater from a uranium processing site near St. Louis was not improving despite cleanup efforts, according to documents reviewed by The Missouri Independent and MuckRock.Officials with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy in May 2021, responding to the agency's five-year review of its cleanup efforts at a Weldon Spring site where uranium was refined during the Cold War.While the radioactive waste and contaminated debris from the uranium processing site have been contained, Missouri regulators said contamination in the surrounding groundwater wasn't getting better.The letter, which has not been reported publicly, is the latest example of Missouri officials pushing the federal government to do more to protect the health of St. Louis-area residents near the litany of World War II and Cold War-era nuclear sites in the region. A six-month investigation by The Independent, MuckRock and The Associated Press found that federal agencies and private companies, for decades, downplayed concerns about radiological contamination or failed to investigate it fully at sites in St. Louis and St. Charles counties.St. Louis and surrounding areas played a key role in the development of the first atomic bomb during World War II. Uranium processed in downtown St. Louis was used in the first sustained nuclear reaction in Chicago. After the war, Mallinckrodt, which operated the downtown plant, started similar operations at a new facility on Missouri Highway 94 just north of the Missouri River.The more than 200-acre site has been contaminated for decades by radium, thorium and uranium as well as dangerous non-radioactive chemicals from its use to manufacture explosives and process uranium ore. The Weldon Spring plant was demolished and the debris buried, along with residue leftover from uranium processing, in a 41-acre containment cell covered with rock. The containment cell, the highest point in St. Charles County, is accessible to the public and has a monument to the communities displaced by the war effort and information on the cleanup effort at the top.Closer to the Missouri River, a quarry the federal government used to store radioactive waste was also contaminated. It's separated from the main site but part of the same cleanup and monitoring effort.Remediation of the plant is complete, but monitoring has shown uranium contamination is not decreasing. The Environmental Protection Agency shared some of the state's concerns that the groundwater monitoring network was insufficient and the groundwater is not projected to be restored in a reasonable timeframe. Beyond that, the state says, the extent of the contamination hasn't been sufficiently defined, meaning it could be more widespread than the Department of Energy knows based on its sampling. The federal sampling program, the state argues, is inadequate.Missouri regulators, in their letter, repeatedly corrected the Department of Energy when the federal agency said uranium levels were falling in groundwater wells at the site.In a response to the state, the federal government said it would revise its conclusion that the remedy was working. MISSOURI INDEPENDENT: Pulled out of retirementNew law tackles Missouri teacher shortage by encouraging retirees to return to classroomGov. Mike Parson signed legislation last week that allows educators to return to work without losing retirement benefitsBY: ANNELISE HANSHAW - JULY 13, 2023 9:00 AMMissouri's school districts are struggling - not just with a teacher shortage but a scarcity of bus drivers, custodians and other essential personnel.In the most recent school year, teachers with inadequate teaching certification taught over 8% of Missouri public school classes, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.The crisis has led larger school districts to consider adopting four-day school weeks to address teacher retention and recruitment problems.Sen. Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe, has been working on one way to address the problem for four years. And last week, the governor signed a bill into law, set to take effect Aug. 28, that will allow retired public-school staff to work full-time for a district for up to four years without losing retirement benefits.Prior to Black's legislation, teachers and non-certificated staff could work full-time for only two years post-retirement without losing benefits.The law also addresses other positions, like bus drivers and janitors. Retired school employees can work in positions that don't require a teaching certificate for more hours. CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS:UPDATED: Cash bail will end in Illinois as state supreme court rules the SAFE-T Act is constitutionalTuesday, July 18, 2023By JERRY NOWICKICapitol News Illinoisjnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.comSPRINGFIELD – A landmark criminal justice reform that eliminates cash bail in Illinois is constitutional, the state's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, paving the way for the change to take effect Sept. 18. The 5-2 decision – handed down on partisan lines – means that an individual's wealth will no longer play a role in whether they are incarcerated while awaiting trial. Judges can still order someone to be detained as they await trial, but the new system will instead be based on an offender's level of risk of reoffending or fleeing prosecution. With the new law's implementation, Illinois will become the first state in the U.S. to fully eliminate cash bail – and all provisions of the SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform will have taken full effect.Short for Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today, the wide-ranging measure was an initiative of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus that passed in the wake of a nationwide reckoning with racism in the criminal justice system following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.The act reformed police training, certification and use-of-force standards, expanded detainee rights, and gave the attorney general's office authority to investigate alleged civil rights violations by law enforcement. It also requires body cameras at all police departments by 2025. Some larger departments are already required to use body cameras under the law.State Rep. Justin Slaughter, a Chicago Democrat who sponsored the measure in the House, said the pretrial detention overhaul addresses an “overly punitive criminal justice system” for impoverished Illinoisans – especially those in Black and brown communities.It's a system that often forces innocent individuals to take plea deals – and to accept a criminal record – to obtain their freedom when they don't have money to post bail.