Transcript

5.5.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning everybody, and happy Monday. Welcome to the reading
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of the Washington Post for this sinko to my home Monday,
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May fifth, And as a reminder, RADIOI is a reading
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service intended for people who are blind or have other
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disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. Your
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reader for today is Rod Brotherton and as you know,
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on Monday, by reader request, we will read the weekly
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column from the Lexington Harold Leader by Paul Prather, and
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this week's column is some churches are driven by fear,
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others by love. I prefer the latter. The criticism of
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my preaching I've heard most across the decades is this,
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I don't preach enough against wickedness. I'm too easy on reprobates,
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I don't threaten rebels with hell fire in a word,
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I'm soft on sin. By sin, my critics tend to
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mean something naughty the critic himself doesn't happen to be doing,
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or something naughty the critic is doing secretly hopes to
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pen on others, or something the critic would like to
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do but doesn't have the guts for, or something that's
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on the wrong side of the culture wars. Depending on
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which side of the critics are on Actually, I'm not
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soft on sin. Sin is real and bears real consequences.
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It produces untold misery for everyone. I think just about
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everything humans do is sinful. We're wired that way. But
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the biggest sin of all being a self righteous religious
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prig Seriously, it's in the Bible. Look it up that
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particular sin especially afflicts us preachers. Long ago, though, I
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decided to focus on something different, God's grace and mercy
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in the face of our sins. I figured if people
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wanted to hear yet another sermon damning reprobates, they could
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easily find a half dozen ministers within a five minute
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radius of their house who would oblige. I hope to
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offer an alternative, namely love, God's love for sinners, our
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love for God in return our love for our fellow
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fallen humans. Some have suggested I choose this past because
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I want to be more popular than pure. Well, if
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popularity was my motive, I failed. The joke's on me.
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My congregation is about as small as a congregation can
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get and still keep the church house doors open. I
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inherited the love message from my dad, God rest his soul,
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who has raised enough fearsome brimstone tradition. He preached an
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old exacting Legallesson take message for years his God would
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let would get you if you didn't watch out it.
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Maybe if you did. Then in midlife Dad was radically
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filled with the Holy Spirit, changed directions on a dime.
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I saw and felt his transition into a new man
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full of joy, acceptance, and freedom. This is a roundabout
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way of saying a second criticism of my preaching that
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I've belong with, that I'm long winded that I lately
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read by a wonderful column by David French in the
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New York Times, who's among the best communicators on spirituality.
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He wrote about the differences between churches focused on fear
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and those focused on love. When I talked to Christians
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who are struggling with their faith, one of the is
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the first thing I ask is were you raised in
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a fear of the world church or a love your church?
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Prince said. The culture of the Church of fear is unmistakable.
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You are taught to view the secular world as fundamentally
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a threat. Secular friends are dangerous, Secular education is perilous,
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Secular ideas are bankrupt, and you're always taught to prepare
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for the coming persecution when they are going to try
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to destroy the church. A church based on love is different,
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and it's so different that it can sometimes feel like
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a different faith entirely. Distinction begins with the initial posture
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toward the world, not as a threat to be engaged,
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but as a community that we should love and serve.
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The fear of the world church is the kind I
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was trying to avoid leading fear the world. Christians are
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the same ones obsessed with sin sin sin at their
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core is not just fear the world, which is Christian
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slang for anything that's not explicitly Christian, but also fear
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of God or Hell, or losing faith or being called
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out by other believers or the church leader's wrath. When
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we live in fear, we eventually come to hate something
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or everybody, maybe even ourselves. Fear breeds fury, but that
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isn't what Christianity is supposed to look like. As I
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explained in a twenty twenty three column, most repeated commandment
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in the Bible is do not be afraid, and the
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New Testament writer John said God's perfect love casts out
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all fear. We Christians just weren't made for fear or rage.
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They will know you by your love, is how Jesus
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put it. We're called to him break even those with
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whom we disagree. We're not told to condemn sinners, but
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to love them, because each of us is a center too.
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This approach could be a world changer if we put
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it into practice. French again, we live in a time
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of great anger, We live in a time of great pain,
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and everywhere we look we seem to see people of
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faith stoking anger and inflicting pain. But a resurrection church
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that follows a resurrected savior should be a balm, not
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a blow torch. It's default posture toward difference isn't suspicion
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but affection. He mentioned those he gets us ads we've
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all seen on TV. Secular viewers have found the ads
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annoying or threatening, but did you know that there were
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Christians who hated them even more? He says the image
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of Christians loving and serving people on opposite sides politically
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was deeply triggering to the most pugilistic Christian voices online.
