Transcript

3.17.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning and happy Saint Patrick's Day to everybody, and
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welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for this Monday,
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March seventeenth. As a reminder, RADIOI is in deed a
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Your reader for today's Rod Brotherton and by listener request.
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On Mondays, we begin by reading Paul Prather's weekly column
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from the Lexington Herald Leader. This week's article is titled
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Jesus showed that even screwed up families find redemption. Occasionally,
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events flow together in a kind of confluence. It's nice
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when that happens. Plus I like saying the word confluence.
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It rips off my tongue. The other day I rediscovered
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another article I'd saved on my laptop for further thought
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or a column fodder, and then promptly forgotten. That's happening
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a lot this one. An essay by Peter Weiner, the
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contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, was entitled
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why it matters that Jesus came from a dysfunctional family.
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Weiner focuses his essay partly on the genealogy of Jesus
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that opens Matthew's Gospel in the New Testament. Unrelated to this,
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I also happened to be studying for my church's adult
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Sunday school class, which I lead. We always discussed the
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podcast Bob Beema, hosted by Marty Solovon and Brent Billings,
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about whom I know almost nothing except that they're based
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out West and they produced some of the more insightful
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biblical exegus that I've ever encountered. Sunday after Sunday we
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never failed to get a rousing conversation going around a
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Beama episode. As it turned out, this particular week, Solomon
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and Billings were holding forth on the genealogy of Jesus
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in the first chapter of Matthew. Finding Winner's essay in
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the Beam of Guy's podcast reminded me that I too,
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have written multiple times across thirty years about the curiosities
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and you might almost say monstrosities found in the family
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tree of Jesus Christ in all Biblical families. As I said,
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a confluence, huh, And why does an ancient genealogy matter?
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Because Matthew and the Bible writ large dish dirt about
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biblical heroes. To make a larger and profoundly more hopeful point,
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all humanity is royally screwed up. As a result, your
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family is screwed up. Likely you are screwed up to
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and your family may have contributed to that screwed uppiness.
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But your ancestry doesn't have to define your destiny. With
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God's help, you can break the cycle of dysfunction, no
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matter how far.
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Speaker 2: It back it goes.
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Speaker 1: And even if you never managed to escape the cycle altogether,
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God will still use you to accomplish great things. God
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works with messed up people because they're the only kind available.
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But back to Matthew's Jesus. In Biblical times, a person's
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genealogy was sort of his or her resume. You cited
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your family tree to prove your bonafides, to establish your worth.
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As a result, you played up the shiny parts and
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where possible, omitted or at least played down the bad actors.
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Except that Matthew opens his gospel he leads with a
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genealogy that does exactly the opposite. For instance, he throws
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in several women in a tradition where women generally aren't
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considered worth mentioning, and what a list of women, Tamar,
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who disguised herself as a prostitute to sleep with her
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father in law. Rahab, a gentile and a sex worker. Ruth,
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a wonderful person but also a member of the despised
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Moabi tribe Bathsheba, King David's partner in adultery. The men
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in the list are no prizes either, mind you. Among
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my favorites is King David, who, in addition to war making,
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womanizing and murdering his mistress's husband, may have been the
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world's worst all time father. One of his sons raped
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his own sister, then another son killed the rape his brother,
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and led a revolution against David. His dad, and the
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best of David's sons, Solomon, ended up as an idolater.
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Jesus might have been sinless, but those in his lineage
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were not, we are observed.
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Speaker 2: Pithily.
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Speaker 1: The Beam of podcast Guys argued that Matthew went out
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of his way to emphasize Jesus's checkered lineage, partly because
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Matthew was sensitive about his own spiritual baggage. He'd been
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a tax collector before Jesus called him as a disciple.
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In the first century, Middle East, tax collectors were Jewish
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collaborators with the Roman occupation government and were considered by
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other Jews to be traders, sellouts, reprobates of the lowest order.
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By highlighting the crooked, broken limbs in Jesus's family tree,
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Matthew saying, look, God, God Love's losers. This epiphany lies
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at the heart of Matthew's understanding of the good news
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for him, Jesus has turned everything upside down. Those who
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used to be considered outside God's good graces actually are in.
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Those who think of themselves as insiders as the approved,
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are now outside because of their smug self righteousness. Up
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has become down, and down is now up. According to Weener,
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there may be yet another reason in the startling information
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about Jesus's dysfunctional family is highlighted. Perhaps it's to show
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that what could have been a source of shame for
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Jesus wasn't, and therefore that it need not be for
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those of us whose families and histories have shadow sides.
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He wrote, handled rightly, this candor ought to give us hope.
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Pass is not prologue. Wayner said, if Jesus himself came
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from a line of murderers, adulterers, cheats, and frauds. The
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Reverend Scott Dudley, the senior pastor at Bellevue Presbyterian Church
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in Bellevue, Washington, told me, well, then there's hope for
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all of us. He's a cycle breaker, showing that generations
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of dysfunction don't have to be predictive of future events.
