Transcript

8.3.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the reading of the
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Speaker 1: Washington Post for this Monday, August third. As reminder, Radio
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Speaker 1: I is reading service intended for people who are blind
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Speaker 1: or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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Speaker 1: printed material. Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton, and
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Speaker 1: the headlines start. Zelensky says Ukraine has no interceptors as
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Speaker 1: ballistic missiles hit Kiev. Russian ballistic missiles rained down on
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Speaker 1: Kiev early Saturday, killing at least nine people and injuring
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Speaker 1: more than thirty. As Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said his
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Speaker 1: country had run out of air defense interceptors, Russian forces
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Speaker 1: fired nearly two hundred attack drones and thirty five missiles,
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Speaker 1: including twenty seven ballistic missiles, primarily aimed at the capitol.
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Speaker 1: Ukrainian President Zelensky wrote on social media only one ballistic
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Speaker 1: missile was intersect simply because there are no interceptors. Zelenski wrote,
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Speaker 1: hell of a night. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andre Sibaija wrote
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Speaker 1: on x the Russian attack occurred hours after a major
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Speaker 1: protest in support of Ukraine's ousted defense minister Mikhalio Fedorov,
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Speaker 1: and it followed Another ballistic assault early Thursday largely bombarded
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Speaker 1: areas in western Ukraine, which are targeted much less frequently,
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Speaker 1: and resulted in a Russian missile landing in Poland. The
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Speaker 1: Russian missile struck a rural area and did not cause
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Speaker 1: any injuries. The incident raised fresh concerns about the risk
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Speaker 1: of Russia coming into direct confrontation with NATO more than
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Speaker 1: four years after Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. US
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Speaker 1: manufactured Patriot air defense systems are Ukraine's only hope to
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Speaker 1: count Russian ballistic missile attacks, which the Kremlin has significantly
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Speaker 1: increased in recent months. The system's interceptor missiles are in
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Speaker 1: drastic short supply, however, as the number already limited has
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Speaker 1: been greatly depleted by the Iranian war. Zelensky said it
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Speaker 1: was critical that Ukraine's partners, which Kiev hopes will supply
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Speaker 1: the needed missiles here. That these capabilities are needed not
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Speaker 1: somewhere in stockpiles for hypothetical scenarios, but here and now
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Speaker 1: to contain and stop the Russian war in Ukraine. Every
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Speaker 1: night without them results in more casualties, Zelensky wrote. Zelensky
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Speaker 1: urged and urgently appealed to President Trump during a White
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Speaker 1: House meeting this last Thursday, offering in return Ukraine's anti
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Speaker 1: drone technology and extensive experience in destroying Russian and Iranian drones.
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Speaker 1: Trump earlier said the US would give Ukraine license to
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Speaker 1: produce patriots, but on Friday he told the Financial Times
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Speaker 1: he was not sure whether Washington would follow through. We're
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Speaker 1: looking at it, he said during a telephone interview. Saturday
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Speaker 1: strikes on Kiev also damaged the Lithuanian embassy after a
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Speaker 1: missile exploded just steps away, but no one was injured.
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Speaker 1: Lithuanian President geitanis Naseda wrote on x Russia's defense minister
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Speaker 1: said in a statement Saturday that Moscow carried out massive
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Speaker 1: strike with land and sea based precision weapons on military
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Speaker 1: enterprises and logistics centers, including facilities producing radio electronic components
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Speaker 1: for Ukraine's long range attack drones. Meanwhile, more than two
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Speaker 1: weeks after Zelenski abruptly fired federal off crowds continue to
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Speaker 1: gather every evening in Ivan Franco Square in central Kiev
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Speaker 1: to loudly demand his reins. Statement. Friday evening witnessed the
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Speaker 1: biggest demonstration so far. Protesters marched through Kiev's central streets
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Speaker 1: to the square, which is just a few hundred yards
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Speaker 1: from Zelenski's offices that are perched on a hill above.
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Speaker 1: About six thousand demonstrators took part. Local media reported as
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Speaker 1: the crowd flowed down Kiev's main Khrishtishkayak Street, they shouted
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Speaker 1: bring him back and waved placards, one read shoot at
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Speaker 1: the enemy, not yourself in the foot. The squares the
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Speaker 1: same location where thousands protested almost exactly a year ago
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Speaker 1: against Zelensky's attempt to limit the powers of Ukraine's main
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Speaker 1: anti corruption bodies, a decision that he reversed in the
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Speaker 1: face of public outcry. These latest protests appeared to be
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Speaker 1: made up predominantly of those in their twenties and thirties,
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Speaker 1: close in age to Federov, who's thirty five, the youngest
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Speaker 1: defense minister in Ukraine's history. Ukrainians of all ages were
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Speaker 1: dismayed by Federoff's auster. The anti corruption reformer and architect
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Speaker 1: of the country's highly effective drone program, he had developed
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Speaker 1: a strong following despite serving only six months. Federoff said
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Speaker 1: he was fired because of changes he had begun to
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Speaker 1: introduce the country's military procurement system. Critics have said the
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Speaker 1: system lacks transparency, it's a possible source of corruption. The
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Speaker 1: reason was related to procurements to tenders, to the fact
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Speaker 1: that we began to build processes in this direction, and
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Speaker 1: this caused great dissatisfaction in many people began to constantly
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Speaker 1: influence and sow negativity not only around the present, but
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Speaker 1: also in the entire media space, Federoff told the Ukrainian
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Speaker 1: news site on Wednesday. The nightly demonstrations often have a
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Speaker 1: carnival like atmosphere, with protesters distributing handmade cardboard signs and
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Speaker 1: handing out creeps with sweet fillings and other refreshments. Iyana
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Speaker 1: Kolinatska twenty one, an actor at the Yvonne Franco Theater
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Speaker 1: on the edge of the Square, said she'd been at
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Speaker 1: the protest nearly every evening. Better Off was a man
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Speaker 1: who knows what he's doing and can lead Ukraine to
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Speaker 1: good futures, she said. We have no right to lose
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Speaker 1: a person like that. Colenska said as she and her
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Speaker 1: colleague Diana Chorna twenty two handed out fresh waffles from
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Speaker 1: cardboard box. The demonstrations had persisted despite the fact that
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Speaker 1: Zelensky gave into one of the protesters main demands. Last week,
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Speaker 1: he fired the commander of Ukraine's Armed Forces, General Alexandr Sriski,
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Speaker 1: and replaced him with Mikalo da Pratti, who previously headed
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Speaker 1: the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Sirski's
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Speaker 1: dismissal was a good start, removing a commander who was
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Speaker 1: seen to be an obstacle to change, protesters said, but
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Speaker 1: they vowed to continue demonstrations every evening until Federoff returned
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Speaker 1: as Defense Minister. I will keep protesting as long as
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Speaker 1: it takes. But has happened so far, there's not enough,
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Speaker 1: said Victoria Muskofilidi twenty six, the co founder of the
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Speaker 1: Kiev Art Institute. Otherwise it will only deepen crisis, she said.
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Speaker 1: We will simply waste more time dealing with this instead
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Speaker 1: of focusing on the war next in Gaza deal Hamas disarms,
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Speaker 1: Israel withdraws. Neither want to go first. President Trump this
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Speaker 1: week couted a historic agreement and the complete disarmament of Hamas,
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Speaker 1: but after his Board of Peace released the text of
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Speaker 1: the fifteen point plan on Friday, an Less cautioned that
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Speaker 1: there seemed to be a substantial gap between Israel and
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Speaker 1: Hamas on a path forward. Under the agreement, be sides
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Speaker 1: have fourteen days to agree on the timetable and implementation
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Speaker 1: mechanisms for the disarmament of Hamas and withdrawal of israel
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Speaker 1: forces from Gaza, but there was already disagreement on the
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Speaker 1: order in which each should happen. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
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Speaker 1: who met with Tramp on Tuesday, has been silent on
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Speaker 1: the deal. A statement to the Post Israeli official reiterated
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Speaker 1: Israel's long standing position Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas,
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Speaker 1: including the removal of weapons from Gaza, and the full
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Speaker 1: demilitarization of the strip, as a prerequisite for any progress.