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After last year's Super Bowl, French said some Christians were
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particularly offended by ads that showed a police officer washing
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the feet of a young black man, an older woman
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washing the feet of a young woman outside an abortion clinic,
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and a priest washing the feet of a gay man.
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The ad ended with the provocative words aimed at Christians
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as much as anyone else. Jesus didn't teach hate. He
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washed feet. And as you know, Paul Prather his pastor
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of the Bethesda Church and air Mount Sterling, and you
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can reach him or email him at prtpd at yahoo
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dot com. Now, let's look at the headlines from the
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Washington Post lead story on this Monday is Justice Department
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lawyers face skeptical judges upset by shoddy work. Justice Department
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lawyers defending the Trump administration's policies are encountering mounting criticism
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and frustration from federal judges, a sign of deepening tensions
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between the executive branch and courts weighing its aggressive uses
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of power. In recent hearings and rulings, judges appointed by
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presidents of both parties have criticized the statements and behavior
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of administration officials, accusing them of defying court orders, submitting
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flimsy evidence, providing inadequate answers. To questions and even acting
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like toddlers. The cases involve lawsuits challenging everything from President
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Trump's push to increased deportations to his efforts to punish
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law firms. Most are in the early stages of litigation,
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but the judicial pushback suggests a break from the goodwill
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courts have traditionally shown towards assertions by government lawyers. The
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deference that judges would give to attorneys from main justices evaporating,
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said Johnny Jones IID, a former federal judge in Pennsylvania,
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a ported to the bench by President George W. Bush.
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Justice Department lawyers have added have lost a fair measure
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of their credibility. At a hearing in d C last
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week about law firms, US District Judge John D. Bates
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seem unimpressed by some of the Justice Department lawyer's answers,
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responding at one point, oh, give me a break. US
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District Judge Beryl A. Howell was similarly skeptical Friday, as
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she ruled trump actions against a different law firm were unconstitutional,
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writing that Justice Department lawyer Richard Lawson, when asked, was
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unable to fill in basic details about the sanctions in Virginia,
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a judge scoffed at evidence the government offered in an
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immigration case in March to claim one couple were members
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of a violent gang. I expect more from the government
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than this kind of very shoddy work. US District Judge
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Leone M. Brinckema told the Justice Department lawyer, adding that
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if it were a criminal case, I'd throw you out
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of my chambers. The government then detained a couple in
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Texas and sought to deport them based on the same
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set of allegations. US District Judge David Brionis in El
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Paso ordered their immediate release, writing that the government this
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court takes clear offense to respond its wasting judicial resources.
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When US District Judge Colleen Kohler Katli in d C
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issued an order in April pausing parts of Trump's executive
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order overhauling voting and election systems, she chided government lawyers
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for claims in court that she said did not match
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the facts. This exchange does not reflect the diligence the
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court expects from any litigant caller, Telly wrote in her opinion.
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Let alone the United States Department of Justice. Since Trump
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took office more than two hundred lawsuits have been filed
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challenging his initiatives, and judges have entered more than one
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hundred orders temporarily blocking or pausing those actions. Trump and
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his allies have called for some of the judges to
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be impeached and removed from the bench, castigating judges who
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ruled against them as activists and liberals overstepping their authority.
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We're not being treated fairly by all judges, Trump told
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ABC News and aired last week in an interview. He
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has previously accused those who ruled against him of being
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radical left lunatics and part of a rigged system, but
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the pushback from the bitch has come from judges appointed
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by Republicans as well as Democratic presidents, including by Trump himself,
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suggesting the issue is more about the Justice Department's evidence
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and court arguments than judicial activism. US District Judge Terry A. Dougherty,
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who Trump appointed, wrote in April that he was scheduling
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a hearing to investigate his strong suspicion that the administration
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had deported a two year old US citizen with no
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meaningful process. Lawyers from the agency at times admitted they
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did not have answers to basic questions, including details on
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Trump's sanctions on some law firms or the deals he
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struck with others who were hoping to avoid punishment. This
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is not the first time Trump and his emissaries have
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brought a foul of the courts. Between presidential terms, Trump
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faced four criminal cases, including one in which he was
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convicted by a jury on thirty four counts of falsifying
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business records, and civil litigation. Judges in those cases held
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Trump in contempt, ask his attorneys to control him, threaten
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to throw him out of court for defying orders to
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be quiet, and warrant he could be jailed if his
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behavior did not improve. Since Trump returned to the White House,
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some of the sharpest criticisms of his administration's actions have
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come in cases focused on its immigration agenda. US District
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Judge James E. Boasburg in d last month, took the
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rare step of launching criminal contempt proceedings after saying probable
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cause existed to suggest administration officials willfully disregarded an order
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he issued in March halting Alien Enemies Act deportation flights.