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Cycles can be broken, systems can be replaced, families and
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therefore whole nations can be healed. In short, if God
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could take somebody from Jesus's troubled family of origin, I
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haven't even talked about the pettiness and pushback he endured
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from his immediate family in his own lifetime and use
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him to redeem all of mankind, then God can redeem
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something positive the likes of you and me. And as
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you know, Paul Praythro his pastor of the Bethesda Church
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near Mount Sterling and you can email him at prtpd
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at yahoo dot com. Now let's turn to the news
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of the Washington Post for this Monday, and the first
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story is White House official says one hundred and thirty
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seven immigrants are deported under the Alien Enemies Act, more
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than half of the two hundred and sixty one immigrants
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expelled to L Salvador on Saturday were swept out of
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the United States using a wartime powers Act, a White
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House official said Sunday, amid questions about whether the Trump
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administration flouted a judge's order barring the use of that
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statue to hasten deportations, President Trump secretly signed proclamation Friday
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invoking the Alien Enemies Act of seventeen ninety eight, saying
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he would quickly remove Venezuelans age fourteen and over who
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allegedly belonged to the Transnational gang trin de Agawa. Since then,
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one hundred and thirty seven people were dispatched to the
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Central American nation via the proclamation, according to the White
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House official, who again spoke on the condition of anonymity
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to discuss the Trump administration's enforcement strategy. The rest were
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removed under other federal laws, including twenty three people from
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El Salvador with ties to the MS thirteen gang and
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one hundred and one additional Venezuelans. The official sid Us
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District Judge James Boersburg on Saturday temporarily blocked Trump from
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using the Act to swiftly remove immigrants without a hearing,
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and instructed officials to return any airplanes carrying them to
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the United States. He ruled after advocates sued, saying the
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administration was denying immigrants due process and putting them in danger.
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But early Sunday, Trump administration officials shared video footage from
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L Salvador. They showed shackled immigrants being forced off airplanes
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at night and into new mega prisons. Oopsie too late,
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Salvadoran President naieb Burkele posted on x referring to the
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judge's decision, followed by a laughing emoji. Secretary of State
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Marco Rubio reposted it, and a White House spokesman responded.
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Speaker 2: With a meme saying boom.
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Speaker 1: Boukell said the United States sent his country two hundred
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and thirty eight members of the Venezuelan trin Aragua gang
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and more than twenty members of the Salvadoran MS thirteen gang.
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He released a three minute video that showed the alleged
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gang members escorted off three planes by heavily armed men
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wearing camouflage as dramatic music played. The men were loaded
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onto buses and taken to the prison, where their heads
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were shaved. L Salvador said the United States will pay
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for the prisoners to be jailed. Thank you for your
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assistance and friendship, President Broo Kelly Rubio, posted on x
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Trump later reposted the video on social media and thanked
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the Salvadoran leader for his understanding of this horrible situation.
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Rubio did not say how much the United States is paying,
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and State Department officials did not respond to questions. Sunday,
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Trump's decision to deploy the Alien Enemies Act for the
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first time since World War II, when it paved the
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way for the internment of more than one hundred and
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ten thousand Japanese Americans alarmed immigration experts, legals, scholars, and others.
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In exercising this wartime power, Trump called for the swift
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removal of Venezuelans allegedly involved in the trendy aarraghu, stripping
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them of the right to an immigration court hearing. The
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Act has been used only three times before to bar
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citizens of hostile enemy governments from the United States, and
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only one during a declared war. The White House made
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the proclamation's public Saturday afternoon, after advocates for immigrants sued
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Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Policy, Stephen Miller,
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and Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noom helped facilitate and orchestrate
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the weekend.
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Speaker 2: Flights to L Salvador. The White House official said.
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Speaker 1: DHS and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond
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to questions Sunday seeking details about the deportations and whether
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the immigrants were sent to El Salvador in defiance of
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the judge's order. A spokeswoman for the Salvadoran government referred
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to the president's statements. Flight recorders reviewed by The Washington
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Post showed that two flights left for Al Salvador as
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the federal judge was reviewing the case, and a third
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flight left shortly after a written order was issued. The
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first two flights took off from Texas at five twenty
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six pm and five forty five pm Eastern Time, according
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to data from flight Tracker twenty four, a flight tracking site,
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and then just before seven pm Saturday, Bosberg told the
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Trump administration that any deportation flights dispatched using the authority
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should return to the United States. About thirty minutes later,
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a written order to that effect was entered on the
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court docket. Ten minutes after that, a third flight took
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off from Texas. All three made stopovers in Honduras. The
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first two flights arrived at L. Salvador after midnight, at
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twelve ten am and twelve eighteen am. The third flight
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landed at one eight am on Sunday, and there was
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no information made public about which categories of detainees were
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on each flight. The posts matched the flights by looking
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at the planes in the video. Berkley posted which raw
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labeled Global X flights and compared those to the only
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three Global X arrivals to L. Salvador's International Airport on
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March fifteenth and March sixteenth. Ask about the timing of
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the flights, the White House official pushed back on the
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validity of Bolsberg's order, saying a single judge should not
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have the power to usurp the president's authority. We believe
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this is a baseless legal ruling, no matter when the
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flights took off, the official said, adding that the fact
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that two of the three deportation flights were out of
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the country before the judges order strengthens our case. The
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Justice Department said that most, if not all, of those
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deported under the proclamation were serious criminals, but did not
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release their names public so the claims couldn't be independently verified.
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Some of the gang members deported were members of the
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MS thirteen gang tied to El Salvador, and the proclamation
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Friday does not appear to include them. The high profile
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actions made it clear that the administration will deploy force
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and fright to remove immigrants from the United States, even
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if they have to devise extraordinary new ways to do it,
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such as sending them to a country that it's not
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their home country and putting them in jail. The White
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House is online. Mocking of the judicial order by the
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chief federal judge in Washington added to the concern among
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advocates that Trump's determination to carry out the largest mass
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deportation campaign in US history would size step legal and
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humanitarian norms. American Civil Liberties Union lawyer League Gelernt, who
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successfully argued for the injunction at the removal hearing before Bosburg,
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said so that the administration may have subverted the law
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if it expelled immigrants before alerting the public to Trump's proclamation.
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Speaker 2: The administration was legally.
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Speaker 1: Required to publish the proclamation before starting.
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Speaker 2: To use it, but it appears.