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Speaker 1: The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss
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Speaker 1: the highly sensitive subject. AMAS meanwhile said Israel must end
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Speaker 1: its military campaign in Gaza. As a first step, The
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Speaker 1: Israeli Defense Horses SAT on Friday announced the killing of
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Speaker 1: men described as a Hamas commander and Hamas arms smuggler.
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Speaker 1: AMAS also said its agreement to surrender heavy weapons was
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Speaker 1: contingent on Israel's cessation of all forms of hostility, among
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Speaker 1: other variables, Jonathan Ringold, a senior researcher at the Big
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Speaker 1: End Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Elin University,
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Speaker 1: said the effort to move forward disarmament and demilitarization in
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Speaker 1: phases represented some kind of progress. What obstacles remained on
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Speaker 1: practical level. What Israel wants is for Hamas to disarm
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Speaker 1: and then for Israel to withdraw. Hamas wants the opposite,
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Speaker 1: he said. Israel does not believe that Hamas will voluntarily
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Speaker 1: disarm in a material sense. Under the agreement, the weapons
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Speaker 1: Hamas surrenders are to be held by the National Committee
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Speaker 1: for the Administration of Gaza, run by Palestinian tech necrats.
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Speaker 1: The fear in Israel, reine Hold said, is that the
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Speaker 1: militants who led the surprise tack that murdered about twelve
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Speaker 1: hundred people in Israel on October seventh to twenty twenty
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Speaker 1: three will retain the ability to intimidate whoever is in
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Speaker 1: the government in Gaza. Israel responded to the Hamas attack
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Speaker 1: with a military campaign that has killed more than seventy
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Speaker 1: three thousand people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The
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Speaker 1: bottom line, rhine Hold said, is that Israel doesn't think
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Speaker 1: that Hamas has changed its DNA. There will be no
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Speaker 1: Israeli withdrawal from the yellow line before Hamas is disarmed.
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Speaker 1: The Gaza Strip is demilitarized to the Israeli official said,
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Speaker 1: the line marks territory controlled by Israel since the sides
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Speaker 1: agreed to cease fire in October. The territory amounts to
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Speaker 1: about half of the enclave. Ibram al madhund, A Ghazan
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Speaker 1: politician analyst seen as close to Hama, said the plan
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Speaker 1: that represents significant political progress toward an end of the war,
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Speaker 1: but optimism must remain cautious. He said in a statement,
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Speaker 1: Israel is not finalized disposition and Netanyahu is evading and
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Speaker 1: trying to evade the deals entitlements. A month ago, Hebrew
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Speaker 1: University political scientists Gaily Tashir noted Netta Yahu was boasting
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Speaker 1: that Israel controlled seventy percent of the Gaza Strip, implying
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Speaker 1: that the IDF had gone beyond the yellow line. Tashir
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Speaker 1: predicted the IDF would first withdraw to the yellow line
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Speaker 1: later if Hamas is indeed disarmed. He said, the IDF
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Speaker 1: will gradually withdraw to the perimeter with elections in October
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Speaker 1: kyl Shir said Yahoo doesn't want to give opponents the
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Speaker 1: opportunity to say he has approved the withdrawal of military
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Speaker 1: forces in either Gaza or Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hasbellah.
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Speaker 1: Israel has in fact withdrawn from several villages in southern Lebzon,
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Speaker 1: ceding controlled back to the Lebanese army, and Trump's announcement
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Speaker 1: suggests s'more to come. There appears to be a gap
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Speaker 1: between the facts and how Neta Yahu is presenting them.
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Speaker 1: Titled Sheer, said Netanyahu, she said, is trying to portray
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Speaker 1: himself as close to Trump but also able to stand
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Speaker 1: up to it. This is the narrative he sells in
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Speaker 1: Israel that only Netanyahu can say no to an American president.
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Speaker 1: This is both contradictory and makes Trump's blood boil. Right
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Speaker 1: wing national security minister It's tomorrow, Ben Gevere said Friday.
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Speaker 1: The agreement will allow Jumas to organize for the next massacre. Madhun,
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Speaker 1: the Gaza analyst, said the Israeli elections will complicate implementation
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Speaker 1: of any agreement. Gaza war has turned into political and
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Speaker 1: electoral material, he said. Guy D. Eisenkott, leading challenger to Netanyahu, said,
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Speaker 1: the infuriating gap between his promises and reality has been exposed.
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Speaker 1: The deal stems from his political weakness, the former IDF
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Speaker 1: chief of staff said, and will leave Hamas in power
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Speaker 1: in Gaza. Michael Milstein, the former advisor on Palestini affairs
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Speaker 1: to the Israeli military, said there appear to be a
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Speaker 1: gap between Netta Yahu's claim of an excellent meeting with
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Speaker 1: Trump and the details from the agreement, but he said
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Speaker 1: he doubts Trump is set on the details of the deal.
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Speaker 1: I say this cautiously, but it seems that what is
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Speaker 1: happening aligns with Hamasa's interests, which is mainly the growing
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Speaker 1: pressure on Israel to begin withdraw said Milstein, was now
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Speaker 1: at the Moshidayan Center of Tel Aviv University. No one
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Speaker 1: is conditioning every single bit of progress in the agreement
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Speaker 1: on complete disarmament. The government's mistake, he said, was refusing
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Speaker 1: to engage with the political track. The deal ends up
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Speaker 1: being forced on you from the outside. For Netanyahu, he said,
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Speaker 1: the timing is a nightmare scenario if Trump is determined
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Speaker 1: to push this forward, realizing he isn't securing achievements in Iran.
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Speaker 1: Living in a Ukraine and Netanyahu remains extremely stubborn about
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Speaker 1: not complying with anything. This opens the door to friction.
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Speaker 1: The question Madhun has said is whether the Trump administration
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Speaker 1: can oblige Israel to implement what is agreed upon. Hussam
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Speaker 1: al Hwati hoped so. After three years of war and
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Speaker 1: killing and destruction and siege, I say enough. The guy's
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Speaker 1: a merchants said on Friday, we don't want to resist.
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Speaker 1: He said, Hamas is weak. Now, they are not in
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Speaker 1: a position to continue the fight. It's time to return
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Speaker 1: back to our normal life, travel sending our children to school. Next.
