Transcript

9.3.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Thursday,
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Speaker 1: September 3rd, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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Speaker 1: other disabilities and make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: Your reader for today is Teresa. Today's front page headlines
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Speaker 1: from the Washington Post are Syria Eyes Roll as Middle
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Speaker 1: East Hub. Next, Access to Secret Intel is Pulled. Next,
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Speaker 1: Russia's Drones Force Ukraine to Adapt Defenses. Next, deep in
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Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon, the rain left them no escape. And finally, U.S.
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Speaker 1: Mint puts $ 1 gold Trump coin into circulation. The first
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Speaker 1: article is Syria eyeing role as Middle East hub offers
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Speaker 1: options to bypass Hormuz by Jerry Shih. Day and night, 5,000
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Speaker 1: hulking trucks carrying oil from the Persian Gulf rumble across
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Speaker 1: the stretch of barren desert as if in a caravan
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Speaker 1: snaking its way toward the Mediterranean Sea. The trucks began
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Speaker 1: shuttling between the refineries of southern Iraq and the Syrian
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Speaker 1: port of Banias in April, initially as an experiment by
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Speaker 1: Iraqi oil exporters seeking to circumvent the Strait of Hormuz
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Speaker 1: after cargo traffic in the waterway was stopped by the U.S.-Israeli
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Speaker 1: war with Iran. Today, the daily bumper-to-bumper procession of tanker
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Speaker 1: trucks is a showcase of how Syria and its new
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Speaker 1: government aim to benefit as global energy flows are reshaped.
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Speaker 1: More than 18 months after the fall of Bashir al-Sayed,
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Speaker 1: who fled after 24 years in power, Syria is poised
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Speaker 1: to capitalize on the lifting of international sanctions and the
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Speaker 1: continuing war in the Persian Gulf. Boasting access to Europe
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Speaker 1: through its Mediterranean port at Banias, Syria, under its new president,
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Speaker 1: Ahmed al-Shara, is pitching itself as a relatively stable, overland
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Speaker 1: corridor for energy and goods and an alternative to the
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Speaker 1: Strait of Hormuz. Already, international governments and energy suppliers are
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Speaker 1: buying in. In July, the Trump administration, which has embraced Shara,
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Speaker 1: announced its support for a new Chevron-led pipeline that would
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Speaker 1: funnel 2 million barrels of crude oil per day from
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Speaker 1: Basra in southern Iraq to Banias, tracing the same route
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Speaker 1: as the trucks now hauling fuel oil across the desert.
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Speaker 1: When the White House unveiled the pipeline project with senior
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Speaker 1: Syrian and Iraqi officials, Trump's special envoy, Tom Barrack, said
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Speaker 1: in a statement that it would help make the Strait
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Speaker 1: of Hormuz an afterthought. The move seemed to fit a
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Speaker 1: pattern of the Trump administration working to secure deals for
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Speaker 1: American companies, particularly in fossil fuels, as part of a
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Speaker 1: remarkably interventionalist foreign policy from Venezuela to the Persian Gulf.
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Speaker 1: The 1,000-mile, 5.7 billion pipeline will take at least two
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Speaker 1: and a half years to build and cannot fully replace
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Speaker 1: the seaborne cargo vessels that transit the Strait. But in
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Speaker 1: the long term, it would allow oil exporters to diversify
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Speaker 1: delivery routes after the war exposed the world's dependence on
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Speaker 1: the Strait and sent energy prices soaring. Still, investing in
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Speaker 1: Syria is fraught with risk. While the country is mostly peaceful, Shara,
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Speaker 1: a former al-Qaeda-linked militant, has not fully consolidated control over
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Speaker 1: the country. Islamic State cells continue to carry out sporadic
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Speaker 1: bombings and a pipeline would have to pass through western Iraq,
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Speaker 1: an area largely dominated by Iran-backed militias. The delivery of
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Speaker 1: physical security for any kind of pipeline infrastructure is going
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Speaker 1: to be the number one challenge, said Gabriel Mitchell, an
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Speaker 1: energy specialist and visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund,
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Speaker 1: the Washington-based policy institute. This is a pipeline that'll be
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Speaker 1: vulnerable to militant attacks, but it's a 30-year investment, Mitchell said.
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Speaker 1: Who will be guaranteeing security? How can you get coverage
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Speaker 1: in terms of insurance? What if the war ends in
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Speaker 1: the Strait of Hormuz and international oil companies think, now
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Speaker 1: that the Strait is open, we don't need to make
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Speaker 1: that investment? Ahmad Khubaji, the deputy chief executive of the
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Speaker 1: state-owned Syrian Petroleum Corporation, which will operate the pipeline, said
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Speaker 1: a final contract is expected to be signed in September
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Speaker 1: by a consortium that includes Houston-based Chevron, Total Energies of France,
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Speaker 1: and Syrian and Qatari investors. The group is discussing security measures,
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Speaker 1: including using drones and other advanced surveillance technology, to monitor
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Speaker 1: the pipeline, which will also have security backing from the
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Speaker 1: United States, Kajabi said. After all, it's an American project,
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Speaker 1: he said in an interview in his Banias office. Every day,
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Speaker 1: we're having 5,000 trucks coming from Iraq to here without
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Speaker 1: any security incidents. Kajabi said he is already taking calls
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Speaker 1: with Qatari investors to discuss possibly extending the pipeline to Qatar,
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Speaker 1: and analysts say that the pipeline could attract other Gulf
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Speaker 1: oil producers, such as Kuwait, that are keen to diversify
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Speaker 1: away from Hormuz. Qatar has also expressed interest in building
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Speaker 1: another pipeline through Syria that would carry liquefied natural gas
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Speaker 1: to tankers anchored at Banias, Kajabi said. Kuwait and Bahrain
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Speaker 1: could also be interested in connecting to the Iraq-Syria pipeline
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Speaker 1: to export oil through the Mediterranean, said Mohamed Ahmad, an
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Speaker 1: economist and energy analyst at Karam Shah Advisory, a Syria-focused
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Speaker 1: consulting firm. Saudi Arabia also faces a conundrum, Ahmad said.
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Speaker 1: It began diverting oil toward the Red Sea after the
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Speaker 1: Iran war closed off the Strait of Hormuz, but the
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Speaker 1: Iran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen has also threatened Red Sea traffic.
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Speaker 1: This is the first time we have seen such a crisis,
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Speaker 1: and I think the most vital route for everyone would
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Speaker 1: be to go through the Mediterranean, not through the Red Sea,
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Speaker 1: Ahmad said. Syrian officials say the country's potential as a
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Speaker 1: regional hub extends beyond oil and gas. In recent months,
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Speaker 1: Syria has inked agreements with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, two
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Speaker 1: of Shahr's key supporters, to rehabilitate an Ottoman-era railway that
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Speaker 1: would link Europe with the Red Sea via Syria and
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Speaker 1: provide an alternative to the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the
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Speaker 1: Suez Canal. Syria and Iraq have also signed deals that
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Speaker 1: would facilitate trucks carrying goods from the Gulf to Europe.
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Speaker 1: The Assad regime destroyed our country for 60 years. Everything
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Speaker 1: was under sanctions, Kajabi said, referring to U.S. measures enacted
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Speaker 1: in 2011 at the start of Syria's civil war that
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Speaker 1: made the country a no-go for foreign firms. Now all
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Speaker 1: the energy in the world can go through Syria. We
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Speaker 1: can have pipelines, roads, all forms of transit. In many ways,
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Speaker 1: Kajabi and other Syrian officials are touting Syria's most enduring asset,
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Speaker 1: its location. Centuries before the discovery of oil, the sprawling
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Speaker 1: souks in Damascus and Aleppo connected East and West, the
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Speaker 1: Red Sea and the Capsian Sea, trading silk from China,
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Speaker 1: spices from India, gold from Egypt, and glass from Europe.