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Speaker 1: The administration wanted a head start before any lawsuit could
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be filed. Gellaert said in a statement, We've asked the
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government this morning if they intend to assure the court
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that nobody was removed under the proclamation. After the court's order,
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Michael Kozak, a top State Department officials, said in a
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court filing Sunday that high ranking US officials, including Rubio,
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had been engaged in intensive and delicate negotiations in recent
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weeks with l Salvador and Venezuela to deport trendy Aragua
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gang members. Officials had recently reached an agreement to deport them,
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he wrote. However, the Justice Department said the original plaintiffs,
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five men from Venezuela, have not been deported. Boasburg later
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expanded the case to include any Venezuelan who might be
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subject to Trump's Alien Enemies Act proclamation. Kozak, the senior
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official overseeing diplomatic relations in the Western Hemisphere, said Boasburg's
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ruling halting the removals would harm US foreign policy.
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Speaker 2: The White House and.
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Speaker 1: State led the negotiations, which also included US Special Envoy
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for Latin American Mauricio Clavert Carolone and Special Presidential Envoy
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Richard Grinnell.
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Speaker 2: He wrote the.
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Speaker 1: US Court of Appeals for the Deceased Circuit, which will
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hear the Trump's administration's request.
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Speaker 2: To stay Boasburg's orders, set.
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Speaker 1: A Tuesday deadline for the migrants lawyers to respond, and
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the government has until Wednesday to file a rebuttal. The
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three judge panel hearing the appeals consists of judges Karen
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Lecraft Henderson, Ronald Rays appointee, Patricia Millet, Barack Obama appointee,
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and Justin Walker, a Trump appointee. Walker was on a
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twenty twenty two panel that rejected GOP efforts to keep
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in place a Trump policy that allowed the government to
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summarily expel asylum seekers and others at US borders. Saturday's
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flights to l Salvador were denounced by the Venezuelan government.
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A statement posted on Instagram by Foreign Minister Ivan Gel
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said the country categorically and forcefully rejects the US government's
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proclamation that infamously and unjustly crim criminalizes Venezuelan immigration in
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an act that evokes the darkest episodes of human history,
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from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.
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The decision to transport the alleged gang members to El
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Salvador also reignited questions about human rights VIFS violations in
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that country's prison system. After years of high gang related crime,
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Berkeley declared an emergency in March of twenty twenty two,
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temporarily suspending basic rights and ordering the arrest of thousands
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of gang members he labeled terrorists and putting them in
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high security prisons. Violent crime and mass migration plunged, but
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human rights groups said the prisons are inhumane. Brookelay in
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February agreed to jail criminals in US government cannot deport
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because of strained diplomatic relations with countries such as Venezuela,
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although El Salvador even offered to jail US citizen offenders
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on Sunday, he said that the deportees were immediately transferred
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to the Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega prison opened in
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twenty twenty three for twenty thousand detainees that Brookelay has
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said could hold double that capacity. He said that inmates
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would perform forced labor for at least a year, possibly more,
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and that the United States will pay a very low
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fee for them. Human Rights Watch has documented.
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Speaker 2: Torture, forced disappearances.
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Speaker 1: And lack of legal recourse in Salvador in prisons, as
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well as poor access to food and water. The organization
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has reported instances in which inmates are systematically beaten and
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forced to confess that they are members of gangs, according
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to Juan Papier, American's deputy director for the group. Papier
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says that El Salvador is offering to become a Central
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American version of Guantanamo, referring to the US naval base
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in Cuba that has held some migrant detainees, and that
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securing a release from the prison system is extremely hard.
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If they are taken to a court hearing, it will
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be a virtual court hearing with one hundreds of detainees
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at the same time. Papier added, it will be almost
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impossible for them to be released. There is absolutely no
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way to communicate with them. While the Berkeley government has
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invited social media influences and some journalists to the prison,
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little is known about the conditions for inmates inside, said
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Carlos Garcia, a journalist and researcher who specializes.
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Speaker 2: In the MS thirteen gang.
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Speaker 1: Garcia said he was not aware of any inmates who
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have been released from the prison since then and who
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have been given public interviews about the conditions inside. It
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was built like a concentration.
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Speaker 2: Camp Garcia said.
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Speaker 1: There is no recreational area, no yards outside. The inmates
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only receive sunlight through small windows and next. Nervous about Trump,
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international tourists scraped their US travel plan. International travelers, concerned
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about President Trump's trade policies in bellicoast rhetoric, have been
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canceling trips to the United States, depriving the US tourism
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industry of billions of dollars at a time when the
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economy has started to appear wildly. Canadians are skipping trips
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to Disney World and music festivals, Europeans are eschewing US
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national parks, and Chinese travelers are vacationing in Australia instead.
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International travel to the United States is expected to slide
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by five percent this year, contributing to a sixty four
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billion dollar shortfall for the travel industry, according to Tourism Economies.
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The research firm had originally forecast a nine percent increase
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in foreign travel, but revised its estimate last month to
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reflect polarizing Trump administration policies and rhetoric. There's been a
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dramatic shift in our outlook, Them Sacks, President of Tourism Economies,
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You're looking at a much weaker economic engine than what
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otherwise would have been, not just because of tariffs, but
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the rhetoric and condescending tone around it. The number of
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overseas visitors to the United States fell two point four
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percent in February from a year earlier. Government's data shows
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were the biggest drops in travelers from Africa down nine percent,
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Asia seven.
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Speaker 2: Percent, Central America six percent.
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Speaker 1: Meanwhile, traveled from China, a frequent target of the president's ire,
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is down eleven percent. Penelope Pool, who lives in the Philippines,
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is scrapping plans for a family cruise in Florida with
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her ninety year old mother. Instead, she and nearly thirty
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relatives are heading to a lakeside resort in Canada. My
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siblings and I decided that given the early volatility and
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hostility of this administration, we couldn't take a chance, the
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sixty six year old said, adding that some relatives would
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be traveling from Indonesia and Mexico. We are increasingly concerned
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about personal safety.
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Speaker 2: This moment isn't.
