Transcript

7.28.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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Speaker 1: July twenty eighth, twenty twenty six. As a reminder, radio
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Speaker 1: Y is a reading service intended for people who are
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Speaker 1: blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
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Speaker 1: read printed material. Your reader for to day is Cindy Fraser.
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Speaker 1: Today's front page headlines from The Washington Post are Cocaine
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Speaker 1: still flowing despite US strikes Pentagon de Ea contradict Trump's
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Speaker 1: claim of deadly boat attacks success. Our next headline, a
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Speaker 1: desert town may run out of water. Others could face
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Speaker 1: the same fate. Next, Trump target's mail in voting new
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Speaker 1: limits wanted a head of mid terms. Supreme Court's help
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Speaker 1: sought for executive order. Next, space X's fall makes Musk
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Speaker 1: a former trillionaire. Next police vetted dubious accusation only after
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Speaker 1: budhajeedge children separated. And the final headline from today's front
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Speaker 1: page Gazo Board of Peace Lower's ambitions as plans fizzle
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Speaker 1: Israel Trump established organization seemed to be on a collision course.
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Speaker 1: Now let's turn to our first item entitled Cocaine still
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Speaker 1: flowing despite US strikes Pentagon Dea contradict Trump's claim of
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Speaker 1: deadly boat attacks success by Alex hort Terence McCoy, Samantha Schmidt,
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Speaker 1: and Dylan Moriarty. The Trump Administration's deadly military strikes on
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Speaker 1: alleged drug trafficking boats have not reduced the amount of
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Speaker 1: cocaine entering the United States, but they're prompting criminal organizations
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Speaker 1: to develop new strategies and tactics and undermining traditional investigative methods,
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Speaker 1: according to a previously unreported assessment by the Drug Enforcement Administration,
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Speaker 1: a closed door rational briefing and interviews with current and
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Speaker 1: former US foreign officials. In a recent assessment reviewed by
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Speaker 1: The Washington Post, DEA analysts found the strikes had failed
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Speaker 1: to effect the supply or price of cocaine in the
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Speaker 1: United States, and had led traffickers to diversify beyond go
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Speaker 1: fast boats and to avoid international waters, opting instead for
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Speaker 1: larger boats and hemming close to coastlines, where U S
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Speaker 1: forces are less likely to open fire. In a closed
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Speaker 1: door briefing last month, Pentagon officials told lawmakers the strikes
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Speaker 1: in international waters off southa and Central America had not
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Speaker 1: reduced its purity. Next in this item are two maps
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Speaker 1: entitled Approximate drug smuggling routes through Latin America routes before
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Speaker 1: and after US military strikes began in September twenty twenty five,
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Speaker 1: according to recent Drug Enforcement Administration assessments reviewed by The
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Speaker 1: Washington Post. The first map is titled Before the strikes,
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Speaker 1: common smuggling routes included longer voyages across the Pacific and
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Speaker 1: more direct routes through the Caribbean. The map shows those
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Speaker 1: routes color coded to determine if they are by sea,
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Speaker 1: by air, or by land, and if they're primary secondary routes.
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Speaker 1: Another notation on the map says drugs are trafficked from
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Speaker 1: clandestine airstrips in a particular region of Venezuela. The second
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Speaker 1: map is titled after the strikes. Traffickers more often use
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Speaker 1: commercial ships and him closer to Central America. In the Pacific.
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Speaker 1: Notation on the map says more drugs are moving by
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Speaker 1: alternative air routes than before. Source Drug Enforcement Administration Assessments,
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Speaker 1: NASA Satellite Base Layer Relief, United States Environment Program, World
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Speaker 1: Conservation Monitoring Center BIOMASS. Traffickers are also relying more on aircraft,
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Speaker 1: which take off from clandestine airstrips along the Columbian Venezuelan
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Speaker 1: border and head east to Guyana and Surinam to avoid
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Speaker 1: US forces. According to the DEA assessment, when you squeeze
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Speaker 1: a balloon on one side, it always expands on the
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Speaker 1: other side. One DEA official told the Post they always
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Speaker 1: find the weak spots and exploit them. The official spoke
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Speaker 1: on the condition of ananimity because they were not authorized
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Speaker 1: to discuss the subject publicly. Chief Pentagon spokesman Champarnell said
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Speaker 1: Operation Southern Spear was accomplishing exactly what it was designed
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Speaker 1: to do, detect, disrupt, and dismantle designated terrorist organizations and
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Speaker 1: the networks they rely on to traffic narcotics, generate illicit revenue,
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Speaker 1: and threaten the security of the United States and the
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Speaker 1: Western Hemisphere. Transnational criminal organizations have continually adapted their tactics
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Speaker 1: for decades. Parnell told the Post that does not indicate
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Speaker 1: the pressure is ineffective. It demonstrates that we are imposing
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Speaker 1: systemic friction on their operations. The DEA did not comment.
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Speaker 1: A spokesperson for Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Senator Roger Wicker,
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Speaker 1: Republican from Mississippi, did not respond to a request for comment.
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Speaker 1: Preliminary findings two months after the strikes began last September
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Speaker 1: showed that they had disrupted smuggling rats. The DEA analysts
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Speaker 1: reported causing increases in cocaine prices and drug related violence,
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Speaker 1: but prices have since returned to previous levels. Smugglers have
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Speaker 1: adapted to the intensified pressure, they wrote, price and availability
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Speaker 1: have not been noticeably affected. In one example, they alleged
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Speaker 1: traffickers on Colombia'slaquaile Europe peninsula pay officials to disclose the
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Speaker 1: locations for U S ships, then launched their vessels once
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Speaker 1: US military assets have departed the area. The Colombia Defense
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Speaker 1: Ministry didn't return a request for comment. Pentagon officials told
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Speaker 1: members of the Senate Armed Services Committee last month the
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Speaker 1: DEA analysis of confiscated cocaine showed high levels of purity.
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Speaker 1: According to a Congressional aid familiar with a briefing, high
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Speaker 1: purity suggests supply remains consistent. The DEA officials said dealers
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Speaker 1: do not need to dilute the drug to stretch inventory.
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Speaker 1: The reports contradict public claims by President Donald Trump. Tromp
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Speaker 1: Hass said at least fifteen times, including as recently as
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Speaker 1: last month that the strikes have reduced maritime drug trafficking
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Speaker 1: in the country by ninety seven or ninety eight percent.
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Speaker 1: Ninety eight point two percent of drugs coming into the
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Speaker 1: U S by ocean or sea have stopped, he wrote
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Speaker 1: on truth Social in April. TROMP has transformed traditional US
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Speaker 1: drug enforcement into a military campaign that fuses the legal
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Speaker 1: and strategic approaches of the War on Drugs and the
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Speaker 1: War on Terror. In the past year, U S forces
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Speaker 1: have attacked at least sixty seven votes captured Venice when
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Speaker 1: President Yugolas Manduro killed Trende Aragua leader Hextora Nino Guerro
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Speaker 1: and attacked an alleged camp of f A r C
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Speaker 1: dissidents in Ecuador. Both strikes have killed at least two
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Speaker 1: hundred twenty one people since September. Legal analysts have denounced
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Speaker 1: them as executions without trials. Administration officials say they are
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Speaker 1: aimed at reducing the flow of deadly poison into the country.
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Speaker 1: The White House defended the approach. These measures have not
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Speaker 1: only eliminated narco terrorists themselves, but also discouraged bad actors
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Speaker 1: from trying to smuggle drugs into our country should they
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Speaker 1: meet the same deadly Fate. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in
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Speaker 1: a statement to The Washington Post, President Trump is using
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Speaker 1: every tool at his disposal to save lives from the
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Speaker 1: scourge of illicit narcotics, and any suggestion that these efforts
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Speaker 1: have not been effective are laughable. The U s militarization
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Speaker 1: of the decades long war on drugs has begun to
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Speaker 1: influence Europe, where a lead enforcement agency is urging nations
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Speaker 1: to adopt more aggressive tactics, But a senior Colombian security
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Speaker 1: official said the boat strikes have had a minimal impact.