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Speaker 1: But to journey along the proposed pipeline route today is
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Speaker 1: to be reminded constantly of the devastation suffered during the
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Speaker 1: country's 14-year civil war and the vast gap between modern
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Speaker 1: Syria and the country's ambition to reclaim its historical role
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Speaker 1: as a hub of the Middle East. Near the Iraq border,
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Speaker 1: a massive pumping station for a previous Iraq-Syria pipeline built
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Speaker 1: in the 1950s lies in ruins after it was taken
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Speaker 1: over by the Islamic State and flattened by U.S. bombing,
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Speaker 1: rendering it unstable, unusable. In the surrounding desert, not far
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Speaker 1: from Iraq's Anbar province and its Iran-backed militias, the Syrian
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Speaker 1: army is still working to remove mines from the war.
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Speaker 1: Up the Euphrates River at Al-Omar oil field, an hour
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Speaker 1: drive from the site of a bomb attack claimed by
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Speaker 1: the Islamic State in August, Ahmad Al-Hurder, a regional official
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Speaker 1: with Syrian National Oil Company, downplayed the threat from militants.
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Speaker 1: Trucks carrying oil have been attacked sporadically, he acknowledged, but
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Speaker 1: those incidents were mostly carried out by locals to scrundle
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Speaker 1: that they can no longer carry out unauthorized drilling. Al-Hurder,
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Speaker 1: expressed confidence that the army could secure oil infrastructure. Al
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Speaker 1: Herder said he hoped the future pipeline would provide an
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Speaker 1: export outlet for Syria's oil wealth and generate new revenue
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Speaker 1: for a country that once relied on oil for some
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Speaker 1: 30 percent of its income. But for now, he was struggling.
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Speaker 1: After the new Syrian government took control of the al-Omar
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Speaker 1: field in January, Al Herder discovered that oil wells were
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Speaker 1: badly damaged by years of mismanagement under Kurdish forces and
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Speaker 1: the Islamic State and were only able to produce one-tenth
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Speaker 1: of their peak pre-war output. The state oil company, the SPC,
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Speaker 1: lacked capital and had resorted to hiring contract laborers to
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Speaker 1: strip metal parts from a pumping facility badly damaged by
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Speaker 1: an American airstrike to assemble new pipes. Syria doesn't lack
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Speaker 1: technical expertise, Al Herder said. We badly lack investment and
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Speaker 1: better equipment. At a desolate junction in Al-Qurayn, Syria, on
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Speaker 1: the two-lane road to Benias, Mohammed Hatem, a Gregorius Iraqi
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Speaker 1: driver hauling oil, complained about a different set of problems.
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Speaker 1: Syria's potholed roads are in pitiful shape compared to Iraqi
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Speaker 1: highways and chewed up his tires, Hatem said. His rigged
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Speaker 1: park near a desert intersection. And so many trucks now
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Speaker 1: shuttle oil between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean that
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Speaker 1: accidents are a daily occurrence, he said. Still, he wasn't
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Speaker 1: complaining about the $ 1, 800 he pockets for each 10-day round
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Speaker 1: trip from Basra to Banias. I'm so scared of this
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Speaker 1: new pipeline taking away from my business. I might blow
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Speaker 1: it up, he said, with a belly laugh before stressing
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Speaker 1: that he was strictly joking. At a nearby checkpoint, Abu Ahmad, 39,
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Speaker 1: who is a Syrian security official, waved along oil trucks
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Speaker 1: and cars traveling in all directions, west towards the Mediterranean
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Speaker 1: and east to the Persian Gulf, north to Turkey and
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Speaker 1: to South Jordan. A decade ago, Ahmad was a rebel
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Speaker 1: with a free Syrian army deployed here in the desert
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Speaker 1: fighting everyone, he recalled. the Assad regime to the west,
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Speaker 1: the Islamic State, Russian forces, and Wagner mercenaries forced to
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Speaker 1: the east, Kurdish militias, even Hezbollah, after the Shiite militia
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Speaker 1: invaded from Lebanon. In those years, it would have been
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Speaker 1: dangerous for civilian cars, much less trucks full of precious oil,
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Speaker 1: to traverse the region. Thank God everything is over, he said. Today,
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Speaker 1: Ahmad sits in the heat, with little more than his paperwork,
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Speaker 1: a rickety fan, and an old Russian PKA machine gun
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Speaker 1: rusting unused on the floor under a thin layer of dust.
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Speaker 1: He said he understood why this place was so hotly
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Speaker 1: contested during his days as a fighter and why it's
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Speaker 1: so busy with traffic today. We're at the crossroads of
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Speaker 1: the Middle East. The next article, Pentagon Cuts Access to
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Speaker 1: Classified Information Amid Iran War Concerns by Dan LaMothe and
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Speaker 1: Alex Horton. Documents associated with the Secretary of Defense orders
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Speaker 1: book were removed from an internal Pentagon web portal after
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Speaker 1: the Washington Post reporting. Three people familiar with the matter said,
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Speaker 1: The Pentagon has pulled decades of classified documents from a
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Speaker 1: secret computer system commonly used by defense officials and U.S.
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Speaker 1: troops after the Washington Post published a story detailing senior
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Speaker 1: military officers' concerns about the Iran war. Documents associated with
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Speaker 1: the Secretary of Defense order books, SDOB, were removed from
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Speaker 1: an internal web portal on the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, SIPRNNet.
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Speaker 1: Three people familiar with the matter said they spoke on
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Speaker 1: the condition of anonymity to discuss the classified system. It
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Speaker 1: was not immediately clear if the documents remain otherwise available
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Speaker 1: to U.S. personnel or how the reduction in access could
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Speaker 1: complicate military planning. SIPRNet holds information that is labeled secret,
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Speaker 1: while top-secret information is held on more highly classified networks
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Speaker 1: where fewer people have access. Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman,
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Speaker 1: declined to discuss the change on Wednesday, but did not
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Speaker 1: dispute that it occurred. As we have previously stated, the
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Speaker 1: Department of War does not publicly discuss internal operational deliberative
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Speaker 1: processes including the Management Handling or Access Protocols for the
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Speaker 1: Secretary of War Order Books, WSOB. Parnell's statement said, using
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Speaker 1: the administration's preferred name for the Defense Department and Defense
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Speaker 1: Secretary Pete Hegses' title, The success of our service members
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Speaker 1: is Secretary Hegses' top priority, and for that reason, decisions
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Speaker 1: regarding operational processes, force posture, and deliberative staffing are managed
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Speaker 1: through appropriate security channels, to ensure mission security and operational integrity,
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Speaker 1: Parnell's statement added. The change comes after the Trump administration
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Speaker 1: has taken numerous other steps to thwart leaks to the media,
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Speaker 1: including imposing polygraph tests on some personnel, issuing subpoenas to journalists,
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Speaker 1: and in one case, searching the home of a post
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Speaker 1: journalist and seizing her electronic devices. The SDOB details the
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Speaker 1: location and availability of U.S. warships, military units, weapons systems,
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Speaker 1: and other resources, and provides top generals and admirals a
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Speaker 1: form in which they can disagree with President Donald Trump
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Speaker 1: and Hegseth while still carrying out their orders. They do
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Speaker 1: so by non-concurring a process by which they explain reservations
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Speaker 1: they may have or the detrimental effects of orders on
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Speaker 1: other military plans. The SDOB, published twice per month, became
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Speaker 1: the focus of intense discussions after the Post reported Sunday
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Speaker 1: that that several top generals and admirals cautioned Hegseth that
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Speaker 1: prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening
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Speaker 1: their ability to confront threats elsewhere. They did so by
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Speaker 1: non-concurring in the SDOB, people familiar with the document said.
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Speaker 1: Among those who raised reservations with a non-concur were General
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Speaker 1: Alex Grinkovich, the head of European Command, General Francis Donovan,
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Speaker 1: the head of Southern Command, Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head
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Speaker 1: of Pacific Command, and Admiral Darrell Cottle, the chief of
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Speaker 1: naval operations, the people familiar with the discussion said. General
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Speaker 1: Kenneth S. Wilsbach, the chief of staff of the Air Force,
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Speaker 1: and General Christopher LaNave, the acting chief of staff of
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Speaker 1: the Army, concurred with HEGSF's plan to extend the time
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Speaker 1: of some of their unit's deployments, but each emphasized that
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Speaker 1: doing so would come with significant risk, these people said.
