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Indiana lawmakers return to the Statehouse Monday to discuss redrawing congressional maps. A Republican state senator says he'll be voting “no” on mid-decade redistricting – citing President Trump's choice of words as a reason. Indiana families are grappling with increased costs for child care after cuts to state vouchers. The trial of former FOX sports analyst Mark Sanchez has been delayed until next year. In recognition of World AIDS Day, the Damien Center will commemorate people who died of AIDS and celebrate survivors at events this week in Indianapolis. The Athenaeum Christkindlmarkt is back in Indianapolis with food, drinks and festive activities for families. Now that it's completed the first perfect season in school history, the Indiana football team can't afford to look back. Want to go deeper on the stories you hear on WFYI News Now? Visit wfyi.org/news and follow us on social media to get comprehensive analysis and local news daily. Subscribe to WFYI News Now wherever you get your podcasts. WFYI News Now is produced by Zach Bundy, with support from News Director Sarah Neal-Estes.

NBC 10 reporters Abbey Buttacavoli, Alison Bologna and Brian Crandall discuss some of the top stories of the year with Gene Valicenti on "10 News Conference." They cover assault allegations in schools, immigration enforcement and how the 2026 race for Rhode Island governor is shaping up.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Important Links We Belong Here campaign page We Belong Here Partner organizations: Asian Law Caucus |Asian Refugees United | Hmong Innovating Politics | Hmong Family Association of Lansing | Rising Voices Transcript Nina Phillips: Hello and welcome. You are tuning into APEX Express, a weekly radio show uplifting the voices and stories of Asian Americans. I'm your host Nina Phillips, and tonight we are doing something a little different. Earlier this month on Monday, November 3rd, communities of Hmong and Nepali speaking, Bhutanese Americans, fellow immigrants and allies, gathered together at a virtual [00:01:00] community event called We Belong Here. The goal: to shed light on the continued detainment and deportation of immigrant communities in the United States and the specific challenges faced by Bhutanese, Hmong, and Southeast Asian folks.  Tika Basnet: When, uh, my husband got detained on April 8, I took one week after to reach out Aisa and she told me, Hey Tika, come forward, you know, your story is powerful. People need to know your story.  Nina Phillips: That was the voice of Tika Basnet. Her husband, Mohan Karki is a Nepali speaking Bhutanese refugee from Ohio who has spent months in ICE detention, trapped in legal limbo. Tika has been working tirelessly to bring her husband home and shared her story with us at We Belong Here. Tonight, we are bringing you a recording of this virtual community gathering. You'll hear more from Tika about the Free Mohan Karki campaign and from Ann Vue, [00:02:00] the spouse of Lue Yang, a Hmong community leader from Michigan, who is also currently detained and facing deportation. Ann is leading the movement to Bring Lue Home, and we'll be sharing more later about how you can get involved as well and support both of these campaigns. You will also hear from state representatives of Michigan and Ohio, the music and spoken word performance of Asian Refugees United, and community tools and resources that a vital in helping to keep our immigrant loved ones safe. The host of this community event was Miko Lee, APEX producer, and a voice that you might be familiar with. Alrighty, without further ado, here's Miko. Miko Lee: We belong here. What we recognize right now is there's almost. 60,000 people being held in detention right now, immigrants that are being held in detention. It is a pandemic that is happening in our country that's impacting all of our people, and we need [00:03:00] to be able to take action. Tonight we're talking very specifically, not with this 60,000 people that are in detention now, but just two of those stories, so that you can get a sense of what is happening in the Bhutanese and Hmong communities and what's happening right now, and to talk about those particular stories and some actions you can take. First I wanna recognize that right now we are on native lands, so all of us except our original indigenous people, are from other places and I'd invite you to go into the chat and find your native land. I am speaking with you from the unceded Ohlone land, and I wanna honor these ancestors, these elders that have provided for us and provided this beautiful land for us to be on. So I invite you to share into the chat your name, your pronoun, and also what indigenous land you are living on right now in this Native American Heritage Month. Thank you so much to all of you that have joined [00:04:00] us. We are really seeing the impact of this administration on all of our peoples, and particularly tonight in terms of the Hmong and Nepali speaking, Bhutanese communities. These are communities that have been impacted, specifically refugee communities that have been impacted in incredible detrimental ways by this administration. And tonight what we really wanna do is talk to you about what is going on in our communities. We wanted to make sure we translated so that we have as much access into our communities as possible because we wanna be as inclusive of our world as we can. We Belong Here is focusing on the fact that all of us belong here. We belong in this land, and we are telling these stories tonight in the context of these sets of people particularly that have so many similarities in terms of Hmong folks who worked with our US government and worked with our US military during the Vietnam War and then came [00:05:00] here as refugees and stayed in this country to the Nepali speaking Bhutanese folks, who left their country from ethnic cleansing and then went into refugee camps and now took refuge in the United States. So these are all stories that are impactful and powerful, and it's really what it means to be American. we have come from different places. We see these attacks on our people. right now I would like to bring to the fore two empowering women, refugees themselves. Hailing from places as different as Somalia and Southeast Asia, and they're gonna talk about some of the detention and deportations that are happening right now. First I'd like to focus on Rep Mai Xiong, who's from Michigan's 13th District. I hand it over to the representative.  Rep. Mai Xiong: Good evening everyone. I'm state representative,  Mai Xiong, and it is a pleasure to meet all of you virtually. I'm coming to you from Warren, Macomb County, Michigan, and I represent the 13th [00:06:00] house of district, uh, the communities of Warren Roseville and St. Claire Shores. I've lived here in Michigan for over 20 years now. I came to the United States at a very young age, was born in a refugee camp and came here when I was three years old. So I grew up in Ohio. And then I moved to Michigan to attend college. Never thought that I would ever be serving in the State House. I previously served as a county commissioner here in Macomb. And, uh, last year when President Trump got elected, I had very quiet fears that as a naturalized citizen, that even I did not feel safe given the, um. The failure in our immigration system. So we have seen that play out, uh, with this administration, with the, attempts to get rid of birthright citizenship de-naturalization. And, you hear the rhetoric from officials about, deporting the worst of the worst criminal, illegal aliens. And we [00:07:00] know, as Miko mentioned in, in her introduction, that, refugees came here through a legal pathway. The Hmong in particular served alongside America during the Vietnam War and were persecuted from Laos. So my parents fled Laos. And so growing up I didn't have, uh, citizenship. Um, and so we have seen, uh, in this administration that refugees are now caught up in this, immigration effort to get rid of people who came here through legal pathways Lue is a father. He is a community leader. Uh, he is a well-respected member of our community as all of these individuals are. And at some point our system failed them and we are working extremely hard, to get their stories out. But what I have found with many of these families is that they are, uh, afraid to come forward. They are ashamed. There is a stigma involved and, uh, culturally, as many of you may [00:08:00] know, if you are of Asian American descent, and a fear of, uh, retaliation. And as the only Hmong American elected here in Michigan, I'm grateful that I have, uh, the ability to.  have those connections and to be such a visible, uh, member of my community that many of these individuals. Felt comfortable enough to reach out to me. But the reality is back in July we didn't know anything other than, the number of people who were detained. And that was through a firsthand account from loved ones who you know, were accompanying their loved one and got detained. And so it was literally like trying to find missing people and then getting the word out to let them know that, hey, there's actually, there's help out there. The volunteer attorneys, the nonprofits, the Immigration Rights Center, uh, here in Michigan, I mean, everybody has been doing a phenomenal job because I think the majority, the vast majority of Americans understand that, um, these [00:09:00] individuals that are being taken out of our communities are not a, a threat to society. They are members of our community. They've lived here for decades. They have jobs, they have children. And when you when you take an individual out of our community, it actually does more harm then it does to make any one of us safe. So that's the message that I have been sharing with others, uh, not only in having a connection and being a refugee just like these individuals, but advocating for them and making it clear that these are our neighbors, these are our children's classmates, parents, and it doesn't make any one of us feel safer. One of the things I am. Upset about that I continue to talk about is that we're not actually in a immigration crisis. We share here in Michigan, we share an international border with Canada, and we have never had an issue with border security. The [00:10:00] problem is the policies that have been put in place, that these individuals have been caught up in our immigration system for decades, and it is extremely hard for them to obtain citizenship or to even know what their rights are. And so we really need, in addition to advocating for these families, we need immigration reform. Throwing money at a problem is not going to solve the problem. If anything, we have are, we are in an economic crisis. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for joining. Um, I'd love to turn the baton over to another one of our powerful women representatives, Rep. Munira Abdullah from Ohio's Ninth District. Rep Abdullah. We pass it over to you. Thank you so much.  Rep. Munira Abdullahi: Uh, thank you for having me and also Rep Mai Xiong, it is really great to see you. I'm grateful to have been able to see you go from Commissioner to State Rep, doing amazing things on social media as well. I'm very, a big fan. Uh, my name is Munira Abdullahi. I represent District Nine in Ohio, which is in the Columbus area. Northland, [00:11:00] uh, Manette Park. Uh, a little bit of New Albany in Westerville city schools. Um, I'm also a refugee. My family fled Somalia and Civil War, and I was born in refugee camp in Kenya. And then we came to the United States when I was about two, three years old, uh, and ended up moving to Ohio when I was like four. First moved to Utah, salt Lake City, Utah, and then to Ohio when I was about five years old. And so I certainly understand the fear of being an immigrant in a new country and, um, struggling to belong and figure out where are your place is. And, and also just adjusting to a whole new society, um, with the language barriers and, and all of the the barriers are in the way. And then that fear of, your immigration status. You know, before my parents were, you know, passed their, their, uh, citizenship test, right. It was very scary. Um, and I know many families who feel the same way right now, especially with this new administration. Um, with the OCE raids that are happening that are really disrupting our communities and our [00:12:00] families. Um, we have a, a, a cons, a constituent of mine, um, who is now, uh, in prison. We have, uh, have a couple actually. One is Leonardo Faso, and then I know one we're gonna talk about soon is Mohan Karki, who is his family, I believe, is on this call. Uh, and he was taken by ICE. And he's, uh, you know, the, the breadwinner and the, the caregiver of his family. And so it's really important not to forget that a lot of these people who are being taken by ICE are like the breadwinners and, and, and the caretakers of these families. And now the family's left with a hole, uh, in their, in their home. And so, we really need to remember to take care of these families. I know there's gonna be a GoFundMe that that will be shared. Um, but finding these families and supporting them. Um, in any way that we can monetary, you know, checking on them, giving, you know, helping them with food. Now we have SNAP benefits are being cut for many, many, many Americans. We are struggling as is, but immigrants in particular are struggling a lot, lot more, um, with these raids and, and with the uncertainties. But one thing I wanna remind everyone is that, you know, through community we [00:13:00] find strength. And so that, um, understanding, you know, where our communities are, where people are suffering and finding our place and helping with that, right? Whether that might, might be, uh, maybe we have the financial capabilities to, to support, maybe we can cook for someone. Um, maybe we can advocate where, where we have the ability to advocate. Whatever we can do, we have a responsibility to do it. Um, and there are successes. I know in Ohio it's a little different where we can't really advocate anything on the state level because it's like they, we just make things worse. We're in a very rough, super minority, the Democrats and super minority, and we have bills in the State House we're trying to fight against that are trying to make it worse, where we're trying to get rid of Republicans in the State House are trying to get rid of like a sanctuary cities, um, and penalize cities that don't engage, uh, or don't cooperate with ICE. Um, we have currently a bill, which actually this is, this might be more of a, on a positive note, is we had a bill house bill one. That sought to ban immigrants, certain immigrants from owning land in certain areas. [00:14:00] But because of community engagement, because of advocacy, because of collaboration with community advocacy groups, that Bill was effectively paused. Like, as of now, it's paused because people came and advocated. They spoke to their representatives, they testified, they called, they protested, um, they had press conferences. They brought so much attention to the bill, and it just became so. Obvious that people don't want this bill. And that pressure really got to the majority in the State House. And that bill has been paused, right? It was created to keep Chinese Americans from buying land specifically. Um, and that list can change, by the way. It's an, it's a, a rotating list. The Secretary of State can add whatever countries that they want to, that list, so it's very harmful. But the Asian American community came together alongside with us representatives in the State House and, and effectively like paused that bill. So there's there are positive things we could, we could achieve as a community when we fight together and communicate and stand with one another regardless of our nationality. We're all struggling here. We're [00:15:00] all in the same place. We're all, uh, in need of one another. And that's why I was reminding people was like, when we are in need of one another. And when one person is struggling, we should all be feeling that.  