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Speaker 1: There was a disguasive effect in one type of transportation,
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Speaker 1: the official said, so it has forced them to seek
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Speaker 1: out other methods. Taking the drugs out through ports has
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Speaker 1: increased stockpiling it on large ships. The official, like others
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Speaker 1: interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity
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Speaker 1: because they were not authorized to discuss the subject publicly.
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Speaker 1: Trump and other officials initially described the attacks as part
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Speaker 1: of a broader war against fentanyl, the leading cause of
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Speaker 1: illicit drug deats in the United States, an issue on
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Speaker 1: which Trump campaigned, but the majority of fennanyl enters the
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Speaker 1: United States by land Nzie on the shipping routes targeted
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Speaker 1: by Operation's Southern Spear. The principal elicit cargo is cocaine.
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Speaker 1: When the military began blowing up boats, Monroe County, Florida
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Speaker 1: sheriff was thrilled. His jurisdiction includes the Florida Keys for
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Speaker 1: centuries a smuggler's playground. This is war and they are
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Speaker 1: bringing death to the US every time they get a
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Speaker 1: boat here, he said, every boat that doesn't arrive will
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Speaker 1: save us lives. The kinetic strikes haven't stopped the flow
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Speaker 1: of cocaine there, he said. We see drugs floating up
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Speaker 1: on a weekly basis. He said, floating up on beaches,
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Speaker 1: behind houses. It's continuing on strong still. He said. They
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Speaker 1: are necessary evil. You don't give up just because you're
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Speaker 1: losing the battle. Marine General Francis L. Donovan, the commander
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Speaker 1: of US Southern Command and senior officer overseeing Operation Southern Spear,
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Speaker 1: told the Senate Armed Forces Committee in March that the
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Speaker 1: strikes are probably not the most effective tool and aren't
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Speaker 1: the answer. But putting total systemic friction from point of
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Speaker 1: production to point of delivery, he said, I believe that
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Speaker 1: actually kinetic strikes will be one of the many tools,
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Speaker 1: but the strikes have made investigating drug trafficking more challenging.
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Speaker 1: According to the DEA official, investigators typically rely on low
10:11
Speaker 1: level informants to provide intelligence on routes and meeting points
10:15
Speaker 1: to build cases against high ranking managers and bosses. Now
10:19
Speaker 1: those sources are being pulled back from the field, the
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Speaker 1: current officials said, to protect them from being killed in
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Speaker 1: US attacks. Based on pricing, there might in fact now
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Speaker 1: be more cocaine circulating in the United States. In Florida,
10:34
Speaker 1: cocaine is selling for thirteen thousand to fifteen thousand dollars
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Speaker 1: per kilogram. A senior DEA official said, a drop of
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Speaker 1: roughly fifty percent over the last five years. Global cocaine production,
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Speaker 1: centered in Peru, Bolivia, and particularly Columbia, has reached an
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Speaker 1: all time high, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
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Speaker 1: reported last month. From twenty fourteen to twenty twenty five four,
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Speaker 1: the Office reported in its twenty twenty six World Drug Report,
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Speaker 1: the area under cocoa cultivation tripled to more than one thousand,
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Speaker 1: four hundred eighty square miles. An elicit cocaine manufacturer quadrupled
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Speaker 1: to four thousand, one hundred tons. The business is so
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Speaker 1: extraordinarily profitable that the cartels do not mind paying freight
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Speaker 1: costs that are five or even ten times higher. An
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Speaker 1: Ecuadorian naval intelligence official said they know that while the
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Speaker 1: United States may destroy one speed boat, they will successfully
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Speaker 1: get ten semi submersibles or other speedboats that have AD
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Speaker 1: detection through. Shin Mingdu, an economist at the National University
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Speaker 1: of Singapore, reported in March that Columbia's cocaine boom was
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Speaker 1: linked to one thousand to one thousand, five hundred overdose
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Speaker 1: deaths in the United States annually. The boat strikes, she said,
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Speaker 1: are unlikely to diminish cocaine supply in the United States.
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Speaker 1: Cocoa cultivation at the source in Colombia as a supply
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Speaker 1: factor most directly linked to US cocaine over those deaths,
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Speaker 1: she said. With source production at record levels, total flow
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Speaker 1: is driven mainly by what has grown, rather than by
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Speaker 1: what is intercepted in transit. Derek Maltz, the DEA's acting
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Speaker 1: administrator during the first four months of Trump's second term,
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Speaker 1: has called for greater military involvement to fight trafficking. He
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Speaker 1: said the strikes send a necessary message to the world
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Speaker 1: America is now actually in a real drug war. Maltz,
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Speaker 1: who retired from the DEA in May twenty twenty five,
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Speaker 1: told the Post, over the years, we talked about a
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Speaker 1: drug war, but we didn't fight them as if they
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Speaker 1: were enemies. He acknowledged that the strikes hadn't succeeded at
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Speaker 1: disrupting the flow of cocaine. We are seeing very significant
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Speaker 1: cocaine seizures inside the US, he said. We're back to
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Speaker 1: seeing hundreds of pounds of cocaine being seized. The US
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Speaker 1: Coast Guard continues to stop and board vessels its suspects
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Speaker 1: of carrying drugs. As commander of Coastguard Station Miami Beach,
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Speaker 1: Lieutenant Matthew Ross is responsible for operations over more than
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Speaker 1: four thousand square miles of ocean. On one boat in December,
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Speaker 1: station personnel found three thousand, seven hundred fifteen pounds of cocaine,
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Speaker 1: the largest bust by a small boat Coast Guard station
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Speaker 1: in thirty years. ROS said they found one thousand, five
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Speaker 1: hundred thirty five pounds on another in May and nine
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Speaker 1: hundred pounds on a third that month. Spugglers have been
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Speaker 1: bringing kntrand into South Florida for four hundred years. ROS
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Speaker 1: said they aren't going to stop. Arturo Torres contributed to
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Speaker 1: this report. This article is accompanied by photos. The first
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Speaker 1: is captioned Defense Secretary Pete Hexa walks with Marine General
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Speaker 1: Francis al Donovan, the senior officer overseeing Operation Southern Spear,
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Speaker 1: before they host the inaugural America's Counter Cartel Conference in Doral, Florida,
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Speaker 1: in March Maria Alejandra Cardona Reuters. The photo shows a
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Speaker 1: gentleman surrounded by other individuals in business attire, walking on
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Speaker 1: a sidewalk outside a building. The next photo accompanying this
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Speaker 1: article is captained Colombian President Gustavo Petro, left, speaks with
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Speaker 1: Adviser Nohro Mandragan, center, and Angelica Verbel, the acting Minister
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Speaker 1: of Defense, during a military parade earlier this month. Luis
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Speaker 1: A Costa a f P Getty Images. Next a photo
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Speaker 1: captioned sailors stand on the deck of the U s S.
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Speaker 1: E Oogima, a wasp clasp amphibious assault ship as he
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Speaker 1: returns to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia in early June.
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Speaker 1: My Crop Getty Images. The next photo is captioned members
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Speaker 1: of the Technical Agency of Criminal Investigation and Judicial authorities
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Speaker 1: prepare to incinerate one thousand, three hundred fifty kilas of
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Speaker 1: cocaine at the headquarters of the Military Police of Public
14:59
Speaker 1: Order and Tegucigalpo Houras in April twenty twenty four Orlandos
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Speaker 1: Sierra a f P getty Images. The photo shows stacks
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Speaker 1: of plastic wrapped sectangular packages sitting on plastic tarps on
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Speaker 1: the grass. There's police tape surrounding the area and individuals
15:19
Speaker 1: stand behind the police tape. The final photo accompanying this
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Speaker 1: item is captioned A semi submersible used to transport drugs
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Speaker 1: is displayed at a Columbian Navy base Joaquin Zarrimento f
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Speaker 1: P Getty Images. The next item from to Day's from
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Speaker 1: page is entitled A desert town may run out of water.
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Speaker 1: Others could face the same fate by Hannah Knowles from Carney, Arizona.