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Speaker 1: Without precedent, Sachs notes, that international tourism slowed sharply during
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the first Trump presidency, amounting to roughly twenty billion dollars
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an unrealized revenue, even before COVID related disruptions. Back then,
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it was tourist from Mexico, China, and the Middle East
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who were pulling back, deterred by the administration's travel bands, tariffs,
24:34
and tough talk on immigration. This time, Canada, the top
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source of international travel to the United States, is poised
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to lead the way. Trump has four weeks said he
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wants to make the country a fifty first state. In response,
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Canada's former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians not to
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vacation in the United States.
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Speaker 2: Appeared to have listened.
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Speaker 1: The number of Canadians driving back from visits to the
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United States fell by twenty three percent in February, while
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air travel from the United States was down thirteen percent
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compared with a year earlier, according to government figures from
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Statistics Canada. Altogether, Tourism Economics expects a fifteen percent decline
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in travel from Canada this year, translating into three point
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three billion dollars in loss spending. Bertha Lopez, who was
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from Mexico and lives near Toronto. Used to cross the
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US border every few days to buy stables like butter
25:37
and cheese. This year, she stopped all of that and
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vows not to set foot in the United States for
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at least a few years. She recently canceled a trip
25:47
to Arizona to visit longtime friend.
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Speaker 2: Whose husband is ill.
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Speaker 1: Instead, she's buying her friend a ticket to visit her
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in Canada this year's summer. All of this talk is
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making Canada the fifty first state has been upsetting. It's
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just incredibly offensive. The fifty year old said, I'm doing
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what I can. No more Tide, no more Coca Cola,
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no more Disney, and barring a funeral or someone in
26:13
the hospital, I'm not going to the United States.
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Speaker 2: Canada's retreat comes.
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Speaker 1: At a tough time for the US tourism industry, which
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is facing pressures of its own.
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Speaker 2: At home.
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Speaker 1: US airlines last week warned that demand is slowing, with
26:29
Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines all revising down
26:35
their forecast for the first three months of the year.
26:38
Government and business travel are waning, and hotel and travel
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company executives say Americans especially those with lower incomes, are
26:47
cutting back on vacations because of economic uncertainty. People are
26:52
cautious and they're pulling back a little on travel, Delta
26:56
CEO Edward Hermann Bastion said in a presentation on Tuesday. Travelers,
27:01
he said, are kind of waiting to see what's going
27:04
to transpire, whether it's trade and tariff challenges or macro
27:08
economic policy changes. Notably, the hospitality and leisure industry has
27:14
posted two months of job losses at a time when
27:17
the border labor market is growing. At the Vacation Ear,
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a Disney focused travel agency in Florida that works almost
27:25
exclusively with domestic travelers, bookings are up more than five
27:29
percent from a year ago, but owner Jonathan Diairijo is
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nervous about whether people will stick to their plans. Many
27:38
plunk down a two hundred dollars deposit on their credit
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cards thinking they'll make a financial decision and final decision
27:45
down the line, and with stock market's recent slide and
27:49
increasing recession worries, he says, you won't be surprised if
27:53
a big cancelation wave is around the corner. When there's
27:58
trouble in the economy. The first thing people cut is
28:01
their travel budget.
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Speaker 2: He said.
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Speaker 1: They wait until it's time to pay in full, and
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they say, actually, I can't afford this, and that's what
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I'm worried about. Economic red flags have been piling up
28:15
in recent weeks. New tariffs are reigniting concerns about price increases,
28:21
and policy uncertainties from Trump and Elon Musk's US doge
28:25
service have made it tougher for businesses and households to
28:29
plan for the future. Americans soured on the economy for
28:33
the third straight month in March, with consumer sentiment declining
28:37
to its lowest level in more than two years, and
28:40
although CEOs are feeling better about their prospects and they
28:43
have in years, small businesses are starting to report worries
28:47
about economic uncertainty. Financial markets have been jittery, too, with
28:53
the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting its worst week in
28:56
two years. Consumer spending, which makes up about seventy percent
29:02
of the US economy, has been driving much of the
29:05
country's recent growth, but some of the country's largest retailers,
29:09
including Walmart and Target, have recently said they expect Americans
29:15
to pull back in the coming months.
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Speaker 2: The fog is just too thick.
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Speaker 1: We can handle bad news, but consumers can't handle uncertainty,
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and that's what we have, said Sung Juan Soon, an
29:26
economist at Loyola Mayor Mount University in Los Angeles, who
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says there's a thirty five percent chance of recession this year,
29:34
up from fifteen percent a couple of weeks ago. Things
29:37
have gotten very serious.
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Speaker 2: Very quickly.
29:43
Speaker 1: That's also the case overseas, as Europeans and others face
29:47
pointed attacks from the White House. Trump last week threatened
29:51
to two hundred percent tariff on European wine and alcohol
29:56
after calling the European Union one of the most hostile
29:59
and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the world. Traveled
30:03
from Western Europe, which made up more than one third
30:07
of overseas travel last year, could be hit hard by
30:10
those comments, tariffs on Europe and Trump's Administration's new friendliness
30:16
towards Russia. It also hurt tourism from Europe, Researchers at
30:20
Tourism Economics wrote in a recent report. Jen Muller's and
30:25
his father were preparing to travel to Seattle from Germany
30:29
this summer for a road trip through the Olympic mount
30:32
Rainier and Glacier National Parks, but after the administration's attacks
30:37
on Europeans its efforts to downsize the national parks system,
30:42
Muellers said they changed their plans and they're heading to Canada.
30:47
It is a real shame in breaking my heart to
30:50
see what is happening with the national parks and their
30:52
employees right now, the thirty one year old added, adding
30:56
it would have been his fifth trip to the United States.
31:00
We want to come back to the US until things
31:04
change significantly. And after a week of tough weather in
31:09
the United States, this story deadly storm system leaves trail
31:14
of damage across the swath of the US. A massive
31:19
storm sliced through the country this weekend, leveling homes, spurring crashes,
31:25
and killing at least thirty nine people in more than
31:28
a half dozen states. The system spawned at least eighty
31:32
one tornadoes across eight states since Friday, Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana.