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Speaker 1: Parnell told the Post before publication Sunday that decisions about
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Speaker 1: the scope and duration of deployments are made based on
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Speaker 1: assessments of threats posed to the United States, the President's
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Speaker 1: strategic priorities, and the advice of top military leaders. He
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Speaker 1: declined to address specifics, saying that the Pentagon does not
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Speaker 1: discuss internal operational processes. After publication of the Post report,
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Speaker 1: Parnell claimed on social media that much of what the
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Speaker 1: Post published was inaccurate. He did not provide specifics and
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Speaker 1: said that non-concurs are standard. The Secretary sees them constantly,
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Speaker 1: Parnell said. That's how you run a real military. We
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Speaker 1: are in great shape around the world. For months, senior U.S.
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Speaker 1: officials have increasingly raised concerns about the long-term impact of
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Speaker 1: the war with Iran, which has stretched into seven months
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Speaker 1: after Trump initially said it would only take a few weeks.
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Speaker 1: The concerns include the massive expenditure of increasingly scarce munitions
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Speaker 1: such as Patriot missile interceptors and Tomahawk cruise missiles and
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Speaker 1: the strain placed on the Navy's fleet as it enforces
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Speaker 1: a sea blockade that the Trump administration has imposed on Iran.
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Speaker 1: Purging the SDOB or moving it to systems with higher
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Speaker 1: levels of classification will dramatically reduce the number of people
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Speaker 1: who have direct access to it, which can constrain urgent planning,
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Speaker 1: said a former ambassador. defense official who routinely reviewed those
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Speaker 1: documents and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss
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Speaker 1: sensitive planning. Commanders and their staffers rely on access to
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Speaker 1: the SDOB to make time-sensitive decisions and notifications, the former
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Speaker 1: official said. Sending aircraft and weapons from one command to another,
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Speaker 1: for instance, requires urgent logistical work to reroute equipment and resources.
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Speaker 1: Restricting access to relevant information and the former official said,
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Speaker 1: will make that process slower and more difficult. That shift,
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Speaker 1: the former official said, does not make it impossible for
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Speaker 1: those personnel to access strategic and operational documents, but it
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Speaker 1: is now certainly more difficult. The next article, Russia's Jet-Powered
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Speaker 1: Drones Are Overwhelming Ukraine's Air Defenses. This article is by
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Speaker 1: Mary Ishuni. Russia is pounding Ukraine with jet-propelled drones capable
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Speaker 1: of flying nearly twice as fast as older models and
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Speaker 1: launched in quantities intended to overwhelm air defenses, forcing Kiev
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Speaker 1: to adapt once again in a high-tech arms race that
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Speaker 1: is increasingly defining the war. Russia launched more than 2,800
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Speaker 1: of the weapons on Ukraine in August, according to Ukrainian officials.
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Speaker 1: They think Moscow can produce tens of thousands of them
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Speaker 1: per year. Residents of Kiev and other cities have grown
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Speaker 1: familiar with hours-long nighttime air raids. Continuous daytime alerts over
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Speaker 1: the past week have brought the capital to a standstill.
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Speaker 1: Jet-propelled drones now account for more than half of the
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Speaker 1: unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, Russia is launching to wear down Ukraine,
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Speaker 1: President Volodymyr Zelensky said. There were almost 1,500 drones of
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Speaker 1: all types in these four days alone. About 800 of
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Speaker 1: them jet-powered, he said Sunday. The Garan-4 and Garan-5 models
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Speaker 1: developed from Iranian Shahed drones can reach speeds up to
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Speaker 1: 250 miles per hour. At times, Ukrainian forces have scrambled
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Speaker 1: combat aircraft to try to repel them. The increasingly prominent
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Speaker 1: role of these drones highlights the importance of Russia's alliance
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Speaker 1: with Iran, which Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted during a
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Speaker 1: meeting with Iranian President Massoud Pesetsky on Tuesday. In perhaps
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Speaker 1: the most dramatic recent attack, a Russian Garen-4 drone struck
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Speaker 1: a munitions warehouse Friday in Myla, a village outside Kiev,
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Speaker 1: setting off a chain of explosions over several hours that
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Speaker 1: the Security Service of Ukraine said killed at least 38 people.
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Speaker 1: It was the deadliest attack on the country this year.
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Speaker 1: Russia can produce about 3,000 of the new drones per month,
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Speaker 1: according to Seri Beskrovnov, an advisor to Zelensky on defense technology.
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Speaker 1: Last month, according to our statistics, there were 1,500 jet
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Speaker 1: UAV attacks, Bekostrov said. This month, we've already counted 3,000
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Speaker 1: jet drones. Based on our intelligence data, the Russians have
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Speaker 1: plans to produce 36,000 to 40,000 UAVs per year. That is,
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Speaker 1: more than 3,000 per month. It's safe to say they
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Speaker 1: have already reached that production capacity. Bestratnov predicted that Russia
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Speaker 1: would keep producing gasoline-powered drones. Jet-propelled models will make up
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Speaker 1: roughly 60% of output, he said. The rest will be
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Speaker 1: older types, such as the Shahed-136 and Garand-2. Each side
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Speaker 1: in recent months has stepped up aerial strikes deep into
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Speaker 1: others recently. territory, while the ground war has largely stalled.
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Speaker 1: Ukraine continues to hit Russian oil refineries, twice causing fuel shortages,
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Speaker 1: and has extended its campaign against major Russian online retailers
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Speaker 1: with strikes on Ozan warehouses. By the end of August,
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Speaker 1: an estimated 6% of the company's warehouse capacity has been
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Speaker 1: wiped out, according to local business outlets. Russia is firing
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Speaker 1: a mix of drones and ballistic missiles. Russian forces have
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Speaker 1: struck warehouses around Kyiv, threatening food shortages as shelves empty
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Speaker 1: out in some supermarkets. The Russian military blog Rebar, run
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Speaker 1: by Mikhail Zvenchuk, who formerly worked in the Russian Defense
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Speaker 1: Ministry's press service, says such strikes have once again highlighted
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Speaker 1: a critical issue facing Ukraine. The armed forces of Ukraine
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Speaker 1: have reached a breaking point regarding their shortage of surface-to-air missiles.
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Speaker 1: Missiles are more expensive and complex to manufacture, making their
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Speaker 1: daily use unfeasible, one post read. Garand drones, however, offer
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Speaker 1: an immediate operational advantage. Looking long-term, with the potential for
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Speaker 1: production and launch capacities up to 5,000 units per month,
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Speaker 1: they can be used to exacerbate the air defense shortages
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Speaker 1: and intensify strikes on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine has significantly improved
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Speaker 1: its ability to shoot down drones and has ramped up
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Speaker 1: its own long-range drone production capacity, but its shortage of
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Speaker 1: air defense missiles remains a persistent vulnerability and a consistent
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Speaker 1: advantage for Moscow. Zelensky has been urging President Donald Trump
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Speaker 1: to send more Patriot missiles, which Ukraine says are the
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Speaker 1: only interceptors capable of reliably stopping Russia's ballistic missiles. Ballistic
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Speaker 1: missiles are far more expensive to build than drones, but
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Speaker 1: they can inflict much more damage and penetrate heavily defended
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Speaker 1: or underground sites. Patriot stocks have been depleted in part
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Speaker 1: by the U.S. war on Iran and by multiple countries
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Speaker 1: competing for limited supply. Zelensky has asked to buy additional
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Speaker 1: interceptors and press Trump and Congress for more supplies. He
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Speaker 1: said last month that Ukraine needs 5% of the U.S.
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Speaker 1: Patriot production to defend itself but has only been receiving 1%.
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Speaker 1: Zelensky and Trump worked out licensing that would allow Ukraine
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Speaker 1: to eventually build Patriot interceptors domestically. The leaders appeared together
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Speaker 1: at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, in July. We'll
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Speaker 1: give them the right to make Patriots, Trump told reporters.