Miko Lee: Thank you  Rep Munira. Thank you so much for joining us. And yes, we are all part of a collective community that needs to be working together. And Rep Munira talked about Mohan Karki and next we're gonna see a short video performance that was created by Asian refugees United, uh, Maxine Hong Kingston said, “in a time of destruction, create something”. So we're gonna watch this video that was created. Uh, it's a shortcut of a performance by Asian Refugees United. Nina Phillips: Hello, it's APEX Express host Nina Phillips here chiming in with a couple words on this performance. It's a very music and spoken word forward piece, so you should get a good sense of the production through just the audio. The youth performers from Asian Refugees United do a wonderful job of embodying the story of Mohan Karki and his family through music and [00:16:00] movement and dance as well. Very evocative. If you'd like to see this short video clip in full, with the visuals, please visit the website of Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality. That's accre.org/our-voices/webelonghere.  Enjoy the show. ARU Performer: Mohan Karki, I was detained by an ICE officer to be deported to a country that I never been to. A country. That I don't belong to [00:17:00] a country I wasn't born to, that I don't speak the language of. When they moved me to a detention center in Michigan, I called my wife Tika. They're taking me, I told her my voice was calm, but inside I was breaking into a million pieces. It felt like a goodbye, not just to her, but to the life we built together to the dreams that we planted seeds for. I was just 17 years old when I decided who I was before I could even speak up for myself. I stand here as a victim of an unjust system that never gave me a chance.[00:18:00]  I am a man with purpose. I worked hard. I drove trucks. I supported my family, and I loved my wife Tika, and waited for the day that I would finally meet our baby. [Speaks in Nepali] How do I tell my daughter that leaving her was never my choice? Now I wait for the news. Now would completely change everything. Will they send me back to Bhutan? Will I be deported like the ones before me? No one talks about what happens to us [00:19:00] once we're gone. We vanish. Into silence. Where do I belong?  You belong here. They belong here. We belong here. [Singing in Nepali] [Speaks in Nepali] What type of future do we wanna build? A future where we can all belong? A future where we can coexist, [00:20:00] coexist in nature. And coexist with each other. A future where another Mohan Karki does not have to fear of being displaced all over again. A future where Mohan Karki does not have to be separated from his new born baby girl. A place where people like Mohan Carkey can have home, a future and community, a future with family, a future and harmony. A future to heal. A future to grow. Above all, a future to belong. I hope the future is more generous to all of us. [Singing in [00:21:00] Nepali] Miko Lee: Can you all give it up in the chat for those performers. Nawal was our interpreter at the very beginning of this, and to show the power of how art can transform things at that performance, the ACLU was there. And actually because of that, we were able to find a pro bono lawyer to be able to help with one of, uh, Mohans Habeas Corpuses cases and just that's an example of Asian refugees United, that was their work before all of these detentions were going on. It was youth empowerment and storytelling, but they had to pivot, given the shape of our world. I wanna transition us to our panel of speakers of powerful. Again, powerful women. [00:22:00] Um, Ann Vue who is the spouse of Lue Yang, Tika Bassett, who is the spouse of Mohan Karki and Aisa Villarosa, who has been our brilliant, dedicated lawyer from Asian Law Caucus working on this. So we're not gonna go over and tell the entire stories of each of these people and what happened to them. And if you want that, you can listen to the radio show that we did on APEX Express. Tika, I wanted to start with you and just hear from you, what is your response after watching that video about your husband? Tika Basnet: Yeah, it is really beautiful story. Um, thank you ARU for, um, representing my husband story. Um, it just make, make me cry and I was crying while watching the video and it remind me what happened. Since seven month ago. And, um, yeah. Hi, my name is Tika Basnet. I'm from Ohio and I've been fighting for my husband deportation and detention since seven month ago. Without the community and without all the [00:23:00] support that I got from organization, I don't think it is possible that my husband will still be here. And the reason that this is possible is because I reach out to them without getting fear, without getting afraid of what will happen if I speak outside. So, um, yeah, um, it is really difficult. What is going on right now. Sometime I don't wanna speak because of the current policy. Uh, it make me feel, even though I'm US citizen, um, sometime I feel like if I speak something against the policy, I, they will might, they might gonna take my citizenship away. And then, um, I realized that, if I speak then it'll help me. Right now, um, ICE is not letting my husband come home, even though it is been seven month and our attorney try everything in a possible way. Uh, the ICE is not letting my husband come out. I dunno how long it'll take. I don't know. don't wanna, yeah. Thank you.  Miko Lee: No, you can speak more. Tika. Do you wanna add?  Tika Basnet: Yeah, um, especially I wanna thank you [00:24:00] ARU and Aisa and Miko. Everything is happening right now is because of them, because I reached out to them. If I did not, I feel like my husband is story will be one of those Bhutanese people that disappear. I don't know what happened to them. I hope, uh, the reason that I'm fighting for my husband case is because he deserve fear. Uh, he has a family member here. He has a community that loves him. He was supporting his parent, he was supporting us. We don't have a country. Um, this is our country and we belong here. Thank you.  Miko Lee: You. Thank you, Tika. I wanna bring Ann Vue up to speak about your husband, Lue Yang and his case and what's going on with his case. Very complicated case. What is going on with his case right now?  Ann Vue: So first of all,  Thank you guys so much for. Giving Tika and I this space just to share our stories of families who are fighting every day, um, just to stay together. So [00:25:00] currently with Lue's case right now we are, we just got his, um, stay of removal approved the emergency stay of removal approved. I might, um, have the right lingo for that, but, uh, so as of October 22nd our Michigan governor's, pardon was issued for Lue. So we were so grateful for that. I know our, our Michigan lawmakers are working around the clock uh, Michigan DHS team to bring him back to Michigan, uh, where we have a petition currently filed for his release while his case, uh, is ongoing. Miko Lee: Thanks Ann. And I just wanna point out that there's in, even though these communities are distinct and these two men are distinct, beautiful individuals, there are so many commonalities between the two. Um, both born in refugee camps, both in one case, the Bhutanese, the Nepali speaking Bhutanese, folks having escaped ethnic cleansing to then go to a. Uh, [00:26:00] refugee camp to then come to the US and in another families who worked with the American government in the Secret War in Vietnam, who then again became refugees and came to the US. Two young men who when they were young, like very young, um, with their peers, were involved in incidents that had, uh, really bad legal advice. That did not help them in the process. And that is why even though they're amazing contributing members in our current society, they have this past old, almost like childhood record that is impacting them. And both of them are impacted by statelessness because. Even though they're being deported, they're being deported to a place of which it is not their home. They might not speak that language. They might not have connections with that. Their home is here in America. Um, that is why we say use the terminology we belong here. Um, before we go a little bit more into personal stories [00:27:00] I saw from Asian Law Caucus, I wonder if you can give a little bit of an overview about the broader, legal actions that are taking place around these kidnappings.  Aisa Villarosa: Yeah, thanks Miko. And just huge love to Ann and Tika. Reiterating that these are two refugee communities bonded through not just this frustrating, heartbreaking experience, um, but also this, this solidarity that's building. To share Miko, about the broader legal ramifications, and there was a question in the chat about what's the big deal about a stay of removal? So just for starters, the system that Mohan and Lue got pulled into can be lightning quick with removing folks. Part of this is because Mohan, Lue, so many folks in refugee communities all across the country years and years ago, perhaps when they were teenagers, just like Mohan and Lue, uh, there might have been some sort of, run in with law enforcement. Oftentimes racial profiling [00:28:00] can be involved, especially with the over-policing, right in our country, decades later, after living peacefully in their communities. Oftentimes decades after an immigration judge said to Mohan, said to Lue, you are not a safety risk. You are not a threat to the community. You've done your time. You can come home. Uh, maybe some folks had some ICE check-ins that they would come to every year. Um, and then with this administration, this unprecedented attack on immigrant and refugee rights, that is when we started to see for the very first time as folks have mentioned, these broad deportations, uh, to countries that previously were not accepting refugees primarily because that is the same country of their ancestral persecution. Um, in some cases they have zero connection to the country. Um, and in cases like the Bhutanese refugees, they're actually [00:29:00] expelled from Bhutan when they're removed. Again, all this is happening for the very first time. There are some serious legal questions with due process. Even if immigration court does run on a similar track as a lot of our other court systems, there's still a duty of fairness and often that duty is completely neglected.  Nina Phillips: You are tuned into Apex Express on 94.1 KPFA, 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1 KFCF in Fresno and online@kpfa.org. Coming up is Klezmer Dances II by The Daniel Pelton Collective.  [00:30:00] [00:31:00] [00:32:00] That was  Klezmer Dances II by The Daniel Pelton Collective. You are tuned into APEX Express [00:33:00] on 94.1 KPFA. Now back to Miko and her conversation with Tika Basnet and Ann Vue. Two incredibly strong women who are leading campaigns to bring home their respective spouses from ICE detention, and Aisa Villarosa with the Asian Law Caucus. Miko Lee: I would love to speak to a little bit more of the uplifting power of these women that are being highlighted right now. And I'm wondering both for Ann and Tika, if you could talk a little bit about your sense of resilience. because both of your spouses were, even though when they were youth, there were systems impacted in our Asian American communities. There's some shame that's associated with that. And so some people have been really hesitant to speak out. Can you talk a little bit about what encouraged you to speak out on behalf of your husband and how that has made a difference for you in the community? And I'm gonna start with Ann first.  Ann Vue: So I would say, um. In the [00:34:00] beginning when Lue was first detained on July 15th. I was scared. I am the first generation born American, uh, um, right here in Michigan. And even myself, I was so scared to say anything to anyone. I remember getting that call from Lue and it just felt so unreal. Quickly playing back to 2008, uh, which would be the third time that the embassy, Laos and Thailand both rejected Lue's entry and how his immigration officer was like, don't wait, start your life. And then fast forwarding it to what had happened, I was scared and, um. Lue and I are both, uh, Hmong community leaders as well. And Lue, of course, um, being president of the Hmong Family Association, him and I decided we're gonna keep a little quiet at first, and I started getting [00:35:00] calls from our Hmong community members. Uh, in concern to them receiving a letter, which is all dated for the same time at the same place that is not usual, where people would normally go see their immigration officer. And immediately that weekend I went to go visit him and I, it was explaining to him that I have received nine calls and I don't know what to do in immediately he. I think that the urgency around his people created that fear and immediately he was like, Hey, we've gotta start talking. You've gotta call you. You have to start making calls. Because he was detained on the 15th. On the 15th, which was Tuesday, and these letters were mailed to the community on that Friday. And immediately him and I started talking more and more and he said, “we have a 50-50 chance. If you don't fight for me and the others, then. We get sent back, you're gonna regret that for the rest of your life or [00:36:00] you fight for us. And as long as you fought all the way till the end, whatever happens, we can live with that”. And immediately, I remember speaking to, uh, attorney Nancy, and I've been mentioning to her that I wanna call, I wanna call Rep Mai. And I wanted to call Commissioner Carolyn Wright and she was like, well make the call and I'm glad that she didn't wait. And she just said, Hey, you know what? She just started talking and immediately Rep Mai called and that's how it kind of started this whole journey. So I am so thankful that I did. I did voice it out because I myself, even as a community leader, I felt hopeless. I felt like as loud as I am, everyone that I, for the first time had no voice. It became, became lonely. I became scared. Because they've got a, you know, we have a family, right, that we're raising together with small children. So I'm glad that we did, uh, [00:37:00] share our story and I'm glad that it is out. And, and that it, it opened the key to many other Southeast Asian families to do the same as well too.  Miko Lee: Thank you so much, Anna. And I remember you saying that even Lue was speaking with folks in Spanish to get their stories and share them out as well. Ann Vue: He had to learn it! And you know, I will say that with this whole detention thing, it doesn't just detain our person. It detains our whole family. We're all a part of this, you know? And so, you know, Lue had to learn how to count so he can give the numbers 'cause he was doing it with his hand motions. Because it's a hard system, it's a very complex system to navigate, which is how people go disappearing. And so for him to be able to reach out. Give me phone numbers to these families, regardless. Love beyond borders, right? And I was able to reach out to these families so that that way they know where their person was and [00:38:00] help them get set up so they can, so their families can call them. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for doing that. And you and your husband, both as organizers and continuing to be organizers even when locked up. Tika, I wanna turn it to you and ask about the courage it took to speak up and what keeps you going.  Tika Basnet: Yes. So when, uh, my husband got detained on April 8, I took one week after to reach out Aisa and she told me, Hey Tika, come forward. You know, your story is powerful. People need to know your story. And I told first thing to Aisa is our community is very just mental. They doesn't understand. And I've been looking at the video where our Bhutanese people get detained and deported and on common section, the first thing that I noticed was people are commenting, oh, these people are criminal. They are, maybe they, um, kill someone or they rape someone, you know, without. Understanding the people's story. And I, I [00:39:00] was thinking the same, whatever, if I come forward, will they gonna understand my story? Will they gonna talk to me? Will they gonna ask me personally, what is going on? And I actually same as Ann, I, um, I. Was scared to come out. I did not come out in two within two, two months, you know, when, uh, I tried to deport my husband on my due date that I was about to give birth, um, BIA, uh, grant, day of removal, you know, in two month I was crying alone. I was messaging Aisa and I was telling all my pain. And then when they stop my husband deport his son and that day, um. Aisa and ARU, everybody encouraged me. Like, you know, you need to come forward. People need to know your story. And then that day I decide, and I also remember that, um, within one minute after I gave birth, I was messaging, uh, ARU team I think his name [00:40:00] is Pravin or something. I was messaging him, Hey, I'm ready to give, uh, interview. I'm ready to give uh, a story. And that day I decide like I wanna come forward. I don't care what society is thinking, I'm the one that going through and people need to know my story. And, uh, I think, uh, and also I look at my daughter, you know, I don't want, um, her to think that I did not fight for her dad. You know, I want her to think like her mom is, is strong enough to fight and looking at her. That gave me so much power and yeah. And now like give, getting a lot of support, a lot of love is give me like, you know, I, I feel like, um, I wouldn't, uh, get all the support if I was scared and did not, uh, talk about my story. So now like receiving a lot of love from everywhere and that give me couraged to continue and talk about my husband's deportation.  Miko Lee: Thank you, Tika. And I wanna recognize that we're running late, but we're gonna get through it if those of you could stay with us a little bit [00:41:00] longer. My one more question to both Ann and Tika is what message do you have for people that are experiencing this right now? Because this, as we said, 60,000 people are detained right now. Your spouses, we, as we have said, it's not just you with your, the children, the grandparents, all the other people. What advice do you have for other folks that are going through this and do you have a message for those folks? Ann Vue: I would say, um, for anyone who is going through what Tika and I and the many are going through that, um, make sure you document everything, get your loved ones Alien Number because you want to track it as you go. Build your circle. Know that you are not alone. Uh, reach out. I'm still learning as I go too. And it's unfortunate that we as family, like have to become attorneys overnight and learn to as well. But make sure that you guys, that you know that you're not alone you know that [00:42:00] we're not fighting the system. We're fighting a system that. Hopes, uh, that we get tired of fighting it. And the moment that you speak up, they can't disappear your loved one quietly. And I am a very big, um, firm believer. There's this scripture that has always carried Lue and I and, uh, I, I can't stress on it enough. And especially to all of those, to all of our, everybody that's on tonight. And beyond that, uh, there's a scripture. It's a Proverbs, right? 3:27-28 that says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is your power to act”. And so thank you to those who continues to act when action is really within your reach and. We belong here, our families belong here. And compassion delayed is really compassion denied. And so don't fight alone 'cause that's what they are hoping that we will fight alone, [00:43:00] but we're together in this.  Miko Lee: Beautiful, thanks. And Tika, what about you? What advice do you have for other people that are experiencing this with family members?  Tika Basnet: So, yeah, um, I'm encouraging everyone like we experiencing this deportation for the first time or. Come forward. You never know. You know how many support you will get. Looking at Ann and my story that if we did not reach out to the community, I don't think our husband will be here at the moment. So you are the one who going through the pain and, uh, sharing your pain will make you at least a relief and you never know. Your husband Deportes and will stop. You will get like support from, from community. So ICE is not deporting only your husband or your like wife or someone, they are deporting your dream, your hope. So when they try to deport my husband, they were deporting my husband, uh, my [00:44:00] daughter future, the future that we talk about. So I am telling everyone that come forward. Story, your story, and you'll get lot of love. You'll get lot of support. And if I did not talk before, I don't think my husband will be here. He'll be one of the person that disappear long time ago. So yeah, please come forward and see your story. And the last thing is, I wanna say we belong here. This is our home and our future is here.  Miko Lee: Thank you so much, Tika. Um, Aisa, I wanna turn it over to you. Ann was saying suddenly we have to become lawyers and, and so can you talk about, and even like with Lue's case, it was suddenly he got pardoned at the last minute when he was on a deportation plane, and then it was like, oh, that should fix everything, but it doesn't, so can you talk a little bit about some of the legal ramifications that people should know about? Aisa Villarosa: Sure. And just to say, Mohan, Lue, Tika, Ann, I mean, y'all have lived [00:45:00] several movies in, in just the span of months the amount of stress, both you yourselves as the lead advocate, your families. Uh, so, so for folks watching this is literally Mohan and Lue getting like pulled off planes because of the shared advocacy here, uh, which starts with the decision to speak out. Um, and for folks in the room who aren't sure whether they want to share their story, you know, we're not saying, oh, go to the press so much of it. Involves just opening your heart to a trusted person. Um, many of those people are here in this room uh, my organization, Asian Law Caucus. Uh, in a minute we'll share some links for some of our resources. Uh, the wonderful folks at ARU, there's such a full crew, and if you're part of a community, especially the many, many, too many refugee communities being targeted. You are not alone. So in terms of what the legal battle [00:46:00] looks like, another thing to remember is that for any case, there's usually a, a wave of folks that's needed, uh, for Lue, for Mohan. That's multiple states sometimes because in the immigration world, for example, you could have a very, very old final order of removal. So this is essentially the order that is put forward by an immigration judge. That technically allows a lot of these awful deportations and disappearances to take place. The battle to fight that can be multi-state, uh, multi-issue. So you're talking to a criminal defense attorney, you're talking to an immigrant rights attorney. Uh, but going back to that trust, just talk to someone who both you can trust and someone who has a good lay of the land because these cases are incredibly complex. Folks I work with, sometimes they're physically driving to a law office. Someone named Emily is on the call. You know, we drove to a law office. Turns [00:47:00] out the record we were looking for was, was too old. The, that previous attorney didn't have the record on file. There are so many practical challenges you don't anticipate. So the sooner you do that math and just open your story up, um, to, to a loved one, to a trusted one. And in a little bit we're, we'll share more links for what that process looks like.  Miko Lee: So we're gonna move into that call to action. We're running a bit over time, so if you could hang with us for a couple more minutes. Um, we want to one, thank all of our amazing guests so far and then move to our call to action. What can you do? A bunch of people are throwing things into the chat. We're gonna start with Rising Voices. Oh, I guess we're gonna start with OPAWL and Sonya is gonna share about OPAWL's work and the call to action there. Sonya (OPAWL): Hi everyone. My name is Sonya Kapur. I live in Columbus, Ohio, and I'm a member of OPAWL Building AAPI Feminist leadership. I'd like to share a little bit about our efforts to support Mohans Campaign for Freedom and encourage you to donate to [00:48:00] Mohans GoFundMe to cover his legal fees, and the link to the GoFundMe will be in the chat. With the funds raised so far, Tika and Mohan were able to hire a seasoned attorney to review Mohans court documents and work on his case. So your donations will allow Mohan to continue working with his legal team as we fight to bring him home. So even five or $10 will help us get closer to reuniting Mohan with his family and community here in Ohio. A really fun piece of this is that a local, Columbus based illustrator and OPA member Erin Siao, has also created a beautiful art fundraiser to help raise more funds from Mohans release campaign. So when you donate to Mohans GoFundMe between now and November 15th, you receive a complimentary five by seven art print of your choice. Families belong together on the right or on the left. To receive a print, you just email Erin and her. Email address will also be in the [00:49:00] chat, a screenshot of your donation confirmation along with your name and address. You can also send a direct message of the screenshot to her Instagram account, so please consider uplifting our art fundraiser on social media. Encourage others to donate to the GoFundMe and share Mohans story with your family and friends.  Miko Lee: Thanks, Sonya and Opal, and we'll turn it over to Emily at Rising Voices. Emily (Rising Voices): Hi, thank you. Um, rising Voices is one of the, uh, many members helping bring Lue Yang home. Just wanna share that. We do have a online petition going that directs you to email the ice field office in Detroit, pressuring them to bring him home. Um, there's also a number to call with a script provided. So nothing has to be reinvented. We please, please encourage you to share this out, and you do not have to be from Michigan to make a call or email every single email. And, all counts. And we also do have a GoFundMe for [00:50:00] him and his family. As we all know legal file, legal fees pile up, so anything counts. Thank you so much everyone.  Miko Lee:  Thanks Emily. Now we're gonna pass it over to Nawal talking about this event which is connected to disappeared in America.  Nawal Rai: Hi everyone. I'm Nawal here again and yeah, so We Belong Here. Uh, today's event was part of the Disappeared in America Weekend of Action, which is a national mobilization action to protect immigrants, uh, expose corporate complicity and honor the lives lost in detention and across America more than 150 towns and cities held.  Um. Weekend of Collective action this weekend on November 1st and second, standing in solidarity with immigrants families, uh, from holding freedom vigils outside of ICE facilities to via de Los Mortis gathering, honoring life's lost in detentions to ice out of Home Depot actions. Calling out corporate complicity this weekend was a resounding nation nationwide call for compassion, dignity, and [00:51:00] democracy, and demanding justice and due process for all. The National Action was organized by the Coalition of Partners, including National Day Labor Organizing Network, Detention Watch Network, the Worker Circle, public ci, uh, citizen, and many allied organization across the country. Thank you all. Thank you for joining us today.  Miko Lee: Thank you to everyone for showing up today. We thank all of our speakers, all of our many partner organizations. As we were saying, it takes many of us working together collectively. Even though we said there's 60,000 people detained. There are so many more than that. We know that immigrants contribute and refugees contribute immensely to the American experience, and we want everyone to know that we belong here. All of us belong here. This is our home.  Thank you so much for joining us all. We appreciate all of you, the interpreters, the translators, the folks behind the scene who helped to make this event happen. Um, shout out to Cheryl Truong [00:52:00] and Nina Phillips for really doing all the tech behind this. And to all of you for showing up tonight, we need each and every one of you to participate to show that you are part of the beloved community, that you are part of believing that America can be a place filled with beloved love instead of hatred. Um, so I would love you all to just all together. Shout out. We belong here. 1, 2, 3.  Event Attendees: We belong here. We belong here.  We belong here.  Miko Lee: Have a great night, and thank you all for joining us. Nina Phillips: This was a recording of a virtual community gathering that took place earlier this month on Monday, November 3rd. It was made [00:53:00] possible by We Belong Here, a coalition of immigrant rights organizations, Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality, Asian Refugees United, Asian Law Caucus, Hmong Family Association Lansing, Hmong Innovative Politics, OPAWL and Rising Voices.  As I mentioned earlier, you can watch the phenomenal video performance from Asian Refugees United on the website of Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality.  That's aacre.org/our-voices/webelonghere  There's also up-to-date information on how best you can support both the Free Mohan Karki and Bring Lu Home campaigns. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing. Your voices are important. Let's keep immigrant families together.  To close out. Here's a little more from the video performance. [00:54:00] [00:55:00] [00:56:00] [00:57:00]  Nina Phillips: For show notes, please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/APEX-express.  APEX Express is a collective of activists that include Ama Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Nina Phillips, Preeti Mangala Shekar, and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me, Nina Phillips. Get some rest, y'all. Good night. The post APEX Express – November 27, 2025 – We Belong Here: Bhutanese & HMoob Americans in the Struggle Against Statelessness appeared first on KPFA.