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Speaker 1: Trump insists vandals damaged reflecting pool and blasts the DOJ
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Speaker 1: for dropping charges. President Trump said Saturday he disagreed one
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Speaker 1: hundred percent with the decision by federal prosecutors to drop
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Speaker 1: a criminal charge of vandalism against a man accused of
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Speaker 1: damaging the reflecting pool, rebuking US Attorney Jeanine Piro, one
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Speaker 1: of his staunchest allies. In a case that drew national attention,
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Speaker 1: David davy Herne, a sixty seven year old Olympic canoeist,
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Speaker 1: was indicted on a felony charge after Piro, the top
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Speaker 1: federal prosecutor, in DC, a long time Trump ally alleged
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Speaker 1: that he forcefully and vinally he ripped the newly installed
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Speaker 1: liner on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. Piro's office reversed
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Speaker 1: course Friday with the court filing that said the peeling
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Speaker 1: of the liner was the result of a botched installation
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Speaker 1: by a contractor rushing to finish the project. The head
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Speaker 1: of celebrations to mark the nation's two hudred and fiftieth anniversary,
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Speaker 1: I don't know what she was thinking, Trump wrote a
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Speaker 1: Piro on truth Social on Saturday. To me, it was
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Speaker 1: a pure case of vandalism. He acknowledged that there may
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Speaker 1: have been some contractor difficulty, that said the major cause
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Speaker 1: was vandalism. The president his wrestle with numerous hurdles in
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Speaker 1: his effort to remake the nation's capital in his image,
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Speaker 1: sweeping undertaking strong lawsuits, got an alarm over soaring costs
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Speaker 1: and stirred criticism for disregarding regulations. Hern and his legal
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Speaker 1: team and called the case an outrageous abuse of prosecutorial
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Speaker 1: resources by the Trump administration. Hearness said he was cycling
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Speaker 1: past the pool in June and reached his hand into
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Speaker 1: the water, only to touch a piece of liner that
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Speaker 1: was already dislodged. After prosecutors dropped the charges, Hearne's legal
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Speaker 1: team said in a statement that they were considered the
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Speaker 1: case far from over and that their client is considering
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Speaker 1: legal remedies. Trump is mad at Piro because she finally
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Speaker 1: admitted that we made clear in our legal filings all along.
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Speaker 1: Trump's botched renovation was responsible for the damage, not Davy Hearn,
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Speaker 1: The attorney said. Piera's office did not immediately respond Saturday
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Speaker 1: to a request for comment. The contractor, Atlantic Industrial Codings,
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Speaker 1: did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday,
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Speaker 1: though the contractor defended its work in a June statement
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Speaker 1: on his website. Prosecutors attributed their Friday decision to new
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Speaker 1: end information they received from the Interior Apartment of Documents
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Speaker 1: showing that the damage was the result of a botched
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Speaker 1: installation and not vandalism as initially represented as represented by
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Speaker 1: the department. Interior Secretary Doug Bergham sided with Trump on Saturday,
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Speaker 1: writing on exit, the evidence is clear that vandalism was
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Speaker 1: what damaged the pool. Trump and Veil's plan to overhaul
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Speaker 1: the historic site in April, predicting that the work would
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Speaker 1: cost less than two million dollars and be completed in
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Speaker 1: less than two weeks. The cost ultimately ballooned more than
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Speaker 1: fourteen million, and the works directed out for six weeks,
18:40
Speaker 1: with questions from preservationists and other experts about whether Trump's
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Speaker 1: rapid renovations would backfire. The pool was soon beset by
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Speaker 1: algae outbreaks, and the basin's new American flag blue Liner,
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Speaker 1: began to peel. The presidents responded by allegingndals were to blame,
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Speaker 1: accusing them of cutting parts of the pool with knives
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Speaker 1: and box cutters. Washington Post analysis satellite imagery and photos
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Speaker 1: and videos taken in June during the renovation found that
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Speaker 1: the basin's peeling was probably due to application errors. The
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Speaker 1: findings were supported by experts and waterproofing materials, while administration
19:22
Speaker 1: officials continued to dispute that the surface had been improperly applied.
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Speaker 1: Hearn has a status hearings scheduled for Thursday. The government's
19:33
Speaker 1: approach was ready aimed, ready fire, aim, as lawyer said
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Speaker 1: in a statement. Soon after prosecutors moved to dismiss charges
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Speaker 1: against Herne, the administration owes mister Hearn an apology. Our
19:46
Speaker 1: next story, the last day of a factory in Trump
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Speaker 1: Country as its work moves to China. For forty years,
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Speaker 1: six days a week, Joe Klima rose before dawn in
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Speaker 1: the same house on Barber Drive and drove about a
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Speaker 1: mile through the same factory, which produced some of the
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Speaker 1: world's finest tubas, French horns and souzophones, and a small
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Speaker 1: city northeast of Cleveland. His routine stayed more or less
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Speaker 1: the same through seven presidents, four recessions, and several American
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Speaker 1: wars in the Middle East. The plants workforced halved and
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Speaker 1: pay dropped. China flooded the world with cheap goods. Politicians
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Speaker 1: came and went, offering unfulfilled promises to reverse the long
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Speaker 1: slide of American industry, and Klima kept going to work.
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Speaker 1: It was a hard job, buffing heavy brass instruments on
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Speaker 1: lethively swift industrial light, and most nights he slept soundly,
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Speaker 1: But in the small hours of June thirtieth he lay
20:55
Speaker 1: awake in his bed. A little more four or five am,
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Speaker 1: he rose and packed his lunch. Head of Klima was
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Speaker 1: his last shift the con Selmer plant in East Lake, Ohio.
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Speaker 1: Everyone's last shift because The factory was closing at a
21:13
Speaker 1: time when the President of the United States said the
21:16
Speaker 1: country was in the midst of a manufacturing renaissance. The
21:20
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty people who still worked at the
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Speaker 1: plant were losing their jobs and seeing many of them
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Speaker 1: off shore to China. Careful not to wake his girlfriend,
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Speaker 1: Clema put on his Pittsburgh Pirates ball cap and walked
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Speaker 1: into the warm, dark morning. A cream sickle orange moon
21:38
Speaker 1: hung low in the sky as he stepped into his
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Speaker 1: charcoal dodge ram and slowly back down the driveway. At
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Speaker 1: sixty four. Clema was tall and broad, with strong arms
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Speaker 1: and hands. People at the plant called him Grandpa or Papa.
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Speaker 1: It was out of reverence for the energy he still
21:56
Speaker 1: brought to one of the factory's most dangerous jobs and
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Speaker 1: to the bargaining table. Managers had informed Klima and other
22:04
Speaker 1: union leaders in January con Selma was closing its each
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Speaker 1: late plant. Some production would move to a non union
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Speaker 1: factory in Elkhart, Indiana. The rest was going to China,
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Speaker 1: where the company had begun building a twenty one million
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Speaker 1: dollar manufacturing facility in twenty twenty four in Jiangzhu Province.
22:26
Speaker 1: Union leaders said they were told. Klima and some other
22:31
Speaker 1: old timers at con Selmer could remember a time when
22:34
Speaker 1: politicians assured manufacturing workers in the Midwest that free trade
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Speaker 1: with China or Mexico would on balance improve their lives.
22:45
Speaker 1: But that era was over on the left and more
22:49
Speaker 1: noticeably on the right. It seemed like everyone now talked
22:53
Speaker 1: about reviving the nation's industrial base. Together. We will reclaim
22:59
Speaker 1: our nation's He's the number one manufacturing superpower in the world,
23:04
Speaker 1: the president said on the campaign trail in August of
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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. We will do it, and China won't
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Speaker 1: be even close. Nobody will be when you have Clema's
23:16
Speaker 1: friends and co workers welcomed that message. The neighborhood through
23:21
Speaker 1: which his truck rumbled in the pre dawn darkness, streets
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Speaker 1: without sidewalks, lined with tidy, postwar tracked houses, fronted by
23:29
Speaker 1: green and mostly unfenced lawns, was in a precinct Trumpet
23:34
Speaker 1: won in each of the last three elections. East Lake
23:38
Speaker 1: is emblematic of the white and working class communities that
23:42
Speaker 1: were once overwhelmingly loyal to the Democratic Party but have
23:46
Speaker 1: shifted right work in recent decades. Klima grew up in
23:50
Speaker 1: a Union household where political allegiances weren't set up for debate.
23:56
Speaker 1: He still considered himself a Democrat, and he disliked Trump
24:01
Speaker 1: was blustery and tawdry. Sex scandals rubbed him the wrong way,
24:05
Speaker 1: but he didn't consider himself partisan. He thinks he probably
24:09
Speaker 1: voted for Ronald Reagan in the nineteen eighties. He said
24:12
Speaker 1: he wasn't paying in a close enough attention to remember.