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Speaker 1: We'll show them how to do it. However, later that month,
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Speaker 1: he'd backtracked, saying the advanced technology was a hard thing
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Speaker 1: to give away. Ukraine has recently received a small number
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Speaker 1: of Patriot interceptors, Zelensky said. He did not reveal how
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Speaker 1: many had arrived or who had supplied them. The next article,
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Speaker 1: Deep in the Grand Canyon, the Rain Left Them Nowhere
23:37
Speaker 1: to Go, by Brianna Sachs, N. Kirkpatrick, and Dylan Moriarity.
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Speaker 1: Hikers thought they prepared for the reality of flash flood,
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Speaker 1: but they never imagined that they'd be trapped in the
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Speaker 1: deepest narrows Jessica Boucher pressed her face against the sharp,
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Speaker 1: wet rock and realized she might never see her three
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Speaker 1: children or wife again. The knowledge that her family could
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Speaker 1: get a call, that her body had been found along
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Speaker 1: the Colorado River, or perhaps never found, sank so heavy
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Speaker 1: inside her that it was hard to breathe. The muddy
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Speaker 1: water surging with trees and boulders kept getting closer to
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Speaker 1: where she and her sister were perched on a ledge
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Speaker 1: that jutted slightly out of the otherwise sheer Grand Canyon Wall.
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Speaker 1: If she went in that water, she knew she would
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Speaker 1: be dead. Boucher, a 40-year-old preschool teacher from Sherwood, Oregon,
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Speaker 1: was on a long-planned trip at the iconic National Park
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Speaker 1: with her younger sister and their friend when a flash
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Speaker 1: flood swept through, killing at least two people. They were
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Speaker 1: among dozens who were rescued throughout the weekend as walls
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Speaker 1: of water and debris rushed through canyons and down steep terrain. Boucher,
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Speaker 1: who loves the outdoors and camps frequently, hadn't done a
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Speaker 1: big adventure since having kids, but came for anything and
24:56
Speaker 1: wanting to spend time with her younger sister, she agreed
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Speaker 1: to take on the Grand Canyon's Rim to Rim, a
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Speaker 1: strenuous 24-mile excursion that usually starts on the park's north rim.
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Speaker 1: The route drops 6,000 feet over 14.3 miles to the
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Speaker 1: Colorado River and heart of the canyon, then snakes back
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Speaker 1: up the Bright Angel Trail to the south rim, a
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Speaker 1: nearly 10-mile climb with 4,500 feet of elevation gain. But
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Speaker 1: about halfway in, a torrent of water rushed toward them,
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Speaker 1: coming up over the trail that was supposed to lead
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Speaker 1: them away from it. The sister's friend had disappeared around
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Speaker 1: the corner. The last thing they heard her yell was,
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Speaker 1: you need to hold on to something. They thought they'd
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Speaker 1: prepared for the reality of a flash flood, but they
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Speaker 1: never imagined that they'd be trapped in the deepest, narrowest
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Speaker 1: part of the canyon, enclosed in what the National Park
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Speaker 1: Service calls one of the most notorious sections. This route
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Speaker 1: is a bucket list item for many people, including Melanie McGurk,
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Speaker 1: Buescher's 33-year-old sister. The siblings didn't grow up together and
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Speaker 1: have never lived in the same state, so every year
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Speaker 1: they planned something fun. The sisters and McGurk's good friend
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Speaker 1: Katie Brink secured hard-to-get permits and researched the weather and conditions.
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Speaker 1: They knew it was Arizona's monsoon season and that the
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Speaker 1: region was prone to flash floods. They knew about the
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Speaker 1: Dragon Bravo fire that torched the canyon the year before
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Speaker 1: and how burn scars can worsen flooding. Experts noted that
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Speaker 1: this weekend's event is far from the worst or largest
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Speaker 1: flooding event that has struck the national park. As longtime
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Speaker 1: Grand Canyon hiker and historian Tom Martin said, flash floods
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Speaker 1: are what make Grand Canyon the Grand Canyon. Monsoons often
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Speaker 1: hit this time of year, but these storms struck at
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Speaker 1: a point, the Bright Angel Canyon, where recent fire burn
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Speaker 1: scars made the terrain more vulnerable and chock full of debris.
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Speaker 1: Even as the specifics of how Dragon Bravo's scar affected
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Speaker 1: Saturday's areas remains uncertain, Jack Schmidt, director of the Center
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Speaker 1: for Colorado River Studies at Utah State University, said burn
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Speaker 1: scars can exacerbate a situation. Martin worries about the North
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Speaker 1: K-Bib Trail should have been kept closed to the public.
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Speaker 1: This should never have been open, he said. Now they
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Speaker 1: got two deaths on their hands. Busher said the group
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Speaker 1: talked about the risks a lot. We were not going
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Speaker 1: in blind by any means, Busher said, joking that the
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Speaker 1: group had done much more mental research and preparation than physical.
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Speaker 1: On Friday evening, Busher, McGurk, and Brink checked into the
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Speaker 1: North Rim campground and chatted at length with a ranger.
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Speaker 1: They discussed how fast we thought we'd be going, what
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Speaker 1: areas we would be in at what times, and the
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Speaker 1: weather forecasted along the route, Buscher said. The ranger told
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Speaker 1: them they might have some rain showers, a 10% chance
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Speaker 1: of thunderstorms, but otherwise it looks great, Buscher said. The
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Speaker 1: ranger didn't otherwise seem concerned. And now, Buscher said, seeing
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Speaker 1: all these comments like, it's monsoon season, what did you expect?
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Speaker 1: There is no amount of preparation or forethought that would
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Speaker 1: have shown this. We were just waiting to die. Donning
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Speaker 1: 45-pound packs, Busher, McGurk, and Brink started their ambitious hike
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Speaker 1: in the pitch black, descending the North K-Bib Trail around 4.30 a.m. Saturday.
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Speaker 1: Thunder boomed and lightened at times, illuminated the red expanse
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Speaker 1: around them. When the sun finally rose, they were awestruck,
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Speaker 1: Busher said, at the mind-blowing views of endless curving rock formations.
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Speaker 1: As the day wore on and the miles ticked by,
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Speaker 1: the women say they now understand some of the signs
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Speaker 1: of what was coming, though at the time they wouldn't
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Speaker 1: have understood them. The Bright Angel Creek, for one, didn't
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Speaker 1: look like the photos they'd studied. It was thick and fast-moving,
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Speaker 1: like the Chocolate River in Willy Wonka, which Busher made
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Speaker 1: a mental note to tell her son about. The water
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Speaker 1: looked faster and higher than it should have when we started,
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Speaker 1: she recalled. Then there was the hail. The three women
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Speaker 1: got caught in three separate storms Saturday, forcing them to
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Speaker 1: hunker beneath their packs as the trail quickly turned to
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Speaker 1: muddy slush. But those are common in summer around these
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Speaker 1: parts of Arizona, and no one else seemed to be
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Speaker 1: too worried. They met a woman, Wiki DeBoer, who was
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Speaker 1: running the infamous Rim to Rim over three days, a
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Speaker 1: 42-ish mile track that takes you across the canyon and back. DeBoer,
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Speaker 1: a seasoned ultra-runner, has been adventuring in the canyon since
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Speaker 1: she was four. She had made honest assessments on what
29:37
Speaker 1: would need to happen for me to turn around since
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Speaker 1: she was running solo. About two and a half miles
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Speaker 1: from the north rim, the runner determined the conditions were
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Speaker 1: bad enough to turn back. One downpour forced her to
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Speaker 1: curl into a ball under a tree. Water began to
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Speaker 1: spread down the trail and she could hear the bright
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Speaker 1: Angel Creek below. I felt quite scared, she said. It
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Speaker 1: just kept getting louder and louder. When Buescher's crew met
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Speaker 1: DeBoer at the Manzanita rest area around 10 a.m. that day,
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Speaker 1: her small, wiry body was covered in mud. They talked
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Speaker 1: about the rain and hail. By then, though, the weather
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Speaker 1: was back to calm and beautiful, and they snacked and
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Speaker 1: continued on. A few hours later, around 1.50 p.m., the
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Speaker 1: trio realized they were walking through the Dragon Bravo burn
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Speaker 1: area And again, Buescher said, I didn't even connect the
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Speaker 1: fire scar with what would happen if a lot of
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Speaker 1: rain hit and water came through that. They ran into
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Speaker 1: a ranger who asked them if they'd gotten caught in
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Speaker 1: the flash flood. They thought he had meant the hailstorm.