31:47
Speaker 2: And Georgia.
31:48
Speaker 1: The violent weather laid waste two hundreds of buildings. Wildfires
31:53
broke out, raging fiercely in Oklahoma and Texas. Dust storms
31:59
wrought have diminishing visibility and leading to deadly vehicle pile ups,
32:05
and through Sunday evening, the amount of destruction across the
32:08
country was becoming clearer. Still, storm threats will continue through
32:14
Sunday night, and the system pushed toward the East coast,
32:18
compelling a tornado threat for the southeast and mid Atlantic.
32:22
In Missouri, there were at least twelve deaths after more
32:25
than a dozen tornadoes ripped across the state. According to
32:29
the Governor's office, hundreds of homes, schools, businesses and were
32:34
damaged or destroyed. The scale of devastation across our state
32:39
is staggering, Governor Mike Keho Republicans sent in a statement
32:44
on Sunday. At least three were killed in Arkansas and
32:49
at least six in Mississippi and Alabama. Governor k Ivy
32:54
the Republican said Sunday that at least two residents were
32:57
killed amid the violent weather. In Kansas, at least eight
33:02
people were killed after the weather front brought high winds
33:06
and a dust storm Friday afternoon, lowering visibility and causing
33:11
a pile up involving dozens of vehicles. The state's Highway
33:15
Patrol said Saturday afternoon, four people died in Oklahoma, and
33:21
one hundred and forty two were injured due to fires
33:24
or high winds, according.
33:25
Speaker 2: To the Office of the Chief Medical.
33:27
Speaker 1: Examiner, and in the Texas Panhandle, four people died in
33:32
crashes caused by strong winds and dust storms, according to
33:36
state officials. The strongest confirmed tornadoes so far have occurred
33:42
in Cave City, Arkansas, and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, both of
33:47
which were rated a three out of five of the
33:51
Enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of at least one hundred
33:55
and thirty six miles an hour. The same low pressure
33:59
system that brought tornadoes to the Deep South was swinging
34:03
a coal front east on Sunday. Unseasonably warm and humid
34:08
air from the Gulf of Mexico is moving northward, providing
34:11
fuel for the storms. Most cities along the Eastern Seaboard
34:16
from Orlando to Buffalo were included in the slight a
34:20
level two out of five risk of severe weather issued
34:23
by the Storm Protection Center. This encompasses thirty four million
34:28
people in cities such as Jacksonville, Florida, Charlotte and Raleigh,
34:32
North Carolina, Richmond and Roanoke, and Cleveland and Buffalo, with
34:38
western Pennsylvania including around Pittsburgh, may face the most risk,
34:43
with an enhanced level three out of five. The risk
34:46
zone was drawn. On Sunday morning, a line of strong
34:50
to severe thunderstorms stretched from eastern Georgia and northern Florida
34:54
into the Carolinas, where there is a risk of isolated tornadoes,
34:58
scattered hail, and damaging gusts in excess of sixty miles
35:03
an hour. Strong to severe storms may strike further north,
35:08
with multiple rounds of storms possible in the mid Atlantic
35:12
that could increase the risk of an isolated tornado in
35:15
western Maryland, western Virginia, and along the Interstate eighty one corridor.
35:22
Since early Friday, the atmosphere has been conducted to tornadoes
35:27
across several central and southern states. This is because strong
35:32
southwesterly winds aloft have clashed with southwesterly winds near the ground.
35:38
Changing winds with height, known as winds sheer, enhances rotation
35:43
and a thunderstorm.
35:45
Speaker 2: Furthermore, the cold air.
35:46
Speaker 1: On the north storm's backside is clashed with unseasonably warm
35:50
conditions out ahead of it. Early Sunday morning, it was
35:54
snowing in Milwaukee and in the teens in Minneapolis. While
35:58
it was in the sixties in Washington and seventies in
36:02
South Carolina, the later more typical of June. In total,
36:07
eighty one tornadoes had been reported across eight states, thirty
36:12
two in Mississippi, seventeen in Missouri, eleven in Arkansas, eight
36:18
in Alabama, six in Illinois, four in Indiana, two in Louisiana,
36:25
and one in Georgia. And now a little closer to home,
36:30
a Trump county worries Medicaid cuts could throw them back
36:35
into the opioid spiral. From Harlan Candae Fee isn't sure
36:41
who's right in the debate over the future of Medicaid,
36:46
the Republican president, whose party says it will leave federal
36:49
health funding intact as it seeks to slice billions in government.
36:53
Speaker 2: Spending, or the Democrats, who.
36:56
Speaker 1: Warned that the broad cuts the president has promised can't
37:00
happen without carving into one of the government's most costly programs.
37:06
But if Medicaid is axed, he knows exactly what will
37:10
happen to the life she has pieced back together after
37:13
decades of addiction.
37:16
Speaker 2: If it were to go.
37:17
Speaker 1: Away today, I'd be homeless tomorrow I would lose everything.
37:22
All my counseling, all my treatment. I would absolutely be
37:26
homeless tomorrow.
37:28
Speaker 2: Said Fee, forty two, who has lived in.
37:31
Speaker 1: Harlan all her life, most of it spent in a
37:35
cycle of addiction and rehabilitation. A Medicaid funded treatment program
37:41
she entered last year has her feeling for the first
37:43
time optimistic about not living a life dominated by substance abuse.
37:50
In group meetings, she and other recovering addicts talk about
37:54
the benefits of an injection that reduces the desire for opioids.
37:59
Speaker 2: They all the role.
38:00
Speaker 1: Of talk therapy in their rehabilitation, and increasingly they worry
38:06
over a Washington funding debate that has left their future uncertain.