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An appeals court has temporarily paused those contempt proceedings. Trump
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has criticized Boasburg multiple times on social media, describing him
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as a troublemaker and an agitator. In Maryland, US District
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Judge Paula Zenus has been sparring for weeks with Justice
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Department lawyers over what she described as their failure to
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implement her order to facilitate the return of kielmar Abrego Garcia,
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the Maryland man whom authorities have acknowledged they mistakenly deported
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to El Salvador. During an early hearing in the case,
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Zennis's voice disappointment that the Justice Department's lawyer, Herez Ruvini,
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could not clearly explain why the administration couldn't just ask
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for Abrego Garcia's return. A frustration, Riveni told the judge
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he shared the first thing I did when I got
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this case on my desk is ask my clients the
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same question, he told her. Ruvini was later fired by
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the department. Since then, Zennis appeared increasingly exasperated in her
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rulings as accused. They'd accused the Department of obstructing efforts
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to return Atbrigo Garcia and offering spacious arguments in court.
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Defendants have failed to respond in good faith, and their
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refusal to do so can only be viewed as wilful
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and intentional non compliance, she wrote in a recent order
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that ends now. Skepticism from the big also has been
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striking in the four cases dealing with Trump's sanction on
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law firms, most of which have been blocked for now.
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The Justice Department has defended Trump's orders, saying they were
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not men As punishment, judges have temporarily blocked most of
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his sanctions for the four law firms that sued. During
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a recent hearing, US District Judge Lauren L. Alikhan in
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DC called Trump's actions targeting firms a shocking abuse of power.
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Howell in the same courthouse, expressed irritation last month over
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the administration's response to an order she issued in the
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case brought by the firm Perkins coed she had told
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Attorney General Pam Bondy and Russell Vaught, the director of
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the Office of Management and Budget, to issue guidance to
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federal agencies about the case. In their memo doing so,
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Bondie and called her orders erroneous and insulted the law firm.
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Howell criticized those remarks as a temper tantrum from top
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officials and said they were worthy of a three year
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old Jones, the former federal judge, said lower court judges,
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restained by judicial codes of conduct, have limited opportunities to
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respond to the administration's criticisms. They cannot simply share their
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perspectives by summoning reporters to a news conference, he said.
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But you can, through your writings and your rulings, express
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certain points to the public, Jones said, and increasingly judges
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are doing that and the next story. Israel plans to
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control aid distribution in Gaza use US contractors. AID agencies
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say the plan runs counter to humanitarian principles, is logistically unworkable,
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and could put gosins and workers at risk. From Jerusalem,
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Israel plans to take control of and severely restrict the
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distribution of humanitarian aid inside the Gaza Strip, using private
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American security contractors as a condition for lifting its two
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month blockade of supplies into the enclave. According to current
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and former Israeli officials, aid workers and other individuals with
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knowledge of the plan, Israel Security Cabinet approved on Sunday
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evening the opinion of humanitarian distribution if deemed necessary on
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the condition that Hamas cannot take control of the supply
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and distribute the aid, the Israeli officials said Monday morning,
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without giving further details about the plan. The vote passed
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by a large majority, said the official, who spoke on
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the condition of anonymity to described sensitive discussions. The cabinet
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also approved a plan to expand Israeli military operationations in Gaza,
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including the occupation of territory. The official said. National Security
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Minister Itmar bin Gvir was the sole to center against
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the aid distribution plan at the Sunday meeting. A person
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with knowledge of the discussion said Bin Gevir said he
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did not understand why Israel had to provide Gaza with
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humanitarian aid, arguing there was enough food in the enclave,
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said the person who spoke on the condition of anonymity
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described sensitive conversations. The far right minister had resigned from
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the government in opposition to the Israel hamasiz fire when
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it took effect in January, and he returned to Israel
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and broke the truce and resumed fighting in Gaza. Israeli
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officials in the Washington Post told the Weekend that the
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aid initiative had support from Israel's government and security establishment,
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and is expected to be put in emotion for the
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end of the month, possibly as soon as President Trump's
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visit to the region in mid May. Trump, who promised
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the world he would bring a quick end to the