“So this is not about being tough on crime or soft on crime,” he said. “This is about being smart on crime, reworking our system, streamlining our system to address those higher-level, more violent, dangerous alleged offenses. It's not about having someone unnecessarily sit in jail.”While opponents of the new law have argued it will strain smaller court systems and hinder judicial discretion, the lawsuit centered on the meaning of two mentions of the word “bail” in the Illinois Constitution, and the interplay between branches of government.The Supreme Court ruled on a set of consolidated cases filed against Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Gov. JB Pritzker and the state's Democratic legislative leaders by state's attorneys and sheriffs from over 60 counties.The lawsuit specifically cited Article VIII of the state constitution, which states, “all persons” accused of crimes “shall be bailable by sufficient sureties.” Any changes to the language, the lawsuit argued, would require a constitutional amendment to be approved by voters.While a Kankakee County judge ruled with the state's attorneys and sheriffs late last year, Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, writing for the majority, said the lower court misinterpreted the state constitution..  She wrote, “The Illinois Constitution does not mandate that monetary bail is the only means to ensure criminal defendants appear for trials or the only means to protect the public,”Theis' majority opinion also said that the pretrial release provisions “expressly take crime victims into account.”“As we have already mentioned, those provisions require a court to consider the ‘nature and seriousness of the real and present threat to the safety of any person or persons that would be posed by the defendant's release,' including crime victims and their family members,” she wrote.  The pretrial detention changes – often referred to as the Pretrial Fairness Act, or PFA – will create a “presumption” in favor of pretrial release, meaning “the state bears the burden of establishing a defendant's eligibility for pretrial detention,” Theis wrote.Advocates say the intent of that provision is to divert lower-level nonviolent offenders from pretrial incarceration while giving judges authority to detain individuals accused of more serious crimes if they are deemed dangerous or at risk of fleeing prosecution.Another facet of the reform entitles defendants to a more intensive first appearance in court. During that appearance, defendants will now have a right to legal representation and prosecutors can detail their reasons for continued detention.The new hearings replace standard bail hearings, which often last less than five minutes and end with a judge deciding the conditions of release, including how much money the defendant must post to be released.Advocates for the bail reform have noted that it gives judges greater authority to detain individuals accused of crimes such as domestic battery and violations of orders of protection prior to trial than does prior law.Kaethe Morris Hoffer, the executive director of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, spoke in favor of the reform at a virtual news conference Tuesday.  “I want to be clear – safety and interests and voices of people who have endured rape and violence in the sex trade have never been prioritized when the criminal legal system is asked to make decisions about the liberty of people who are accused of serious crimes of violence. This changes that.”While the new law directs law enforcement officers to cite and release anyone accused of a crime below a Class A misdemeanor, they would maintain discretion to make an arrest if the person is a threat or if making the arrest is necessary to prevent further lawbreaking.Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart was one of two state's attorneys in Illinois who backed the SAFE-T Act alongside Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. He noted that many smaller jurisdictions will lose revenue from cash bail payments when the system is eliminated – a point that reform advocates have repeatedly noted shows a flaw in the system.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.KANSAS REFLECTOR: Promises made, promises kept.White House announces more than 800,000 student loan borrowers to have debt forgiven. You heard that right. BY: ARIANA FIGUEROA - JULY 14, 2023 10:41 AM    WASHINGTON — The $39 billion in debt relief will come through fixes to mismanagement of the agency's income-driven repayment plans. Many long-time borrowers, including those who had been making payments for 20 years or more, were denied relief they were eligible for under the repayment plans. This happens when qualified payments were made but aren't being counted accurately. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness,” The Department of Education has already begun to notify those 804,000 borrowers of their forgiveness, and within 30 days their debts will be wiped out.The plan includes borrowers with Direct Loans or Federal Family Education Loans held by the department who have reached a forgiveness threshold specified by the department.Cardona said “By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve, just as we have already done for public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, veterans and other borrowers with permanent disabilities”A 2022 NPR investigation found numerous problems with the agency's handling of IDR plans, which are meant to help low-income borrowers. Loan servicers failed to keep track of borrowers' progress toward forgiveness and payment histories were not properly transferred from one loan servicer to another. In January of this year, The Department of Education announced plans to overhaul the income-driven repayment plan.Under the new plan, monthly payments would decline to 5% of a borrower's income — down from 10% — and the repayment timeline for loan forgiveness would be decreased to 10 years from 20 or 25 if the initial loan is less than $12,000.The announcement Friday followed the Supreme Court's decision in late June to strike down the Biden administration's student debt relief program that would have canceled up to $20,000 in student loan debt for some borrowers.Under the Biden administration, the Department of Education has canceled about $116 billion in student loan debt for borrowers who were misled by for-profit institutions, borrowers with disabilities and those with loans in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.Welp, that's it for me. From Denver I'm Sean Diller, original reporting for the stories in todays show is from Capitol News Illinois, Missouri Independent, Detroit News, and Kansas Reflector.