Vincent and Joel sit down with guest Kevin Sack, senior reporter for the New York Times, to discuss his journalism and his new book on the Mother Emanuel church and tragic shooting, along with Vincent's new book "The Concise Guide to South Carolina State Government", which talks about the history of South Carolina and how it impacts current state government and procedure. In Bourbon Briefs hear the latest court ruling in the legislator's attempt to raise their pay, a the supreme court election, the failure of recent extremist abortion bills, state updates, and so much more!Get your latest Statehouse update and hear firsthand the rationale behind some of the legislature's most controversial bills. Join Senators Sheheen and Lourie in this week's episode where they take a deeper look at upcoming legislation and lawmakers' actions in S.C.  Support the showKeep up to Date with BITBR: Twitter.com/BITBRpodcastFacebook.com/BITBRpodcasthttps://bourboninthebackroom.buzzsprout.com

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On a special Thanksgiving edition of Statehouse Happenings, Rob Kendall, Jim Merritt and Abdul-Hakim Shabazz sit down to review some of the stories they were most "thankful" for in 2025. Not necessarily the outcome, but stories that helped shape the program and impacted the listening audience.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

D&P Highlight: ShamWOW to SlapChop to the state house? full 553 Mon, 24 Nov 2025 19:57:00 +0000 1kL4IYl0YdGucI0OQq4fWkyRx3B1Wwen news The Dana & Parks Podcast news D&P Highlight: ShamWOW to SlapChop to the state house? You wanted it... Now here it is! Listen to each hour of the Dana & Parks Show whenever and wherever you want! © 2025 Audacy, Inc. News False https://player.amperwavepodcasting.com

Episode 418 of Boss Hog of Liberty is out! Jeremiah Morrell and Bones Harcourt are your hosts. Zach Burcham is working as your producer. Brian Nichols is our featured guest. The Government has reopened and Thomas Massie just got the Epstein Files release turned into law. Will he turn this momentum into a career on the national stage? The Trump Administration has been trying to redistrict congressional seats across the country. This week they lost a court case in Texas and potentially they are going to lose 5 seats in their quest to keep the House of Representatives. This has put even more pressure on the push for Indiana to take up mid cycle redistricting. Governor Braun has called a special session, but the Senate is refusing to take the issue up. President Trump has started singling out members who are not on “his side” and some of them have been victims of harassment and “Swatting”. The Indiana State Police are now investigating. Locally, the Henry County Planning commission has approved the Knightstown Data Center and the City of New Castle has passed an RV parking ordinance that might be more aggressive than intended. Our program is community supported on Patreon. Do your part by chipping into the cause by donating monthly at any level at www.patreon.com/bosshogofliberty and receive even more BONUS coverage and content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just in time for your Thanksgiving road trip, the Chillin' in the Statehouse team has another episode. We talk about about Gov. Laura Kelly's lawsuit against Attorney General Kris Kobach, Kobach's charges alleging noncitizen illegal voting, a child care grant by the Kelly administration, and Kansas turkey hunting records.

Just in time for your Thanksgiving road trip, the Chillin' in the Statehouse team has another episode. We talk about about Gov. Laura Kelly's lawsuit against Attorney General Kris Kobach, Kobach's charges alleging noncitizen illegal voting, a child care grant by the Kelly administration, and Kansas turkey hunting records.