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Gaza crisis, is known to have increased grown grown increasingly
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frustrated with the ongoing war and the extent to which
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it is undermining his broader goals for the region. But
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the plan has been roundly rejected by the United Nations
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and dozens of international aid organizations. If he had runs
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counter humanitarian principles, is logistically unworkable and could put Palestinian
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civilians in staffers in harm's way. On Sunday, the UN
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Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs OHA issued a statement
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formally rejecting it. At stake are the lives of about
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two million Palestinians in Gaza, which he expected to run
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out of food in the coming weeks amid escalating Israeli
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military attacks. Elements of the plan were described in any
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with more than a dozen people familiar with it, most
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of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe
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sensitive discussions. Israeli military officials presented the taker to leave
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it position to senior representatives of the United Nations and
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international aid groups in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, what appeared
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to be a last ditch attempt to get reluctant organizations
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on board, Israel would permit about sixty trucks carrying basic
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humanitarian food and household items to enter Gaza each day,
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a tenth of the volume allowed under the two month
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ceasefire that ended in March. Trucks would be inspected by
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the IDF at the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into
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southern Gaza. Once inside the enclave, they would travel to
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Israeli designated distribution hubs in the south under the protection
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of US security contractors. The contractors would also provide security
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in and around the hubs. All direct distribution and contact
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with Palestinians would be performed by non governmental humanitarian aid workers.
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The plan would initially read district distribution up to up
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to six hubs to serve the densely populated strip that
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has been mostly flattened by Israeli bombs during more than
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eighteen months of war. If the model works, it could
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be expanded to northern and central Gaza. According to one
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person with knowledge of Israel's thinking. Each hub would serve
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five to six thousand households. Representatives of those households would
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pick up a forty four pound parcel of food and
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hygiene items every two weeks, according to one international aid worker.
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Another person brief said aid would be picked up weekly.
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Facial recognition technology is to be used to identify visitors
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to the hubs. We did the entire operational planning of
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how we can deliver the aid needed, the exact amount needed,
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not announce more directly into the hands of the people
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in Gaza and make sure Hamas doesn't get it, said
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a former Israeli military official who was involved in initial
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planning months ago. It was unclear how Israeli officials calculated
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this exact amount, but aid organizations say it's far less
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than what was needed to sustain the roughly two million
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Palestinians in Gaza. It's a joke, said the head of
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one of the international aid nonprofits working in Gaza. Sixty
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trucks a day are just a tactic by Israel to
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ease international pressure, not a real effort to address the
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humanitarian crisis. Several people warned that the gap between the
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supplies available and the actual need would lead to violence
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around the hubs. Some funding, including the employment of private
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security contract is to be set up through a new
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nonprofit registered in Switzerland. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is the
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product of consultations among governments and international aid leaders working
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to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza while preventing Hamas
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from benefiting, according to people familiar with its operation, The
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people declined to provide further details on which governments or
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entities have organized or are funding the foundation, or the
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scope of its activities. Israeli military and political officials say
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Hamas has garnered hundreds of millions of dollars during the
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past eighteen months by siphoning off and reselling aid intended
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for civilians. Aid groups and some US officials dispute the claim.
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Israel has not provided evidence of such large scale theft.
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Rights groups and governments around the world, including some of
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Israel's closest to European allies, have argued that Israel, as
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an occupying power, has an obligation under the international law
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to facilitate the unhindered passage of aid in the Gaza.
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Israeli officials say aid left over from the ceasefire has
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now been enough to sustain the civilian population, and that
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international law does not require them to provide assistance if
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it helps the enemy. Some hardline lawmakers have openly called
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for starving the Gazan population. Yes, I'll starved Guzins. This
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is our obligation, Moishe Saada, a lawmaker from Prime Minister
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Benjamin net To his Liquid party, said late last month.