In our latest episode, we spoke about the importance of using collaboration to tell better data stories. Muckrock's Betsy Ladyzhets and Dillon Bergin talk about the power of working with local journalists and scientific experts to find hidden stories. The pair also give us an overview of Muckrock's tools that can help journalists hold governments to account.

During Data Literacy Month, we shared how data journalists curate and distill data stories to the wider public. Since 2020, Data Journalism has risen both in significance and visibility. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, data journalists have been instrumental in keeping the public informed by investigating, challenging, interpreting, and explaining complex datasets. In this episode, Betsy Ladyzhets joins the show to talk about the state of Data Journalism today, and shares from her experience as a data journalist Betsy is an independent science, health, and data journalist focused on COVID-19 and Founder of the COVID-19 Data Dispatch, an independent publication providing updates and resources on public COVID-19 data. She is also currently working as a Senior Journalism Fellow with the Documenting COVID-19 project at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation and MuckRock. Her work has been featured in Science News, FiveThirtyEight, MIT Tech Review, and the Covid Tracking Project. Throughout the show, we discuss the importance of letting data shape a narrative, what characteristics of traditional journalism are needed for data journalists, the best practices for delivering effective data stories, how the rise of AI and data visualization are impacting data journalism, and much more. Links shared during the episode: Data Sonification The COVID-19 Data Dispatch The Data Visualization Society Learning on DataCamp? Take part in this week's XP-challenge: http://www.datacamp.com/promo/free-week-xp-challenge-2022

A child care desert is a region where three children compete for every available slot at an in-home or group center. The Michigan League for Public Policy, a Lansing-based nonprofit, created a list of 11 childcare deserts in Michigan. However, a consortium of newsrooms was able to track down more accurate data and found the actual number to be much higher.  Reporter Derek Kravitz co-authored the report published by MuckRock. He joined the show to explain his team's findings regarding Michigan's child care shortage.  GUEST: Derek Kravitz, data and investigations editor for MuckRock ___ Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way. If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the busiest travel day in 1971, a hijacker comandeered Northwest Airlines' Flight 305, as it was en route from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington. Upon landing in Seattle, he got what he'd asked for - four parachutes and $200,000 cash - and when the passengers had disembarked, he ordered the plane on to Mexico. But they'd only been in the air for a few minutes when the hijacker tied the cash to his body, strapped on the parachute, and jumped off the plane, disappearing forever into the dense forest of southeast Washington State. On this episode, we're talking plane travel, air piracy, flight attending, and of course, the mystery of DB Cooper. Sources for this episode include: The official FBI report, which is online at FBI.gov "The Hunt for D.B. Cooper Continues", by D. Tolentino for MuckRock, 2018 "Diatoms constrain forensic burial timelines: case study with DB Cooper money", by T. G. Kaye & M. Meltzer, Scientific Reports, 2020

Chicago's air quality is among the worst in the country, and the issue has been tied to the city's dozens of industrial corridors. Data from a new network of sensors confirms that link, showing Chicagoans who live near heavy-traffic areas are breathing the most polluted air. Reset learns more about the findings from a new joint investigation by WBEZ, the Chicago Sun-Times and MuckRock.