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Speaker 1: My opinion is, whoever the president is doesn't affect a
24:21
Speaker 1: middle class person. Clemas said, maybe I'm bitter or something,
24:26
Speaker 1: and you claim his coworkers were certainly bitter. A lot
24:30
Speaker 1: of them had voted for Trump and pressed by his
24:32
Speaker 1: vows and those of his supporters to defend America and
24:36
Speaker 1: restore factory jobs. In September of twenty twenty four, billionaire
24:41
Speaker 1: hedge fund owner John Paulson, an advisor to the President
24:45
Speaker 1: and one of his biggest fundraisers, gave an interview supporting
24:49
Speaker 1: Trump's tariff proposals on CNBC. What you see as a
24:54
Speaker 1: hollowed out American manufacturing base, and we need to protect
24:58
Speaker 1: American jobs and protect American manufacturing. Paulse sid, we can't
25:03
Speaker 1: have Americans, American producers closing American factories and offshoring. Paulson
25:11
Speaker 1: is a legendary figure in the world of New York finance.
25:14
Speaker 1: Made much of his money through a press and bet
25:17
Speaker 1: against the US housing market for its collapse in twenty
25:20
Speaker 1: oh seven, personally netting four billion dollars. But through his
25:27
Speaker 1: investment firm, Paulson had other holdings that extended beyond the
25:30
Speaker 1: credit default swaps that so enriched him at the otset
25:34
Speaker 1: of the Great Recession. Over the years. They included stakes
25:38
Speaker 1: in a mining company, a commercial forest interest, and a
25:41
Speaker 1: media conglomerate. And they included con Selmer, whose parent company
25:46
Speaker 1: Steinway Musical Instruments had been acquired in twenty thirteen by
25:51
Speaker 1: Paulson's investment business. Con Selmer's sixty one year old Eastlake Factory,
25:57
Speaker 1: a low slung building between a fronte road and a
25:59
Speaker 1: field overgrown with wild grass and golden rod, was now
26:03
Speaker 1: opening for the last ship making instruments in the United States.
26:09
Speaker 1: Cleamer pulled into the parking lot and joined his coworkers
26:12
Speaker 1: who were streaming in through the plants in rear entrance
26:15
Speaker 1: beneath the rising sun. Some paused on the threshold before entering.
26:21
Speaker 1: This is it one said, shaking his head. Cleamus wiped
26:26
Speaker 1: his security badge at the door and stepped briskly inside
26:29
Speaker 1: with his head down. A few minutes after Cleman went in,
26:33
Speaker 1: he was followed by the current union president, Rob Hines. Heines,
26:38
Speaker 1: who's forty had arrived at Conzelmer through a temp agency
26:42
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen. Almost immediately he realized he never wanted
26:47
Speaker 1: to work any place else. Heines marveled at what he
26:51
Speaker 1: discovered on the hot factory floor, which resounded with the
26:55
Speaker 1: clinking of mallets, the wine of buzz saws, and the
26:58
Speaker 1: roar of industrial fans. Automated rolling mills had transformed the
27:03
Speaker 1: steel industry and robotic spot welding and put people out
27:07
Speaker 1: of work in Detroit's great car factories, but the process
27:11
Speaker 1: of shaping sheets of brass into gleaming musical tools had
27:15
Speaker 1: so far been largely in paravos to technological shortcuts. Hind
27:22
Speaker 1: started in ta room, where the metal was made pliant
27:26
Speaker 1: with hot pitch and then shaped laboriously by hand. As
27:30
Speaker 1: others showed him what he was doing wrong and how
27:33
Speaker 1: to write it, he began to absorb the trade into
27:36
Speaker 1: his mind and hands. Once an instrument's bell was symmetrical,
27:41
Speaker 1: its tail curved as perfectly as a shel of of Nautilus.
27:44
Speaker 1: It was sent to the buffing room. This was where
27:48
Speaker 1: Klima had worked for most of his career and where
27:51
Speaker 1: Hinz light Klema, a tall and powerful looking man, wound
27:55
Speaker 1: up as well. The buffers brought cohn Selmer's to a
28:00
Speaker 1: high sheen by applying the instruments to an industrial lath,
28:04
Speaker 1: spinning on average twenty six hundred times a minute. Accidental
28:10
Speaker 1: contact with a lathe and a lost finger or worse.
28:14
Speaker 1: The work was physical. The souzophone, for instance, is a
28:18
Speaker 1: large wearable tuba used in marching bands. Buffers had to
28:23
Speaker 1: wrap themselves within it, manipulating the instrument with their bodies,
28:27
Speaker 1: and a strange dance to ensure every surface was properly finished.
28:32
Speaker 1: Klima had gotten his job decades earlier through his father
28:36
Speaker 1: in law, who also worked at con Selmer. Now that
28:40
Speaker 1: man was dead, as was Kleima's wife, who passed away
28:43
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one after they raised three children together.
28:48
Speaker 1: On the morning of June thirtieth, Kleima and Hinz donned
28:51
Speaker 1: their blue aprons and gloves and steel to boots, but
28:55
Speaker 1: there wasn't much to do. Production had been winding down
28:59
Speaker 1: ahead of the factory's closure. A few new instruments were
29:03
Speaker 1: going out the door. What little work remained was mostly
29:07
Speaker 1: small repairs to products and warranty. Claim had spent the
29:11
Speaker 1: last few days having craft the special lamps made from
29:14
Speaker 1: engraved in instruments that workers traditionally received upon retirement. They've
29:19
Speaker 1: go to older, longtime employees, who, like Klema, not planned
29:24
Speaker 1: to look for new jobs. Clema's was a trumpet model
29:28
Speaker 1: fifty two B with a beautiful platinum machine. The words
29:33
Speaker 1: forty years of service wretched along the bell. You'd been
29:38
Speaker 1: planning to retire next year at sixty five. The grand
29:42
Speaker 1: scheme of things, It wasn't much of a difference. So
29:45
Speaker 1: why did it feel like such a blow? You worked
29:48
Speaker 1: there forty years all your life, he said. You want
29:52
Speaker 1: to retire, You want to walk out and say goodbye
29:54
Speaker 1: to everybody. Now this is a goodbye, you know. Heine's
29:59
Speaker 1: an awesome hope to retire from con Selmer, leaving the
30:02
Speaker 1: plant one day with his own lamp. He had previously
30:05
Speaker 1: held jobs in shipping base and hospital cafeterias. I'd start
30:09
Speaker 1: jobs and quit jobs, he said, I felt like I
30:12
Speaker 1: truly found a home when I came here. The factor
30:15
Speaker 1: was not some kind of workers paradise. Work was tough,
30:19
Speaker 1: and management could be unforgiving. Especially in the last few years,
30:25
Speaker 1: hind Sid supervisors have been trying to speed up production
30:27
Speaker 1: in a way that some employees saw as prizing quantity
30:32
Speaker 1: over quality. The company had started using some instrument parts
30:37
Speaker 1: from China, a cost saving measure, they dismayed. Workers were
30:41
Speaker 1: unhappy with the import's flimsiness and poor design. Despite these frustrations,
30:47
Speaker 1: and despite the early mornings, aching limbs and sometimes grueling pace,
30:53
Speaker 1: there was something inside the plant that Hines had not
30:55
Speaker 1: experienced elsewhere. You know a word. It was pride. He
31:01
Speaker 1: saw it in his coworkers would stop and stare in
31:04
Speaker 1: appreciation of the phenix finished French horn or suzophone. He
31:08
Speaker 1: saw it in the school children sometimes toured the factory
31:12
Speaker 1: where the instruments used in the Cleveland Orchestra and the
31:14
Speaker 1: Ohio State University marching van were made. It's truly amazing
31:20
Speaker 1: what we do here, hind Sid, and so. On his
31:23
Speaker 1: last shift, as many others talked and laughed and cried,
31:27
Speaker 1: Hines put on his headphones and buffed the bells of
31:30
Speaker 1: a few last suzophones. The manufacturing of this particular model,
31:36
Speaker 1: Hines had been told, was being offshore holy to China.
