Latest / Washington Post / 6.28.25
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading Today's Washington Post for Saturday, June
- 0:04the twenty eighth of twenty twenty five. Your reader is
- 0:08Alice Stainer, with the reminder that RADIOI is a service
- 0:12for those blind with disabilities making it difficult to read
- 0:16our whole printed material. I start with the front page
- 0:21of Today's Post. On the far left. President of UVA
- 0:26quits amid dei fight, James E. Ryan says he hoped
- 0:32to spare the school of battle with the doj by
- 0:37Dan Rosenwig Zip, Laura Bozzella and Gregory S. Schneider. That's
- 0:45on the far left. Taking up the rest of the
- 0:48front page. In big headlines are Justice's key rulings go
- 0:53Trump's way, and just below that are a list of
- 0:58ford two three foot two three foot four different rulings
- 1:06with pictures of the justices underneath the rulings. In the
- 1:12first part is his nationwide injunctions and birth right citizenship.
- 1:18The Supreme Court backed President Donald Trump's request to scale
- 1:22back nationwide orders from lower courts that have blocked his
- 1:28order to ban birthright citizenship, and there were three dissenters
- 1:35and six conservatives. The liberal descendants six conservatives with Ammy
- 1:42knit Barrett writing the rule that passed, and the dissenters
- 1:49are all the same three Justice Sod, Mayor, Justice Jackson,
- 1:54and Justice Kagan, and the conservatives are Justice Roberts, Kevanaugh, Barrett, Gore, Such, Elito,
- 2:05and Thomas. The next one was parental rights and religious freedom.
- 2:12The Court sided with Montgomery County parents, saying public schools
- 2:16must allow them to opt their children out of lessons
- 2:22that clash with their religious beliefs, the same three dissenting
- 2:28and the same six for it, with Alito writing the ruling.
- 2:35Preventive health care coverage, the court upheld a portion of
- 2:40the Affordable Care Act that requires health plans to provide
- 2:46free preventive care even if it conflicts with religious beliefs,
- 2:53and the majority ruled in favor of that, with the
- 3:01three Soto, Mayor, Jackson, Kagan, Roberts, Kevanar, and Barrett being
- 3:07on the majority side, with Kevanar writing the law, and
- 3:13the dissenters were A Gors Such Alito and Justice Thomas.
- 3:19And then the last, age verification for online pornography. The
- 3:24Court affirmed a Texas law that requires users to verify
- 3:30their age to access porn sites, rejecting First Amendment arguments
- 3:35from the porn industry, and then the six Conservatives on
- 3:41the ruling side majority, and the three descending with Thomas
- 3:47writing the report for that. Those four rulings with the
- 3:54pictures of the justices take up the center portion underneath
- 3:58on the right hand side, underneath the justice's key rulings
- 4:03go Trump's way. On the right hand side, Supreme Court
- 4:07limits judges orders blocking ban on birthright citizenship An E. Merriman,
- 4:15and below that Maryland parents win religious right to shield
- 4:21children from LGBTQ books Anne Maryma Nicole Asberry, and Laura Mecklin.
- 4:29Now below the fold and across the bottom of the
- 4:32paper on the left hand side, Doze dives in at
- 4:37ATF on a pro gun mission. Dozens of regulations are
- 4:43targeted in a move critics say risk boosting crime. Pierry Stein.
- 4:51In the middle is a picture of West Bailey, founder
- 4:55of Sirreel Studio Services, on a high hospitals set at
- 5:01his production studio, and you see an emergency entrance and
- 5:06he's standing at that entrance holding a door that looks
- 5:09like an emergency entrance to a hospital, and he has
- 5:14a glass in his hand. It's entitled Lights, Camera, but
- 5:21not enough Action. Hollywood faces an exenstential crisis as productions
- 5:29seek lower costs by Rhys Theerbould and then on the
- 5:36far right hand side, Stock Indexes reach record has despite
- 5:42trade tension by Margo Amurral and Taylor Telford. I'm going
- 5:50to start with the UVA president resigns amid Trump administration pressure.
- 5:56James E. Ryan, a University of Virginia alone illness, said
- 6:01the move could save the university from a costly fight.
- 6:05Just a little personal note, I am a Virginian, My
- 6:08family has big ties to UVA. I couldn't graduate from
- 6:13there because back in my college days it was not
- 6:19Women were not allowed at the university back then. But
- 6:22I have strong ties to UVA. Then rosenwig Ziff, Laura Zabella,
- 6:28and Gregory S. Schneider wrote the article. University of Virginia
- 6:35President James E. Ryan resigned Friday, a decision he said
- 6:40he took to try to spare the university a costly
- 6:43fight with the Trump administration amid pressure of a diversity,
- 6:48equity and inclusion initiatives. Justice Department officials had previously told
- 6:54Ryan they'd like him to step down. A person familiar
- 6:58with the matter said the agency declined to comment Friday.
- 7:04In a note to the community, Ryan said he worried
- 7:07that trying to save his own job to fight the
- 7:10federal government would harm UBA researchers relying on federal spending
- 7:15and students who could lose financial aid or their visas.
- 7:21If this were not so distinctly tied to me personally,
- 7:25I may have pursued a different path, but I could not,
- 7:30in good conscience, cause real and direct harm to my
- 7:33colleagues and air students in order to preserve my own position,
- 7:39he wrote, without directly mentioning the Justice Department. It is
- 7:45unclear when his final day will be. The extraordinary move
- 7:50comes as the Trump administration has launched investigations in the
- 7:54universities on a wide range of issues, including anti semitism,
- 8:00diversity efforts as it seeks to bring higher education institutions
- 8:05to heal. That included a probe at Uba over alleged
- 8:09racial preferences in its admissions and what officials called a
- 8:13failure to completely cut DEI initiatives from the school. Allegations
- 8:19brought as some of Ryan's conservative critics publicly demanded his removal.