Fresh off their decisive election night wins, Jon is joined by Governors-Elect (and former congressional roommates) Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, to reflect on their journeys from Capitol Hill to state leadership. Together, they discuss their shared experience navigating Congressional gridlock, explore what drew them to seek executive power, and examine what they hope to accomplish for their states as governor. Plus, what do Thanksgiving, Ozempic, and big balls have in common? This podcast episode is brought to you by: FACTOR - Eat smart at https://FactorMeals.com/TWS50OFF and use code TWS50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year. UPLIFT DESK - Elevate your workspace with UPLIFT Desk. Go to https://upliftdesk.com/WEEKLY for a special offer exclusive to our audience. Follow The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart on social media for more:  > YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@weeklyshowpodcast > Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weeklyshowpodcast> TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@weeklyshowpodcast  > X: https://x.com/weeklyshowpod   > BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/theweeklyshowpodcast.com Host/Executive Producer – Jon Stewart Executive Producer – James Dixon Executive Producer – Chris McShane Executive Producer – Caity Gray Lead Producer – Lauren Walker Producer – Brittany Mehmedovic  Producer – Gillian Spear Video Editor & Engineer – Rob Vitolo Audio Editor & Engineer – Nicole Boyce Music by Hansdle Hsu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Indiana Senate met for Organization Day and said we will see you in January. That appeared to leave Governor Mike Braun's quest for mid cycle redistricting without a path forward. Braun did not take the news well with a flurry of interviews and statements demanding senators return in December to vote on new maps. The governor also threatened to compel senators to return and said he would work to defeat those who did not. On this week's Statehouse Happenings, Rob Kendall, Abdul-Hakim Shabazz and Jim Merritt discuss a wild day at the Statehouse.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about! These two guys in Eastern Massachusetts set world records over and over, and became close friends along the way…Guest: Adam Sandel – one of the two guys – Harvard Law School Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law FIRE poll: Record high 74% of Americans say free speech is headed in wrong directionGuest: Nathan Honeycutt - FIRE Research Fellow & Polling Manager On Thursday, the Louis D Brown Peace Institute will be hosting an event at the Statehouse to kick off Homicide Awareness month.Guest: Chaplain Clementina Chery - founded the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in honor of her son, Louis D. Brown, who was murdered AAA: Nearly 82 Million Americans Projected to Travel over Thanksgiving – Holiday travel forecast.Guest: Jillian Young – Director of Public Relations for AAA Northeast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode 150, we dig into the blueprint for turning red turf blue with movement-builders Jennifer Austin and Sarah Schulz. The duo from the Beyond Resistance Podcast explains the steps, strategies, and first actions that help local organizers build lasting power.Jennifer Austin and Sarah Schulz are the not-yet-famous-but-fiercely-effective duo behind the Beyond Resistance Podcast, where they dish hard-won lessons on flipping red turf blue. Jennifer—a strategic powerhouse who turned the Midland County Dems into a fundraising, vote-winning machine—has the numbers and receipts to prove that organizing can reshape a Republican stronghold. Sarah—an unflinching activist, former State House candidate, and professional GOP nightmare—has led rallies, spooked incumbents, and built a movement in the reddest parts of Michigan. Together, they're building blue power in red communities—and they're just getting started.Jennifer volunteered a few too many times, prompting Democratic voters to ask her to run for chair of the local party. Under her leadership, the MCDP increased their email list by 216%, their membership by 285%, and their fundraising by 400%! They've flipped the city of Midland and kept it blue 3 election cycles in a row and are working on that red, red county.Sarah was a founding leader of the Women of Michigan Action Network, prompting 1500 people to join the Indivisible organization in a red county of 80k. She ran for office 3 times, losing by 2 points but shifting the district 10 points blue, and becoming the top House fundraiser in the state of Michigan at $500k for a previously safe GOP seat.Resources: * Beyond Resistance Blueprint* Beyond Resistance Website* Instagram* TikTok* YouTube* Facebook* X/TwitterConnect with USS:* Substack* Instagram* TikTok* ThreadsThis episode was edited by Kevin Tanner. Learn more about him and his services here:* Website* Instagram This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unitedshestands.com/subscribe

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President Donald Trump is sharply criticizing Indiana Senate Republicans for refusing to return to the Statehouse in December to vote on mid-decade redistricting, intensifying pressure on GOP lawmakers as party leaders say they lack the votes to move forward.

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President Donald Trump is sharply criticizing Indiana Senate Republicans for refusing to return to the Statehouse in December to vote on mid-decade redistricting, intensifying pressure on GOP lawmakers as party leaders say they lack the votes to move forward.

President Donald Trump is sharply criticizing Indiana Senate Republicans for refusing to return to the Statehouse in December to vote on mid-decade redistricting, intensifying pressure on GOP lawmakers as party leaders say they lack the votes to move forward.

Welcome to Monday Night Talk podcast for November 10, 2025! The guest and topics for this podcast is the State House Report with State Representative Ken Sweezey who joins the show to discuss the FY25 closeout supplemental budget, proposed battery farms in Pembroke and Duxbury, three new bills filed about Duxbury Beach, and the Governor's Drive Act.  Monday Night Talk is proudly sponsored by Tiny & Sons Glass , Old Colony Planning Council and Alcoholics Anonymous. Do you have a topic for a future show or info on an upcoming community event? Email us at mondaynighttalk@gmail.com If you're a fan of the show and enjoy our segments, you can either download your favorite segment from this site or subscribe to our podcasts through iTunes & Spotify today!  Monday Night Talk with Kevin Tocci, Copyright © 2025.

Ben Szalinski, Statehouse reporter at Capitol News Illinois, joins Jon Hansen to talk about what is happening in Illinois politics. Ben discusses what was in the transportation bill, from funding to the addition of coordinated schedules. Plus, Ben shares what he’ll be keeping his eye on, like immigration updates and fallout from the government shutdown. […]

Another wild week ends with the tantalizing release of thousands of Jeffrey Epstein's emails - for us, a reminder that the GOP is still sitting on the real goods, and are doing everything they can to keep that lid on good and tight. We're joined by Austin immigration attorney and Texas House District 50 candidate Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch to discuss that, and to give us her highly expert take on the current state of the ever-evolving dilemma that immigrant and Latino families are doing their best to endure in our state.Learn more about Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch and her run for the State House at https://www.klgfortexas.com/.Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.

Republicans in the Kansas Legislature failed to get enough petitions to call a redistricting special session in November. That means the debate over gerrymandering the congressional maps will have to wait until January — as will potentially amending Senate Bill 180 to make it explicitly ban gender marker changes on driver's licenses. When lawmakers do return to Topeka, they won't be staring down a looming budget hole, as was previously forecasted.

Republicans in the Kansas Legislature failed to get enough petitions to call a redistricting special session in November. That means the debate over gerrymandering the congressional maps will have to wait until January — as will potentially amending Senate Bill 180 to make it explicitly ban gender marker changes on driver's licenses. When lawmakers do return to Topeka, they won't be staring down a looming budget hole, as was previously forecasted.

To examine the implications of the Democrats' wins and look at how Ohioans voted on higher taxes for government services, we welcome our panel of experts: Statehouse reporters Laura Bischoff, of the USA Today Ohio Bureau, and Jo Ingles, of Ohio Public Radio, as well as Democrat Jo Mas and Republican Mike Miller.

The State House of Representatives recently passed a reworked housing bill, which was vetoed previously due to public backlash. The bill, now expected to pass in the Senate and be signed by the governor, is criticized by State Representative Steve Weir for its rushed and disorganized process, lack of public hearings, and perceived local control loss. Weir also expressed concerns about the bill's impact on small towns and the potential for population decline. Additionally, a $500 million fund was approved to address federal shortfalls, which Weir supported despite reservations about its timing and control.

There appears to be a new trend at Indiana Republican functions: The media isn't welcome. From an outright ban at the State Fall Dinner to only allowing media if they purchased a ticket at an event in Owen County, it appears Republicans don't want the media covering their events. The question is why? Rob Kendall, Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, and Jim Merritt discuss on Statehouse Happenings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vincent and Joel sit down LIVE from the CoverSC conference with J. J. Gentry Senior Lawyer for the Ethics Committee to talk about his push for lung cancer awareness, Guest Senator Russell Ott to discuss statehouse updates and his recent election, and Guest, consultant Walter Whetsell, to discuss lobbying, consulting, and campaigns in South Carolina, along with the Coverage Gap and how CoverSC is trying to help South Carolinians. Hear Bourbon Briefs where the Senators go over the latest Nancy Mace controversy, Senator Climer's lawsuit against the general assembly, Special Election victory for Lee Bright in Spartanburg Senate, congressional gerrymandering, Jermaine Johnson's gubernatorial candidacy, and other exciting news!Get your latest Statehouse update and hear firsthand the rationale behind some of the legislature's most controversial bills. Join Senators Sheheen and Lourie in this week's episode where they take a deeper look at upcoming legislation and lawmakers' actions in S.C.   Support the showKeep up to Date with BITBR: Twitter.com/BITBRpodcastFacebook.com/BITBRpodcasthttps://bourboninthebackroom.buzzsprout.com