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Speaker 1: Mayor Curtis Stacy starts every morning checking two websites that
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Speaker 1: tell him how much he needs to worry about water.
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Speaker 1: One side tells him about the reservoir that supplies his
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Speaker 1: tiny desert town. It's effectively empty. The other side tells
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Speaker 1: him if the town gets additional water, that other communities
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Speaker 1: with more senior rights aren't using right now. The answer
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Speaker 1: is yes, but Stacy tries to remind Carney's roughly two
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Speaker 1: thousand residents that they could easily tip back into crisis
16:16
Speaker 1: mode just like this spring. In newsletters, he underscores the
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Speaker 1: fragility with no fewer than twenty exclamation points. If other
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Speaker 1: communities call for more water, they will have to cut
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Speaker 1: back again. This situation is almost certainly temporary, he wrote,
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Speaker 1: And one bulletin posted on the Carney Facebook page and
16:37
Speaker 1: taped up and down the glass doors of the town office.
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Speaker 1: The message is posted in all caps, with exclamation points
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Speaker 1: proceeding and following it. Carney is an extreme example of
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Speaker 1: the water crunch facing communities across the West, as states
16:53
Speaker 1: and cities stare down a future of megadraut and fight
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Speaker 1: over scarce resources, and unusually winter this year left the
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Speaker 1: Southwest parched, with not enough water for everyone laying claim
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Speaker 1: to it. In the complex web of water rights that
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Speaker 1: govern how that short supply is distributed, the tiny town
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Speaker 1: of Carney comes last. Other cities around the West could
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Speaker 1: face similar challenges and cutbacks. The federal government is set
17:20
Speaker 1: to release a plan for the shrinking supply of Colorado
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Speaker 1: River water this summer that could force dramatic cuts. Carney
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Speaker 1: is not directly affected by the Colorado River negotiations, officials say,
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Speaker 1: but its dilemma shows how dwindling resources and water rights
17:37
Speaker 1: rules that can feel arbitrary to those most affected can
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Speaker 1: upend daily live Carnee usually uses about two hundred and
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Speaker 1: eighty acre feet of water a year. This year, it
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Speaker 1: was allocated seventy seven acre feet. One acre foot supplies
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Speaker 1: about three homes annually. Town officials realized they are on
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Speaker 1: track to run out of water in July. The crisis
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Speaker 1: forced steep reductions in water use and now hangs over
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Speaker 1: the town's future, testing resident's ability to adapt to shortage.
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Speaker 1: It has also consumed much of Stacy's final year in charge,
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Speaker 1: giving him new gray hairs and new worries about his hometown.
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Speaker 1: A community where everyone knows everyone and where you can
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Speaker 1: get a hold of the mayor by walking into his office.
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Speaker 1: Stacy thought he had seen Carney's worst crisis in twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty four, when a wildfire blazed toward the edge of town.
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Speaker 1: He ran from house to house, getting people out while
18:34
Speaker 1: ambers blew above their heads. But the water shortage has
18:38
Speaker 1: been in many ways worse. It's like a slow death,
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Speaker 1: Stacy said, instead of an actual emergency happening right in
18:46
Speaker 1: front of your eyes where you can actually help. The
18:50
Speaker 1: town tried to prepare residents late last year for what
18:53
Speaker 1: was coming. In a December twenty ninth letter, officials warned
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Speaker 1: that the reservoir, fed by their primary water source, the
19:00
Speaker 1: Hila River, was running low. The first question in the
19:03
Speaker 1: FAQ section was what happens if our allotment is zero? Answer?
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Speaker 1: Severe restrictions will be imposed. Light snowfall had left the reservoir.
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Speaker 1: San Carlos Lake had about one percent of its capacity,
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Speaker 1: and Carne's rights to that small supply were JUNEIU to
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Speaker 1: other communities under the complicated water right system laid out
19:25
Speaker 1: by a court in nineteen thirty five before the town
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Speaker 1: was founded. Soon, Carney was on track to run out
19:33
Speaker 1: of water by midsummer. For years, they'd been telling us
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Speaker 1: that cutbacks were coming, said Eric Armente, Carney's public works director,
19:42
Speaker 1: but it never did come until now, and it came drastically.
19:47
Speaker 1: In late March, Carne imposed Level five restrictions on water,
19:51
Speaker 1: the most string impossible. A declaration of emergency told residents.
19:55
Speaker 1: They could use water only for the essentials. The mayor
19:59
Speaker 1: went door to to convey the situation's gravity. There would
20:03
Speaker 1: be no washing of cars, no kiddie pools, and no
20:06
Speaker 1: watering of grass. Even the little league field would go dry.
20:11
Speaker 1: Laundry where at a second or even third day, the
20:15
Speaker 1: mayor advised in another bulletin days later, bathing showers no
20:20
Speaker 1: better time to connect with your significant other. What is
20:24
Speaker 1: a town doing about this? He wrote in the next note,
20:27
Speaker 1: this emergency is our entire focus. By the end of April,
20:32
Speaker 1: the message was sinking in and the town was using
20:34
Speaker 1: thirty percent less water. But when relief came later in
20:38
Speaker 1: the spring, town leaders were torn. The authority that oversaw
20:43
Speaker 1: river rights had given Carney extra water, but only because
20:47
Speaker 1: those with higher priority were not requesting water. The moment
20:50
Speaker 1: that changed, Carney would need to cut back again. The
20:55
Speaker 1: town council voted to go back to level one restrictions,
20:58
Speaker 1: which meant cutbacks were optional. Flush shower, keep the trees alive,
21:03
Speaker 1: launder your clothes, live a normal life again. The mayor wrote,
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Speaker 1: Not everyone thought the reprieve was a good idea. We
21:11
Speaker 1: knew exactly what was going to happen. People were just
21:14
Speaker 1: going to use it freely, said Armenta, the Public Works director.
21:18
Speaker 1: Carney was not yet in the clear. Bits of grass
21:22
Speaker 1: round town were starting to turn green again in early July,
21:26
Speaker 1: but mostly the yards were still parched. Public Work Supervisor
21:29
Speaker 1: Jake Acton looked away when he drove by the Little
21:32
Speaker 1: League field, still dead and brown. Carney officials were no
21:36
Speaker 1: longer worried about running out of water in the short term,
21:40
Speaker 1: but their broader challenge lingered. Fourth of July, fireworks were
21:44
Speaker 1: canceled due to dry conditions and limited water fire damage aside,
21:49
Speaker 1: Carney could not afford the thousands of gallons it might
21:52
Speaker 1: take to put out a wild fire, and some officials worried.
21:55
Speaker 1: News of their waterwods with scareway businesses, scareway homeowners and
22:00
Speaker 1: make it even harder to recruit teachers. Are men to
22:04
Speaker 1: stop by. An old rehabilitated well set to start pumping
22:07
Speaker 1: in a matter of weeks. No one knew how much
22:10
Speaker 1: it would produce until it started functioning, and they were
22:13
Speaker 1: trying not to get their hopes up. We want above
22:17
Speaker 1: fifty gallons per minute, Armentas said over the roar of
22:20
Speaker 1: a machine clearing sand and debris. Below that it's a
22:24
Speaker 1: waste of time. Our Menta was spending some ninety hours
22:28
Speaker 1: a week, he said, on the public works job, a
22:31
Speaker 1: position he took early this year because he knew the
22:34
Speaker 1: city was headed for trouble. He did it because his
22:37
Speaker 1: family is here and he doesn't want to leave. My
22:40
Speaker 1: mom still lives here, my sister lives here. I want
22:44
Speaker 1: to live here, he said. My kids. I want them
22:47
Speaker 1: to be able to always come back to Carney. At
22:50
Speaker 1: the bar across the street from the Little League field,
22:53
Speaker 1: people wondered when the monsoon season would bring some real rain,
22:57
Speaker 1: but everyone thought the town would get through the water cry.