THIS EPISODE IS FOR THE GIRLS: AS SPOOKY AND STRONG AS THEY COME!! Taylar starts us off to day covering the case of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who in 1991 at the age of 11 was abducted from the bus stop right by her home. Jaycee spent 18 years in captivity with her abductors before her rescue, that was only because of Lisa Campbell and Officer Ally Jacobs' quick thinking, attention to detail, and just being amazing! This is truly a case that celebrates just how strong and resilient women are! Morgan wraps it up today with the most infamous spooky woman of all time, The La LLorona, which is when we realized just how dark this was and lose it laughing! Morgan digs into all of the history and legends surrounding surrounding our Spooky spotlight woman of the day! if you have a creepy account of your own, send it in to creepsandcrimespodcast@gmail.com or submit it on our website!! (You can also DM our instagram @creepsandcrimespodcast) GO WATCH ON YOUTUBE JOIN OUR PATREON FOR 2 EXCLUSIVE EPISODES EACH MONTH AND THE ENTIRE BACK LOG OF EPS AND BONUS MATERIAL AFTERLIFELASHES: CREEPSANDCRIMES 40% OFF ANGEL WINGS & HEALING THINGS: Psychic Medium Susan Edwards 10% off your first reading if you mention Creeps & Crimes Podcast Be sure to like, comment, subscribe and turn on post notifications for our channel! Let's Get Creepy!! Follow us on Instagram Check out our website Sources Crime: Inside Edition, NPR, Crime Museum, Casefiles Podcast, Denver post, The Cinemaholic, NY Times, Sacramento CBS Local News, Unsolved Mysteries, Biography.com (Jaycee & Phillip G), ABC News, The JAYC Foundation, Freedom By Jaycee Lee Dugard, USA Today, South Tahoe Now News, Sun Signs.org, MuckRock.com, Alcatraz East, A Stolen Life By Jaycee Lee Dugard, BiographON, Blue Jean, Tahoe Daily Tribune, The Guardian, Arlington VA News, CBS News, LA Times, DBPedia, Today, Sacbee, History By Day, Village Life, Press Democrat, Buffalo News, NBC Bay Area, The Sun UK, People, Daily Mail, NBC, CNN, In Touch Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Live Science, ABC 10, Associated Press, Sacramento Bee, The Daily Telegraph, Reuters, Mercury News, Orange County Register, Contra Costa Times, Anderson Cooper 360, EDCgov.us, Seattle Times

On this episode of the Harder Brunch Podcast, we talk with Indy artist, Dan Thompson, about Pirate shaming, the visual arts bias, and a little Muckrock controversy... If you like the show, catch our After Brunch Show on Patron! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dyke-michaels/support

Dan Feidt of Unicorn Riot comes on to talk about grassroots journalism, covering the far right, organizing horizontally, electoralism, and more. Check it: Unicorn Riot https://unicornriot.ninja Dakota Access Pipeline Black Snake Killaz: A #NODAPL Story https://www.unicornriot.ninja/black-snake-killaz-2017/ Unicorn Riot: the tiny media outlet on the frontlines of the George Floyd Protests https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/01/unicorn-riot-george-floyd-protests The Tiny Media That Is Delivering Some of the Most Viral Media Reporting from Minneapolis https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-tiny-media-collective-that-is-delivering-some-of-the-most-vital-reporting-from-minneapolis Why Protest Tactics Spread Like Memes https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/style/viral-protest-videos.html The Milk Tea Alliance: From I Meme to Pan-Asian Movement https://pivot.mias.org.au/2021/05/23/the-milk-tea-alliance-from-internet-meme-to-pan-asian-movement/ Discord Leaks https://discordleaks.unicornriot.ninja/discord/ Sines v Kessler https://www.integrityfirstforamerica.org/our-work/case/charlottesville-case I Don't Speak German https://idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com/ DonorBox https://donorbox.org ActBlue Charitable https://secure.actblue.com/abcharities Distributed Denial of Secrets https://ddosecrets.com/wiki/Distributed_Denial_of_Secrets Phineas Fisher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Fisher Terrorizing Dissent https://terrorizingdissent.org/ MuckRock https://www.muckrock.com/ 2021 Epik data breach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Epik_data_breach Wordpress https://wordpress.com/ Drupal https://drupal.org