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Speaker 1: Buescher would later realize they had not been talking about
30:45
Speaker 1: the same thing. It turns out a flash flood had
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Speaker 1: hit a part of the canyon earlier, either ahead or
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Speaker 1: behind them, but had been small enough for the ranger
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Speaker 1: to casually mention. He told them they were lucky to
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Speaker 1: have cool weather and commended them for their trek. A
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Speaker 1: little rain scares a lot of people off. He was
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Speaker 1: on his way to Cottonwood Campground, which they'd passed, because
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Speaker 1: someone had pushed an emergency button, Buescher said. Nothing seemed
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Speaker 1: like a big deal, she said. At 2.14 p.m., that changed,
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Speaker 1: and it changed fast. One of the craziest-looking clouds they'd
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Speaker 1: ever seen appeared with a tornado-shaped funnel beneath it. At
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Speaker 1: this point, they were in the depths of the canyon,
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Speaker 1: entering what is known as the box, a narrow four-mile
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Speaker 1: section of trail carved into the rock face along Bright
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Speaker 1: Angel Creek. There is no high ground, no escape routes. Suddenly,
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Speaker 1: it seemed they were under the cloud, and a wall
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Speaker 1: of wind and rain turned the air white around them.
31:44
Speaker 1: Water felt like it was coming at them from every direction.
31:48
Speaker 1: They could no longer see in front of or behind
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Speaker 1: them and had no idea whether they should keep going
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Speaker 1: or turn around. They started to hear boulders crashing from above.
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Speaker 1: We can't stay here, Buescher told the other two. If
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Speaker 1: the river starts to rise, there is nowhere for us
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Speaker 1: to go. They decided to keep going around them, the
32:07
Speaker 1: once dry canyon walls transformed into vertical rivers, and not trickles,
32:12
Speaker 1: Buescher described, rivers pouring down every surface, and all you
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Speaker 1: can think is that it's going right to my feet,
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Speaker 1: right into this creek, and we have nowhere else to go.
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Speaker 1: As they turned a corner, Buescher spotted a damaged section
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Speaker 1: of trail now washed into a surging river. It was
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Speaker 1: their only way forward, but her sister did not want
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Speaker 1: to cross it. As they were arguing, a tiny yellow
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Speaker 1: and gray bird appeared. For the last 12 miles, nearly
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Speaker 1: 10 hours crossing the canyon, the women had not seen
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Speaker 1: any birds, Buescher said. They talked about how strange it was,
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Speaker 1: the absence of them. Then there was this bird, which
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Speaker 1: stopped on a rock and stared at them. repeatedly flying
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Speaker 1: back to this rocky sludge and back toward them. I
32:58
Speaker 1: know this sounds crazy, but my younger brother passed away
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Speaker 1: a few years ago, Busher explained, her voice raw. I
33:05
Speaker 1: knew that was Blake. That was my brother. I knew
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Speaker 1: we had to keep going. Around this time, park rangers
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Speaker 1: had started the process of evacuating hikers around the campgrounds. DeBoer,
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Speaker 1: the runner, she said. She described how officials took her
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Speaker 1: and others to Silver Bridge, about two miles south of
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Speaker 1: where Buescher's crew was, and that's when the wall of
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Speaker 1: water started to come down, DeBoer said. Back in the box,
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Speaker 1: the three women were trying to run. They pushed through
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Speaker 1: a waterfall that pelted them with rocks. Next to them,
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Speaker 1: Buescher said the brown, rumbling, nasty water kept getting closer.
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Speaker 1: They hit a black bridge and debated stopping there to
33:45
Speaker 1: avoid the dangerous falling boulders. They decided against it. That
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Speaker 1: bridge is gone now, she said. A quarter mile later,
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Speaker 1: the water had submerged the trail in front of them.
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Speaker 1: Brink decided to backtrack to find a group of three
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Speaker 1: men who'd been behind them to see if they had
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Speaker 1: a plan. She turned a corner and screamed for them
34:06
Speaker 1: to grab onto anything they could and did not come back.
34:10
Speaker 1: After clinging to a tiny rock ledge by fingers and
34:13
Speaker 1: toes for about five minutes, Busher knew they had to
34:16
Speaker 1: get higher up. They eyed a taller ledge about ten
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Speaker 1: feet away and tried to scramble up. Held back by
34:23
Speaker 1: her heavy pack, McGurk struggling and water rose up Buescher's calves.
34:28
Speaker 1: Buescher screamed at her sister to ditch her pack, quickly
34:31
Speaker 1: unbuckling hers and dropping it into the rushing water. McGurk
34:35
Speaker 1: wrestled to get her Garmin watch off the shoulder strap
34:39
Speaker 1: without slipping into the water, frantically pushing the watch's emergency button.
34:44
Speaker 1: The siblings grabbed a burnt tree that was sticking out
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Speaker 1: of the otherwise crumbling rock and anchored themselves on the ledge.
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Speaker 1: This is all my fault, McGurk sobbed. I'm going to
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Speaker 1: have to tell Katie's family she is dead. About ten
34:57
Speaker 1: minutes later, the water receded slightly and they spotted a
35:01
Speaker 1: figure walking up the path. It was Brink. After she
35:06
Speaker 1: climbed up to join them, the three sat for about
35:08
Speaker 1: ninety minutes and took turns having mental breakdowns, Buescher said.
35:13
Speaker 1: At one point, a helicopter flew by. We were just
35:16
Speaker 1: waiting to die, Buscher said. We were hoping and praying
35:19
Speaker 1: it didn't rain again, because if it did, this ledge
35:22
Speaker 1: would collapse and we would be gone. Their phones had
35:26
Speaker 1: been without service for most of the hike, but they
35:29
Speaker 1: realized that while the Garmin alert signal had connected, their
35:32
Speaker 1: location was now out of range. McGurk decided to climb
35:37
Speaker 1: back down to try and communicate with Garmin's emergency services.
35:41
Speaker 1: It worked. and she stayed on the tiny ledge for
35:44
Speaker 1: about two hours as officials assured them to hold tight.
35:48
Speaker 1: Four hours later, at 6.48 p.m., they spotted another helicopter.
35:54
Speaker 1: This one was making a beeline straight to them. They
35:57
Speaker 1: later learned that it took hours to get them because
36:00
Speaker 1: rescuers had been evacuating groups of people from Phantom Ranch
36:03
Speaker 1: a few miles away. They could make out a guy
36:07
Speaker 1: dangling from a rope, and we knew it was for us,
36:09
Speaker 1: Buescher said. As the chopper got closer, the rescuer told
36:13
Speaker 1: them he could only take two. Buescher told her sister
36:16
Speaker 1: and Brink to go first, and as he tossed her
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Speaker 1: a helmet and harness, Buescher said he motioned that he
36:23
Speaker 1: would be right back. Ten minutes later, he was. If
36:28
Speaker 1: we were ten feet further down, even with precedent or warnings,
36:33
Speaker 1: one expert who specializes in trauma and international aid response
36:38
Speaker 1: said there is a common expectation when it comes to
36:40
Speaker 1: extreme weather and disasters that it won't get to us,
36:44
Speaker 1: that we'll be okay. People's brains are not made to
36:47
Speaker 1: conceptualize this kind of threat and devastation, said Cynthia Erickson,
36:52
Speaker 1: a psychologist and dean at Fuller School of Psychology and
36:55
Speaker 1: Marriage and Family Therapy. If we were constantly functioning out
36:59
Speaker 1: of a perception of the worst-case scenario happening, we would
37:03
Speaker 1: be frozen in our lives. That is why it is
37:06
Speaker 1: so common to hear, as Pusher repeatedly said, I never
37:09
Speaker 1: could have imagined this. After the rescue helicopter came, emergency
37:14
Speaker 1: responders eventually took them to the top of the South
37:17
Speaker 1: Rim to a cafeteria filled with Red Cross volunteers who
37:21
Speaker 1: handed them hygiene kits, clothes, and warm food. There was
37:25
Speaker 1: a smattering of other rescued hikers, but none of them
37:29
Speaker 1: looked like us, Pusher said. They were clean and dry
37:31
Speaker 1: and had all their stuff. a Park Service investigator gently
37:35
Speaker 1: asked them about who else they'd encountered on the trail,
37:38
Speaker 1: as there were many people still unaccompanied for. All Buescher
37:42
Speaker 1: could think of was the group of three men behind them.