23:01
Speaker 1: When Kathy Taft asked her friend Dave Olsen if the
23:04
Speaker 1: town was really going to run out of water, Olsen
23:07
Speaker 1: answered without hesitation, no, he said, I just don't see
23:11
Speaker 1: that happening. The well, when it began operating in mid July,
23:16
Speaker 1: was a letdown. At forty gallons a minute, it would
23:19
Speaker 1: cover only a fraction of the town's need. San Carlos
23:24
Speaker 1: Lake meanwhile, remains close to empty. The lake closed to
23:28
Speaker 1: the public in June after it grew so dry that,
23:31
Speaker 1: in the words of the local Recreation department, approximately one
23:35
Speaker 1: hundred percent of the fish population died. Now the mayor
23:40
Speaker 1: was worrying about twenty twenty seven. If the lake didn't recover,
23:44
Speaker 1: Carney's a portionment of river water next year could be zero.
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Speaker 1: We got seventy seven acre feet this year, and we
23:51
Speaker 1: were able to stretch that. Stacy said, you can't stretch zero.
23:57
Speaker 1: What then? There were still other avenues to try. Hydrologists
24:02
Speaker 1: were looking for well sites further out. A local mining
24:05
Speaker 1: company could give Carney some of its water. Wastewater could
24:08
Speaker 1: be put back into the ground and reused, and the
24:12
Speaker 1: monsoon rains were picking up away. On a trip to Minnesota,
24:16
Speaker 1: Stacy watched with interest as a floodwatch went into effect
24:19
Speaker 1: for much of the Heela River basin, which includes Carney.
24:23
Speaker 1: With some strong storms, the town's fortunes could change again.
24:28
Speaker 1: This item is accompanied by photos. The first is captioned
24:32
Speaker 1: an aerial view shows a pair of water storage tanks
24:35
Speaker 1: on the edge of Carney, Arizona, on July first. Rebecca
24:38
Speaker 1: Noble for The Washington Post. The next photo is captioned
24:42
Speaker 1: a mural reeds Welcome to Carney, a small town located
24:46
Speaker 1: in the south central part of the state. Rebecca Noble
24:49
Speaker 1: for the Washington Post. The next photo is captioned the
24:53
Speaker 1: Carne Little League Fields grasses unwatered and brown due to
24:57
Speaker 1: water shortages. Rebecca Noble for the Washington Post. Next is
25:02
Speaker 1: a photo captioned low water levels are evident this summer
25:06
Speaker 1: at Coolidge Dam in Paradot, Arizona. Rebecca Noble for the
25:10
Speaker 1: Washington Post. The photo shows the majority of the posts
25:14
Speaker 1: of the bridge above the dam exposed. Next is a
25:19
Speaker 1: photo captioned Eric Carmenta, Carney's public works director, stands outside
25:24
Speaker 1: his office building in late March. The town imposed Level
25:28
Speaker 1: five restrictions on water, the most stringent possible. Rebecca Noble
25:32
Speaker 1: for the Washington Post. The next photo is captioned paperwork
25:37
Speaker 1: from Carney's public works division is reflected on a windshield.
25:42
Speaker 1: Rebecca Noble for the Washington Post. Next photo captioned Public
25:48
Speaker 1: Works supervisor Jake Acton unlocks the gates to the town's
25:52
Speaker 1: water storage tanks. Rebecca Noble for the Washington Post. The
25:56
Speaker 1: next photo is captioned a worker aims to restore water
26:00
Speaker 1: well and Carney this summer. Rebecca Noble, the Washington Post.
26:04
Speaker 1: The photo shows a drilling rig and a man standing
26:07
Speaker 1: near it. The next photo is captioned water flows at
26:11
Speaker 1: the Carney Water Reclamation Facility. Rebecca Noble for The Washington Post.
26:17
Speaker 1: The next photo is captioned Vegetation grows along San Carlos Lake,
26:21
Speaker 1: which was at about one percent of its capacity in December.
26:25
Speaker 1: Rebecca Noble for The Washington Post. And the final photo
26:29
Speaker 1: accompanying this item is captioned A blue heron flies over
26:32
Speaker 1: San Carlos Lake, where the fish population suffered greatly due
26:36
Speaker 1: to low water levels. Rebecca Noble for The Washington Post.
26:41
Speaker 1: The next item from today's front page is entitled Trump
26:44
Speaker 1: target's mail in voting. New limits wanted a head of
26:48
Speaker 1: mid terms. Supreme Courts help sought for executive order by
26:53
Speaker 1: Justin Juvenal. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on
26:57
Speaker 1: Monday to clear the way for a sweeping executive order
27:00
Speaker 1: that would place major new restrictions on mail in voting
27:03
Speaker 1: for November's midterm elections. A divided panel of a Massachusetts
27:08
Speaker 1: based appeals court last week upheld a federal judge's block
27:11
Speaker 1: on the order, finding that it would so confusion and
27:15
Speaker 1: threaten disenfranchisement of many eligible voters. Judges appointed by Joe
27:20
Speaker 1: Biden and George W. Bush voted for the block, while
27:24
Speaker 1: a Trump appointee voted against it. In the administration's filings
27:28
Speaker 1: with the High Court, the Justice Department said that the
27:31
Speaker 1: executive Order lays out general policies and that agencies have
27:35
Speaker 1: yet to finalize rules based on it, so it was
27:38
Speaker 1: premature for the courts to block it. The Supreme Court
27:41
Speaker 1: appeal is part of a push by President Donald Trump
27:44
Speaker 1: and his allies to put fresh limits on voting ahead
27:48
Speaker 1: of the pivotal elections where control of both the House
27:51
Speaker 1: and the Senate is at stake. Trump claims that voting
27:54
Speaker 1: irregularities are widespread, despite a lack of evidence. The president
28:00
Speaker 1: has been pressing the Senate to pass the Save America Act,
28:04
Speaker 1: which would require voters to prove their citizenship to register,
28:07
Speaker 1: and to show photo identification when voting. He also gave
28:11
Speaker 1: a prime time television address in mid July reiterating debunked
28:15
Speaker 1: claims about vulnerabilities and election systems, and he fired members
28:20
Speaker 1: of a bipartisan elections commission. Trump has long made false
28:24
Speaker 1: claims that mail in voting is rife with fraud, and
28:27
Speaker 1: has blamed it in part for his loss to Biden
28:30
Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty presidential election, he unsuccessfully demanded that
28:34
Speaker 1: the counting of mail in ballots be suspended in their contest.
28:38
Speaker 1: In March, Trump issued in an executive order that required
28:41
Speaker 1: states to compile lists of eligible voters based on information
28:45
Speaker 1: provided by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social
28:49
Speaker 1: Security Administration. The order prohibits the Postal Service from sending
28:53
Speaker 1: mail in ballots to anyone not on the lists. It
28:57
Speaker 1: also requires that mail in ballots be delivered to votvoters
29:00
Speaker 1: in secure envelopes with barcodes to facilitate tracking. The order
29:04
Speaker 1: allows a federal government to withhold funding from states that
29:07
Speaker 1: don't comply. The cheating on mail and voting is legendary,
29:11
Speaker 1: Trump said during a signing ceremony for the order. I
29:14
Speaker 1: think this will help a lot with elections. Nearly two
29:18
Speaker 1: dozen states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump
29:21
Speaker 1: administration soon after the order was issued, arguing that it
29:25
Speaker 1: was unlawful and its true goal was voter suppression. They
29:29
Speaker 1: said the lists were likely to miss many eligible voters.
29:33
Speaker 1: The president's latest attempt to interfere with the state's administration
29:36
Speaker 1: of their elections is as unprecedented as it is unconstitutional,
29:40
Speaker 1: the states wrote in their lawsuit. Under our Constitution, the
29:44
Speaker 1: president has no authority to restrict voter eligibility or mail
29:48
Speaker 1: voting lists or of voters pre authorized by the federal government.