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Israeli military leaders raised an early version of the plan
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with aid agencies in late February in early March, but
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progress stalled over the past two months, as the United
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Nations and others objected and the Israeli Security Cabinet itself
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debated the role of the IDF. Far right members of
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Netanyahu's government have argued that age should be handed to
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Palestinians directly by the IDF. Their basic goal is to
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occupy all of Gaza to create a civil administration or
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military regime in Gaza, said Michael Milstein, a former advisor
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on Palestinian affairs to the military, and distributing humanitarian aid
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would be a first step in that direction, but IDF
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Chief of Staff Ela Zamir told the Security Cabinet last
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month that the military was not ready or willing to
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take on that responsibility, according to Milstein, amid concern about
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mission creep and strain on a force already stretched thin. Instead,
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two US security companies are expected to be contracted to
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handle logistics and provide security along initial distribution corridors and
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in and around the hubs. The companies Safe Reach Solutions
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and UG Solutions organized and staffed vehicle checkpoint along a
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major north south road through Gaza during the ceasefire. SRS,
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which is to handle planning and logistics, is headed by
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Phil Riley, a former CIA senior intelligence officer with extensive
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overseas service who has held senior positions in other security companies.
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SRS is subcontracted on the ground security operations to UG Solutions,
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headed by Jamison Giovanni, a former Green Beret who serviced
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from twenty oh four to fifteen, included tours in Iraq
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and Afghanistan. The security contractors are to be armed and
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have their own force protection. They will not have detention authority.
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Spokespeople for SRS and UG Solutions declined to comment. US
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material and political support has been key to Israel's ability
27:58
to wage war, making Trump the own foreign leader with
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the leverage to force Israel to change course. According to
28:05
officials across the region, including in Israel, Trump has largely
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given Israel carte blanche in Gaza since Israel broke the
28:14
ceasefire in March, but he told reporters in late April
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that he had pushed NETANYAHUO in a recent call to
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resume aid to Gazan civilians. We're going to take care
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of that, Trump said, there's a very big need for medicine,
28:28
food and medicine. We're taking care of it. The system
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would curtail the ability of UN agencies such as the
28:35
World Food Program and international aid groups to operate in Gaza,
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though Israel still hopes to persuade them to join the project.
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Fuel and water are to be distributed separately. Under previous systems,
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many humanitarian organizations have rules that require them to deliver
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aid impartially wherever it is needed and without involving armed
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actors on either side. In interviews with the Post, officials
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from a dozen major international aid organizations working in Gaza
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outlined significant concerns with the Israeli plan, including that restricting
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aid distribution to a few sites in the south would
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be discriminatory and force yet another wave of displacement. More
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than four hundred humanitarian workers have been killed, the great
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majority by the IDEAF since the war began in October
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twenty twenty three. According to the United Nations, Israeli forces
29:32
have detained thousands of Palestinians, including aid workers. The proposed
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use of biometric screening at the hubs has fueled aid
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organizations concerns that humanitarians and beneficiaries could be targeted, given
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house civilians have been arrested, detained arbitrarily, sometimes shot. Even
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putting yourself forward to go through a vetting process like
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that as something most Palestinians feel uncomfortable doing, said Joe Bellevaux,
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executive director of the medical aid nonprofit med Global. Some
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aid workers say the logistics is outlined by Israel are
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simply unworkable. They contend that it's unrealistic that even an
30:14
able bodied person could pick up an aid package large
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enough to sustain a typical family of four for weeks
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and carry it miles back to a shelter. UN Secretary
30:25
General Antonio Guterres indicated last month that the organization would
30:30
not support the plan. On Sunday evening, after this report
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was published, UN, agencies and other groups that work in
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Gaza called it dangerous and said they refuse to participate
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in any scheme that does not adhere to the global
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humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence, and neutrality. The design
30:54
of the plan presented to US will mean large parts
30:58
of Gaza, including the less mold and most vulnerable people,
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will continue to go without supplies. The organizations set in
31:06
a joint statement. It contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears
31:12
designed to reinforce control over life sustaining items as a
31:15
pressure tactic as part of a military strategy. If the
31:21
UN or Third States assist in its implementation. About twenty
31:26
eight organizations said last month in a private briefing paper
31:29
to Western governments they could open themselves to the liability
31:34
of war crimes. It's a reasonable warning, according to Adil Hakik,
31:40
the professor of international law at Rutgers University. The plan
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would almost certainly not comply with international law, he said,
31:48
and it seems to inevitably exclude civilians from life saving
31:52
aid on an arbitrary and discriminatory basis. The next story,
31:59
this US manufacturer doesn't mind Trump's tariffs at all, but
32:04
even companies with mostly US supply chains face challenges and
32:08
tariff proofing. From East long Meadow, Massachusetts, tariffs have clipped
32:15
stock values, shrunk the dollar, and slammed the US economy
32:20
into reverse. But at the local Excel Dryer plant, William Gagnan,
32:26
its chief operating officer, is unphased. In fact, President Trump's
32:31
import taxes so far have been nothing but good news
32:34
for one of the world's largest makers of restroom hand dryers. Gagnan,
32:39
Who's forty eight, credits Trump's first term tariffs with changing
32:44
the math on production location, destinations, and decisions, enabling Excel
32:49
to construct an all domestic supply chain that insulates the
32:53
company against the uncertainty roiling much of US manufacturing and
32:58
gives it an edge of competitors that import their dryers.