- 8:25The White House offered a warning Friday to universities supporting
- 8:30the Shay a virtue signaling of Dee. Any university president
- 8:38willingly breaking federal civil rights laws will be met with
- 8:42the full force of the federal government. And it would
- 8:45behoove every school in America to prioritize the civil rights
- 8:50of every student and end de once and for all.
- 8:55A White House spokesman, Harrison Fields said, Education experts and
- 9:01Virginia Democrats called the pressure campaign the latest unprecedented action
- 9:07by the Trump administration to influence university policies outside of
- 9:11the typical legal framework. Senator Tim Kine, Democrat of Virginia,
- 9:18said the administration was threatening to freeze hundreds of millions
- 9:22in research funds and press on with the civil rights investigation.
- 9:26Unlesst Ryan resigned, Cain said on a call with reporters
- 9:34and deeply disturbed that the UVA board and Virginia leadership
- 9:39allowed it to happen without being publicly supportive of the
- 9:43university and telling the Feds remanage our universities, just find
- 9:50stay out of our business. Governor Glenn Youngkin, Republican, who
- 9:56appoints members to the governing boards of Virginia's Public Universities
- 10:01issued his statement that was silent on the Justice Department's tactics,
- 10:05but thanked Ryan for his service and expressed confidence that
- 10:10the board would quickly appoint a strong interim steward. In
- 10:17a separate note, UVA Rector Robert D. Hardy said he
- 10:22accepted Ryan's resignation with profound sadness, praising him for changing
- 10:28UVA forever for the better. Ryan also noted that he
- 10:34had previously decided that the next school year would have
- 10:37been his last. Ryan's resignation, which was first reported by
- 10:43The New York Times, caps a tense and dramatic few
- 10:47months at the Charlottesville Grounds, one of the nation's most
- 10:51highly rated public universities. In March, its Board of Visitors
- 10:57voted to end its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office, citing
- 11:02orders by President Donald Trump to excise DEI programs from
- 11:06the federal government and schools. The resolution, passed by a
- 11:11board overwhelmingly controlled by youngin appointees, allowed the university to
- 11:16transfer programs permissible by law to other homes at the
- 11:21university and requested an update within thirty days. A debate
- 11:26ensued over which programs qualified as permissible A university spokesperson
- 11:32said at the time that the school's Office for Equal
- 11:36Opportunity and Civil Rights, Title non compliance and other important
- 11:41functions were hosed in the DEI office. But Younkin declared
- 11:46after the vote that sorry a little blitch. But Youngkin
- 11:55declared after the vote that DEI is done at the
- 11:58University of Virginia. Critics argued in recent months that Ryan
- 12:02simply tried to rebrand initiatives around THEEI as other programs
- 12:08rather than eradicate it from the university, which said it
- 12:11was complying with the resolution by cutting the DEI office. Then,
- 12:16in an unusual mood move, the Justice Department sent letters
- 12:21to UDA in April in farm Assistant Attorney General Harmitt D. S.
- 12:27Dilhahn and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Gregory W. Brown, both
- 12:33UVA graduates, who said the federal agency expected the university
- 12:38to provide clear answers as to how it had eliminated
- 12:41DEI in specific departments. The officials also asked for the
- 12:46university to identify what happened to each position that it
- 12:50previously had any DEI responsibilities. Some conservative alumni also recently
- 12:57began calling for Ryan's removal over what they saw as
- 13:01his failure to comply with the board's resolution. In May,
- 13:06the Jefferson Council, a group of alumni that advocates against
- 13:10DII initiatives, took out a full page ad in the
- 13:14Richmond Times Dispatch calling on the board to remove Ryan
- 13:18over failures that undermined the university's integrity and founding ideals.
- 13:26In a social media post Friday, the Jefferson Council wrote
- 13:30that Ryan's resignation ends a controversial chapter in the university's leadership.
- 13:37Some of Ryan's critics have also accused of the university
- 13:41if not adhering to a twenty twenty three decision by
- 13:44the Supreme Court to bar race conscious admissions. Last fall,
- 13:49the university tited the socio economic diversity of its incoming class,
- 13:54the first admitted after the Supreme Court allowed conscious practices
- 13:59in twenty twenty three. First admitted act of the Supreme
- 14:03Court oat laud race conscious practices. In twenty twenty three,
- 14:09the freshmen were seven point two percent Black, nine percent Hispanic,
- 14:15twenty percent Asian American, and forty six to one percent white. Recently,
- 14:22two members of UVa's board, Paul B. Manning and incoming
- 14:26rector Rachel W. Sheridan have met with the Trump administration
- 14:31to assess how to move forward, a person familiar with
- 14:34the meetings said, speaking on the condition of animnity to
- 14:39discuss internal manners matters. Some experts say the Justice Department's
- 14:45officials suggested to Ryan that he stepped down amid the
- 14:49ongoing probe has little legal presidents. Peter G. McDonough, general
- 14:56counsel at the American Council on Education, said there are