29:53
Speaker 1: US District Judge in Dera Talawany in Massachusetts issued a
29:57
Speaker 1: summary judgment against the executive order in June, ruling that
30:01
Speaker 1: the president lacked constitutional authority to order changes in house,
30:05
Speaker 1: states and local governments administer elections. The Constitution assigned states
30:10
Speaker 1: the primary authority over election administration and gives Congress the
30:14
Speaker 1: ability to set national standards for elections, but the president's
30:18
Speaker 1: rule is more circumscribed. Talwane, who was nominated by Barack Obama,
30:23
Speaker 1: also found that the order would present logistical and financial
30:26
Speaker 1: challenges for states. Most were already preparing to issue mail
30:30
Speaker 1: in ballots for follow elections, and some would have to
30:33
Speaker 1: purchase new envelopes and make other changes to comply with
30:36
Speaker 1: the order. The ruling does not apply to states that
30:39
Speaker 1: were not parties to the lawsuit or elections after November's
30:43
Speaker 1: mid terms. The Trump administration did not appeal to Tilwani's
30:47
Speaker 1: ruling on the legality of the executive order, but on
30:50
Speaker 1: the grounds of whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue.
30:54
Speaker 1: The injunction is especially indefensible because the agencies are still
30:57
Speaker 1: deliberating over how, if at all, to implement the order,
31:01
Speaker 1: the administration wrote. The Supreme Court gave the States until
31:05
Speaker 1: Monday to respond to the administration's appeal. The justices could
31:09
Speaker 1: rule after the administration response to the state's filing. In May,
31:14
Speaker 1: a federal judge in d C allowed the executive order
31:17
Speaker 1: to stand. In a separate lawsuit filed by the Democratic
31:20
Speaker 1: National Committee and voting rights groups. Judge Carl J. Nichols
31:24
Speaker 1: ruled that an injunction was premature because the administration was
31:28
Speaker 1: still developing guidelines related to the order. This item is
31:33
Speaker 1: accompanied by a photo captioned ballots are sworded in Los
31:36
Speaker 1: Angeles County the day after California's primary elections in June. J. C.
31:41
Speaker 1: Hong A p Next from Today's from page an item
31:46
Speaker 1: entitled SpaceX's Fall mays Musk, a former trillionaire by Fayi Sidiki.
31:54
Speaker 1: It seemed to be only good news for Elon Musk
31:57
Speaker 1: and investors in companies he oversees. SpaceX had marked a
32:01
Speaker 1: record setting IPO. Musk was the first trillionaire in history,
32:05
Speaker 1: and the rocket company vaulted to an all time high
32:08
Speaker 1: of more than two hundred twenty five dollars per share.
32:12
Speaker 1: That was last month. Since then, their fortunes have shifted.
32:17
Speaker 1: Musk has shed hundreds of billions in wealth, demoting him
32:20
Speaker 1: from trillionaire status, and SpaceX's stock price has been cut
32:25
Speaker 1: practically in half. On top of that, electric vehicle maker
32:29
Speaker 1: Tesla has lost more than eighteen percent of its value
32:32
Speaker 1: over the past week, in part after falling short of
32:35
Speaker 1: its quarterly earning expectations, as investor patience for its artificial
32:40
Speaker 1: intelligence and robotics bets has worn thin. Musk cheekily nodded
32:45
Speaker 1: at the situation in a post on X on Friday.
32:48
Speaker 1: Parentheses former close parentheses trillionaire, he wrote, But while the
32:54
Speaker 1: world's richest person could become a trillionaire again with a
32:58
Speaker 1: few big up days in the market, the challenges for
33:01
Speaker 1: SpaceX are deeper. It's a new era for a company
33:05
Speaker 1: that was once on a glide path that seemingly could
33:08
Speaker 1: do no wrong on its way to a historic seventy
33:11
Speaker 1: five billion dollar initial public offering. For SpaceX, one of
33:16
Speaker 1: the benefits of being private is that there wasn't a
33:19
Speaker 1: market to weigh in on and evaluate business decisions, said
33:23
Speaker 1: David Meyer, senior investment analyst at Montley Fool. Being publicly
33:27
Speaker 1: traded means everything will be evaluated and information transmitted through
33:32
Speaker 1: market prices. So every SpaceX launch, every Starlink decision, and
33:38
Speaker 1: every XAI decision will be scrutinized by the market, he added,
33:42
Speaker 1: referring to the company's satellite internet service and artificial intelligence
33:47
Speaker 1: are case in point. After SpaceX aborted a launch because
33:52
Speaker 1: of engine issues this month, the company faced another problem,
33:56
Speaker 1: a plummeting stock. SpaceX's IPO documents had touted its plans
34:01
Speaker 1: to establish a colony on Mars and put data centers
34:04
Speaker 1: in space. Then SpaceX was dealt its latest setback in
34:09
Speaker 1: propelling Starship off the ground. The company is trying to
34:13
Speaker 1: power its data center and exploration bets by using a
34:16
Speaker 1: roughly four hundred foot rocket to carry out missions, including
34:20
Speaker 1: taking humans back to the Moon, but the program has
34:23
Speaker 1: been marred by reliability concerns and repeated explosions. While SpaceX
34:29
Speaker 1: has proved its ability to put satellites and even people
34:32
Speaker 1: into orbit, much of its success has been built off
34:35
Speaker 1: earlier and less capable launch vehicles. The company ultimately conducted
34:40
Speaker 1: a successful test flight on Friday after what it said
34:44
Speaker 1: were issues with four of the rocket's engines during the
34:46
Speaker 1: aborted launch the prior week, but the questions about Starship's
34:50
Speaker 1: overall viability remain. The future of the company is riding
34:55
Speaker 1: on the ability to make Starship work. They essentially have
34:59
Speaker 1: a very success pickup truck that can move things across town,
35:02
Speaker 1: said Clayton Swape, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project
35:07
Speaker 1: and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
35:11
Speaker 1: a nonprofit focused on policy research in areas including defense
35:15
Speaker 1: and geopolitics. What they're trying to do is switch to
35:18
Speaker 1: a freight train and get the economies of scale of
35:21
Speaker 1: something of that magnitude. Meyer, the Motley Fool analyst, said
35:26
Speaker 1: the sharp sell off has been surprising to him. One
35:30
Speaker 1: possible explanation is that investors had the time to digest
35:34
Speaker 1: the financials and believe the valuation is too risky, he said,
35:38
Speaker 1: And the lead up to its stock debut, SpaceX disclosed
35:42
Speaker 1: it had a record of significant losses, including at least
35:45
Speaker 1: thirteen billion dollars since the beginning of twenty twenty three.
35:50
Speaker 1: Things have hardly been rosier. On the other side, of
35:52
Speaker 1: the Musk Empire at Tesla, battling what he said was
35:56
Speaker 1: an illness. On the company's earnings call, Musk temperate expts
36:00
Speaker 1: about Tesla's performance, saying the electric vehicle company would be
36:04
Speaker 1: spending heavily to fuel its ambitions. Tesla reported a decline
36:09
Speaker 1: in profits compared with the same quarter a year earlier,
36:12
Speaker 1: despite twenty six percent higher revenue than during the same
36:15
Speaker 1: period last year. As Tesla has shifted away from the
36:20
Speaker 1: auto business that propelled its meteoric growth, making it the
36:23
Speaker 1: world's most valuable car company, investors have clamored to see
36:28
Speaker 1: results from its new direction, a pivot toward robotics and
36:32
Speaker 1: what the industry calls physical AI, driven by products such
36:36
Speaker 1: as its forthcoming Optimus humanoid robot. Must delivered little news
36:42
Speaker 1: of significance on those bets, sending that company's stock sinking
36:46
Speaker 1: as well. We're investing a lot in growing the core
36:50
Speaker 1: business and really preparing for the future, Musk said. This
36:54
Speaker 1: is a massive capital expenditure year, but I'm confident that
36:58
Speaker 1: all the things that were investing in will yield incredible returns.