33:03
With luck, the president's second term reciprocal tariffs might result
33:08
in the elimination of trade barriers that prevent ex sales
33:11
high velocity hand dryers from dominating markets in countries such
33:16
as Brazil and Australia. We have good representation internationally, but
33:22
we're really looking to grow that and what we're finding
33:25
is we have a lot of barriers to entry. Gagnan said,
33:29
the reciprocal tariff approach is really going to open up
33:32
more international markets for US. Many manufactures share gagnon sentiments,
33:38
but Excel's experience also illustrates the difficulties involved in tariff
33:43
proofing supply chains, the limits of what tariffs can achieve,
33:47
and the obstacles that the president's domestic manufacturing push will face.
33:52
Just past the one hundredth day of his second White
33:55
House term, Trump's tariffs are not popular across the United States.
34:01
Complained that the president's shape shifting import taxes make planning
34:06
an investment all but impossible. Americans reject the Trump levies
34:10
by a margin of nearly two to one, according to
34:13
a recent Washington Post ABC News is Posts national poll. Overall,
34:20
sixty four percent of adults surveyed, including seventy percent of
34:24
political independence, say they disapprove of the new taxes, compared
34:29
with the thirty four percent who approved, and the poll
34:31
conducted from April eighteenth through the twenty second. For Gagnon, however,
34:37
the tariffs offer clear benefits. By making foreign goods more expensive,
34:43
the import taxes make domestic suppliers more competitive, while also
34:48
discouraging Americans from purchasing cheap Chinese copies of Excel's hand dryers.
34:54
The tariffs also offer hope of prying open foreign markets,
34:59
assuming the residents Negotiations with more than a dozen nations
35:03
eventually bear fruit. Excel, which expects revenue this year of
35:07
about forty million dollars, stands as the rare manufacturer whose
35:12
major suppliers are all American. The company builds its signature product,
35:17
the Xcelerator, as faster than competing models and thus as
35:22
an automatic hand dryer that people actually like to use.
35:27
Since debuting in two thousand, the Accelerator has spread widely. Today,
35:32
the powerful Excel units can be found in Grand Central
35:35
Terminal in New York, Buffalo, Wild Wings, restaurants around the
35:39
United States, and airports in London and Istanbul. Excel success
35:45
in securing domestic sources for the Accelerator's main parts anticipated
35:50
a broader corporate trend over the past decade. A series
35:54
of shocks caused American manufacturers to begin rethinking their supply
35:58
chains after decades of offshoring left the United States dependent
36:03
on foreign suppliers for critical products. First, Trump imposed tariffs
36:09
on washing machines, solar panels, steel, aluminum and roughly three
36:14
hundred and sixty billion dollars in Chinese products. Then the
36:19
coronavirus pandemic disrupted global production of household goods and critically
36:24
needed medical products such as ventilators. Finally, Russia's twenty twenty
36:30
two invasion of Ukraine up ended global markets and food, fuel,
36:35
and fertilizers, sending prices soaring. I do think we've gone
36:40
too far as far as off shoring manufacturing jobs, and
36:44
now we're finding ourselves in that pickle of WHOA, there
36:49
are actually things that we need in this country then
36:52
do not have the infrastructure to produce anymore, said Corey Bell,
36:57
president of Westside Finishing in Holy Oak, Massachusetts, an excelled supplier.