- 15:00processes for universities to follow for alleged violations of the Wall,
- 15:05and universities must acknowledge when accused of wrongdoing, but there's
- 15:10nothing that exists in this country that enables the federal
- 15:13government to strong arm a university board to replace its leadership,
- 15:18Madonna said, adding the Trump administration is trying to control
- 15:22learning environments to achieve political objectives. After news broke of
- 15:28Ryan's resignation on Friday, several hundreds gathered at the university's rotunda,
- 15:35summoned via social media and bearing handwritten signs with messages
- 15:39including don't cave to fascist, doj hands off air University,
- 15:45and DEI makes us strong. One after another, speakers mounted
- 15:52the steps and spoke to the crowd, which broke out
- 15:54in cheers and chants of we will not bow. Govern McDowell,
- 16:00a professor of literary studies, drew a raw when she
- 16:03said the worst thing you can do in the face
- 16:06of tyranny is to cave. She did not always agree
- 16:10with Ryan's actions as president. She said there was no
- 16:14justification for a bankrupt, illegitimate justice department to interfere with
- 16:20the university. Virginia State Senate majority leader Scott A Sorovo
- 16:26Democrat of Fairfax called Ryan an incredible leader. Trump's interference
- 16:32in the operation of Virginia's universities and any cooperation by
- 16:36those sworn to protect him, will not be tolerated by
- 16:40the Virginia Senate, he wrote on x Ryan, a graduate
- 16:45of UVa's law school, began as university's ninth president in
- 16:50twenty eighteen after serving as dean of the Harvard Graduate
- 16:54School of Education. He led the institution Thomas Jefferson founded
- 16:59through a pandemic a deadly twenty twenty two shooting and
- 17:04protest over the israel gaz Gazarole. He is seen as
- 17:09a prolific fundraiser who connects well with alumni groups and
- 17:13is often seen on university grounds at sports games and
- 17:17running with students in the morning. He tried to strike
- 17:21a middle ground during a nationwide campus protest over the
- 17:24Israel Gaza War last year, saying he respected the free
- 17:28speech rights of students to peacefully protest, but ultimately sided
- 17:33with the decision by police to arrest at two dozen
- 17:37protesters who erected tents without a permit. In April, Ryan
- 17:43was among hundreds of college presidents who signed a letter
- 17:47objecting to what they called the Trump's administrations unprecedented government
- 17:52overreach in political interference now endangering American education. Some Ryan supporters,
- 18:00speaking on the condition of anonymity to discusses since it
- 18:03did matter, fear that action helped put a target on
- 18:07his back. He has also long advocated for DEI programs.
- 18:13In a twenty twenty three essay, Ryan said he disagreed
- 18:16with prohibiting DEI efforts, but said there was room for
- 18:21common ground among its supporters and critics. He said it
- 18:25was important to take seriously the criticism of DEI, and
- 18:29then he was not for mandatory trainings that pushed debatable ideas.
- 18:34Collegests should continue to promote the core elements of the
- 18:38EI as These efforts are crucial to ensuring opportunity and access,
- 18:44attracting and retaining the most talented people, creating a vibrant
- 18:49campus culture, and promoting a richer and more robust exchange
- 18:54of ideas. Ryan wrote on the far right of the
- 19:00pictures of the Justices the top article Supreme Court limits
- 19:04nationwide orders that have blocked Trump's birthright citizenship ban. The
- 19:11ruling keeps Donald Trump's citizenship ban on hold for at
- 19:14least thirty days and sends cases back to lower courts
- 19:19to determine next steps. An e merrima, the Supreme Court
- 19:26on Friday backed President Donald Trump's request to scale back
- 19:30lower court orders that have for months blocked the administration's
- 19:34ban on automatic citizenship for the U. S born babies
- 19:39of undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors, ruling that those nationwide
- 19:45injunctions went too far. The six to three decision, with
- 19:49the liberal justices dissenting, largely strips federal judges of a
- 19:54powerful tool they have used to temporarily halt many of
- 19:58Trump's policies while litigation is pending. It will reshape the
- 20:03early stages of the judicial process when it comes to
- 20:07challenging executive action. The ruling did not address the constitutionality
- 20:14of the president's ban on birthright citizenship, which is a
- 20:18signature part of his immigration crackdown. The United States has
- 20:22long granted automatic citizenship to babies born in the United
- 20:27States when neither parent is aizen or permanent legal resident.
- 20:32Opponents of Trump's ban say it conflicts with the Fourteenth Amendment,
- 20:37past court rulings, and the nation's history. The justices kept
- 20:43Trump's ban on hold for at least thirty days and
- 20:46sent a set of cases back to the lower courts
- 20:50to determine the practical implications of their rulings. It left
- 20:55open a path for challengers to try to continue to
- 20:58block the president's policy nationwide through class action suit lawsuits,
- 21:04but also raised the possibility that birthright citizenship could be
- 21:08cut off in the twenty eight states that have not
- 21:11joined lawsuits against it. Now, there's a section of the
- 21:17ruling and dissents, but I'm not going to read them.