Listen to JCO's Art of Oncology article, "The Man at the Bow" by Dr. Alexis Drutchas, who is a palliative care physician at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The article is followed by an interview with Drutchas and host Dr. Mikkael Sekeres. Dr. Drutchas shares the deep connection she had with a patient, a former barge captain, who often sailed the same route that her family's shipping container did when they moved overseas many times while she was growing up. She reflects on the nature of loss and dignity, and how oncologists might hold patients' humanity with more tenderness and care, especially at the end of life. TRANSCRIPT Narrator: The Man at the Bow, by Alexis Drutchas, MD  It was the kind of day that almost seemed made up—a clear, cerulean sky with sunlight bouncing off the gold dome of the State House. The contrast between this view and the drab hospital walls as I walked into my patient's room was jarring. My patient, whom I will call Suresh, sat in a recliner by the window. His lymphoma had relapsed, and palliative care was consulted to help with symptom management. The first thing I remember is that despite the havoc cancer had wreaked—sunken temples and a hospital gown slipping off his chest—Suresh had a warm, peaceful quality about him. Our conversation began with a discussion about his pain. Suresh told me how his bones ached and how his fatigue left him feeling hollow—a fraction of his former self. The way this drastic change in his physicality affected his sense of identity was palpable. There was loss, even if it was unspoken. After establishing a plan to help with his symptoms, I pivoted and asked Suresh how he used to spend his days. His face immediately lit up. He had been a barge captain—a dangerous and thrilling profession that took him across international waters to transport goods. Suresh's eyes glistened as he described his joy at sea. I was completely enraptured. He shared stories about mornings when he stood alone on the bow, feeling the salted breeze as the barge moved through Atlantic waves. He spoke of calm nights on the deck, looking at the stars through stunning darkness. He traveled all over the globe and witnessed Earth's topography from a perspective most of us will never see. The freedom Suresh exuded was profound. He loved these voyages so much that one summer, despite the hazards, he brought his wife and son to experience the journey with him. Having spent many years of my childhood living in Japan and Hong Kong, my family's entire home—every bed, sheet, towel, and kitchen utensil—was packed up and crossed the Atlantic on cargo ships four times. Maybe Suresh had captained one, I thought. Every winter, we hosted US Navy sailors docked in Hong Kong for the holidays. I have such fond memories of everyone going around the table and sharing stories of their adventures—who saw or ate what and where. I loved those times: the wild abandon of travel, the freedom of being somewhere new, and the way identity can shift and expand as experiences grow. When Suresh shared stories of the ocean, I was back there too, holding the multitude of my identity alongside him. I asked Suresh to tell me more about his voyages: what was it like to be out in severe weather, to ride over enormous swells? Did he ever get seasick, and did his crew always get along? But Suresh did not want to swim into these perilous stories with me. Although he worked a difficult and physically taxing job, this is not what he wanted to focus on. Instead, he always came back to the beauty and vitality he felt at sea—what it was like to stare out at the vastness of the open ocean. He often closed his eyes and motioned with his hands as he spoke as if he was not confined to these hospital walls. Instead, he was swaying on the water feeling the lightness of physical freedom, and the way a body can move with such ease that it is barely perceptible, like water flowing over sand. The resonances of Suresh's stories contained both the power and challenges laden in this work. Although I sat at his bedside, healthy, my body too contained memories of freedom that in all likelihood will one day dissipate with age or illness. The question of how I will be seen, compared to how I hoped to be seen, lingered in my mind. Years ago, before going to medical school, I moved to Vail, Colorado. I worked four different jobs just to make ends meet, but making it work meant that on my days off, I was only a chairlift ride away from Vail's backcountry. I have a picture of this vigor in my mind—my snowboard carving into fresh powder, the utter silence of the wilderness at that altitude, and the way it felt to graze the powdery snow against my glove. My face was windburned, and my body was sore, but my heart had never felt so buoyant. While talking with Suresh, I could so vividly picture him as the robust man he once was, standing tall on the bow of his ship. I could feel the freedom and joy he described—it echoed in my own body. In that moment, the full weight of what Suresh had lost hit me as forcefully as a cresting wave—not just the physical decline, but the profound shift in his identity. What is more, we all live, myself included, so precariously at this threshold. In this work, it is impossible not to wonder: what will it be like when it is me? Will I be seen as someone who has lived a full life, who explored and adventured, or will my personhood be whittled down to my illness? How can I hold these questions and not be swallowed by them? "I know who you are now is not the person you've been," I said to Suresh. With that, he reached out for my hand and started to cry. We looked at each other with a new understanding. I saw Suresh—not just as a frail patient but as someone who lived a full life. As someone strong enough to cross the Atlantic for decades. In that moment, I was reminded of the Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska's words, "As far as you've come, can't be undone." This, I believe, is what it means to honor the dignity of our patients, to reflect back the person they are despite or alongside their illness…all of their parts that can't be undone. Sometimes, this occurs because we see our own personhood reflected in theirs and theirs in ours. Sometimes, to protect ourselves, we shield ourselves from this echo. Other times, this resonance becomes the most beautiful and meaningful part of our work. It has been years now since I took care of Suresh. When the weather is nice, my wife and I like to take our young son to the harbor in South Boston to watch the planes take off and the barges leave the shore, loaded with colorful metal containers. We usually pack a picnic and sit in the trunk as enormous planes fly overhead and tugboats work to bring large ships out to the open water. Once, as a container ship was leaving the port, we waved so furiously at those working on board that they all started to wave back, and the captain honked the ships booming horn. Every single time we are there, I think of Suresh, and I picture him sailing out on thewaves—as free as he will ever be. Mikkael Sekeres: Welcome back to JCO's Cancer Stories: The Art of Oncology. This ASCO podcast features intimate narratives and perspectives from authors exploring their experiences in oncology. I'm your host, Mikkael Sekeres. I'm Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hematology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami. What a treat we have today. We're joined by Dr. Alexis Drutchas, a Palliative Care Physician and the Director of the Core Communication Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School to discuss her article, "The Man at the Bow." Alexis, thank you so much for contributing to Journal of Clinical Oncology and for joining us to discuss your article. Dr. Alexis Drutchas: Thank you. I'm thrilled and excited to be here. Mikkael Sekeres: I wonder if we can start by asking you about yourself. Where are you from, and can you walk us a bit through your career? Dr. Alexis Drutchas: The easiest way to say it would be that I'm from the Detroit area. My dad worked in automotive car parts and so we moved around a lot when I was growing up. I was born in Michigan, then we moved to Japan, then back to Michigan, then to Hong Kong, then back to Michigan. Then I spent my undergrad years in Wisconsin and moved out to Colorado to teach snowboarding before medical school, and then ended up back in Michigan for that, and then on the east coast at Brown for my family medicine training, and then in Boston for work and training. So, I definitely have a more global experience in my background, but also very Midwestern at heart as well. In terms of my professional career trajectory, I trained in family medicine because I really loved taking care of the whole person. I love taking care of kids and adults, and I loved OB, and at the time I felt like it was impossible to choose which one I wanted to pursue the most, and so family medicine was a great fit. And at the core of that, there's just so much advocacy and social justice work, especially in the community health centers where many family medicine residents train. During that time, I got very interested in LGBTQ healthcare and founded the Rhode Island Trans Health Conference, which led me to work as a PCP at Fenway Health in Boston after that. And so I worked there for many years. And then through a course of being a hospitalist at BI during that work, I worked with many patients with serious illness, making decisions about discontinuing dialysis, about pursuing hospice care in the setting of ILD. I also had a significant amount of family illness and started to recognize this underlying interest I had always had in palliative care, but I think was a bit scared to pursue. But those really kind of tipped me over to say I really wanted to access a different level of communication skills and be able to really go into depth with patients in a way I just didn't feel like I had the language for. And so I applied to the Harvard Palliative Care Fellowship and luckily and with so much gratitude got in years ago, and so trained in palliative care and stayed at MGH after that. So my Dana-Farber position is newer for me and I'm very excited about it. Mikkael Sekeres: Sounds like you've had an amazing career already and you're just getting started on it. I grew up in tiny little Rhode Island and, you know, we would joke you have to pack an overnight bag if you travel more than 45 minutes. So, our boundaries were much tighter than yours. What was it like growing up where you're going from the Midwest to Asia, back to the Midwest, you wind up settling on the east coast? You must have an incredible worldly view on how people live and how they view their health. Dr. Alexis Drutchas: I think you just named much of the sides of it. I think I realize now, in looking back, that in many ways it was living two lives, because at the time it was rare from where we lived in the Detroit area in terms of the other kids around us to move overseas. And so it really did feel like that part of me and my family that during the summers we would have home leave tickets and my parents would often turn them in to just travel since we didn't really have a home base to come back to. And so it did give me an incredible global perspective and a sense of all the ways in which people develop community, access healthcare, and live. And then coming back to the Midwest, not to say that it's not cosmopolitan or diverse in its own way, but it was very different, especially in the 80s and 90s to come back to the Midwest. So it did feel like I carried these two lenses in the world, and it's been incredibly meaningful over time to meet other friends and adults and patients who have lived these other lives as well. I think for me those are some of my most connecting friendships and experiences with patients for people who have had a similar experience in living with sort of a duality in their everyday lives with that. Mikkael Sekeres: You know, you write about the main character of your essay, Suresh, who's a barge captain, and you mention in the essay that your family crossed the Atlantic on cargo ships four times when you were growing up. What was that experience like? How much of it do you remember? Dr. Alexis Drutchas: Our house, like our things, crossed the Atlantic four times on barge ships such as his. We didn't, I mean we crossed on airplanes. Mikkael Sekeres: Oh, okay, okay. Dr. Alexis Drutchas: We flew over many times, but every single thing we owned got packed up into containers on large trucks in our house and were brought over to ports to be sent over. So, I'm not sure how they do it now, but at the time that's sort of how we moved, and we would often go live in a hotel or a furnished apartment for the month's wait of all of our house to get there, which felt also like a surreal experience in that, you know, you're in a totally different country and then have these creature comforts of your bedroom back in Metro Detroit. And I remember thinking a lot about who was crossing over with all of that stuff and where was it going, and who else was moving, and that was pretty incredible. And when I met Suresh, just thinking about the fact that at some point our home could have been on his ship was a really fun connection in my mind to make, just given where he always traveled in his work. Mikkael Sekeres: It's really neat. I remember when we moved from the east coast also to the Midwest, I was in Cleveland for 18 years. The very first thing we did was mark which of the boxes had the kids' toys in it, because that of course was the first one we let them close it up and then we let them open it as soon as we arrived. Did your family do something like that as well so that you can, you know, immediately feel an attachment to your stuff when they arrived? Dr. Alexis Drutchas: Yeah, I remember what felt most important to our mom was our bedrooms. I don't remember the toys. I remember sort of our comforters and our pillowcases and things like that, yeah, being opened and it feeling really settling to think, "Okay, you know, we're in a completely different place and country away from most everything we know, but our bedroom is the same." That always felt like a really important point that she made to make home feel like home again in a new place. Mikkael Sekeres: Yeah, yeah. One of the sentences you wrote in your essay really caught my eye. You wrote about when you were younger and say, "I loved those times, the wild abandon of travel, the freedom of being somewhere new, the way identity can shift and expand as experiences grow." It's a lovely sentiment. Do you think those are emotions that we experience only as children, or can they continue through adulthood? And if they can, how do we make that happen, that sense of excitement and experience? Dr. Alexis Drutchas: I think that's such a good question and one I honestly think about a lot. I think that we can access those all the time. There's something about the newness of travel and moving, you know, I have a 3-year-old right now, and so I think many parents would connect to that sense that there is wonderment around being with someone experiencing something for the first time. Even watching my son, Oliver, see a plane take off for the first time felt joyous in a completely new way, that even makes me smile a lot now. But I think what is such a great connection here is when something is new, our eyes are so open to it. You know, we're constantly witnessing and observing and are excited about that. And I think the connection that I've realized is important for me in my work and also in just life in general to hold on to that wonderment is that idea of sort of witnessing or having a writer's eye, many would call it, in that you're keeping your eye open for the small beautiful things. Often with travel, you might be eating ramen. It might not be the first time you're eating it, but you're eating it for the first time in Tokyo, and it's the first time you've had this particular ingredient on it, and then you remember that. But there's something that we're attuned to in those moments, like the difference or the taste, that makes it special and we hold on to it. And I think about that a lot as a writer, but also in patient care and having my son with my wife, it's what are the special small moments to hold on to and allowing them to be new and beautiful, even if they're not as large as moving across the country or flying to Rome or whichever. I think there are ways that that excitement can still be alive if we attune ourselves to some of the more beautiful small moments around us. Mikkael Sekeres: And how do we do that as doctors? We're trained to go into a room and there's almost a formula for how we approach patients. But how do you open your mind in that way to that sense of wonderment and discovery with the person you're sitting across from, and it doesn't necessarily have to be medical? One of the true treats of what we do is we get to meet people from all backgrounds and all walks of life, and we have the opportunity to explore their lives as part of our interaction. Dr. Alexis Drutchas: Yeah, I think that is such a great question. And I would love to hear your thoughts on this too. I think for me in that sentence that you mentioned, sitting at that table with sort of people in the Navy from all over the world, I was that person to them in the room, too. There was some identity there that I brought to the table that was different than just being a kid in school or something like that. To answer your question, I wonder if so much of the challenge is actually allowing ourselves to bring ourselves into the room, because so much of the formula is, you know, we have these white coats on, we have learners, we want to do it right, we want to give excellent care. There's there's so many sort of guards I think that we put up to make sure that we're asking the right questions, we don't want to miss anything, we don't want to say the wrong thing, and all of that is true. And at the same time, I find that when I actually allow myself into the room, that is when it is the most special. And that doesn't mean that there's complete countertransference or it's so permeable that it's not in service of the patient. It just means that I think when we allow bits of our own selves to come in, it really does allow for new connections to form, and then we are able to learn about our patients more, too. With every patient, I think often we're called in for goals of care or symptom management, and of course I prioritize that, but when I can, I usually just try to ask a more open-ended question, like, "Tell me about life before you came to the hospital or before you were diagnosed. What do you love to do? What did you do for work?" Or if it's someone's family member who is ill, I'll ask the kids or family in the room, "Like, what kind of mom was she? You know, what special memory you had?" Just, I get really curious when there's time to really understand the person. And I know that that's not at all new language. Of course, we're always trying to understand the person, but I just often think understanding them is couched within their illness. And I'm often very curious about how we can just get to know them as people, and how humanizing ourselves to them helps humanize them to us, and that back and forth I think is like really lovely and wonderful and allows things to come up that were totally unexpected, and those are usually the special moments that you come home with and want to tell your family about or want to process and think about. What about you? How do you think about that question? Mikkael Sekeres: Well, it's interesting you ask. I like to do projects around the house. I hate to say this out loud because of course one day I'll do something terrible and everyone will remember this podcast, but I fancy myself an amateur electrician and plumber and carpenter and do these sorts of projects. So I go into interactions with patients wanting to learn about their lives and how they live their lives to see what I can pick up on as well, how I can take something out of that interaction and actually use it practically. My father-in-law has this phrase he always says to me when a worker comes to your house, he goes, he says to me, "Remember to steal with your eyes." Right? Watch what they do, learn how they fix something so you can fix it yourself and you don't have to call them next time. So, for me it's kind of fun to hear how people have lived their lives both within their professions, and when I practiced medicine in Cleveland, there were a lot of farmers and factory workers I saw. So I learned a lot about how things are made. But also about how they interact with their families, and I've learned a lot from people I've seen who were just terrific dads and terrific moms or siblings or spouses. And I've tried to take those nuggets away from those interactions. But I think you can only do it if you open yourself up and also allow yourself to see that person's humanity. And I wonder if I can quote you to you again from your essay. There's another part that I just loved, and it's about how you write about how a person's identity changes when they become a patient. You write, "And in that moment the full weight of what he had lost hit me as forcefully as a cresting wave. Not just the physical decline, but the profound shift in identity. What is more, we all live, me included, so precariously at this threshold. In this work, it's impossible not to wonder, what will it be like when it's me? Will I be seen as someone who's lived many lives, or whittled down only to someone who's sick?" Can you talk a little bit more about that? Have you been a patient whose identity has changed without asking you to reveal too much? Or what about your identity as a doctor? Is that something we have to undo a little bit when we walk in the room with the stethoscope or wearing a white coat? Dr. Alexis Drutchas: That was really powerful to hear you read that back to me. So, thank you. Yeah, I think my answer here can't be separated from the illness I faced with my family. And I think this unanimously filters into the way in which I see every patient because I really do think about the patient's dignity and the way medicine generally, not always, really does strip them of that and makes them the patient. Even the way we write about "the patient said this," "the patient said that," "the patient refused." So I generally very much try to have a one-liner like, "Suresh is a X-year-old man who's a barge captain from X, Y, and Z and is a loving father with a," you know, "period. He comes to the hospital with X, Y, and Z." So I always try to do that and humanize patients. I always try to write their name rather than just "patient." I can't separate that out from my experience with my family. My sister six years ago now went into sudden heart failure after having a spontaneous coronary artery dissection, and so immediately within minutes she was in the cath lab at 35 years old, coding three times and came out sort of with an Impella and intubated, and very much, you know, all of a sudden went from my sister who had just been traveling in Mexico to a patient in the CCU. And I remember desperately wanting her team to see who she was, like see the person that we loved, that was fighting for her life, see how much her life meant to us. And that's not to say that they weren't giving her great care, but there was something so important to me in wanting them to see how much we wanted her to live, you know, and who she was. It felt like there's some important core to me there. We brought pictures in, we talked about what she was living for. It felt really important. And I can't separate that out from the way in which I see patients now or I feel in my own way in a certain way what it is to lose yourself, to lose the ability to be a Captain of the ship, to lose the ability to do electric work around the house. So much of our identity is wrapped up in our professions and our craft. And I think for me that has really become forefront in the work of palliative care and in and in the teaching I do and in the writing I do is how to really bring them forefront and not feel like in doing that we're losing our ability to remain objective or solid in our own professional identities as clinicians and physicians. Mikkael Sekeres: Well, I think that's a beautiful place to end here. I can only imagine what an outstanding physician and caregiver you are also based on your writing and how you speak about it. You just genuinely come across as caring about your patients and your family and the people you have interactions with and getting to know them as people. It has been again such a treat to have Dr. Alexis Drutchas here. She is Director of the Core Communication Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School to discuss her article, "The Man at the Bow." Alexis, thank you so much for joining us. Dr. Alexis Drutchas: Thank you. This has been a real joy. Mikkael Sekeres: If you've enjoyed this episode, consider sharing it with a friend or colleague, or leave us a review. Your feedback and support helps us continue to save these important conversations. If you're looking for more episodes and context, follow our show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen, and explore more from ASCO at ASCO.org/podcasts. Until next time, this has been Mikkael Sekeres for the ASCO podcast Cancer Stories: The Art of Oncology. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Show notes: Like, share and subscribe so you never miss an episode and leave a rating or review. Guest Bio: Dr. Alexis Drutchas is a palliative care physician at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