38:12
I'm stepping out onto my own, getting my house with
38:17
my kids sooner or later. But if I lost medicated
38:21
funded treatment today, I'd lose my job. I'd lose everything
38:26
that I've worked so so hard to rebuild over the
38:29
last year, said Fee, who can't vote because she has
38:33
a felleny conviction, but is not a supporter of President Trump.
38:38
If Trump takes the things that they're saying, it's going
38:42
to be devastation for Eastern Kentucky.
38:45
Speaker 2: For sure.
38:46
Speaker 1: We're already scraping off the bottom. Almost ninety percent of
38:51
voters in this Appalachian county in Kentucky's southeastern corner, voted
38:55
for Trump, who has set his party's effort to eradicate
38:58
waste from and abuse will culminate in a big, beautiful
39:03
bill that will lay the groundwork for slicing at least
39:07
one and a half trillion dollars from the federal budget
39:10
in the next decade. The President has repeatedly said entitlement
39:16
programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security will remain untouched,
39:22
even as he pushes for a contradiction of broader federal spending.
39:28
But Democrats, including the governor of Kentucky, warned that the
39:33
kind of cuts the GOP is considering are impossible without
39:38
cutting essential services like Medicaid, which provides health care to
39:42
low income people. The Congressional Budget Office agreed, saying this
39:47
month that Republicans cannot cut their desired amount of federal
39:51
spending without cutting Medicaid or Medicare benefits, and despite Trump's
39:57
assurances that the programs are safe, some Republicans have advocated
40:02
that reforms is needed. Three members of the ultra conservative
40:07
House Freedom Caucus recently penned an op ed for Fox
40:10
News saying lawmakers must reform Medicaid. To do anything less
40:16
borders on malfeasance. Medicaid was never meant to be this expansive.
40:22
Speaker 2: The opinion piece says, echoing.
40:24
Speaker 1: Con concerns that have been expressed by other Republicans, The
40:30
intensifying debate hangs over Harlan County and illustrates a disconnect
40:36
and even a contradiction in Trump's efforts to remake the
40:39
federal government. He has vowed to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse,
40:45
and to extend a suite of tax cuts he signed
40:47
into law in twenty seventeen, but reducing federal funding, particularly
40:53
in places with large percentages of Medicaid users like Harlan,
40:58
can threaten the livelihoods and even the lives of some
41:01
of Trump's most ardent supporters. Containing the opioid epidemic has
41:07
featured prominently in the political rhetoric of the Trump administration.
41:12
Trump justified high tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China by
41:17
saying the three countries didn't do enough to stem the flow.
41:21
Speaker 2: Of opioids, particularly fentanyl, across American borders.
41:27
Speaker 1: They've allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels
41:30
never seen before, he said during his address to a
41:33
joint session of Congress, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens,
41:38
and many very young, beautiful people, destroying families. Almost half
41:45
of people in Harlan County received Medicaid, which is administered
41:49
by the state of Kentucky but funded largely by the
41:52
federal government.
41:54
Speaker 2: Those funds helped.
41:55
Speaker 1: Pay doctors, visits and prescriptions, but Medicaid also sobsidizes a
42:01
burgeoning industry of rehabilitation facilities and treatment centers in a
42:06
state that is one of the country's highest rates of
42:10
opioid abuse. The substance abuse treatment industry in eastern Kentucky
42:16
employs more people than the coal mines ever thought about,
42:19
said the owner of one facility, who spoke on the
42:23
condition of anonymity to avoid fraying professional relationships with medicaid expansion.
42:30
If you need help, you can get it now. You
42:33
can get medication, and you can get counseling, you can
42:36
get therapy. Basically, you can get most any service that
42:41
you need, more services than you ever could have before.
42:48
Harlan County Judge Dan Moseley, the county's chief executive, said
42:52
Medicaid has helped countless people in his county recover from
42:56
opioid abuse, transforming from repeat a fishers who siphon finite
43:02
resources to working taxpayers, including some who help others.
43:06
Speaker 2: Through the addiction.
43:08
Speaker 1: I've seen firsthand the people behind those statistics who have
43:12
went and rehabilitated their bodies and their lives and are
43:17
now productive members of society, And I worry what would
43:21
have become of them had they not had medicaid, said Moseley.
43:25
A Republican who voted for Trump in twenty twenty four,
43:29
thinks Congressional Republicans will deliver a plan that cuts waste
43:34
but also helps his community stay afloat, even if it
43:38
includes tweaks to.
43:39
Speaker 2: Medicaid or other entitlements.
43:43
Speaker 1: Medicaid is in that arena that has enabled us to
43:46
return people to a productive workforce setting and makes them
43:50
a taxpayer again, he said. The state of Kentucky has
43:55
seen similar strides. In twenty twenty three, drug overdose deaths
44:00
in the state fell almost ten percent, marking a second
44:03
straight year of declines in the fight against the addiction epidemic.
44:08
In an interview with The Washington Post, Democratic Governor Basher
44:11
said he worries what Medicaid cuts would do to the
44:15
people of his state, Framing his fears in humanistic and
44:19
economic terms, any substantial impact to either Medicaid reimbursement rates
44:26
or the overall amount coming into the state will have
44:29
a significant impact that no state in the country would
44:32
be able to escape. Bashir said further reductions could mean
44:37
some rural hospitals would have to reduce services and staff,
44:41
or even close. If these cuts go too deep, it's
44:45
a risk to every piece of progress we've made in
44:48
the last ten years. Last month, Harlan residents were reminded
44:54
of what those cuts could look like. Harlan's Hospital, a
44:58
branch of the Appalachian Region Healthcare, announced that it was
45:02
closing its labor and delivery unit. That means people giving
45:06
birth and Harlan have to drive forty miles to Middlesborough, Tennessee,
45:11
or fifty miles to Whitesburg, Kentucky, or else give birth
45:15
in the hospital's emergency department and announcing the reduction and services,
45:20
The hospital said not enough women had opted to give
45:22
birth at the hospital, and keeping the labor and delivery
45:26
unit open was not economically feasible. Local leaders worry it's
45:31
the first of a cascade of closures for an area
45:35
sorely in need of health care. We have a lot
45:39
of unhealthy people here and the statistics show that we
45:43
have higher rates of cancer, higher rates of obesity, high
45:46
rates of diabetes, and high rates of heart disease.