- 21:20Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said nationwide
- 21:25injunctions probably exceed the power that Congress had granted to
- 21:29the federal courts. Judges, she said, must limit the relief
- 21:33they grant to the individuals and organizations who file lawsuits,
- 21:37in this case, the States, and pregnant non citizens who
- 21:41challenge the policy, Barrett wrote. Some say that the universal
- 21:47injunction gives the judiciary powerful tool to check the executive branch,
- 21:53but federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the
- 21:57executive branch. They resolve case and controversies consistent with the
- 22:02authority Congress has given them. When a court concludes that
- 22:06the executive branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not
- 22:11for the court to exceed its power. Too. For twenty
- 22:15minutes inside the court room, just as so so, the
- 22:20mayor read a summary of her descent to emphasize strong
- 22:24disagreement with the opinion, which he calls a travesty of
- 22:28law and warned would cause chaos for the families of
- 22:33all affected children. The High Court's conservative majority, she said,
- 22:38had ignored the unlawfulness of Trump's citizenship ban and instead
- 22:42declared the president generally free to enforce unquestionably unconstitutional policies
- 22:49against everyone except those who filed suit. That the court
- 22:55uses this case, of all cases, to review the question
- 22:59of you. Universal injunctions is shameful, said Sodomayor, who was
- 23:05joined in her written descent by Justices Elena Kagan and
- 23:09Katanji Brown Jackson. She added, if there was ever a
- 23:15case where universal injunction is appropriate, it is this one
- 23:19under every historical precedent. The ruling was one of five
- 23:25issued Friday, the final day of the Supreme Court term,
- 23:29and has implications for other cases in which judges have
- 23:32blocked the administration's initiatives or nationwide. In a news conference,
- 23:38Trump celebrated the decision, saying we can now promptly file
- 23:43to proceed with numerous policies that have been wrongly enjoined
- 23:47on a nationwide basis. Trump said that in addition to
- 23:52birthright citizenship, the administration will seek to reopen cases that
- 23:57have limited his policy on ending fund to sanctuary cities,
- 24:02which limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts, suspending refugee resettlement,
- 24:09freezing unnecessary finding, and permitting federal money from being used
- 24:14for surgeries for transgender people. We have so many of them,
- 24:20I have a whole list, Trump said. Sky Perriman, president
- 24:25of the advocacy group Democracy Board, said the ruling was
- 24:29disappointing but that its effect would not be nearly as
- 24:32sweeping as Trump suggested. There is a nuance and a
- 24:37narrow scope that the White House just ignored, said Perriman,
- 24:41whose group has filed a number of lawsuits against the administration.
- 24:46Conservative commentator Ed Whalen also said in his newsletter Friday
- 24:51that at least in the short term, the ruling is
- 24:55probably going to accomplish much less than many people celebrating realize.
- 25:02Two Democratic led states, immigrantow advocacy groups and pregnant women
- 25:08challenge Trump's ban on birthrights citizenship in federal courts in Massachusetts, Maryland,
- 25:14and Washington State. Those cases will return to the judges
- 25:18who issued the injunctions. They must reconsider in light of
- 25:23the Supreme Court's ruling whether the states meet the Justice's
- 25:27new standard for obtaining broad relief. The Supreme Court's decision acknowledged,
- 25:33for instance, an argument from states challenging the band, which
- 25:37says the harm it would create can be fixed only
- 25:41with a blanket order that applies nationwide, in part because
- 25:46children move across state lines are born outside their parents'
- 25:50state of residence. The majority left it to the lower
- 25:54courts to evaluate the state's assertions and said the judges
- 25:59should determine whether a narrower injunction is appropriate. In a statement,
- 26:04Maryland Attorney General Anthony D. G. Brown, Democrats, said the
- 26:09court's ruling means families across that country must continue to
- 26:13live an uncertainty about whether their children born on US
- 26:17soil will be recognized as American citizens. But he said
- 26:22the decision leaves open the possibility of a new, far
- 26:26reaching court order that Maryland and other challenges say is
- 26:30necessary to address the president's ban. This Unamerican executive order
- 26:36will not go into effect immediately. This fight is not over.
- 26:41We will continue to challenge this unlawful order because justice
- 26:45demands it. Brown said. Legal experts predict a surge of
- 26:50new litigation. Friday's ruling allows judges to halt policies nationwide if,
- 26:57for instance, they are doing so in response to class
- 27:00action lawsuits filed on behalf of groups of similarly situated people.
- 27:06The decision does not address whether courts separately can invalidate
- 27:10other types of federal agency action nationwide through the Administrative
- 27:15Procedure Act, which requires extensive notice and commitment or extensive
- 27:21notice and comment when agencies implement new rules hours after
- 27:28the Supreme Court ruling was announced, the advocacy group CASSACASA
- 27:34and other organizations that obtained a nationwide injunction rushed to
- 27:39a federal judge in Maryland with an amended lawsuit seeking
- 27:43class action status for every pregnant person or child born
- 27:47to families with permanent legal status, no matter where they live.
- 27:52The American Civilarities Union and other organizations separately filed a
- 27:57nationwide class action lawsuit in federal court in New Hampshire
- 28:01on behalf of babies born in the United States who
- 28:04would be denied citizenship under Trump's order. If any of
- 28:09those efforts are successful, the issue could quickly rebound the
- 28:13Supreme Court. While Friday's decision effectively strips district courts of
- 28:19authority to grant nationwide injunctions, it appears to give the
- 28:23justices an even bigger role in fielding request for broad
- 28:27relief from presidential orders while litigation is underway. Justice Brett M.
- 28:34Cavanagh said that is the proper role for the High
- 28:38Court to resolve major legal questions of national importance and
- 28:43ensure uniformity. Kavanaugh wrote, some might argue that preliminary disputes
- 28:51over the legality of major news statutes and executive actions
- 28:55can draw this Court into difficult or controversial matters earlier
- 28:59than we might like, as distinct from what happens on
- 29:03our lower, slower moving merits docute. That is an understandable concern,
- 29:10he wrote in the concurring opinion, adding, but when it
- 29:16comes to the interim status of major new federal statutes
- 29:20and executive actions, it is often important, for reasons of clarity, stability,
- 29:26and uniformity, that this Court be the decider. Presidents in
- 29:32both parties, members of Congress, and several Supreme Court justices
- 29:36have long decried nationwide injunctions for giving outsize power to
- 29:40individual judges to halt a president's agenda. The broad orders
- 29:46temporarily block a policy or regulation while litigation is underway
- 29:50if a judge thinks that the action may be unconstitutional
- 29:54or that implementing it could cause immediate harm. During the
- 29:58Biden administration, nationwide injunctions halted vaccine mandates, stimulus programs for
- 30:06farmers of color, and emigration policies. On Friday, Republican lawmakers
- 30:12celebrated the Court's ruling, calling it a significant step toward
- 30:16addressing a bipartisan problem. Universal injunctions are an unconstitutional affront
- 30:24to our nation's system of checks and balances and ought
- 30:27to be stopped for good, Senator Chuck Grassly, Republican of Iowa,
- 30:33said in a statement, adding, the Supreme Court has now
- 30:37affirmed that federal courts are overstepping in their use of
- 30:41universal injunctions, and the Department of Justice has a right
- 30:45to forcefully challenge such overreach. The ban is just one
- 30:50of the Trump's administration's initiatives to dramatically restrict legal and
- 30:56illegal immigration. Trump has barred the entry of travelers to
- 31:00the United States from more than a dozen countries, and
- 31:03has taken steps to fast track deportations of alleged gang
- 31:07members from Venezuela, suspend refugee admissions, and removed legal protections
- 31:13from more than five hundred and thirty thousand migrants. On
- 31:18his first day back in the White House, from signed
- 31:21in the executive Order to end automatic citizenship for the
- 31:24US born children of undocumented immigrants and foreign workers and visitors.