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The federal government remains shutdown, and Wisconsin farmers are left without many of the tools they count on at this time of the year. Stephanie Hoff takes a closer look at how private businesses are trying to work through the situation. Rene Johnson, senior vice president of ag lending at Lake Ridge Bank and Jessica Sarbacker, vice president of crop insurance at Lake Ridge Bank are two trying to work through these processes. They sayas of Oct. 23, about 2,100 FSA offices reopened nationwide with limited hours (8–4:30) and only two staff per office, focusing on processing ARC/PLC and disaster relief payments. Many beginning farmers rely on the Farm Service Agency for financing, especially those with limited access to commercial credit or bank loans. Joint lending relationships between FSA and local lenders are common, helping new farmers secure funding. On the crop side, most (nearly all) farmers participate with FSA, reporting their planted acres and enrolling in federal programs. Farmers must report fall-planted crops like wheat, cover crops, and alfalfa by the Nov. 15 deadline, which aligns with the crop insurance deadline. Due to limited staffing and backlogs at FSA offices, it’s unlikely farmers will meet the Nov. 15 reporting deadline, prompting expectations of a possible extension. However, crop insurance deadlines typically are not extended, creating pressure for farmers to submit acreage information on time. The two say that the fall season brings peak financial pressure as farmers face high input costs, low commodity prices, and upcoming land rent, loan, and equipment payments, areas where FSA payments can provide crucial relief. Definitely cooler weather today for Wisconsin with a lot of overcast skies. Stu Muck says there is a chance you could see some snowflakes by the weekend. How comfortable are you with foreign ownership of Wisconsin farmland? That's a question that the Assembly Agriculture Committee's been discussing for several sessions. Now the chair of the committee says they're close to verbage they believe could pass. Travis Tranel, chair, says they put an emphasis on the value of private property rights in the U.S. versus the foreign adversaries they're working to keep out. Weather has cooperated with the fall harvest, allowing farms to get ahead on manure management and fall tillage. If you're tempted to try and apply some nitrogen this fall, think again. That's the advice of Dan Smith, UW-Extension Nutrient and Pest Management Program Manager. He says that normally nitrogen is applied in the spring to eliminate the risk of loss. Still, if weather allows and growers want to do it, he advises that you apply fall nitrogen after soil temperatures dip below 50 degrees. Where is the holiday demand for dairy? Zach Bauers, dairy analyst with EverAg picks up on that conversation with Pam Jahnke. Bauers says without the federal government supplying information, it's tough to know. Now Bauers says it'll be about information management since USDA has announced it will begin releasing delayed reports this week. How will the market manage that "information dump"?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