37:02
Speaker 1: I'm a little under the weather here, a bit ill,
37:05
Speaker 1: so if I sound a little off. I'm a little
37:07
Speaker 1: bit ill today, Musk said later on the call. Tesla's
37:12
Speaker 1: declines and the larger consolidation of Musk's empire have fueled
37:16
Speaker 1: speculation that it could be absorbed into SpaceX. Musk did
37:20
Speaker 1: little to quell that speculation on the call. Obviously, we
37:25
Speaker 1: can't talk about combining companies and that kind of things
37:28
Speaker 1: on an earnings call. It's got to be done with
37:30
Speaker 1: the appropriate process, Musk said, after citing increasing overlap between
37:35
Speaker 1: the two companies, before turning a question about a theoretical
37:39
Speaker 1: merger to the company's general counsel for SpaceX. Meanwhile, there
37:44
Speaker 1: is little relief on the horizon, analyst said Gene Munster,
37:48
Speaker 1: managing partner at deep Water Asset Management, said the company
37:52
Speaker 1: is feeling the strain of looming lock up expirations, where
37:55
Speaker 1: people who acquired shares at low prices are suddenly able
37:59
Speaker 1: to sell their state. Until that is resolved, he said,
38:03
Speaker 1: SpaceX is likely to continue facing challenges. It's like a
38:07
Speaker 1: crushing unknown, he said. Typically what happens is the stock
38:11
Speaker 1: keeps going down, down, down until the lock up resolves. Swape,
38:17
Speaker 1: the senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.
38:21
Speaker 1: The public scrutiny on SpaceX could, however, have benefits. He said,
38:26
Speaker 1: a publicly traded SpaceX could be even more attentive to risks.
38:30
Speaker 1: I think we all know there is a bit of
38:32
Speaker 1: showmanship to how SpaceX and Elon Musk do business, he said.
38:37
Speaker 1: If anything, I guess I could see maybe this will
38:39
Speaker 1: attenuate some of that showmanship a bit and it will
38:42
Speaker 1: be more cautious. This item is accompanied by a photo captioned.
38:48
Speaker 1: An ad for SpaceX is displayed on a screen in
38:51
Speaker 1: Times Square on June twelfth, the day of its historic
38:54
Speaker 1: seventy five billion dollar IPO Angela Weiss AFP getting images.
39:01
Speaker 1: The ad shows the ex symbol for the company and
39:04
Speaker 1: underneath that spc X Nasdaq listed Next from today's from
39:10
Speaker 1: page is an item entitled police vetted dubious accusation only
39:16
Speaker 1: after boota judge children separated by Olivia George, Aaron Cox
39:21
Speaker 1: and Aaron Schaeffer. Officials who separated former Transportation Secretary Peak
39:26
Speaker 1: Bootajudge from his young twins last month, relied on a
39:29
Speaker 1: vague and unsubstantiated allegation from an accuser authorities later deemed
39:34
Speaker 1: possibly mentally unstable. According to previously unreported police records. The
39:40
Speaker 1: records obtained by The Washington Post and an interview with
39:43
Speaker 1: the apparent complainant offer the most detailed account yet of
39:48
Speaker 1: how a false tip led investigators to the home of
39:51
Speaker 1: one of the country's most prominent Democrats, drawing bipartisan outrage.
39:56
Speaker 1: Child welfare experts who reviewed the documents at the Post's
39:59
Speaker 1: request said they illuminate a flawed process that was made
40:03
Speaker 1: worse by poor judgment by agencies and a lack of
40:06
Speaker 1: communication among investigators from two states. Michigan State police reports
40:12
Speaker 1: detailed the chain of events from the allegation to its
40:15
Speaker 1: eventual determination it was unfounded and potentially politically motivated. Indiana
40:21
Speaker 1: child welfare authorities, who received a tip on a hot
40:24
Speaker 1: line with very limited information about Boothajudge, did not pass
40:28
Speaker 1: along the caller's name or contact information when notifying officials
40:32
Speaker 1: in Michigan, where boota judge now lives. Michigan police waited
40:37
Speaker 1: six days after approaching Boudhajudge to attempt to identify the caller.
40:42
Speaker 1: By then, Boothajeedge, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana
40:45
Speaker 1: and twenty twenty presidential candidate, had gone public with the ordeal.
40:50
Speaker 1: And a June Substack post, describing it as the ugliest
40:54
Speaker 1: thing that has happened to me since my career in
40:56
Speaker 1: service began. Michigan authorities had told boota judge he could
41:01
Speaker 1: not be alone with his four year old children until
41:04
Speaker 1: they could be interviewed away from their parents. The next day,
41:07
Speaker 1: Boothajudge recounted the children stayed with their grandparents who lived
41:11
Speaker 1: near by. Boothajudge, who is widely expected to run for
41:15
Speaker 1: president again, called that twenty four hour separation among the
41:19
Speaker 1: darkest hours of my life. Boodhajudge said the authorities initially
41:24
Speaker 1: would not tell him what he was accused of. VIVEC. Sancharn,
41:28
Speaker 1: a professor at the University of Michigan Law School and
41:31
Speaker 1: child advocacy law expert, said he was troubled that Michigan
41:35
Speaker 1: State Police went to Boothajudge's door with such a vague
41:38
Speaker 1: allegation that didn't present any indication that children were eminently
41:43
Speaker 1: at risk at the very least. It's incredibly poor investigative work.
41:48
Speaker 1: I would even say reckless in light of how harmful
41:51
Speaker 1: this is for the family, Sanchorn said it should scare
41:55
Speaker 1: all of us. He added, Michigan State Police spokesperson Lauren
41:59
Speaker 1: Thompson Phillips said the investigation was conducted promptly and the
42:03
Speaker 1: allegations were determined to be unfounded, adding that the department's
42:08
Speaker 1: responsibility was to assess and insure the safety of the
42:11
Speaker 1: children involved. The first openly gay cabinet member confirmed by
42:16
Speaker 1: the Senate, bouotajeedge forty four, has faced attacks from some
42:20
Speaker 1: corners over his sexual orientation and his decision to adopt
42:24
Speaker 1: two children with his husband, Chasten. He told authorities of
42:28
Speaker 1: the many threats his family receives, including death threats. According
42:32
Speaker 1: to the report, this has been a painful and infuriating
42:35
Speaker 1: situation for the family. Boutajete spokesman Sean Manning said in
42:40
Speaker 1: a statement to the Post they are in touch with
42:42
Speaker 1: Michigan authorities seeking answers and accountability for what happened. The
42:48
Speaker 1: Michigan Attorney General's Office has opened an investigation of the
42:51
Speaker 1: allegation against Boudhajedge and how it was handled. Spokeswoman Kimberly
42:55
Speaker 1: Bush told the Post common sense would have shown that
42:59
Speaker 1: this targeted report plainly lacked credibility on its face. Bush said,
43:05
Speaker 1: before children are separated from their families due diligence should
43:08
Speaker 1: be exercised to ensure some nexus exists between the source
43:12
Speaker 1: and the family, or that the complaint comes from a reputable, reliable,
43:17
Speaker 1: or verifiable source. We have requested the Michigan State Police
43:22
Speaker 1: turn over all evidence at the completion of their investigation,
43:25
Speaker 1: and will zealously investigate all leads, policies and procedures that
43:30
Speaker 1: allowed for such a flagrant violation of the Boudha Judge's privacy.
43:34
Speaker 1: Officials at Michigan and Indiana State Police departments and child
43:38
Speaker 1: welfare authorities decline to answer questions about what, if any,
43:43
Speaker 1: steps they took to verify the allegations before contacting Boothajedge.