- 31:31The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, established citizenship
- 31:35for freed black Americans, as well as all persons born
- 31:40are naturalized in the United States and subject to the
- 31:44jurisdiction thereof the citizenship clause reversed the Supreme Court's infamous
- 31:51decision in dread Scott versus Sandford, which had denied citizenship
- 31:56to black Americans. Trump and his ally say they can
- 32:01ban birthright citizenship because unauthorized immigrants are in the country
- 32:05without permanent legal status and therefore are not subject to
- 32:10the jurisdiction of the US government. But most legal scholars,
- 32:15as well as the Democratic led States and immant rights
- 32:19groups challenging the policy say Trump's argument would require a
- 32:23reinterpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment and conflicts with settled Supreme
- 32:28Court president that protects citizenship from most everyone born on
- 32:33US soil, except the children of foreign diplomats. The Supreme
- 32:38Court upheld the guarantee of birthright citizenship in eighteen ninety
- 32:42eight when it ruled that Wong kim arc a child
- 32:46born in San Francisco, was the citizen even if his
- 32:50immigrant parents were subjects of the Emperor of China. Continuing
- 32:58on the front page bottom left, doze enters ATF with
- 33:03mandate to slash gun regulations. The agency is working with
- 33:08the ATF General Council to cut upwards of fifty regulations
- 33:13as the administration drastically reduces the number of inspectors. And
- 33:18there is a picture of a very empty lobby of
- 33:23the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives National
- 33:29Center for Explosives Training and Research in Huntsville, Alabama. I
- 33:34didn't know that's where it was located. There's this huge
- 33:38symbol of the ATF and Explosive logo on the front,
- 33:46with the scales of Justice, a chevron in the center,
- 33:49surrounded by the olive branches of peace, three stars at
- 33:53the top, and sunlight across the floor, with one worker
- 33:58walking up the steps. By Pierre Stein, The US Doege
- 34:04Service has sent staff to the Bureau of Alcohol to
- 34:07back of Firearms and Explosives with the goal of revising
- 34:11or eliminating dozens of rules and gun restrictions by July fourth.
- 34:16According to multiple people with knowledge of the efforts, who
- 34:19spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that
- 34:23have not been made public, the initial target was to
- 34:27change forty seven regulations, an apparent reference to Donald Trump's
- 34:32status as the forty seventh president of the United States.
- 34:36Two of the people said, but ATF and doze staffers
- 34:40are now poised to exceed that goal, with upward of
- 34:44fifty changes planned. The revisions are part of a seismic
- 34:49shift unfolding at ATF as the Trump administration proposes slashing
- 34:54the law enforcements agency's budget and dramatically reducing the number
- 34:59of inspectors who ensure that gun sellers are in compliance
- 35:03with federal laws. Some Republicans in Congress have called for
- 35:07abolishing the agency altogether, and Attorney General Pambondi has said
- 35:12she wants to merge ATF with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
- 35:18If the plans are enacted, it would be a major
- 35:21win for pro gun advocacy groups, who have long claimed
- 35:25ATF is an agency with too many gun regulations that
- 35:29tramples on Second Amendment rights. Gun control advocate sphere that
- 35:34the changes afoot at ATF will more easily allow potentially
- 35:39dangerous people to obtain weapons with little recourse. The exact
- 35:44scope and details of the potential changes are still being determined.
- 35:49ATF has hundreds of regulations, and revisions could include changing
- 35:53the responsibilities of certain ATF positions, updating what types of
- 35:59fire are can be imported in making licensing fees were fundable.
- 36:06As Attorney General Bondy has made clear, ATF is working
- 36:11hard to reduce regulatory red tape that burdens lawful gun
- 36:16owners and to ensure agents are doing real police work
- 36:19hunting down criminals and gang members, not knocking on the
- 36:24doors of lawful gun owners in the middle of the night,
- 36:28said Chad Gilmartin, a spokesman for the Justice Department, which
- 36:33oversees ATF. The Trump administration backed ATF General Council Robert Leita,
- 36:41an ardent second Amendment advocate, is overseeing the changes at ATF,
- 36:46whre working with DOZE. The people said. He has shifted
- 36:50additional ATF fraternities to work on the changes. DOZE is
- 36:56a non cabinet agency originally launched by b in their
- 37:00Elon Musk to carry a controversial cost cutting efforts that
- 37:05have resulted in mass attempted layoffs and legal battles with
- 37:09mixed results. The agency has more recently begun pushing for
- 37:14policy and regulatory changes. In addition to dozens of regulation cuts,
- 37:20Leda and his team are planning to change the legally
- 37:24mandated forty four to seventy three form that most buyers
- 37:29are required to fill out when purchasing a firearm, shrieking
- 37:32it from the current seven pages to as few as
- 37:35three pages. Gun sellers are required to keep the records
- 37:39and have them readily available if law enforcement needs them
- 37:43to trace a gun during a criminal investigation, or if
- 37:47ATF inspectors visit to see if the seller is complying
- 37:51with federal laws. Gun rights proponents have complained that the
- 37:56form is too cumbersome and long ripe for people to
- 37:59make states. They accused the Biden administration of punitably punishing
- 38:05people for simple paperwork errors, allegations that the Biden administration
- 38:10has denied, pointing to public data that shows that fewer
- 38:14than one percent of the one hundred and thirty thousand
- 38:17or so licensed gun sellers and manufacturers got their licenses
- 38:21revoked between July twenty twenty one and December twenty twenty four.