45:49
Speaker 2: Mosley said.
45:50
Speaker 1: Kentucky was one of the least healthy states in the
45:53
nation and Harland County was listed as one of the
45:56
least healthy counties in the state. Trying to reverse that cycle.
46:02
But despite Democratic warnings about what exactly could happen to Medicaid,
46:07
some in Harland don't think Trump and Congress will whittle
46:11
too much away of the program, said Paul Browning, one
46:14
of the magistrates for Harlan County. He said many of
46:18
his constituents never considered what Medicaid would be on the
46:22
chopping block, and some still don't. Medicaid has continued to
46:26
exist and even expand through Democratic and Republican administrations, and
46:32
regardless of the makeup of state government. It's been through
46:36
Jimmy Carter, It's been through Ronald Reagan, been through Clinton, Obama,
46:40
both Bushes, Trump's first, and through everything, and Medicaid has
46:44
just been there and folks here consider that would continue.
46:47
You know, history is the best indicator of the future,
46:50
he said. Kylie Harrison, forty, of Harlan, a recovering addict
46:56
who is working toward a degree in counseling and also
46:59
got clean with the help of Medicaid, said she remains
47:02
a Trump supporter despite the threat to programs that have
47:06
helped people like her. In the end, she trusts that
47:09
Trump will right size Medicaid and get rid of the
47:12
waste and abuse. Harrison said she'd seen that abuse firsthand,
47:18
both by people purportedly seeking treatment and my company's offering
47:23
inadequate services that do little to help addicts. Let's get real,
47:29
there is Medicaid fraud, and there's a lot of Medicaid fraud.
47:33
People are taking advantage job at Harrison said. She says
47:36
she would favor an effort similar to Trump's pause on
47:39
grants and loans.
47:40
Speaker 2: Distributed by the federal government.
47:42
Speaker 1: I think that maybe it's going to be something like
47:44
that again, and I'm hoping he gets out the people
47:48
that aren't really about helping others and just looking at
47:51
people as money source. Little has been released about how.
47:56
Speaker 2: Much exactly would be cut.
47:58
Speaker 1: The Republican House's budget resolution instructs a key US House
48:02
committee to cut eight hundred and eighty billion dollars in
48:05
spending over the next decade, something that will help extend
48:08
the Trump tax cuts. The vast majority of funds are
48:12
in the Medicare and Medicaid buckets, and Republicans have said
48:16
that Medicare is off the table. House Speaker Mike Johnson,
48:20
the Republican of Louisiana, has not ruled out the cuts.
48:24
Others have been more explicit. Let me tell you, we
48:28
cannot get to where we need to go without medicaid.
48:32
Representative keith's Self, Republican of Texas, said recently on Fox Business. Fee,
48:38
who has two jobs but is also seeking training to
48:41
become a peer support specialist, has said she encouraged people
48:46
to shut out the noise and to focus on their
48:48
own recovery, but she's not always successful. I've also noticed
48:54
it through a lot of people here in the recovery world,
48:56
not knowing what we're going to do, not knowing what
48:59
our next movie is going to be, not knowing how
49:01
things are going to turn out. I've seen a lot
49:04
of relapses because a lot of people are just like that,
49:07
forget it. It's not gonna happen. They're going to take
49:11
it away. But even as she counsels people to stick
49:15
with the program that has worked for her, she said
49:18
she is worried about her own future. I couldn't be
49:21
more happy with my life today. I'm at peace. I'm
49:25
just grateful, but i absolutely am worried about my future
49:30
because I'm not sure.
49:31
Speaker 2: How it's going to go.
49:32
Speaker 1: If Medicaid's gone, if you remove all that back, then
49:36
I'm simply going to go push ahead with my whole
49:39
life again.
49:42
Speaker 2: And next.
49:43
Speaker 1: Trump's new Secret Service boss faces calls for an agency overhaul.
49:49
Sean Curran faces a tough task as the new director
49:53
of the Secret Service, reforming the troubled protective agency months
49:58
after the assassination attempt on President Trump at a campaign rally,
50:02
its worst security debacle in decades. Congressional lawmakers and outside
50:09
experts want Kerran to shake up the agency's leadership, overhaul
50:13
security planning at big events, and even rethink the structure
50:17
of the eight thousand person agency. Its problems include a
50:22
chronically overworked staff and a multi billion dollar budget that
50:26
Service officials say has not kept pace with rising threats
50:29
against US leaders Kerran, the former head of Trump's Secret
50:34
Service detail, helped shield the candidate when a man fired
50:38
at a fairground stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, last summer. While
50:43
he was not blamed for the critical errors that day,
50:46
Kerrn is now charged with fixing them. The directorship is
50:51
new territory for Kerran, who is forty eight, an agent
50:54
for more than twenty years, who until his appointment by
50:57
Trump in January, had never had held an executive role
51:01
in government Meany current and former agents say they respect
51:05
him for his rigor as a supervisor and penchant for
51:08
tough assignments, but he is untested when it comes to
51:12
managing a full agency, let alone running the Secret Service
51:16
during a period of historic scrutiny and pressure on his workforce.