37:46
Speaker 1: So far, responders have recovered the bodies of two men.
37:49
Speaker 1: A third is still missing. While officials have not yet
37:52
Speaker 1: identified them, friends and family members have put out statements
37:56
Speaker 1: describing John Giusti, a dedicated chiropractor, father of three girls,
38:01
Speaker 1: and real-life superhero. Brent Rosenkranz, a 42-year-old husband, father of three,
38:08
Speaker 1: and passionate martial artist, and Timothy Smith, as good friends
38:12
Speaker 1: from Texas and lovers of the outdoors. In a Facebook video,
38:16
Speaker 1: Smith's wife Carrie sat next to her three children and
38:20
Speaker 1: asked those to continue to pray as the search and
38:22
Speaker 1: rescue teams look for our daddy. We are praying that
38:26
Speaker 1: he is found today. Based on timing and location, The
38:30
Speaker 1: women have a gut feeling the three could be the
38:32
Speaker 1: men who were hiking behind them. The ones they'd seen
38:35
Speaker 1: in the distance throughout the day, splashing and cooling off
38:38
Speaker 1: at the creek, and heard laughing and marveling at the
38:41
Speaker 1: stunning ribbon falls. If we were 10 feet further down
38:45
Speaker 1: the trail in either direction, I don't think we would
38:47
Speaker 1: be here, Buscher said. I don't think you would be
38:50
Speaker 1: hearing our story. The final front page headline, U.S. Mint
38:55
Speaker 1: Puts Cold $ 1 Coin With Trump's Image Into Circulation. by
38:59
Speaker 1: Amy B. Wang and Dan Diamond. The coins, meant to
39:03
Speaker 1: mark America's 250th birthday, will also be sold on the
39:07
Speaker 1: Mint website at markups spanning roughly 50% to nearly 150%
39:12
Speaker 1: over their face value. The U.S. Mint said Wednesday that
39:17
Speaker 1: new golden $ 1 coins featuring President Donald Trump's image are
39:22
Speaker 1: now in circulation, marking only the second time in U.S.
39:25
Speaker 1: history that a living president has appeared on U.S. coinage.
39:29
Speaker 1: The Trump. coins, intended to mark the United States' 250th birthday,
39:33
Speaker 1: were first proposed last year and drew controversy and questions
39:37
Speaker 1: about their legality. One side of the coin features an
39:40
Speaker 1: image of Trump's face and is inscribed with liberty, in
39:44
Speaker 1: God we trust, and 1776 to 2026. The other side
39:50
Speaker 1: of the coin depicts an eagle holding an olive branch
39:53
Speaker 1: and arrows in its talons, along with a banner that
39:55
Speaker 1: reads E Pluribus Unum. The U.S. Mint began selling the
40:00
Speaker 1: Trump coins on its website at noon Wednesday at a
40:04
Speaker 1: markup of more than 50% above their face value. Rolls
40:08
Speaker 1: of 25 coins will cost $ 61, and bags of 100
40:09
Speaker 1: coins will cost $ 154. 50, according to its website. Also, vending
40:18
Speaker 1: machines where people can purchase the coins for $ 5 each
40:22
Speaker 1: appeared at the U.S. Mint store in Washington on Wednesday.
40:25
Speaker 1: When the coins were first proposed last year, draft images
40:29
Speaker 1: showed Trump's image on both sides of the coin. At
40:32
Speaker 1: the time, a bipartisan committee that reviews U.S. coin designs
40:36
Speaker 1: balked at taking up the proposal, with members saying that
40:40
Speaker 1: putting a sitting president on currency would break with Democratic norms.
40:45
Speaker 1: GOP and Democratic members of that committee, the Citizens' Coinage
40:49
Speaker 1: Advisory Committee, also warned the U.S. meant not to move
40:53
Speaker 1: forward with any plan to put Trump's face on coins.
40:56
Speaker 1: The CCAC has not been presented with a Trump gold
41:00
Speaker 1: coin for review. If they make it without our review,
41:04
Speaker 1: it will be illegal, Donald Scarinzi, a Democrat whom Senate
41:09
Speaker 1: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer named to the committee, told the
41:13
Speaker 1: Washington Post in June. Mint officials argued that because the
41:17
Speaker 1: committee declined to consider the coin, the administration was not
41:21
Speaker 1: bound by its review and pressed forward with the coin's production.
41:26
Speaker 1: Under a law passed in 2020, the Treasury Department can
41:29
Speaker 1: mint $ 1 coins during 2026 to mark the 250th anniversary,
41:35
Speaker 1: with designs emblematic of the United States' semi-quintessential. However, according
41:42
Speaker 1: to U.S. code, Only the portrait of a deceased individual
41:46
Speaker 1: may appear on United States currency and securities, a law
41:49
Speaker 1: that sprung from a colonial-era tradition against putting current presidents
41:54
Speaker 1: on American coins to distance them from the British monarchy.
41:58
Speaker 1: Treasury officials have defended to Trump's coin design, noting that
42:02
Speaker 1: the image of President Calvin Coolidge appeared on a coin
42:05
Speaker 1: for the United States' 150th anniversary. In 2005, President George W.
42:11
Speaker 1: Bush signed the Presidential One Dollar Coin Act, directing the U.S.
42:15
Speaker 1: Mint to issue a line of dollar coins honoring past U.S.
42:19
Speaker 1: presidents in the order they served, but only those who
42:22
Speaker 1: had been deceased for at least two years. The U.S.
42:25
Speaker 1: Mint suspended issuing those presidential coins in 2011. The next article,
42:32
Speaker 1: An Organ Donor Saved Her Life, Now She's Marrying His Brother,
42:36
Speaker 1: by Maggie Penman. Brooklyn Dotson received a life-saving liver when
42:42
Speaker 1: she was a toddler. More than two decades later, she's
42:45
Speaker 1: engaged to the donor's brother. Noah Waters was around six
42:49
Speaker 1: when he first met three-year-old Brooklyn Dotson at her home
42:52
Speaker 1: in Kentucky. Her family invited his family over to say
42:56
Speaker 1: thank you for saving Brooklyn's life. Noah was so young
43:00
Speaker 1: that he didn't really understand the situation or how organ
43:03
Speaker 1: donations worked. He was still grieving his older brother's death
43:07
Speaker 1: and could never have imagined that decades later the tiny
43:10
Speaker 1: girl who received his brother's liver would one day become
43:13
Speaker 1: his wife. Brooklyn, now 24, was born with a genetic
43:18
Speaker 1: condition that left her in a need of a liver
43:20
Speaker 1: transplant when she was one. She was on a hospital
43:24
Speaker 1: transplant list for months as the situation became increasingly dire.
43:28
Speaker 1: They gave Brooke three days to live without a transplant,
43:32
Speaker 1: said her mom, Ashley Baker, explaining her daughter was born
43:36
Speaker 1: with Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Just after Christmas 2003, when she
43:42
Speaker 1: was 19 months old, a liver transplant came through, but
43:47
Speaker 1: her family's miracle was the Waters family tragedy. Michael Waters
43:52
Speaker 1: was 10 when he was hit by a car and
43:54
Speaker 1: died near his home in Dayton, Ohio. He was hearing
43:57
Speaker 1: impaired and playing at a friend's house that day. His mom,
44:01
Speaker 1: Tina Poteet, thinks he didn't hear the car coming when
44:04
Speaker 1: he stepped into the street. Poteet said Michael was an
44:08
Speaker 1: unusually generous kid, often giving away his lunch to others
44:12
Speaker 1: who didn't have enough to eat. It was kind of
44:15
Speaker 1: hard keeping up with everything Michael gave away, Poteet said.