- 38:28People familiar with the potential changes said the form instructions
- 38:32would be truncated, and that some of the questions to
- 38:35determine if a potential buyer is legally allowed to own
- 38:38a firearm may be condensed into one large yes or
- 38:43no question. For example, separate questions to ask people to
- 38:48answer if they had been committed to a mental institution,
- 38:52have been dishonorably discharged from the military, are on an
- 38:56unlawful user of drugs. These and others could be combined
- 39:01into one question under the potential changes, two people familiar
- 39:06with them said, the question asking if the potential bias
- 39:10a felon would remain a standalone question. Some people interviewed
- 39:16said they feared that the changes could lead to more
- 39:18inaccuracies and may make it harder for prosecutors to be
- 39:23able to prove that someone intentionally lined when filling out
- 39:26the federal form to purchase a gun. In a high
- 39:30far profile case last June, and jury and Delaware convicted
- 39:34President Jobiden's son, Hunter of Biden, for lying about his
- 39:38drug use when he filed that federal form to purchase
- 39:42a gun. Others celebrated the potential changes. I don't know.
- 39:48We are going to see changes to the forty four
- 39:50to seventy three and we are getting close. That's in process.
- 39:54Larry Keene, the General counsel of National Sporting Shooting Sports Foundation,
- 40:00a fire arms trade association, said on the Bearing Arms,
- 40:05Cam and Company podcast this week. He said people just
- 40:10need to be a little patient, give ATF General Council
- 40:14some time in dotting the i's and crossing the t's
- 40:18and the internal review that has to take place. But
- 40:21people will be pleased as we move forward, and I
- 40:24think we will see significant progress in correcting bad rulings.
- 40:30Under the Justice Department's latest budget proposal, the Trump administration
- 40:35would slash five hundred and forty one of ATF's more
- 40:39than eight hundred inspectors. Multiple people interviewed said that the
- 40:43current inspection workforce is already stretched thin and inspect a
- 40:48fewer thin ten percent or nine thousand, six hundred and
- 40:52ninety six of businesses and people who hold licenses to sell, collect, import,
- 40:58or manufacture fire arms. There is no federal requirement for
- 41:03how often a gun store a manufacturer must be inspected,
- 41:08but inspectors typically visit a dealer if an abnormal number
- 41:12of crimes are committed with guns that come from a
- 41:14specific store, or if a large number of crimes are
- 41:18committed by people who newly purchase guns from a single place.
- 41:22Inspectors may also visit a seller a manufacturer if they
- 41:26haven't had an inspection in years. Inspectors are allowed to
- 41:31make unknownced visits to license holders only during business hours.
- 41:37People familiar with ATF said that with just a few
- 41:41one hundred inspectors, there would probably be fewer arm related inspections.
- 41:47Federal law requires that explosive sites must be inspected at
- 41:51least once every three years. They are currently around nine
- 41:56thousand federal explosive licensees, which means that the REMI three
- 42:00hundred and fifty or so inspectors would be responsible for
- 42:04inspecting three thousand explosive sites each year. Gun control advocacy
- 42:11groups said there would be fewer resources left to dedicate
- 42:14to firearm inspections. They feared that gun sellers and manufacturers
- 42:19would have a little incentive to be diligent with their
- 42:22record keeping, which they said can make it harder to
- 42:25trace firearms involved in crimes. They said these records can
- 42:30be crucial in identifying gun traffickers. The administration seems help
- 42:37bend on ushering in a golden age for gun criminals,
- 42:41gutting the only agency specifically tasked with keeping communities safe
- 42:46from gun violence. John fine Blant, president of every Town
- 42:52for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, said in
- 42:55this statement to The Washington Post, adding these cuts would
- 43:00be a dream come true. For gun traffickers, draw purchasers,
- 43:05and unscrupulous gun dealers, and a nightmare for law enforcement
- 43:11and public safety. Adams Gaggs, chief council and vice president
- 43:16of Gifford's Law Center, another gun control advodacy group, agreed,
- 43:22the administration claims to support law enforcement and care about
- 43:26fighting crime, but they are proposing the most radical defunding
- 43:30of the police we have ever seen from the federal government.
- 43:34Skaggs said Trump has yet to nominate a permanent ATF director,
- 43:39and the administration has pushed out many of its top
- 43:42career staffers, including the second most powerful person at the agency.
- 43:48The administration also booted the agency's longtime general council, making
- 43:53it a political position, and hiring Lighter. In late February,
- 43:59Trump said that Cash Patel, the FBI Director, would at
- 44:03least temporarily lead ATF, a surprise announcement that put Patel
- 44:08atop two major law enforcement agencies with distinct mandates more
- 44:13than six weeks into his job. The post were put
- 44:16in that Patel had shown up at ATF headquarters only
- 44:20once and had scant communication with senior staffers at the agency.
- 44:25The administration then replaced Patel in early April with Army
- 44:30Secretary Dan Driscoll, who holds the two rolls simultaneously. While
- 44:36not on the front page, I'm going to read the article.