43:48
Speaker 1: Thompson Phillips did not respond to a specific question about
43:52
Speaker 1: why state police waited six days to request information from
43:55
Speaker 1: Indiana authorities about the complainant. Ron Green, a spokesperson for
44:01
Speaker 1: the Indiana Department of Child Services, said the agency followed
44:05
Speaker 1: established procedures, including not sharing information about callers. After this
44:10
Speaker 1: article first published, Green said the agency's policy does allow
44:14
Speaker 1: for caller information to be shared with other child welfare
44:17
Speaker 1: agencies and law enforcement. He and Michigan child welfare authorities
44:22
Speaker 1: declined to comment specifically. About the Boota Judge case. After
44:27
Speaker 1: receiving a partially redacted copy of the Michigan State Police
44:30
Speaker 1: report that referenced a Facebook post by the caller, the
44:34
Speaker 1: Post was able to identify and contact the woman, who
44:37
Speaker 1: said she lived in Alabama. Public records show she has
44:41
Speaker 1: also lived in Indiana. In a phone call, she was
44:45
Speaker 1: unable to answer basic questions about her accusations. She acknowledged
44:49
Speaker 1: that she made reports about Boota Judge to authorities, but
44:53
Speaker 1: declined to say to whom. The Post is not naming
44:56
Speaker 1: the woman because it was unclear whether she was fully
44:59
Speaker 1: aware that she was speaking to a media outlet on
45:02
Speaker 1: the record. When asked to corroborate her claims with dates, documents,
45:06
Speaker 1: and other specifics, she did not, and accused the reporter,
45:10
Speaker 1: who identified herself as a journalist with a post when
45:13
Speaker 1: contacting the woman and at the start of the interview,
45:16
Speaker 1: of working with Boudhajeedge on a cover up. The Michigan
45:20
Speaker 1: State Police report redacts the complainant's name and details of
45:24
Speaker 1: the allegation, but the woman's comments to the Post aligned
45:27
Speaker 1: with what Boudhajeedge has recounted being told by authorities and
45:31
Speaker 1: non public details in the police report, including that she
45:34
Speaker 1: met him in the small city of Florence, Alabama. Michigan
45:38
Speaker 1: authorities had asked Boutajeedge during their investigation if he had
45:42
Speaker 1: traveled to Florence at any time between twenty twenty one
45:45
Speaker 1: and twenty twenty three, and his attorney confirmed to them
45:48
Speaker 1: that he had not after reviewing travel records. The woman
45:52
Speaker 1: said a sergeant from the Indiana State Police had since
45:55
Speaker 1: called her and was quote harassing her. Indiana State Police
46:00
Speaker 1: pokesperson Ron Galiviz confirmed an ongoing investigation of an allegation
46:04
Speaker 1: of false reporting, but said he was unable to comment further.
46:09
Speaker 1: Thompson Phillips, the Michigan State Police spokeswoman, said the agency
46:13
Speaker 1: is deferring to Indiana to identify the accuser and will
46:17
Speaker 1: then evaluate whether any charges are appropriate. How the Boodha
46:22
Speaker 1: Judge investigation unfolded, authorities must balance taking child abuse allegations
46:27
Speaker 1: seriously with preventing misuse of the reporting system. The spokesperson
46:32
Speaker 1: for the Michigan Attorney General's office said the office's investigation
46:37
Speaker 1: into Boodha Judge's case also aims to reduce the risk
46:40
Speaker 1: of false allegations of child abuse against other well known
46:44
Speaker 1: residents and elected officials as the newest form of threat
46:47
Speaker 1: or intimidation, the spokesperson said. Under Indiana law, anyone who
46:53
Speaker 1: suspects a child has been abused is required to make
46:56
Speaker 1: a report and the Department of Child Services must initiate
47:00
Speaker 1: an assessment within twenty four hours. In Michigan, a Children's
47:04
Speaker 1: Protective Services investigation must begin within twenty four hours of
47:09
Speaker 1: a report and usually includes face to face interviews with
47:13
Speaker 1: the alleged victims and perpetrators, plus a viewing of the
47:16
Speaker 1: child's home. Bodhajech's case involved extra complications with multiple agencies
47:23
Speaker 1: across to states. Their investigations and information sharing are partially
47:28
Speaker 1: detailed in the Michigan State Police report. Indiana police officials
47:32
Speaker 1: learned about the woman's call on June twenty second. They
47:35
Speaker 1: notified Michigan authorities on June twenty third, prompting a Michigan
47:40
Speaker 1: State Police trooper and child welfare official to visit Budhajeedge
47:44
Speaker 1: later that day. In his substack post, Boutajeg said that
47:48
Speaker 1: he was not told the details of the allegations against him,
47:52
Speaker 1: and that he was told to stay at a hotel
47:54
Speaker 1: or send his children to stay with relatives until they
47:57
Speaker 1: could be interviewed. The next day, Boota Judge and his husband,
48:01
Speaker 1: who was not accused of wrongdoing, made the decision to
48:04
Speaker 1: send their four year old twins to their grandparents. The
48:07
Speaker 1: children sat alone for separate hour long interviews with investigators
48:11
Speaker 1: on June twenty fourth, and told investigators they felt safe.
48:15
Speaker 1: According to police records, An Indiana child welfare worker contacted
48:21
Speaker 1: the caller again before referring the case to Michigan, reports show,
48:25
Speaker 1: but gained no new information. Those reports do not detail
48:29
Speaker 1: any further attempts by Indiana or Michigan police officials to
48:34
Speaker 1: vet the tip before the visit to Boota Judge. When
48:38
Speaker 1: Michigan investigators interviewed Boota Judge, they told him they did
48:41
Speaker 1: not have the name of the person who made the
48:43
Speaker 1: allegations against him, According to Boothajudge and the police records.
48:48
Speaker 1: On June twenty six, Bootha Judge went public and Michigan
48:52
Speaker 1: State Police publicly said the allegation against him was false.
48:56
Speaker 1: On June twenty ninth, a week after the initial tip,
49:00
Speaker 1: a Michigan child welfare worker told a Michigan State Police
49:03
Speaker 1: official that Indiana police informed her that the possible person
49:07
Speaker 1: who reported the allegation was a mentally unstable woman in Indiana.
49:13
Speaker 1: That's when the reports showed that Michigan State Police contacted
49:17
Speaker 1: their Indiana counterparts to get the caller's identity, and an
49:21
Speaker 1: Indiana investigator said they would try to interview her to
49:24
Speaker 1: verify the allegations and determine if she made a false report.
49:29
Speaker 1: Indiana State Police did not answer the Post's questions about
49:33
Speaker 1: the claim the accuser was mentally unstable. The woman did
49:36
Speaker 1: not respond to her question about this description of her.
49:41
Speaker 1: This case highlights everything that is wrong with a system
49:44
Speaker 1: of reporting and investigating where no one has accountability, said
49:48
Speaker 1: del markle Nseka, professor of law and director of Albany
49:53
Speaker 1: Law's Family Violence Litigation Clinic, and a family is traumatized
49:57
Speaker 1: because of it. Under an ideal system Sika said, Indiana
50:02
Speaker 1: authorities would have better vetted the caller and shared the
50:05
Speaker 1: identity of the tipster with Michigan, who should have done
50:08
Speaker 1: their own vetting and declined to act on an anonymous allegation,
50:13
Speaker 1: and the Indiana State investigator looked into the collar and
50:16
Speaker 1: reported finding a Facebook post in which the caller urged
50:19
Speaker 1: people not to vote for Boudha Judge and referenced her
50:22
Speaker 1: accusation weeks before she contacted authorities. According to the Michigan report,
50:28
Speaker 1: which does not say when the post was found. In
50:31
Speaker 1: other social media posts viewed by the Post, the woman
50:34
Speaker 1: praised other Democrats. The woman told the Post that she
50:38
Speaker 1: decided to contact authorities about Boota Judge because she was
50:41
Speaker 1: worried about his children and his presidential ambitions. She declined
50:46
Speaker 1: to say why she waited years to report her allegations.
50:49
Speaker 1: The police report said she told the Indiana child welfare
50:53
Speaker 1: worker she did not know why she waited. Meanwhile, Boodha
50:58
Speaker 1: Judge said in his substact post that he is grappling
51:00
Speaker 1: with what the ordeal means for his family and his country.
51:04
Speaker 1: Even though the accusation was absurdly and obviously false and
51:08
Speaker 1: was promptly rejected by law enforcement, I still worry about
51:12
Speaker 1: the harm it is done, he wrote. And at the
51:15
Speaker 1: most basic level, I worry about how anyone, even in
51:18
Speaker 1: today's world, could fail to respect the absolutely fundamental principle
51:23
Speaker 1: that whatever you think about someone in politics, you leave
51:27
Speaker 1: people's kids out of it. This item is accompanied by photos.