31:42
Speaker 1: He turned the instrument at the leath, deliberately, reflecting that
31:45
Speaker 1: they might be the last of their kind of Conselmers
31:49
Speaker 1: made in the United States. People said the Eastlake plant's
31:54
Speaker 1: workforce was like family. Figuratively, whether this is true dependent
31:59
Speaker 1: on who you spoke to, but literally it was frequently
32:01
Speaker 1: the case. Toward lunchtime, Adam Razazuski sixty three set up
32:07
Speaker 1: a grill and a tent in the parking lot with
32:09
Speaker 1: his two brothers, Scott and Jimmy. All had worked at
32:13
Speaker 1: conn Selmer. Adam and Scott had retired, and Jimmy now
32:16
Speaker 1: worked at the Cleveland Cliff Steel Company. Their father had
32:20
Speaker 1: been the factory's union steward, and each of them had
32:23
Speaker 1: been union leaders. In turn, Jimmy's wife had worked at
32:27
Speaker 1: con Selmer and his son still did. Brothers fired up
32:31
Speaker 1: the grill and cracked the dewey cans a bud light.
32:34
Speaker 1: Jack Swanson, who had worked at the plant for forty
32:37
Speaker 1: five years before retiring in twenty nineteen, reminisced with Adam
32:42
Speaker 1: about the time they snuck a stripper into the men's
32:44
Speaker 1: bathroom for Swanson's birthday. We worked hard Swanson's head, but
32:49
Speaker 1: we had fun. As a Kuski shook his head, Oh,
32:52
Speaker 1: we had so much fun. By early afternoon, the summer
32:57
Speaker 1: sun was beating down workers on the break from nothing
33:00
Speaker 1: doing nothing inside, joined by retirees who had come to
33:03
Speaker 1: honor them, crowded under the small pavilion Roseshuski's brothers had
33:08
Speaker 1: set up for the shade. Heines was moved to see
33:13
Speaker 1: so many people who no longer worked at the plant
33:15
Speaker 1: show up on a miserably hot day. Good to see
33:19
Speaker 1: you all, he said, shaking hands with Dave Knutchell, who
33:22
Speaker 1: had retired after more than four decades at con Zelmer.
33:26
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming out neutral Hell onto Heine's hand,
33:30
Speaker 1: looked him in the eye. You know how important this
33:33
Speaker 1: place was, he said. Heine's knew. He had run for
33:37
Speaker 1: president of the United Auto Workers Local twenty three point
33:40
Speaker 1: fifty nine, which represented Conzelmer workers in Eastlake, promising to
33:45
Speaker 1: find a way to work with management to keep the
33:48
Speaker 1: plant productive and profitable for years to come. Theirs was
33:53
Speaker 1: the only one Conzelmer's three US factories that was still unionized,
33:59
Speaker 1: But when Einset down to con Zelmer executives to lead
34:02
Speaker 1: his first contract negotiation, he was told there was nothing
34:06
Speaker 1: he could do to stop the plant's closure. A spokesman
34:09
Speaker 1: for Paulson referred questions to con Zelmer. Company officials did
34:14
Speaker 1: not respond to repeated requests for comment. Con Selmer vice
34:18
Speaker 1: president Nicole Eversol wrote to state and local officials in
34:22
Speaker 1: April that the factory's closure was unavoidable because of repeated
34:28
Speaker 1: annual financial losses caused by an ill inability to be
34:32
Speaker 1: cost competitive with competitors based in Asia. Uawu's national staff
34:39
Speaker 1: launched a pressure campaign to shame Paulson and keeping the
34:43
Speaker 1: plan open. Trumpet often boasted about his power to stop
34:48
Speaker 1: companies from offshoring jobs. All those bad things that you
34:52
Speaker 1: had to suffer with, you're not going to suffer anymore
34:54
Speaker 1: because now people in companies have an incentive to stay.
34:57
Speaker 1: He told workers in an Ohio appliance factory, into they're
35:01
Speaker 1: not going to be leaving so fast. I want to
35:03
Speaker 1: make sure these companies aren't leaving. Perhaps workers in union
35:08
Speaker 1: leaders thought the President might call Paulson and tell him
35:11
Speaker 1: to change course. Paulson had, after all, supported Trump since
35:16
Speaker 1: his first campaign, and the men's relationship went back to
35:19
Speaker 1: at least twenty twelve, when Paulson and others had sold
35:23
Speaker 1: Trump the Doral Resort and spa in Miami. Or maybe
35:27
Speaker 1: Vice President jd Vance, an Ohio native who spoke often
35:31
Speaker 1: about the importance of manufacturing and who had hung out
35:35
Speaker 1: with Paulson at fundraisers in the Hamptons and Palm Beach,
35:38
Speaker 1: might intervene. Senator Bernie Marino, an Ohio Republican, called the
35:44
Speaker 1: chief executive of con Selmer to try to keep the
35:47
Speaker 1: factory open in its jobs in the US. According to
35:50
Speaker 1: Marino's office, the company did not change course through the
35:56
Speaker 1: last week of June. Hindzid he still hoped someone in
35:59
Speaker 1: high play might pull some strings. We just wanted John
36:03
Speaker 1: Paulton to come to the table, he said. Now, just
36:07
Speaker 1: a few hours left in the workday, the East Lake
36:10
Speaker 1: workers were starting to accept that help wasn't coming. It's
36:15
Speaker 1: all a farce. Adam Rossiskwski said of one of Trump's
36:19
Speaker 1: promises to protect American factory workers like Klaima, He'd never
36:24
Speaker 1: like the president. I'm not a Trump fan. I can't
36:27
Speaker 1: stand he said, another con simmer retiree, Bob Almos, but
36:31
Speaker 1: I like what he does. Fetching another beer from the cooler,
36:35
Speaker 1: Adam Rosakwski turned and squinted at him. What the hell
36:39
Speaker 1: are you talking about? Have you seen the other guys?
36:42
Speaker 1: Almost said, they're socialist communists. He shook his head. He
36:47
Speaker 1: used to be a Democrat. Then I seen how they
36:50
Speaker 1: went and the Republicans. Roscusey said, how did they go?
36:54
Speaker 1: It's all false promises, said in At Dombrowski, a sixty
36:58
Speaker 1: four year old janitor at the factory, also voted for Trump.
37:01
Speaker 1: I'm done. I'm not voting ever again. These were the
37:07
Speaker 1: kind of political discussions Clema tried to avoid, you, gud
37:11
Speaker 1: argued Toll. You were blue in the face about what
37:13
Speaker 1: Trump had done and not done, and whether it was
37:15
Speaker 1: better or worse than Biden. Experts could debate whether his
37:19
Speaker 1: tariffs had hurt the American companies which they were meant
37:21
Speaker 1: to help appoint. The federal data which showed the Americans
37:24
Speaker 1: had lost about seventy five thousand manufacturing jobs since Trump
37:28
Speaker 1: took office in twenty twenty five, continuing a larger trend
37:32
Speaker 1: underway since the late nineteen seventies. What Kleman knew was
37:37
Speaker 1: that the plant ran three shifts, employing three hundred people.
37:40
Speaker 1: When he first walked through the door at age twenty
37:42
Speaker 1: three and was sputtering to a final halt. He was
37:46
Speaker 1: angry for himself, but worried for others, all the young
37:50
Speaker 1: men and women who would not have what he did.