37:03
Privately held Excel Dryer has been seeking to boost its
37:06
use of domestic components for years before Trump's twenty sixteen election.
37:11
The final challenge was the motor that drives the accelerator's
37:15
high velocity airflow. Chinese motor makers had long enjoyed a
37:20
distinct cost advantage over American models, but the available models
37:25
had not been designed for commercial hand dryers. They were
37:29
generally vacuum cleaner motors repurposed for the use in a dryer.
37:33
According to Gagnin, you couldn't match the performance, the size
37:38
and the cost in Amaka. He said. After seven years
37:42
of searching for domestics fliers, Excel finally discovered the Scott
37:47
Fetzer Electrical Group and Fairview, Tennessee, part of warm Buffett's
37:52
Berkshire Hathaway. Fetzer's domestic models were more expensive than the
37:56
company's Chinese competitors, but the tariffs at absolutely helped us
38:01
close the price gap. Gag And said, If that twenty
38:05
five percent taff wasn't that when we're making the decision
38:08
to switch from China to the new Venda, we probably
38:11
wouldn't have said yes, he said. Excel dryers engineers brainstorm
38:17
motor designs with their counterparts from Fetzer and checked on
38:21
its progress with weekly phone calls. Gagnon made numerous visits
38:26
to the Tennessee plant, a short two and a half
38:28
hour flight away. For years, he'd felt neglected by distant
38:33
Chinese suppliers who lavished attention on giant, multi national buyers
38:39
while devoting little attention to his needs. Working with domestic
38:43
partners that he could easily visit and deal with directly
38:47
made it easier to resolve routine production challenges. We got
38:51
to know each other. There was a relationship there now
38:55
of that existed walking with the Chinese pot and as
38:57
he said, Fetzer began in twenty nineteen by improving on
39:02
the design of the existing Chinese motor before starting from
39:05
scratch on new models for Exal's next generation products. They
39:09
dubbed the first entirely new design the Unicorn model because
39:14
it didn't exist, Gagnut said. Excel's latest model, stated to
39:18
be introduced to the next year, is known as the
39:21
Pancake Motor, a nod to its narrow profile designed to
39:26
conform with the requirements of the Americans with disabilities at
39:29
Gagnant said, hand dryers in public spaces are limited as
39:34
to how far they can extend out from the wall
39:37
so as not to endanger the blind. Excels sucists does
39:42
not mean that production of everything US companies buy from
39:45
abroad can readily be moved home. Deciding whether to buy
39:50
apart from overseas or to source things locally hinges on
39:54
several factors, including the manufacturer's size. According to Willie she
39:59
a Harvard Business School professor who spent nearly thirty years
40:03
managing corporate supply chains. Smaller manufacturers like a cell dryer,
40:10
are likely to order fewer goods at a time, making
40:13
shipping charges or the cost of executives repeated trans Pacific
40:17
trips to oversea production a larger percentage of their overall costs,
40:21
he said. But products that require a significant amount of
40:25
labor to assemble, such as a smartphone, still might be
40:29
better sourced from a low wage nation such as China.
40:33
It's highly product dependent, she said. There are a lot
40:37
of trade offs. The tariffs Trump imposed on China this
40:41
year also have brought more work home from one of
40:44
excelled dryers. Local suppliers double a molding in Monson, Massachusetts.
40:50
While Midwestern states such as Ohio and Michigan are generally
40:54
considered the nation's manufacturing center, New England retains an impressive legacy.
41:01
Massachusetts is where the Industrial Revolution flowered in the United States,
41:06
with textile and paper meals and river towns like Lawrence,
41:09
Lowell and Holyoake in Vermont. The development of Civil War
41:14
era rifles with interchangeable parts gave birth to precision machining.