- 44:40Supreme Court uphols Affordable Care Acts presventive care mandate. The
- 44:46challenges argued that members of the Preventive Services Task Force
- 44:51were improperly appointed because they were not approved by the
- 44:54Senate Senate. By Justin Juvenal and David o'bali, the Supreme
- 45:00Court on Friday upheld a portion of the Affordable Care
- 45:04Act that requires health plans to provide free preventive care,
- 45:09such as screenings for cancer and HIV. In a six'
- 45:13to three decision That justice has ruled against A christian
- 45:16owned business and individuals who objected to being forced to
- 45:21offer medications intended to prevent the spread OF hiv among
- 45:25people at. Risk the plaintiffs contend the pre Exposure PROPHYLAXIS
- 45:31prp treatment administered to prevent infections and courage and facilitate
- 45:38homosexual behavior in conflict with their religious. Beliefs health care
- 45:43providers and nonprofit organizations said the Case kennedy. Versus, braidwood
- 45:49could have blocked critical health care for Many. AMERICANS A
- 45:53Stanford university study estimated nearly forty Million americans used the
- 45:58acts preventive. Services the preventive care mandate cousins covers dozens of,
- 46:05services from statans to prevent heart disease to screenings for
- 46:10HEPATITIS b AND. Hiv the legal challenge has threatened to
- 46:15hamper access to f WHICH hiv expert c is necessary
- 46:20to stumming one of the world's most rampant infectious. Diseases
- 46:25variety's rulings was one of five opinions from the justices
- 46:28on the final day of The Supreme court. TERM a
- 46:32sixth case was sent for reconsideration next. Term the groups
- 46:37objective to the preventive care mandate on religious, grounds but
- 46:41their legal argument before The High court involved a technical
- 46:45question about the expert panel that decides which measures health
- 46:50plans must. Cover they argued that members of The Preventive
- 46:54Services Task force were improperly appointed because they were not
- 46:59approved by This the, mandate the challengers, said was therefore.
- 47:04Unenforceable The High court rejected that. Argument The health And
- 47:09Human Services secretary since twenty twenty three has made appointments
- 47:13to The Preventive Care Penal Task. Force members issue preventive
- 47:19services recommendations of critical importance to, patients, doctors, insurers, employers healthcare,
- 47:26organizations and The american. People most more, Broadly Justice brett
- 47:31And kavanaugh wrote for the. Majority in doing, so, however
- 47:35the Task force members remained subject to The secretary of
- 47:39HHS's supervision and, direction and The secretary made subject to
- 47:44the president supervision and. Direction public health groups On friday
- 47:49hailed the, decision but also worried it may prove a
- 47:52double edged sword Under trump administration health officials who have
- 47:56rejected long standing public health. Guidance the opinion paves the
- 48:01way FOR Has Secretary ROBERT. F Kennedy junior and prominent
- 48:06anti vaccine, activist and his successors to exert greater control
- 48:11of the panel's, recommendations Said Jose, ABRIGO Hiv project director
- 48:18of The Lambert Legal defense And Education, fund AN ldbtq
- 48:23plus legal advocacy. Organization kennedy recently fired all the members
- 48:29of a key vaccine recommendation, panel replacing them with allies
- 48:33who planned to re examine long settled practices on childhood.
- 48:37Immunization like the task force at issue in The braidwood.
- 48:41Case The Vaccine committee's recommendations compel insurers to pay for preventive.
- 48:47Services the ruling now invites The secretary to cherry pick
- 48:52future recommendation and past. Recommendations the decision could undermine the
- 48:58autonomy of the Task. Force politics should not be injected into,
- 49:03medicine of regular. Said The constitution's appointment clause requires the
- 49:09president to appoint and Win senate approval for principal officers
- 49:14such As cabinet, secretaries federal, judges, ambassadors but Allows congress
- 49:19to best authority in department heads and other officials to
- 49:23appoint inferior. Officers Jonathan, mitchell an attorney for the, challengers
- 49:30said during oral arguments In april that the sixteen member
- 49:33Task force wields significant independent power and its appointees therefore
- 49:38should be considered principal. Officers lawyer's Defending President Donald trump
- 49:44in his classified documents case last, year made a similar
- 49:48argument About Special Counsel Jack, smith and convinced a federal
- 49:52judge appointed By trump in his first term to toss the.
- 49:56Indictment conservative Justices Claire, Thomas Samuel Alito, junior And NEIL.
- 50:03M gorsuch. Dissented in his dissenting, Opinion thomas argued That
- 50:09congress enacted a task for subject to the president's, control
- 50:13not THE Hhs. SECRETARY. Ilya, shapiro a senior fellow and
- 50:19director Of Constitutional studies at The Manhattan, institute a conservative think,
- 50:25tank called the decision. Disappointing this ruling can't help it
- 50:30further entrench the unaccountable bureaucracy that increasingly sets rules by
- 50:35which we live our daily, lives he said in a,
- 50:39statement and to end days reading on the front, page,
- 50:43lights camera but not enough action in a fading Worried,
- 50:49hollywood the world's entertainment, capital is facing an extentential crisis
- 50:54as more movie producers flee to other states and countries
- 51:00seeking lower. Costs heart Of Los angeles By Rhys THEEBALD.
- 51:06Pj byrn has acted in films and television shows across
- 51:10the country and around the world in the past few,
- 51:12years From New york To New, Mexico ireland To. Australia
- 51:17but there's one place he hasn't worked, Lately. Hollywood burn
- 51:22moved To Los angeles more than twenty five years, ago
- 51:24traveling west like so many, others to chase a career
- 51:27in the entertainment. Industry he's been among the lucky, ones
- 51:32landing steady pay and critical acclaim for roles in movies
- 51:35Like The wolf Of Wall street And. Babylon yet more
- 51:40and more his acting jobs are taking him far From Simpson.