37:53
Speaker 1: A lot of people working here, people in their thirties
37:55
Speaker 1: and forties. They wanted to retire from here. They're going
37:59
Speaker 1: to get family members in here once they left. He said,
38:02
Speaker 1: it did it for me all these years, and now
38:05
Speaker 1: it just how do you say? It just took the
38:08
Speaker 1: wrung right out from under you. Mid afternoon, after managers
38:12
Speaker 1: gathered everyone for a group photo, they let them off early.
38:17
Speaker 1: Clema wandered over to the cookout. Hamber Bloom, the tall
38:21
Speaker 1: woman with purple dyed hair who worked in shipping and
38:23
Speaker 1: receiving in a neighborhood business, had printed out stickers that
38:28
Speaker 1: she had handed out to the now unemployed instrument makers,
38:31
Speaker 1: and they read f John Paulson. The last day of
38:35
Speaker 1: work at con Selmer ended at the bog Side Pub,
38:39
Speaker 1: a bar and a strip mall, about three miles away
38:42
Speaker 1: from the factory. It was loud and crowded and warm,
38:45
Speaker 1: and there was a problem with the ace, but luckily
38:49
Speaker 1: it was fixed soon after The workers began to pour in.
38:53
Speaker 1: They embraced and took photos at the occasional shouting match
38:57
Speaker 1: or standoff that was quickly diffused. None of this was unusual,
39:01
Speaker 1: said Travis Sarka, who's thirty two and had worked at
39:04
Speaker 1: the factory for eleven years. We're in there six days
39:07
Speaker 1: a week, working, sweat and fighting and loving each other
39:11
Speaker 1: the whole time, he said. It really hurts, and we're
39:15
Speaker 1: not leaving on our own terms. The barmaids, harried, looking
39:19
Speaker 1: but friendly, and their stretchy black work wear knew almost
39:23
Speaker 1: everybody claimus, stood along the wall sipping a pint of Budweiser.
39:28
Speaker 1: He wore one of the f John Pauls and stickers
39:31
Speaker 1: on the back of his shirt, just beneath the collar.
39:34
Speaker 1: Some of his co workers would spend the next day
39:37
Speaker 1: filling out unemployment paperwork if you already had new jobs
39:41
Speaker 1: lined up. Clam's girlfriend had begun to draw up a
39:45
Speaker 1: schedule for his first day. Every time yard Work tripped
39:49
Speaker 1: to see her parents, Walleye fishing with his buddies, there
39:53
Speaker 1: would be the grandkids little league games through the summer,
39:56
Speaker 1: and deer hunting in the fall. None of this aid
40:00
Speaker 1: the feeling of giddy dread that hung over the bogside.
40:03
Speaker 1: Clema and I might not be interested in politics, but
40:07
Speaker 1: he knew that what was ending in Eastlake wasn't just
40:10
Speaker 1: about him. We worry about a lot of these younger guys,
40:13
Speaker 1: his girlfriend, Bridgets McBride said, who had joined the Conzelmer
40:17
Speaker 1: workers at the bar. Clema bellied up next to McBride
40:21
Speaker 1: and ordered another beer. I don't have to go to
40:24
Speaker 1: work tomorrow, he said. Heines appeared his shoulder. I came
40:29
Speaker 1: over here to say hi to her, the young union
40:32
Speaker 1: leader said, laughing and nodding him at Bride was scrolling
40:35
Speaker 1: her phone looking for a dinner delivery. This was not
40:39
Speaker 1: strictly true. Heines respected Clema as much as anybody else
40:44
Speaker 1: on the plant. The older man had helped teach him
40:47
Speaker 1: the unwieldy ritual of large instrument buffing. Heines sometimes called
40:52
Speaker 1: him Uncle. One of the co workers, a young guy
40:55
Speaker 1: with kids who Clima thought was a hard worker, walked
40:58
Speaker 1: up and held out his hand. He was calling it
41:00
Speaker 1: a night. Clema stared at him for the moment and
41:03
Speaker 1: cleared his throat. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse
41:06
Speaker 1: and halting. Hope everything works out for you, Clema said,
41:12
Speaker 1: squeezing the younger man's hand and clapping him hard on
41:15
Speaker 1: the back. We got this. Others were also saying goodbyes,
41:20
Speaker 1: and the crowd at the Bogside pub began to thin out.
41:24
Speaker 1: Hines perched on a stool and did some shots with
41:26
Speaker 1: the stragglers outside. It was finally cooling off, and a
41:30
Speaker 1: hazy orange sun dipped toward the horizon. Soon afterward, Hines
41:35
Speaker 1: caught an uber back to his apartment in the nearby
41:37
Speaker 1: city of Mayfield Heights and went to bed. He drifted
41:41
Speaker 1: off and woke up a little before two am. His
41:45
Speaker 1: mind worred as he thought about the months and years ahead.
41:49
Speaker 1: Heines sat on his couch in the dark and looked
41:51
Speaker 1: at his phone, pulling up the group photo taken in
41:54
Speaker 1: the afternoon outside the factory. Staring at that image in
41:58
Speaker 1: the small hours, it occurred to him that he might
42:00
Speaker 1: never again know virtually everyone he worked with, nor would
42:05
Speaker 1: he share with another group of co workers what has
42:07
Speaker 1: existed inside the old factory off the front road in
42:10
Speaker 1: East Lake. Hines and some of his younger cow workers
42:14
Speaker 1: had talked of getting commercial driver's license. Now, as he
42:18
Speaker 1: lay awake early in the morning of the first day
42:19
Speaker 1: of a very different life, he decided on a solitary
42:23
Speaker 1: career path. Hines wanted to be an older generation and
42:28
Speaker 1: what it had and what Kilmer had and what he
42:31
Speaker 1: had briefly been a part of. But he didn't think
42:34
Speaker 1: he would easily find it again, and he wasn't sure
42:37
Speaker 1: others were either. For workers like him, the world was changing,
42:42
Speaker 1: at least in the near term. Hines liked the idea
42:45
Speaker 1: of sitting in a truck by himself the next story.
42:51
Speaker 1: Trump sales he'll push hard for a payout fund and
42:54
Speaker 1: keep Blanche as acting Attorney general. Resident Trump threatened on
42:59
Speaker 1: Saturday to revive his controversial plan for federal payouts to
43:03
Speaker 1: people he said were badly treated by the Obama and
43:07
Speaker 1: Biden administrations, telling senators that he would push hard for
43:11
Speaker 1: legislation to fund these payments as they did not confirm
43:14
Speaker 1: his nominee for Attorney General. I will immediately be back
43:19
Speaker 1: on the table and I'll get it done, Trump wrote
43:21
Speaker 1: on troth social vowing to pass the anti Weaponization Bill
43:27
Speaker 1: should his nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General fail
43:30
Speaker 1: in the Senate, Trump added he would keep Blanche as
43:34
Speaker 1: an attack at acting attorney general and blasted two Senators,
43:39
Speaker 1: John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Tillis of North Carolina,
43:42
Speaker 1: who blocked the nomination from advancing over concerns about the fund.
43:47
Speaker 1: It was not immediately clear what legislation the President was referencing,
43:51
Speaker 1: as the White House declined to elaborate on Trump's post.