44:18
Speaker 1: I can't even tell you how many coats I bought
44:21
Speaker 1: for Michael. For years she thought Michael was losing them,
44:24
Speaker 1: but at his funeral she learned he had given his
44:27
Speaker 1: winter jackets away to kids who needed them. Two years
44:30
Speaker 1: before he died, Michael had learned about organ donation and
44:35
Speaker 1: told his parents that if anything ever happened to him,
44:37
Speaker 1: he wanted them to donate his organs. It was Michael's gift,
44:41
Speaker 1: Poteet said. That's what made it easy that night at
44:44
Speaker 1: the hospital. We knew what he wanted. A few months
44:48
Speaker 1: after Michael died, Poteet reached out to Life Connection of
44:51
Speaker 1: Ohio to learn more about the people who had received
44:55
Speaker 1: his organs. It turned out that Baker was looking for
44:58
Speaker 1: her too. The two mothers exchanged letters about their kids
45:02
Speaker 1: and made plans to meet. The story was first reported
45:05
Speaker 1: by local news station LEX18. Brooklyn might have been two
45:10
Speaker 1: or three when we first met her, Poteet said. She
45:13
Speaker 1: was so cute, so tiny and talking and bubbly. The
45:17
Speaker 1: two families stayed in touch with Brooklyn and her mom,
45:20
Speaker 1: making the five-hour drive to Ohio at least once a year.
45:24
Speaker 1: Noah and Brooklyn immediately became friends. and Brooklyn said Noah's
45:28
Speaker 1: parents always treated her like part of their family, and
45:31
Speaker 1: her mom did the same for Noah. I kind of
45:34
Speaker 1: thought he loved her way back when they were really young,
45:37
Speaker 1: Poteet said of her son, who is now 27. When
45:41
Speaker 1: Brooklyn was a freshman in high school, she had a
45:44
Speaker 1: blockage in her liver and ended up back in Cincinnati
45:47
Speaker 1: Children's Hospital for another surgery. Noah drove there from his
45:51
Speaker 1: home in Dayton as soon as he heard and sat
45:53
Speaker 1: by her bed for hours. He was always cracking jokes,
45:57
Speaker 1: making me laugh, Brooklyn said. He's just very sweet. The
46:01
Speaker 1: two stayed in touch as Brooklyn started college at Lindsay
46:05
Speaker 1: Wilson University in Kentucky, where she studied counseling. Noah began
46:10
Speaker 1: a career as a project manager at a natural gas
46:13
Speaker 1: company in Ohio. They both dated other people, and Noah
46:17
Speaker 1: has an eight-year-old son from a previous relationship. Noah and
46:21
Speaker 1: Brooklyn became close friends at times, video calling for eight
46:25
Speaker 1: hours in a day. In the spring of 2025, Noah
46:30
Speaker 1: heard through family that Brooklyn had a crush on him.
46:33
Speaker 1: I was like, there's no way, Noah said. That weekend,
46:37
Speaker 1: he drove from his home in Ohio to Kentucky to
46:40
Speaker 1: tell her he had always had feelings for her too.
46:44
Speaker 1: Perhaps because of their history, they said, it was almost
46:47
Speaker 1: immediately a serious relationship. She moved to Ohio to be
46:50
Speaker 1: with him in July last year. The two share five
46:54
Speaker 1: dogs and take care of Noah's son part-time. Brooklyn said
46:58
Speaker 1: she loved seeing what a good dad Noah was. On
47:01
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, he and Brooklyn went out to dinner in Columbus, Ohio,
47:05
Speaker 1: and he surprised her by asking her to marry him.
47:09
Speaker 1: I had planned a big elaborate thing. How was I
47:12
Speaker 1: going to do it, and what was I going to say?
47:14
Speaker 1: And I couldn't get it out, Noah said. I just
47:17
Speaker 1: told her I loved her and asked if she wanted
47:19
Speaker 1: to marry me. She said yes, and the two started
47:22
Speaker 1: planning their wedding, which will be later this month in
47:25
Speaker 1: a family friend's backyard. It was supposed to be a small,
47:29
Speaker 1: intimate thing, but it just grew and grew, Brooklyn said.
47:32
Speaker 1: The couple is now expecting more than 100 people. I'm
47:35
Speaker 1: just very excited, she said. Brooklyn's health has been good
47:39
Speaker 1: the past several years, and she still has regular check-ins
47:42
Speaker 1: with her doctors to make sure her liver is functioning well.
47:46
Speaker 1: Noah said he was always close with his big brother,
47:49
Speaker 1: even though they were five years apart. He was a
47:52
Speaker 1: very protective big brother, Noah said. Noah was born with
47:56
Speaker 1: hearing impairments just like Michael, and when Noah was young,
48:00
Speaker 1: he had surgeries to improve his hearing. He said Michael
48:03
Speaker 1: would keep him company while he was recovering. He taught
48:07
Speaker 1: me how to ride a bike, all those things big
48:09
Speaker 1: brothers do, Noah said. Poteet still thinks about Michael every day.
48:15
Speaker 1: She said, adding, there's no happy spin that you could
48:18
Speaker 1: put on it. Noah said he hopes that sharing his
48:21
Speaker 1: family story will encourage others to consider organ donation. You
48:25
Speaker 1: don't know who you're going to help, he said. Many
48:29
Speaker 1: of Michael's organs were donated to help people, including his heart, kidneys,
48:33
Speaker 1: and lungs. Poteet has kept in touch with some of
48:36
Speaker 1: the recipients, including one who will be a guest at
48:39
Speaker 1: the wedding, Freddy Perez, the man who received Michael's heart.
48:44
Speaker 1: I feel incredibly blessed to have been given another opportunity
48:46
Speaker 1: to live years beyond what I would have without Michael's
48:50
Speaker 1: courageous and selfless decision to become an organ donor, Perez said.
48:55
Speaker 1: Poteet said she's grateful Michael was able to help so
48:58
Speaker 1: many others, including her future daughter-in-law. I think the two
49:02
Speaker 1: just had magic, and they discovered that early on when
49:05
Speaker 1: they were tiny, Poteet said of Brooklyn and Noah. They
49:09
Speaker 1: were really pure little kids. They were just always really
49:12
Speaker 1: beautiful and loving together. The next article, these activists plan
49:18
Speaker 1: to stand up to federal agents if they show up
49:20
Speaker 1: at the polls. The administration hasn't ruled out having federal
49:24
Speaker 1: agents at polls. The Vote Safe Project plans to send
49:28
Speaker 1: observers to precincts in four battleground states by Gregory S. Schneider.
49:36
Speaker 1: A coalition of civil rights and advocacy groups plans to
49:39
Speaker 1: deploy hundreds of poll watchers this fall at heavily minority
49:43
Speaker 1: precincts to counter what organizers say is a threat of
49:46
Speaker 1: voter intimidation from President Donald Trump's administration. The National Action Network,
49:53
Speaker 1: the American Federation of Teachers, and the Save America Movement
49:56
Speaker 1: are launching the Vote Safe Project, which they described as
50:00
Speaker 1: a nonpartisan initiative set to begin during early voting and
50:03
Speaker 1: culminate in the November 3rd midterm elections. They are focusing
50:08
Speaker 1: on Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, and North Carolina, all of which
50:11
Speaker 1: are competitive in the battle for control of the Senate.
50:15
Speaker 1: Trump has routinely raised alarms about the threat of voter
50:18
Speaker 1: fraud this fall, stoking fears among his followers and prompting
50:22
Speaker 1: calls for preemptive action. He has urged Republicans to nationalize elections,
50:27
Speaker 1: and some administration officials haven't ruled out deploying agents to polls,
50:32
Speaker 1: even though federal law prohibits doing so. There is really
50:36
Speaker 1: an unprecedented threat to our elections this year, and it's
50:39
Speaker 1: coming from our own government, Mary Corcoran, executive director of
50:43
Speaker 1: the Save America movement, said in an interview. Corcoran co-founded
50:47
Speaker 1: the group along with Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt, to
50:51
Speaker 1: counter what they see as the excesses of Trump's MAGA movement.