- 51:44Town he's got plenty of company, Too as a trend
- 51:47fretfully dubbed runaway production only. Accelerates left behind is A
- 51:54hollywood in. Crisis we are in industry. Town burn, said
- 52:00they're not. Working that Means california is really. Hurting over
- 52:04the past, decade a total film AND tv production In
- 52:07Los angeles is plummeted by nearly forty, percent according to
- 52:12data from the region's Official Film. Office both big named
- 52:16blockbusters and experimental indies have fled to other states and,
- 52:20countries looking for cheaper labor and more attractive tax incentives
- 52:24given studio cutbacks and rising. Costs the economic impact of
- 52:29this exodus extends far beyond. Actors writers and directors hit
- 52:34hardest of the behind the scenes blue collar, workers the
- 52:38makeup artists and set, directors the drivers and dry cleaners
- 52:43who were already struggling to survive in one of the
- 52:46nation's most expensive. Metropolis just as dispariting is the, downturned
- 52:52psychic Told hollywood Is california's most iconic, export as synonymous
- 52:59with the. State this. Sunshine it Made Los angeles a
- 53:03worldwide hub for artists In framer's But america's fantasy factory is.
- 53:08Offshoring evidence is found in empty sound, stages prop hoses
- 53:13selling off their, stock dwindling job. Opportunities the industry is
- 53:19on a cliff, edge clinging by its, fingernails Said George,
- 53:24huang a, screenwriter, director and film professor AT, ucla adding
- 53:30it feels like one more, blow even just a tiny
- 53:33feather on our, shoulder is going to send us careening
- 53:36down to our rocky. Deaths hollywood has weathered upheaval, before
- 53:41starting with the emergence of talkies in the late nineteen,
- 53:45twenties and other, locales whether they Be Vancouver's Hollywood north
- 53:50Or Atlanta's Yollywood, yarleywood have for decades been luring productions. Away,
- 53:59still this moment feels more precarious than. Ever the pandemic,
- 54:04shutdown a pair of attractive labor, strikes And january as catastrophic,
- 54:09wildfliers all battering and industry already experiencing extreme, disruption falling
- 54:16box office revenue empty theaters in the streaming. Era the
- 54:21dire situation has attracted bipartisan, attention With California Governor Gavin
- 54:27newsom And President Donald, trump despite their deepening, hostilities in
- 54:33rare agreement that something must be. Done hollywood is being,
- 54:37destroyed The president declared last, month and the push to
- 54:42reverse the slump is united a diverse range of industry
- 54:46insiders and. Independence burne is one of many advocating for
- 54:50an overhaul of the state's tax credit, program which now
- 54:54lacks far behind competitors renit competing on an even playing.
- 55:01Field we're fighting over scraps at the, table Noted, byrne
- 55:05who studied finance as well as theater in. College The
- 55:10Los angeles fires were a wake up, call he. Said
- 55:13his family evacuated their home and he felt powerless to.
- 55:17Help he was filming at the time In. Dublin how
- 55:21different things were when the first filmmakers from out east
- 55:25came To Los angeles in the early nineteen. Hundreds the
- 55:28prime attaction then. Weather they fled disruptive winters and found
- 55:34a place where they could shoot westerns outside year. ROUND
- 55:39a rush of studios soon set up, shop many of
- 55:42them in the sleepy teetotaling suburb known As Hollywood, city
- 55:47and industry grew up, together a massive movie company, lot
- 55:51sprawling just As Los angeles. Swelled, eventually all but one major,
- 55:55Studio Claramount, pictures relocated to other parts of the, region
- 56:02but the name and symbolism Of, hollywood of dazzling stars
- 56:06on a silver, screen. Endured looked no further than the Famous,
- 56:10sign a towering nine letter advertisement for the industry that
- 56:15has loomed over the city for a. Century look no
- 56:19further than The walk Of, fame The Academy, awards and
- 56:23all the celebrations that still Mark Los angeles as the
- 56:26capital of the entertainment. WORLD i don't care what country you're,
- 56:31firmer what language you, Speak there's one word that everybody,
- 56:36understands and That's, hollywood Said Darnell, dadigan founder of The Hollywood,
- 56:43museum an archives showcasing more than a hundred years of.
- 56:47History for, Many Los angeles was long a default filming,
- 56:53location home to the most experienced cruise in a vast industry.
- 56:58Infrastructure WHEN i, STARTED i was only shooting In la
- 57:04Said Ram, bergmann a producer whose credits Include Knives out
- 57:08And Star wars the Last. Jedi around the Time bergmann
- 57:13arrived here in nineteen ninety, one though lawmakers elsewhere were
- 57:17rolling our plans to rule. Productions by the early two,
- 57:21thousands the competition was in full, swing with states and
- 57:26countries tying to one up each other for producers on tight.
- 57:32Budgets california began making less financial. Sense the, studios the,
- 57:38streamers the. Networks they have less money to, spend but
- 57:41they still need, shows they still need. Movies so how
- 57:45do you maximize the? Money Said, bergmann who hasn't filmed
- 57:49In Los angeles for more than a. Decade it's not
- 57:53even crossed my mind to film IN. La film tax,
- 57:58credits which production companies can sell or use to offset
- 58:01their tax, liability have a mixed track, record and some
- 58:06researchers have criticized them as a poor use of taxpayer.
- 58:09Money they remain popular among, legislatures, however and have proved
- 58:14effective at pulling productions away From Los. Angeles AND i
- 58:18end with that, statement AND i hope you will continue
- 58:22listening TO radioiur programming throughout the rest of the. Weekend stay,
- 58:28dry stay, cool and have a good. Day. Bye