State Senator Greg Goode claims he is undecided on redistricting in Indiana. So he held a townhall in Terre Haute to hear from his constituents. Overwhelmingly, they came out against the idea. In fact, not one person spoke in favor. The event was a disaster for Republicans who claimed polls showing Hoosiers do not want redistricting were wrong. Will Goode's townhall be a red flag to other senators on the fence? Rob Kendall and Abdul-Hakim Shabazz discuss on Statehouse Happenings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode 148, we talk with our friend Dr. Cara Jacob about why she's stepping up to run for the Ohio State Senate. From property taxes to public schools and healthcare, she shares what's driving her campaign and how she hopes to create a fairer future for all Ohio families.Cara was raised in a small town with a close-knit family who taught her the values of hard work, integrity, and caring for others. Her passion for helping people led her to pursue medicine and ultimately become a neurologist. In that role, she's had the privilege of caring for patients and families from communities across Ohio. She is also a wife and the proud mom of two wonderful children, experiences that have deepened her commitment to building a better future for all families.Beyond her medical career, Cara has been an advocate for policies that expand access to healthcare, strengthen our public schools, protect our democratic process, keep our communities safe, and ensure government works for everyday Ohioans—not just the wealthy and well-connected. That advocacy, coupled with growing concerns over the extreme legislation and corruption coming out of our statehouse, is what inspired her to run for the Ohio State Senate in Senate District 7.She believes we can make Ohio a stronger, fairer place for families by advancing common-sense policies that lift up all Ohioans—ensuring opportunity and dignity for everyone, not just the few at the top. Resources: * Cara Jacob for Ohio Senate Website* Instagram* TikTok* FacebookConnect with USS:* Substack* Instagram* TikTok* ThreadsThis episode was edited by Kevin Tanner. Learn more about him and his services here:* Website* Instagram This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unitedshestands.com/subscribe

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Welcome to Monday Night Talk podcast for October 27, 2025! Guests and topics for this podcast includes the State House Report with State Representative Alyson Sullivan-Almeida stops by to discuss returning from maternity leave along with the latest news from the State House. Monday Night Talk is proudly sponsored by Tiny & Sons Glass , Old Colony Planning Council, Alcoholics Anonymous and the Committee to Elect Jean Bradley Derenoncourt. Committee to Elect Jeff Charnel and the Committee to Elect Moises Rodrigues. Do you have a topic for a future show or info on an upcoming community event? Email us at mondaynighttalk@gmail.com If you're a fan of the show and enjoy our segments, you can either download your favorite segment from this site or subscribe to our podcasts through iTunes & Spotify today!  Monday Night Talk with Kevin Tocci, Copyright © 2025.

Welcome to Monday Night Talk podcast for October 27, 2025! Guests and topics for this podcast includes The State House Report with State Representative Alyson Sullivan-Almeida stops by to discuss returning from maternity leave along with the latest news from the State House. Lindsay Wright, Founder of Lindsay Katherine LLC, visits the show to share details on her new consulting agency that provides training and preparedness assistance to municipalities, local groups and companies. Win Farwell, a Brockton At-Large City Councilor and a candidate for re-election, will talk about his campaign and some of the main issues in his race. Jesse Wilkins, Rob Coakley and Dave Wilkins, the hosts of Hometown Ghost Stories along with Brent Thomas of the Paranormal Portal will share details about their respective shows and how they investigate paranormal activities and interact with theirs respective fan bases. Monday Night Talk is proudly sponsored by Tiny & Sons Glass , Old Colony Planning Council, Alcoholics Anonymous and the Committee to Elect Jean Bradley Derenoncourt. Committee to Elect Jeff Charnel and the Committee to Elect Moises Rodrigues. Monday Night Talk is proudly sponsored by Tiny & Sons Glass , Old Colony Planning Council, Alcoholics Anonymous and the Committee to Elect Jean Bradley Derenoncourt. Committee to Elect Jeff Charnel and the Committee to Elect Moises Rodrigues. Do you have a topic for a future show or info on an upcoming community event? Email us at mondaynighttalk@gmail.com If you're a fan of the show and enjoy our segments, you can either download your favorite segment from this site or subscribe to our podcasts through iTunes & Spotify today!  Monday Night Talk with Kevin Tocci, Copyright © 2025.

The Chillin' in the Statehouse crew is back with another episode on gerrymandering and food stamps. While Senate Republicans have the signatures to call a redistricting special session, House Republicans are not yet there. Meanwhile, it's looking like the federal government shutdown will mean no November SNAP benefits, or at least delayed or partial payments.

Reporting from multiple media outlets in Central Indiana have confirmed what has been reported for months: Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith's Office is under investigation by a Marion County Grand Jury. According to the Indy Star and others, the investigation is related to potential sharing of intimate images and ghost employment. The Lt. Governor has repeatedly denied knowledge of the investigation. On this week's Statehouse Happenings, Rob Kendall, Abdul-Hakim Shabazz and Jim Merritt the confirmation of the Grand Jury investigation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tara sits down with Steve Nail, candidate in the South Carolina Statehouse District 21 runoff, to discuss his priorities for the state. Nail outlines a bold plan to declare a state of emergency for the state's crumbling infrastructure, streamline bureaucracy, and address underfunded pensions. He also proposes innovative solutions for income tax reform, AI integration in government, and accountability for state spending. Additionally, Nail shares his experience with the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, voicing opposition to big tax deals and corporate incentives he views as mismanaged or unnecessary.

In this episode of Climate Positive, Guy Van Syckle and Gil Jenkins sit down with Caroline Spears, Executive Director of Climate Cabinet, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting clean energy and climate policy leaders at state and local levels. These often-forgotten races are sometimes decided by a couple hundred votes and can also decide the fate of billions of dollars of decarbonization investment. Caroline explains how Climate Cabinet strategically identifies target candidates through data science and political expertise, aiming to elect climate champions with the highest potential ability to shape positive change. Through real-world examples, she demonstrates the organization's effectiveness in close political races and the tangible difference their support can make.LinksClimate Cabinet Website Sign up for a monthly donation to help Climate Cabinet find and elect the highest ROI clean energy champions in state and local elections across the U.S. Caroline Spears on LinkedInEpisode recorded on October 2, 2025   Email your feedback to Chad, Gil, Hilary, and Guy at climatepositive@hasi.com.

CORRUPT Democrat Staffer FINDS OUT after TRAFFICKING 21 KILOS to State House! FAFO!

Newport Police Chief Alex Lee is here as we talk about Halloween, the dance at the Opera House, drinking and driving, going to the State House and more.

Gov. Mike Braun plans to call lawmakers back to the Statehouse next month to redraw Indiana’s congressional districts and address a state and federal tax compliance issue. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rob calls-in to talk about the downside to Gov. Mike Braun calling lawmakers back to the Statehouse next month to redraw Indiana’s congressional districts and address a state and federal tax compliance issue. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our regular Friday venting session this week features Texas House candidate and longtime Austin labor leader Jeremy Hendricks as our guest for a discussion of all manner of Republican ugly - from homeless crackdowns, to university takeovers, to yanking of food services - and the potential for progressive pushback indicated by the massive No Kings turnout last Saturday - all things considered, there's plenty to push back against.Learn more about Jeremy and his run for the State House at ⁠https://www.hendricksfortexas.com/⁠.Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at ⁠https://progresstexas.org/⁠ - and don't forget to VOTE!

The future of utility bills could hang in the balance with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission set to appoint three new members. Luckily for Statehouse Happenings, we got a guy! Our own panelist Jim Merritt serves on the committee making the recommendations to the governor. On this week's program, Rob Kendall and Abdul-Hakim Shabazz join Merritt to discuss what he and the panel are looking for in from applicants. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes, the smallest frustrations can spark the biggest changes. In this episode of American Potential, host David From talks with State Representative Tony McCombie, the first female Republican Leader in the Illinois House of Representatives, about how a dispute over a sandwich board sign outside her small café inspired her to run for office—and ultimately lead her state's GOP caucus. Rep. McCombie shares her journey from small-town business owner and mayor to becoming one of Illinois' most influential conservative voices. She opens up about learning from early political defeats, championing small-town values in Springfield, and finding purpose through public service. Her story is proof that one small step, driven by conviction and community pride, can lead to extraordinary leadership and lasting impact.

  How do you go from hauling shrimp on the Gulf to hauling big reforms through Baton Rouge? In this episode of American Potential, host David From sits down with Scott Simon, State Director for Americans for Prosperity–Louisiana, to trace his unlikely path: fisherman, construction hand, designer, community volunteer, state legislator, and now grassroots leader. Scott shares the “one small step” moments—raking baseball fields after his kids' games, organizing neighbors, knocking doors—that pulled him into public service and taught him how ordinary people create extraordinary change. Then Scott lays out Louisiana's recent reform surge and why he calls 2024 a breakthrough year: a universal school-choice program opening opportunity to every student, a simplified 3% flat individual income tax and broader tax reforms that set the table for future elimination, and pro-growth regulatory changes aimed at making the state a magnet for jobs and investment. He also reveals the ground game behind the wins—recruiting policy champions, mobilizing volunteers, and reminding citizens that good policy follows engaged people. If you've ever looked at a problem and thought “somebody should do something,” Scott's story is your blueprint to start.

Within hours of each other, multiple polls showed that Hoosiers are down on redistricting and their governor. As sour as Indiana residents appear to be on changing congressional maps, they may be even less impressed with Mike Braun's performance. On this week's Statehouse Happenings, Rob Kendall, Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, and Jim Merritt discuss why the governor and General Assembly won't let redistricting go, and how Braun can right the ship.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.