43:55
Speaker 1: The nearly one point eight billion dollar payout fund proposal,
43:58
Speaker 1: meant to compensate people who claimed they were improperly investigated
44:02
Speaker 1: by the government, has drawn rare bipartisan backlash from Congress,
44:07
Speaker 1: with Democrats riding it as a taxpayer backed slush fund
44:12
Speaker 1: to reward Trump allies some Republicans, raising fears that money
44:16
Speaker 1: could go to those who attacked police during the January sixth,
44:19
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one attack on the US Capitol. The Justice
44:23
Speaker 1: Department announced the proposal in May as part of a
44:26
Speaker 1: deal it struck between it and Trump to resolve his
44:29
Speaker 1: lawsuit against the IRS, with the league of his tax
44:33
Speaker 1: return to the media pushed back from wallmakers, Blanche has
44:38
Speaker 1: repeatedly declared since then that the plans for the fund
44:41
Speaker 1: are dead, yet Twump Trump twice undermined Blanche's promise This
44:47
Speaker 1: week is Blanchie's nomination stalled in the Senate, first suggesting
44:52
Speaker 1: the fund was alive and later conceding that it was
44:54
Speaker 1: dead that he very much wished it weren't. After Trump's
44:59
Speaker 1: threat on Saturday, Tillis said it was now clear the
45:01
Speaker 1: President intends to resurrect the payout for pot for punks,
45:05
Speaker 1: either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress
45:10
Speaker 1: to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans
45:13
Speaker 1: in the Senate would be against. It's unfortunate that Todd Blanche,
45:18
Speaker 1: who I consider qualified for the job, will not be
45:20
Speaker 1: confirmed because of this reversal, Tillis rode on social media.
45:24
Speaker 1: Tillis and coryn have emerged as the critical obstacles to
45:29
Speaker 1: confirming Blanche. The senators, who are not in the running
45:32
Speaker 1: for re election. After clashing with the White House, said
45:36
Speaker 1: they won't back down until the Trump administration commits to
45:39
Speaker 1: limiting the scope. But the president's deal with the Justice Department,
45:42
Speaker 1: including codifying and writing what that plans for the payout fund,
45:47
Speaker 1: won't move forward. The federal judge who was overseeing Trump's
45:51
Speaker 1: lawsuit denounced it in a recent ruling as an illegitimate
45:55
Speaker 1: legal dispute, giving that the president's attorneys and the Justice
45:59
Speaker 1: depart and lawyers representing the Irs both ultimately reported to
46:04
Speaker 1: Trump and were not actually opposed. She accused the parties
46:08
Speaker 1: of improperly attempting to manipulate the court process by using
46:12
Speaker 1: the suit as a pretext to come up with a
46:15
Speaker 1: questionable deal, which was reached without court approval. Trump's lawyers
46:20
Speaker 1: announced Friday they will appeal that ruling, a move that
46:23
Speaker 1: has only further muddied the issue. While Cornyn and Tillis's
46:27
Speaker 1: standoff with the administration have left Blanche's Senate confirmation prospects
46:33
Speaker 1: in Limbeau. The Justice Department and the Senator spent much
46:37
Speaker 1: of the last week swapping proposals and counterproposals that would
46:40
Speaker 1: alter the deal. While Cronin and Tillis at several points
46:45
Speaker 1: expressed optimism that they were moving forward toward an agreement
46:49
Speaker 1: with Blanche and the Justice Department, each time they said
46:53
Speaker 1: those talks were derailed by the White House. I think
46:57
Speaker 1: as far as Blanche in the Department of Justice, we
47:00
Speaker 1: were pretty much on the same page Cron until reporters Thursday,
47:03
Speaker 1: but then when the President got wind of it, he
47:06
Speaker 1: wasn't the matter could come to a head next week.
47:11
Speaker 1: Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chair of the
47:14
Speaker 1: Senate Judiciary Committee, announced late Friday that he was rescheduling
47:19
Speaker 1: the committee vote on Blanche's nomination for Tuesday. A statement
47:23
Speaker 1: from the office suggested that the move was an effort
47:25
Speaker 1: to buy more time for the White House to secure
47:28
Speaker 1: votes for the President's nominee. Meanwhile, the Senate isn't unlikely
47:32
Speaker 1: to heed Trump's calls for legislation establishing the payout fund
47:37
Speaker 1: through an Act of Congress. Senate Republicans revolted when the
47:41
Speaker 1: Justice Department announced the fund in May. To protest it,
47:46
Speaker 1: lawmakers left Washington without passing legislation to find immigration enforcement agencies.
47:52
Speaker 1: The Senate only passed the bill once Blanche's testified that
47:56
Speaker 1: the plans to set up the fund were dead. Concerns
48:00
Speaker 1: about the fund continues to run deep among sinnered Republicans.
48:04
Speaker 1: A dozen of them voted for a failed amendment offered
48:07
Speaker 1: by Tillis in June that would have barred any federal
48:11
Speaker 1: funds from being used in connection with the fund and
48:15
Speaker 1: the next story, Coyotes overtake abandoned housing development, vexing neighbors
48:24
Speaker 1: in a region where the demands for housing outpaces of supply.
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Speaker 1: A pack of coyotes that made a vacant construction site
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Speaker 1: their home for months. Residents in the dense West Hollywood,
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Speaker 1: California neighborhood say if they complained about the coyotes at night,
48:42
Speaker 1: coyote howls echo through the development, keeping residents awake during
48:47
Speaker 1: the day. Some dog owners say they worry about the
48:50
Speaker 1: safety of their furry companions. This week, the neighborly dispute
48:55
Speaker 1: became a local spectacle after news outlets reported on the
48:58
Speaker 1: coyotes home, dubbed by a neighbor as the Coyote Condos.
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Speaker 1: Over the past week, the block has been flooded with
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Speaker 1: on lowers, onlookers and reporters, and even a helicopter trying
49:13
Speaker 1: to capture an image of the coyotes from above. With
49:17
Speaker 1: all the attention, the pack has not been coming out
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Speaker 1: as early. The howls come later and later into the night.
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Speaker 1: It's kind of a cophony of howls. Neighbor Colin Newman said,
49:29
Speaker 1: describing how the structure amplifies the coyotes' cries in every direction. Newman,
49:34
Speaker 1: who has lived in the neighborhood for ten years, captured
49:36
Speaker 1: the howls from across the street. If you've ever seen
49:40
Speaker 1: the Lion King, imagine a pack of hyenas in the
49:44
Speaker 1: middle of the wilderness and there's no escape. Neighbors say
49:48
Speaker 1: the site has been vacant for years. Already under construction
49:52
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen, the development faced opposition from neighbors and
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Speaker 1: the West Hollywood Planning Commission. According to an article from
50:00
Speaker 1: the w e h U online, City of West Hollywood
50:06
Speaker 1: said construction on the unfinished twenty two unit condominium building
50:09
Speaker 1: was halted in twenty twenty four. It sets in a
50:13
Speaker 1: densely populated block of shouldered shoulder apartment buildings over a
50:18
Speaker 1: mile from any open wild space. Across Los Angeles, coyote
50:24
Speaker 1: sightings are common. While some generally avoid human contact, others
50:29
Speaker 1: can lose their fear of humans impose a risk, especially
50:32
Speaker 1: to dogs and cats. The scary part is when we
50:36
Speaker 1: walk our dogs. Jesus Zavala, a neighbor, said, while walking
50:40
Speaker 1: as Chihuaba Zoe, they can just come out and grab dogs,
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Speaker 1: especially small ones. But after four or five months, the
50:49
Speaker 1: coyotes are now commonplace, Zavala said, and he knows longer
50:54
Speaker 1: nervous to take Zoe out at night. Many that walk
50:57
Speaker 1: their dogs in the neighborhood look unbothered. The fire, hydrants
51:01
Speaker 1: and street signs are fully utilized. Under a full moon
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Speaker 1: late Thursday night, the only howls came from curious onlockers
51:10
Speaker 1: hoping to get a glimpse of the pack. Look a
51:13
Speaker 1: family walking their dog's head and pointed to a room
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Speaker 1: on the third floor where all they could see was
51:19
Speaker 1: the outline of a coyote. Soon it retreated into the shadows.