Jules Muck aka Muckrock is an artist known all over the world. She started out using spray paint growing up around NYC at a young age. Eventually became a way for her to support her drug habit. She spent many years in addiction, including being on a roof in NYC blocks away from the World Trade Centers and watched the second plane hit from the roof. I met Jules when I was newly sober and would attend meetings in her front yard in Venice every Saturday night. Now that yard is known as “muck recovery” or “the yard”. Muck recovery is a non profit she started there to hold meetings daily for people in recovery. We talk all about how that got started and what they do. You can find the link below for it! Muckrecovery.com To help MJs Progress Not Perfection Meeting Center Association with any kind of donation use the link below to find venmo/cashapp/PayPal options https://my.bio/mjspnpmca To watch the video she talked about she and her friend made as another version of dumb and dumber use link below https://youtu.be/fgdAs_B5Tvg “This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is HARD. The good news is, therapy works. BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours. Join the millions of people who are seeing what online therapy is really about. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and MJs Progress Not Perfection listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp dot com slash MJSPNPMCA. That's Better H-E-L-P dot com slash MJSPNPMCA HTTPS://www.BetterHelp.com/mjspnpmca --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/mjspnpmca/support

In this episode Sara talks about a drug smuggling operation from the 80s that ends in a parachute tragedy, cocaine falling from the sky, and a black bear who needs an intervention. Be sure to follow us at: Twitter: @rarwpodcast Instagram: @rarwpodcast Contact us at: E-mail: redrumandredwinepodcast@gmail.com All music written and produced by: Savasas savasas | Free Listening on SoundCloud Resources Cocaine Bear: The True Story Behind the Ultimate Party Animal. Backpacker. (2021, April 26). https://www.backpacker.com/stories/adventures/danger/cocaine-bear-the-true-story-behind-the-ultimate-party-animal/. Dessem, M. (2021, March 10). The True Story of the Cocaine Bear. Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/culture/2021/03/cocaine-bear-elizabeth-banks-lord-miller-warden-andrew-carter-thornton.html. Dorman, T. (2021, March 19). The day it rained cocaine: Knoxville plays role in true story behind 'Cocaine Bear' movie. Knoxville News Sentinel. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2021/03/15/cocaine-bear-parachuting-smuggler-andrew-thornton-died-knoxville/4663756001/. Los Angeles Times. (1985, September 12). Cocaine-Carrying Chutist Was Ex-Policeman, Lawyer. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-09-12-mn-21488-story.html. Microsoft. (n.d.). Bing. https://www.bing.com/search?q=krugerrand+us+dollar+value+in+1985&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&ghc=1&pq=krugerrand+us+dollar+value+in+1985&sc=1-34&sk=&cvid=B4D47E9779A44E079F02116EF6B49AA6. NatSecGeek. (2017, April 28). The strange death, and even stranger life of "Cocaine Cowboy" Andrew Carter Thornton II. MuckRock. https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/apr/28/fbi-cia-cocaine/. Pablo Escobear: The Absolutely Bizarre Story of Kentucky's Cocaine Bear. OutdoorHub. (n.d.). https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2019/10/02/pablo-escobear-absolutely-bizarre-story-kentuckys-cocaine-bear/. Sullivan, A. C. (2021, March 22). The cocaine in the yard, the dead smuggler, the drugged bear-and now a movie based on a Knoxville true crime story. wbir.com. https://www.wbir.com/article/entertainment/upcoming-cocaine-bear-movie-based-on-knoxville-true-crime-tale/51-09412f88-5cc5-4ee4-afcd-c769a469fe7d.