51:22
Under Kerrn's leadership, service officials are rebuilding their plane in flight,
51:26
said Representative Jason crow of Colorado, the top Democrat on
51:30
a House task force that investigated the Butler shooting. They're
51:35
being asked to do more than ever before, Crowe said
51:38
in an interview. They have to protect the top leadership
51:42
of this country, and at the same time when there
51:45
are massive challenges for morale, funding, training, and coordination with
51:51
other law enforcement agencies. I hope Director Current is up
51:55
to the job. Kern's appointment runs contrary to repeated record
52:00
mandations from experts who have studied the Secret Service to
52:02
name an outsider who will not be influenced by personal
52:06
relationships and traditions at headquarters. He has not had to
52:10
navigate relationships with lawmakers, the White House, and the Department
52:15
of Homeland Security, the service's parent agency. Several current and
52:20
former agents said Current's record for opting for field work
52:24
rather than climbing the career ladder and engaging in the
52:27
power dynamics of headquarters may make him well suited for
52:31
the moment. He's one of the few leaders in the
52:34
Secret Service who can say he's seen it fail firsthand,
52:39
and that gives him an extreme insight on how to
52:42
fix it, said Paul Ecklof, a former agent who worked
52:45
with Current on Trump's first presidential detail. He was stained
52:50
by the blood of the man he was protecting, and
52:53
that's something that will remind him every day of the
52:56
gravity of the position that he's undertaking. Jonathan Wackrowe, who
53:01
worked with Kurrn protecting President Barack Obama, called him the
53:05
quintessential outsider insider. He understands the Service intimately, Wackro said,
53:12
but he's not biased by its bureaucracy. Kerrn declined interview
53:17
requests through agency representatives. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Gugliami said
53:25
in a statement that Kern was deeply committed to prioritizing
53:28
the agent's people and making it a top priority to
53:31
recruit and retain the best and the brightest. The Service
53:36
has had seven directors since twenty fourteen. Only Trump appointee
53:41
James M. Murray served more than three years in the job.
53:45
Kimberly Cheedle became director in September of twenty twenty two
53:49
and resigned in July amid criticism of the services handling
53:52
a Butler. Her successor, Ronald L. Road Junior, is retiring
53:58
after about serving six months as an acting director and
54:01
twenty six years with the agency. Like previous directors, Kurent
54:06
will have to work out of budget with Congress, DHS.
54:09
Speaker 2: And the White House.
54:11
Speaker 1: After Butler, the Biden administration asked lawmakers for two point
54:16
three billion dollars on top of the service's existing budget
54:20
of more than three billion. The funds would have gone
54:24
toward hiring one thousand agents and officers, building a mock
54:28
white house for agents to train in, and refurbishing other
54:32
training facilities that are in disrepair. Congress sent an emergency
54:37
two hundred and thirty one million dollars to the service
54:39
last fall. The House panel that investigated the Butler's shooting
54:44
said Congress should reconsider whether the Service should remain part
54:48
of DHS or become an independent agency with more leeway
54:53
to advocate for itself. Panel members also said they want
54:57
to consider reducing the number of people the Service protects,
55:02
another recommendation by lawmakers and outside experts in visions separating
55:07
the service's protective mission from its lesser known mandate to
55:11
investigate financial and cyber crimes. The service's thirty six hundred
55:17
agents are spread then while providing security for protectees, Long shifts,
55:24
erratic schedules, and constant travel keep many agents away from
55:28
their homes for months each year. Their duties also leave
55:32
them little time for important training on firearms, physical fitness,
55:36
and medical proficiency. Service officials say they are fending off
55:40
a proliferation of threats. Iran has targeted senior members of
55:45
the first Trump administration, according to US intelligence officials, who
55:49
also warned the Secret Service last year of an unspecified
55:53
Iranian threat to Trump, home grown extremeism and lone wolf
55:58
attackers or perennial concern as well, and the failures of
56:04
Butler hangover the Service eight months later. Kerran had been
56:09
the agent in charge of Trump's detail for about three
56:12
years when the July thirteenth attack unfolded. A junior agent
56:16
with little experience on the detail was assigned to plan
56:19
Trump's security bubble for the invent and failed to properly
56:23
secure a building, which a man used to shoot at Trump,
56:26
contributing to the breakdown that day, according to the independent
56:29
report commissioned by DHS. The report also found that a
56:34
key supervisor on Kerrn's team failed to provide adequate supervision
56:39
of the junior agent and fully checked the security plan.
56:44
The gunman climbed onto a warehouse roof with clear view
56:48
of the stage where Trump was speaking, and fired eight
56:51
shots before being killed by a Secret Service counter sniper,
56:55
and Kerrn was among the agents to rush on stage
56:58
and recover Trump. Their candidate and two bystanders were injured,
57:03
and another rally goer, Corey Comparatoy, was killed. The shooting
57:08
marked the first time a current or former president had
57:11
been fired on since the nineteen eighty one attempt assassination
57:15
of President Reagan. It brought an onslaught of criticism from
57:19
members of Congress that resulted in Childe's resignation. Congressional investigators
57:26
found that communications among agents and local law enforcement officers
57:29
were fragmented, allowing the gunmen to exploit security gaps. They
57:34
also faulted the service for failing to assign resources based
57:38
on what was needed to secure Trump at such a large,
57:43
high profile event. Since becoming director, Current has reassigned several
57:47
agency officials. He hired a veteran agent to serve as
57:50
chief of staff and tapped a long time business and
57:52
government affairs lawyer as a senior advisor. He plans to
57:56
hire a senior executive from the intelligence community with technical
57:59
and covert expertise. Piece according to a statement from the service,
58:02
Corn has also taken steps to boost recruitment. Last month,
58:06
the service teamed up with film director Michael bay At
58:08
a country music star Trace Adkins to produce a Super
58:11
Bowl ad. It offered a call to action for prospective
58:15
agents Step forward and this concludes the reading of the
58:20
Washington Post for Today Monday, March seventeenth. Your reader today
58:24
has been Rod Brotherton. If you have any questions, comments,
58:28
or suggestions concerning the program, please feel free to call
58:31
us at eight five nine four two two sixty three nine.
58:33
Thanks for listening, and now please stay tuned for continued
58:36
programming right here on Radio I