50:56
Speaker 1: Those locations were chosen as politically significant areas with large
51:00
Speaker 1: populations of people of color that could be vulnerable to intimidation,
51:04
Speaker 1: she said. The idea is to have trained community members
51:08
Speaker 1: such as faith leaders, teachers, veterans, and fighters at polling
51:11
Speaker 1: places so voters can go there with confidence, Corcoran said.
51:16
Speaker 1: We want to replace that fear with comfort and knowledge.
51:20
Speaker 1: Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen said at a news
51:23
Speaker 1: conference Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents aren't meant
51:28
Speaker 1: to patrol polling places but may be present if they
51:31
Speaker 1: are serving a warrant or responding to a threat. Then-White
51:35
Speaker 1: House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said at a news conference this
51:38
Speaker 1: year that she can't guarantee that an ICE agent won't
51:41
Speaker 1: be around a polling location in November, but added that
51:44
Speaker 1: she hadn't heard Trump discuss any plans to do so.
51:49
Speaker 1: Former Trump strategist and podcaster Stephen K. Bannon has suggested
51:54
Speaker 1: that ICE deployments at airports could serve as a test
51:57
Speaker 1: run for similar efforts at election sites. While both political
52:01
Speaker 1: parties have increasingly deployed poll watchers since 2020, recent years
52:06
Speaker 1: have seen clashes over charges of voter intimidation. During 2022
52:12
Speaker 1: midterm elections, a court order stopped armed masked individuals from
52:16
Speaker 1: photographing photographing people casting early ballots in Arizona. This year,
52:23
Speaker 1: the Justice Department has said it plans to send 1,000
52:26
Speaker 1: monitors to the pool. Organizers said they modeled the Vote
52:30
Speaker 1: Safe initiative after a project that Save America movement undertook
52:34
Speaker 1: last year to station observers and videographers in areas of
52:37
Speaker 1: the country with a heavy ICE presence in hopes of
52:40
Speaker 1: preventing violence. Corcoran said volunteers are being trained in local
52:45
Speaker 1: election laws and techniques to de-escalate tense situations. They will
52:49
Speaker 1: be clearly identified with Vote Safe insignia, she said, and
52:53
Speaker 1: none will be armed. Vote Safe plans to deploy poll
52:57
Speaker 1: watchers around Detroit, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Charlotte in the 20
53:03
Speaker 1: precincts in each area with the highest expected turnout of
53:06
Speaker 1: racial minority voters. Citing the Supreme Court's recent weakening of
53:11
Speaker 1: protections for minority voters in the Voting Rights Act, the
53:14
Speaker 1: organizers said they want to ensure that voters of every
53:19
Speaker 1: ethnicity feel welcome at polling places. They also want to
53:22
Speaker 1: protect voters from having their immigration status inappropriately challenged. No
53:30
Speaker 1: voter should have to wonder whether exercising their constitutional right
53:34
Speaker 1: will put them at risk, the Rev. Al Sharpton, founder
53:37
Speaker 1: of National Action Network, said in a statement. If anyone
53:41
Speaker 1: thinks the presence or threat of federal agents will frighten
53:44
Speaker 1: our communities away from the polls, they are badly mistaken.
53:50
Speaker 1: Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said
53:53
Speaker 1: in a statement that the coalition's goal is for voters
53:56
Speaker 1: to feel there is someone standing beside them who knows
54:00
Speaker 1: their rights and knows the law so they can cast
54:03
Speaker 1: a ballot with confidence. Next article. She's feeding hundreds of
54:08
Speaker 1: kids on ICE detention. in ICE detention using commissary accounts.
54:13
Speaker 1: Casey Revkin gives money to hundreds of families at a
54:16
Speaker 1: Texas family detention facility so they can buy food their
54:19
Speaker 1: children will eat, by Aurelius Hernandez. Edgar Yerani Cortez Garavez
54:27
Speaker 1: said her daughter and her daughter were going hungry. The
54:31
Speaker 1: pair from Venezuela were being held at a federal immigration
54:34
Speaker 1: detention facility in Dilley, Texas, and beginning to lose weight.
54:38
Speaker 1: Cortez Gervais was pregnant and struggled to keep down the
54:41
Speaker 1: rice and meat mash that workers served in the cafeteria.
54:45
Speaker 1: Her child barely ate and was suffering from diarrhea. Then
54:49
Speaker 1: Cortez Gervais learned about a woman who deposited money into
54:53
Speaker 1: detainees' commissary accounts so that they could purchase bottled water,
54:58
Speaker 1: ramen noodles, and other foods their children liked. She didn't
55:01
Speaker 1: know her name or how to contact her, but she
55:03
Speaker 1: heard she'd been sustaining hundreds of families by offering them
55:07
Speaker 1: an alternative to the cafeteria food no one seemed to tolerate. Soon,
55:12
Speaker 1: she was getting help, too. If she doesn't deposit, I
55:15
Speaker 1: have nothing, Cortez Gervais said in a recent phone call
55:19
Speaker 1: from the detention center. It's all the quiet work of
55:22
Speaker 1: Casey Revkin, a self-described California mom who began helping immigrant
55:27
Speaker 1: children about a decade ago. Early last year, she learned
55:31
Speaker 1: that the Department of Homeland Security had reopened the South
55:34
Speaker 1: Texas Family Residential Center to house the rising number of
55:37
Speaker 1: children being held with their parents while waiting for their
55:40
Speaker 1: immigration cases to be adjudicated. Parents reported finding cockroaches in
55:45
Speaker 1: their food and said their children were vomiting after drinking
55:48
Speaker 1: the tap water. Some children were so depressed they weren't
55:51
Speaker 1: eating at all. I wanted to help fix some of that,
55:54
Speaker 1: Revkin said. I comfort myself with the fact that I'm
55:57
Speaker 1: doing something, making these children's life a little easier in
56:01
Speaker 1: these horrible circumstances. Revkin is now sending more than $ 10, 000
56:05
Speaker 1: a week through her nonprofit, Each Step Home, to families
56:09
Speaker 1: being held at Dilley so that they can buy food
56:12
Speaker 1: and other essentials at the commissary. Over the last seven months,
56:16
Speaker 1: she said she has helped families buy everything from candy
56:19
Speaker 1: bars for birthdays to nasal sprays for children suffering in
56:23
Speaker 1: the Texas dusty landscape. She's a fairy godmother, said Kristen Etter,
56:29
Speaker 1: an attorney with the Texas Immigration Law Council. People literally
56:33
Speaker 1: could not survive in Dilley without her. Detainees in federal
56:38
Speaker 1: immigration detention across the country have reported getting sick after
56:42
Speaker 1: consuming food that was spoiled, infested with bugs, or not
56:45
Speaker 1: fully cooked. The solution for many people has been to
56:49
Speaker 1: buy food from the commissary, but advocates and detainees say
56:52
Speaker 1: the prices are inflated. A bowl of instant noodles, for example,
56:56
Speaker 1: costs $ 1. 11 a unit in January, according to receipts Revkin
57:00
Speaker 1: shared with the Washington Post. The unit price at a
57:03
Speaker 1: Texas grocery store is nearly half that. Due to time constraints,
57:08
Speaker 1: we will need to end that item at this time.
57:12
Speaker 1: This concludes the reading of the Washington Post for today,
57:15
Speaker 1: September 3, 2026. Your reader for today has been Teresa.
57:23
Speaker 1: If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program,
57:27
Speaker 1: please feel free to call us at 859-422-6390. Thank you
57:32
Speaker 1: for listening, and now please stay tuned for continued programming
57:36
Speaker 1: on Radio Eye. This concludes the reading of the Washington
57:40
Speaker 1: Post for today, Thursday, September 3, 2026. Your reader for
57:46
Speaker 1: today has been Teresa. If you have any questions, comments,
57:50
Speaker 1: or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call 859-422-6390.
57:54
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening, and now please stay tuned for
57:57
Speaker 1: continuing program On Radio Eye.