WELCOME TO A VERY SPECIAL EDITION OF INSIDE WAYNE MANOR WITH STEPHEN WAYNE AND FRIENDS. “THE MINDS EYE, AND VOICE OF THE BEHOLDER'S (The Street Arist's of Los Angeles)……. Chapter Two, Part Two…… Jules Muck aka Muck Rock she has been around since the 1990's You can find a majority of here work in Venice California, also in New York, New Orleans, Texas, Europe and anywhere else she can can. Get it LOL. “Muckrock” is Muckrock because of her obsession with all things music, always painting living artists as well as memorializing them with her own flare, and style. Muck also is fearless to take on memorials for family's whom have lost love ones and feels, it keeps their spirits alive as we will discuss in this chapter.. She has also is founding Muck Recovery. It is a non profit Recovery House that holds meetings, promotes sober living and mental health awareness! She paints everyday, and doesn't, stop the creative flow. We hung at Muck Rock HQ, to chat, and not too slow the creative process, she continued to work as we chatted. Mucking up and old school van……. Part One of Chapter Two of A very special Inside Wayne Manor with Stephen Wayne and Friends. with Jules Muck tag Muckrock, so let's get mucked!!!!!!!!!. Enjoy……. Thank you very much to the one and only Jules Muck!!!!!! Muck Rock. All the interviewsI have done all these years this one has been one of my favorites. She's been in my life for a long time, and she is one bad ass chick!!!!!!! www.julesmuck.com @muckrock on IG and @muckrecovery her organization to help out those who seek sobriety and good strong mental health. Congrat's to her for that!!!!!!

WELCOME TO A VERY SPECIAL EDITION OF INSIDE WAYNE MANOR WITH STEPHEN WAYNE AND FRIENDS. “THE MINDS EYE, AND VOICE OF THE BEHOLDER'S (The Street Arist's of Los Angeles)……. Chapter Two, Part One…… Jules Muck began writing graffiti as a teen in Europe and England in the 90s. Back in NYC she worked under Lady Pink for many years. Muck was christened into graffiti by some great early legends. She has been published in numerous books and graffiti publications. Muck has had work in numerous collaborative projects and she was one of the first females to paint at 106th and Park Hall of fame in NYC. She has painted murals for tv shows and movies including Under the Dome, Mr. Mercedes and IT. She travels and paints often in New York, New Orleans, Texas and anywhere else she can. The landscape of Venice beach remains the most mucked place in the world as her Venice home and studio is her favorite place to be. “Muckrock” is the handle she chose as an ode to graffiti's hip hop roots but it has come to represent her obsession with all things music, she has painted over 5 memorials murals for Motorhead's Lemmy including one at the Rainbow room and a 40 ft Mt.Lemmy at Dave Grohl's recording studio in LA. Muck's real passion is to paint on things she's not supposed to paint on but those opportunities are rapidly decreasing as she is ever invited to paint on more and more walls and things, she enjoys painting humping bunnies on RVs and dressing up any manner of vehicle. She has also is founding Muck Recovery. It is a non profit recovery house that holds meetings, promotes sober living and mental health awareness! And she has a Wikipedia page!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that means something......... Part One of Chapter Two, Jules Muck, tag Muck Rock! A very special Inside Wayne Manor with Stephen Wayne and Friends. She is supremely talented and inspirational. Enjoy…….

Emily Crose is a security researcher and professional with over 10 years of experience including a total of 7 between being an officer for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.Time Stamps/ Topic List00:00:00 Introduction to Episode 11, Emily Crose00:01:17 History of Hacking00:02:49 MELISSA.vir00:05:50 Career Start at NSA00:07:38 Hunt Methodology and OSINT00:14:02 Comic Sans is evil and must be destroyed00:16:05 Muckrock http://Muckrock.com00:18:20 Conspiracy Theories00:26:41 Privacy Questions00:31:49 Are we safer?00:35:20 Optimistic Words from Emily, Wrap up

This week has been rough y'all. But we're finding small comfort in this conversation with Candice Fortman, a Detroit-based journalist (Outlier Media, MuckRock) and founder of Ladies Who Pizza – a social group for women to have fun, be vulnerable, be free and, as the name suggests, eat pizza. The concept sounds simple, but Candice says the stories and experiences that have come out of it have made an indelible mark on their lives, especially in a world where women are often made to bear the brunt of the burden at home, at work, etc. This is a safe space, free from the "male gaze," for women – most of whom are strangers – to find community. Stephanie and Candice talked about a lot – from Detroit's resilience in the face of crisis to increasing media transparency for people who lack access – and it all came back to the importance of community. Produced by Stephanie Kuo and Juan Ramirez. Music by Brad Turner and Blue Dot Sessions.