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Speaker 1: One car of people waited over an hour to hear
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Speaker 1: the coyotes. The city of West Hollywood follows a coexistence
51:33
Speaker 1: plan that favors non lethal practices to reduce harmed humans.
51:38
Speaker 1: The city says there are requiring the property owners to
51:41
Speaker 1: swiftly retain the wildlife control expert and take next steps.
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Speaker 1: The owners did not return a request for comment. Newman
51:52
Speaker 1: City hopes there will be a resolution that makes people
51:54
Speaker 1: feel safe, but also points out that there are a
51:57
Speaker 1: handful of other vacon structures in the area. First, there
52:01
Speaker 1: were homeless people squatting and now they're coyotes. As far
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Speaker 1: as I'm concerned, it's theirs newmanstead of the coyotes. They're
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Speaker 1: the ones occupying it and living in it. Might have
52:12
Speaker 1: been paying rent, but they're probably got a good deal
52:15
Speaker 1: on it because they're just setting there and next the
52:18
Speaker 1: biggest gamble in the US economy is starting to look riskier.
52:25
Speaker 1: Over the past decade, the giants of Silicon Valley became
52:29
Speaker 1: reliable engines of the American economy. In the nation's retirement
52:32
Speaker 1: accounts must have digital products like Google and Facebook, cooked
52:38
Speaker 1: people in businesses viewing geysers of cash that made tech
52:42
Speaker 1: giants the new blue chip stocks, fattened investment portfolios as
52:46
Speaker 1: market sword the finances of American technology stalwarts now look
52:52
Speaker 1: very different. To develop and deliver what the companies say
52:57
Speaker 1: is revolutionary artificial intelligence, they're feeding every available dollar into
53:03
Speaker 1: the cash and cinerating maw of AI machines. Tech superstars
53:08
Speaker 1: that once had oodles of cash left over at the
53:10
Speaker 1: end of each ear are now flipping into the red
53:14
Speaker 1: with enormous stakes for every American and the wider economy.
53:19
Speaker 1: The optimist in Silicon Valley, the White House, and beyond
53:23
Speaker 1: the big AI bet promises and even bigger payoff, huge
53:27
Speaker 1: corporate profits, a society wide boost to wealth and well
53:32
Speaker 1: being when AI delivers the promised transformation of life, work,
53:36
Speaker 1: and the economy. But questions about what AI vision are
53:41
Speaker 1: now growing more urgent. When, if ever, will this payoff
53:45
Speaker 1: arrive and what will the fallout be for Americans If
53:49
Speaker 1: the Titanic investment doesn't quickly deliver, This AI thing better
53:54
Speaker 1: work out, because if it doesn't, we're going to have
53:56
Speaker 1: a problem, said Torsen Sluck, chief economist and investment firm
54:01
Speaker 1: Apollo Global Management. AI costs and doubts are spreading. The
54:06
Speaker 1: US stock market has swoon this summer over fear that
54:10
Speaker 1: the AI bubble is going bust. The AI boom is
54:14
Speaker 1: pushing up inflation, adding to President Trump's challenges and tackling
54:18
Speaker 1: americans affordability concerns. There are signs that AI may be
54:23
Speaker 1: widening the economic divide between the countries haves and have
54:26
Speaker 1: nots by directing more wealth toward places and people that
54:30
Speaker 1: are already economically ahead. The AI gamble sweeping up American
54:36
Speaker 1: fortunes is led by tech companies splurging on hulking data
54:40
Speaker 1: centers packed with computer chips and employees and equipment needed
54:45
Speaker 1: to develop sophisticated AI models and deliver them to customers
54:50
Speaker 1: and investor calls. In the past week, Google, Microsoft, Meta,
54:54
Speaker 1: and Amazon pointed to soaring AI related sales and business deals.
55:00
Speaker 1: Advertisers are using the technology to tailor marketing pitches, and
55:04
Speaker 1: corporations and startups are buying access to chatbots and other
55:08
Speaker 1: AI software to boost productivity. The wider US economy, including
55:13
Speaker 1: construction workers and electricians, are getting a lift from the
55:17
Speaker 1: building out of AI computer hubs, but this spending can
55:21
Speaker 1: only continue if AI generates an even larger avalanche of
55:26
Speaker 1: new revenue to pay for it. Financial results released over
55:30
Speaker 1: the past week show that the AI titans mammoth costs
55:34
Speaker 1: are largely swamping the sales boost from the technology. At Google,
55:40
Speaker 1: for every dollar of cash it's business generated in the
55:43
Speaker 1: past three months, a dollar fifteen went out the door
55:48
Speaker 1: to pay AI for computer chips and equipment, land for
55:52
Speaker 1: AI data centers, and other big ticket purchases. The company
55:57
Speaker 1: is covering the difference partly by borrowing money selling more stock.
56:02
Speaker 1: Next year, five leading AI companies Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta,
56:08
Speaker 1: and Oracle are projected to have negative free cash flow
56:13
Speaker 1: which measures the cash left over after paying expenses and
56:16
Speaker 1: AI infrastructure costs. The figures, based on Investment Analysis projection
56:22
Speaker 1: compiled by S and P Global Market Intelligence, shows a
56:26
Speaker 1: stunning reversal what have been some of the world's most
56:30
Speaker 1: cash generating corporations. On Thursday, Amazon CEO Andy jasse gave
56:37
Speaker 1: an impassioned defense of the company's huge spending to capitalize
56:42
Speaker 1: on what he said was sustained zeal from businesses to
56:45
Speaker 1: buy AI. We have a clear line of sight to
56:49
Speaker 1: strong financial futures, he told investors. The companies remain profitable
56:55
Speaker 1: by standard financial accounting measures that spread out the cost
56:58
Speaker 1: of their AI infrastructure spending over many years. Silicon Valley's
57:03
Speaker 1: AI spending spree has become a high stakes rorshack test.
57:08
Speaker 1: AI boosters see the mam of cost of building out
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Speaker 1: computing facilities for AI as a rational, once in a
57:14
Speaker 1: lifetime opportunity to cash in on insatiable demand for history's
57:20
Speaker 1: most transformative technology. Pessimist say I be's so gargantuan that
57:25
Speaker 1: it cannot possibly pay off. The pessimists are growing louder.
57:31
Speaker 1: The Bank for International Settlements, a typically measured institution in
57:35
Speaker 1: Switzerland that advises government bankers around the world recently warned
57:40
Speaker 1: that there was a risk of economy wide recessions if
57:43
Speaker 1: the AI boom Falters researcher Barbara Denham lead economists to
57:50
Speaker 1: researcher and consulting firm Oxford Economics, found that the large
57:54
Speaker 1: US metropolitan areas that are already economic winners are benefiting
57:58
Speaker 1: most from the AI boom. Dinnam said that's because many
58:02
Speaker 1: of the tech companies developing AI and the white collar
58:04
Speaker 1: industries have been the most avid users of AI and
58:07
Speaker 1: are concentrated in wealthy regions, including the Bay Area, New York, Seatland,
58:11
Speaker 1: d C. The economic gains of the AI boom are
58:17
Speaker 1: self reinforcing, she said. And this concludes the reading of
58:21
Speaker 1: the Washington Post for today, Monday, August third read for
58:25
Speaker 1: today has been Rod Brotherton. If you have any questions, comments,
58:29
Speaker 1: or suggestions concerning the program Pete, please feel free to
58:33
Speaker 1: call us at eight five nine four two two sixty
58:35
Speaker 1: three ninety. Thank you for listening, and now please stay
58:39
Speaker 1: tuned for continued programming right here on Radio I