51:32
Speaker 1: The first is captioned Pete Boudhajedge speaks at a twenty
51:35
Speaker 1: twenty five town hall hosted by Vote Vetes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
51:40
Speaker 1: Casey McGinnis for The Washington Post. The next photo is
51:44
Speaker 1: captioned Transportation Secretary Pete Budhajudge and his husband Chestin Boudhajudge
51:49
Speaker 1: during a White House Pride celebration on June twenty sixth,
51:52
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. Mark schieffelbein AFP. The final item from
51:58
Speaker 1: today's front page entitled Gaza Board of Peace lower's ambitions
52:04
Speaker 1: as plans fizzle. Israel Trump established organization soon to be
52:09
Speaker 1: on a collision course. By Karen de Young, Israel's right
52:14
Speaker 1: wing government and the Board of Peace created by President
52:17
Speaker 1: Donald Trump to implement his Gaza Peace plan appear on
52:20
Speaker 1: a collision course over the future of the enclave. We
52:24
Speaker 1: are coming home Gaza, is Ours National Security Minister Imar
52:29
Speaker 1: Ben Gvir said as he led a demonstration of hundreds
52:32
Speaker 1: of supporters, along with other Israeli government ministers and lawmakers,
52:36
Speaker 1: to the northern Gaza border on July nineteenth. A number
52:40
Speaker 1: of Israeli officials, without contradiction by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
52:45
Speaker 1: have said that Israel is not leaving Gaza and vowed
52:49
Speaker 1: to re establish settlements that were dismantled when it agreed
52:52
Speaker 1: to disengage from the enclave more than a decade ago.
52:57
Speaker 1: A White House official confirmed that Trump will meet too
53:00
Speaker 1: day with Netanyahu, who is traveling to Washington to attend
53:03
Speaker 1: a memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham. The meeting is
53:07
Speaker 1: likely to center on Iran and Trump's peace efforts in Lebanon.
53:12
Speaker 1: Trump's Board of Peace has struggled to make progress moving
53:15
Speaker 1: beyond the first phase of his plan, which included the
53:18
Speaker 1: release of all remaining Hamas held hostages and a ceasefire
53:22
Speaker 1: that left what is now more than sixty percent of
53:24
Speaker 1: Gaza cleared of Palestinians and occupied by the israel Defense
53:29
Speaker 1: Forces and the rest controlled by Hamas. Phase two outlines
53:34
Speaker 1: a sequence disarmament of Hamas, Israeli withdrawal, an installation of
53:39
Speaker 1: an interim Palestinian government and police force with security provided
53:43
Speaker 1: by an international stabilization force, while internationally financed reconstruction of
53:48
Speaker 1: Gaza takes place. Earlier this month, Board of Peace officials
53:52
Speaker 1: briefed Congress on a new element of the plan that
53:55
Speaker 1: would precede those stalemated steps with construction of a piece
54:00
Speaker 1: humanitarian and governance zone for about fifty thousand gossens who
54:04
Speaker 1: agree to live there. The briefing was intended to demonstrate
54:08
Speaker 1: progress and transparency to skeptical lawmakers and others who have
54:12
Speaker 1: questioned what the Board has achieved thus far. While international
54:16
Speaker 1: humanitarian agencies last week noted improvement in food access, the
54:21
Speaker 1: World Food Program said that the overall humanitarian situation remains
54:25
Speaker 1: a brutal for the up to two million gossens who
54:28
Speaker 1: remain in the truncated Hamas controlled part of the enclave,
54:32
Speaker 1: surrounded by the Idea. Families lack water, sanitation, and medicine,
54:37
Speaker 1: the WFP said, citing continued problems of international funding and
54:42
Speaker 1: is rarely restricted humanitarian access. The pilot community is to
54:48
Speaker 1: be located in an IDF controlled area near the now
54:51
Speaker 1: raised city of Rafa in southern Gaza, according to the
54:54
Speaker 1: Board of Peace officials. The officials said it will be
54:58
Speaker 1: separated from the Israelis by a still to be formed
55:01
Speaker 1: in a national force composed of foreign troops and commanded
55:05
Speaker 1: by U. S Army Major General Jasper Jeffers. Gazans who
55:09
Speaker 1: have strayed intentionally or not across the current dividing line
55:13
Speaker 1: between Israeli and Hamas control marked by the IDF with
55:17
Speaker 1: widely spaced yellow concrete blocks that have gradually been moved
55:21
Speaker 1: inward to consume more of Gaza have been shot at
55:25
Speaker 1: regularly by Israeli troops. Some have been killed. The current
55:30
Speaker 1: position of the so called yellow line, which Netanyahu said
55:34
Speaker 1: in May he had ordered extended to seventy percent of Gaza,
55:38
Speaker 1: is far beyond the fifty three percent allotted under the
55:41
Speaker 1: peace deal. IDF General ay Al Zamir has described the
55:45
Speaker 1: line as Israel's new border, where the military exercises operational control.
55:52
Speaker 1: The IDF has said it gives warnings before using lethal
55:55
Speaker 1: force against any one crossing the line. On the eve
55:59
Speaker 1: of net H Yaho's visit to Washington, Israel's security Cabinet
56:03
Speaker 1: on Sunday said that in principle, it would allow the
56:07
Speaker 1: international force to enter the Israeli controlled area in support
56:11
Speaker 1: of the planned Pilot Community. According to Israeli news accounts
56:15
Speaker 1: of the cabinet meeting, any Palestinian moving to the Pilot
56:19
Speaker 1: Community would have to be individually screened for ties to Hamas,
56:24
Speaker 1: and the entry of any foreign troops would have to
56:27
Speaker 1: be directly approved by Netanyahu and his foreign and defense ministers,
56:32
Speaker 1: But it's unclear whether Palestinian civilians would find that to
56:36
Speaker 1: be a sufficiently secure arrangement and would feel comfortable doing it,
56:41
Speaker 1: said former US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, now at
56:44
Speaker 1: the Atlantic Council think tank. The model is a little
56:48
Speaker 1: bit bizarre in the idea that it says, to Palestinians
56:52
Speaker 1: who are not currently under Israeli control, come live under
56:55
Speaker 1: Israeli control. It's better for you, Shapiro said. According to
57:00
Speaker 1: a senior Board of Peace official who spoke in an
57:03
Speaker 1: interview on the condition that they not be identified by name,
57:06
Speaker 1: Palestinians who agreed to move into the pilot area would
57:10
Speaker 1: be free to come and go into Hamas Control Gaza
57:13
Speaker 1: at any time. The official described the pilot project as
57:17
Speaker 1: serious temporary housing. They estimated that it will cost one
57:21
Speaker 1: hundred fifty million dollars, including humanitarian and medical needs and security,
57:26
Speaker 1: and completed before the end of this year. The planned
57:30
Speaker 1: humanitarian zone, called New Rafa, would be a far cry
57:35
Speaker 1: from the ambitious redevelopment of Gaza into a high tech
57:38
Speaker 1: industrial center and waterfront resort with high rise residential communities,
57:43
Speaker 1: high speed transportation, and parks, outlined by Trump negotiator and
57:47
Speaker 1: son in law Jared Kushner when he introduced what he
57:51
Speaker 1: called New Gaza in January at the World Economic Form
57:54
Speaker 1: in Davos, where world leaders first signed up for the
57:57
Speaker 1: Board of Peace. Kushner said, comolition and removal of unexploded
58:02
Speaker 1: ordinance at least in the Israeli occupied portions of Gaza,
58:05
Speaker 1: had already commenced. Construction of New Gaza, he said, would
58:09
Speaker 1: begin under the second phase of Tromp's peace Plan. Due
58:14
Speaker 1: to the constraints of time, we will be unable to
58:16
Speaker 1: complete this item. This concludes a reading of the Washington
58:20
Speaker 1: Post for to Day, Tuesday, July twenty eighth, twenty twenty six.
58:24
Speaker 1: Your reader for to day has been Sidney Fraser. If
58:27
Speaker 1: you have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program,
58:31
Speaker 1: please feel free to call us at eight five nine
58:34
Speaker 1: four two two six three nine zero. Thank you for listening,
58:37
Speaker 1: and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio
58:41
Speaker 1: I