Today we speak with EFF's Matthew Guariglia about the creepy new partnership between Amazon's Ring Doorbell division and local law enforcement. Recent disclosures reveal that Amazon has partnered with over 400 police agencies to market their product and share surveillance footage. While these footage requests can supposedly be refused by the Ring owners, there appear to be circumstances where Amazon will provide footage without consent. The marketing of Ring has changed from convenience to an automated neighborhood watch program, where the police have been coached in how to drum up interest in the product and to assuage fears over sharing their private footage. Matthew Guariglia is a policy analyst for surveillance and privacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is also a visiting research scholar at the University of California-Berkeley and holds a PhD in U.S. history. His work focuses on the relationship between race, immigration, policing and government surveillance in the past and present. You can find his writing in the Washington Post, VICE, and the Freedom of information-centered outlet MuckRock. To find his writing you can follow him on Twitter at @mguariglia or visit MatthewGuariglia.com. Further Info EFF's Street Level Surveillance : https://www.eff.org/issues/street-level-surveillance Protecting Civic Spaces: https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/2852/protecting-civic-spaces

Jules Muck began writing graffiti as a teen in Europe and England in the 90s. Back in NYC she worked under Lady Pink for many years. Muck bombed with Spek and Since and was painting highways and rooftops with BTC throughout the late nineties. Her first interview in 1999 was by Zephyr for While You Were Sleeping magazine. Smith took Muck into the NYC subway tunnels and the freight yards. Muck was christened into graffiti by some great early legends. She has been published in numerous books including Broken Windows, Burning New York, Ganz’s Graffiti Women and Cey Adams' The Art and Design of Hip Hop. Muck has had work in numerous collaborative projects such as the Wooster Collective, 11 Spring Street, and Hanksy’s Surplus Candy. She was one of the first females to paint at 106th and Park Hall of Fame in NYC and did an installation with the Guerrilla Girls for the lobby of the Bronx Museum of Art. She has painted murals for TV shows and movies including Under the Dome, Mr. Mercedes and IT. Muck has produced several large-scale murals in Wynwood for Miami’s Art Basel. She travels and paints often in New York, New Orleans, Texas and anywhere else she can. The landscape of Venice Beach remains the most Mucked place in the world, as her Venice home and studio is her favorite place to be. “Muckrock” is the IG handle she chose as an ode to graffiti’s hip hop roots but it has come to represent her obsession with all things music. She has painted over 5 memorial murals for Motorhead’s Lemmy, including one at the Rainbow Bar and Grill and a 40 ft Mt. Lemmy at Dave Grohl’s recording studio in LA. Pixie’s Video Classic Masher features a stop-motion Muck mouth, Engelbert Humperdinck’s house in Bel air has been Mucked, and her work is collected by Everlast and Ministry’s Al Jourgensen. Humanitarian efforts have included painting murals in Syrian Refugee camps, Miami’s Juvenile Detention Center and several large scale Bernie Sanders pieces. Muck’s real passion is to paint on things she’s not supposed to paint on but those opportunities are rapidly decreasing as she is ever invited to paint on more and more walls and things. She enjoys painting humping bunnies on RVs and dressing up any manner of vehicle. julesmuck.com You're living your dream. Don't miss it. If you’re enjoying this podcast, please rate and subscribe on iTunes or your podcast player of choice. And if you’re really digging it, you can help me out with some of the expense by hitting the Donate button on my website or going through my Amazon link for all your Amazon purchases. All very much appreciated.

Jules Muck is an artist that lives in Venice Beach.

Trump continues to muddy the waters around the Mueller investigation. The EPA's plans to roll back coal regulatios. Deadly flood in India. A journalist shares death threat voicemail. Asia Argento paid hush money to an actor she sexually assaulted. How regular citizens can get answers from the government with Michael Morisy, founder of MuckRock. Lastly, Today in Casual Racism. Guests: Chavala Madlena, Michael Morisy See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A compressed file detailed research into bizarre ‘psycho-electronic’ weaponry?[Leaked Zip Files]https://cdn.muckrock.com/foia_files/2018/01/17/EM_effects_on_human_body.zipImages: http://alexexumshow.tumblr.com/Mae Brussell CIA Mind Control 09/05/77https://www.spreaker.com/user/exum/mae-brussell-cia-mind-control-1977US government accidentally sends a strange conspiracy theory file describing 'remote mind control' and 'forced memory blanking'http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5638069/Government-accidentally-sends-strange-conspiracy-theory-file-describing-remote-mind-control.htmlInfowars GOVERNMENT LEAKS FILE DESCRIBING ‘REMOTE MIND CONTROL,’ ‘FORCED MEMORY BLANKING’https://www.infowars.com/government-leaks-file-describing-remote-mind-control-forced-memory-blanking/CIA LEAKS CELL PHONE MIND CONTROL MANUALhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTTzazaqe8g

A compressed file detailed research into bizarre ‘psycho-electronic’ weaponry?[Leaked Zip Files]https://cdn.muckrock.com/foia_files/2018/01/17/EM_effects_on_human_body.zipImages: http://alexexumshow.tumblr.com/Mae Brussell CIA Mind Control 09/05/77https://www.spreaker.com/user/exum/mae-brussell-cia-mind-control-1977US government accidentally sends a strange conspiracy theory file describing 'remote mind control' and 'forced memory blanking'http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5638069/Government-accidentally-sends-strange-conspiracy-theory-file-describing-remote-mind-control.htmlInfowars GOVERNMENT LEAKS FILE DESCRIBING ‘REMOTE MIND CONTROL,’ ‘FORCED MEMORY BLANKING’https://www.infowars.com/government-leaks-file-describing-remote-mind-control-forced-memory-blanking/CIA LEAKS CELL PHONE MIND CONTROL MANUALhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTTzazaqe8g

I was recently interviewed by Michael Morisy the co-founder of MuckRock, the world’s premier FOIA site.  It was an interesting...

Did you know you can file a Freedom of Information Act request right from your phone? Michael Morisy and Allan Lasser explain how MuckRock makes that possible. Read more »

This week I’m joined by Beryl Lipton of MuckRock to talk about private prisons in the United States. We discuss the difficulties of getting information from them through FOIA requests, the for-profit prison business model and why this may not be the best way to go about achieving prisoner rehabilitation. According to the US Bureau... The post Sensibly Speaking Podcast #59: The Plague of Private Prisons (ft. Beryl Lipton) appeared first on The Sensibly Speaking Podcast.

Saturday July 9th's episode of The Young Jurks is hosted by Mike Crawford & Beryl Lipton of Muckrock.com with Cambridge City Councilor, Leland Cheung running for MA State Senate. The Young Jurks also speak to Warren Lynch running for MA State Rep and Stephen Mandile of Veterans Alternative Healing Inc. Both candidates, Cheung and Lynch support the Initiative to legalize marijuana in Massachusetts.  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theyoungjurks/support

The Young Jurks on Saturdays, 6pm ET Live on wemfradio.com with Host, Mike Crawford. In this 6/18/2016 episode, Ellen Brown joins Crawford with a phone call from suspended Canna Care Docs Medical Director, Dr. John Nadolny.  Later in the show The Young Jurks are joined in studio with Guests from www.Muckrock.com, J Patrick Brown & Beryl Lipton. Also in studio, the Captain of the Massachusetts Pirate Party, Jamie O'Keefe.  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theyoungjurks/support

Jerod talks with Lynn Walsh, president-elect of the Society of Professional Journalists. Lynn and the SPJ have been working in collaboration with MuckRock to launch a projected called #AccessDenied. This project will shine light on the obstructionist tactics used by some public information officers around the country and hopefully force positive changes.

Jerod talks with Lynn Walsh, president-elect of the Society of Professional Journalists. Lynn and the SPJ have been working in collaboration with MuckRock to launch a projected called #AccessDenied. This project will shine light on the obstructionist tactics used by some public information officers around the country and hopefully force positive changes.

A look at social media and Occupy Wall Street; Twitter and Mexico’s drug wars; NYC start-ups Voyurl and Bundle; MuckRock makes government data more transparent.