41:19
Industry had Connecticut as nine percent of its workforce in
41:23
factories slightly above the national average. As Trump escalated its
41:28
trade spat with China in recent weeks, double A felt
41:32
the effects. The companies produces plastic injection molded covers, housings
41:38
and back plates for Excels hand dryers. The small the
41:42
price of small, pre cut Chinese filter screens, which sit
41:45
inside the hand dryers, rose by thirty percent after the
41:49
China tariffs took effect, according to Ross Wolfing, double A's owner,
41:54
so the company has begun buying them from a vendor
41:57
in Ohio and cutting them themselves. Doing the work in
42:02
Massachusetts costs Excel ten to fifteen percent more than buying
42:05
from China, Wolfing said, but using a US supplier allows
42:09
the manufacture to avoid the previous four month lead time
42:13
on orders. It's not as cost effective as getting them
42:17
from China, but we could be more responsive to the
42:19
needs of this as such, he said. Inside the company's workshop,
42:24
crowded with machinery, eleven laborers toil on plastic parts for
42:28
Excel dryers, as well as for maritime compasses, dental equipment,
42:34
and industrial grinding wheels. Business is good, and Wolfing believes
42:39
that tariffs could eventually result in more manufacturing work. Being
42:43
done in the United States, but finding enough workers, even
42:48
with an average operator payoff around twenty one dollars an hour,
42:51
is a constant struggle. Wolfing already felt compelled to spend
42:55
forty five thousand dollars on a new piece of equipment
42:58
because he has trouble keeping a shop fully staffed. I
43:03
worry about the LABA. If we can't get a laba now,
43:06
if we increase our capacity about twenty five percent, I
43:09
don't know if we could get the people to actually
43:11
do what he said. Double A it's more than ninety
43:15
percent of its raw materials from domestic sources, yet, like
43:19
many made in the USA products, its plastic parts remain
43:22
dependent on a Chinese source for an essential ingredient, in
43:26
this case a flame retardant chemical aditide. So even if
43:31
it sells buys from Double A, a US supplier, and
43:35
Double A buys from another US supplier, it's virtually impossible
43:40
to eliminate the hand dryer manufacturer's dependence upon China. It's
43:44
another instance of what economists call US manufacturers hidden exposure
43:49
to Chinese suppliers. According to research published by the Brookings
43:53
Institution in twenty twenty three, Double a Molding's newest injection
43:58
molding machinery was also made in China. Perhaps two companies
44:03
in the United States still make such equipment down for
44:06
more than a dozen When Wolfing started in the industry
44:09
in nineteen seventy three, he said, the Chinese machinery works
44:14
well and has been reliable, but amid mounting US China
44:18
trade tensions, Wolfing frits about obtaining spare parts. Something fails,
44:24
you worry about it, he said. Worry about you lose something,
44:28
and then they say, well, it's got to come from China.
44:32
And now. In an unusual medical story, surgeons bid for
44:37
medical first removing spinal tumor through a patient's eye. Just
44:44
before the medical staff at Carla Florence wheeled her into
44:48
the operating room so that surgeons could work inside her
44:51
head for the third time in less than a month,
44:54
the nineteen year old budding manicurist said goodbye to her
44:57
mom and dad. She didn't know if she you would
45:00
see them again. Her previous surgeries in the same building
45:03
at the University of Maryland Medical Center had been hard enough.
45:07
A pair of fourteen hour procedures to rid Flores's brain
45:12
of a rare bone tumor the size of a chicken's egg.
45:16
This time, the surgeons faced a greater challenge. A second,
45:21
smaller cordoma was strangling Flores's spinal cord near the base
45:25
of her skull. After much discussion, the medical team had
45:30
decided to try something that had never been done. They
45:34
would remove the spinal tumor through her left eye socket.
45:40
If the surgical path was not precise to within a
45:43
few millimeters, Flores could lose all movement below the neck
45:48
or suffer a fatal brain stem stroke. If the procedure
45:52
was successful, however, it would open a new avenue for
45:56
doctors around the world treating difficult to reach tumors. One
46:02
floor below the operating room entrance, Flores's lead surgeon, Mohammed A. M. Labibe,
46:09
set in the hospital chapel. The forty six year old
46:12
neurosurgeon asked God to help Flores in his preoperative ritual.
46:18
Prayer is the final act before he scrubs his hands
46:21
for surgery. I am only a tool in the hand
46:24
of God, Labib tells patients, an idea that comforts him.
46:29
Performing neurosurgery can feel like walking through a minefield, so
46:34
it helps Labib to call on his belief as a
46:36
Muslim that Allah is guiding him. Born in Dubai, the
46:41
son of a gynecologist, Labib was seventeen when he flew
46:45
to Canada by himself to pursue his medical education. As
46:49
a doctor, he has embraced the motto with pioneering neurosurgeon
46:53
Robert Spetzler, who trained Labib at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.
46:58
Accept challenges, Spencer told him reject norms. True to those watchwords.
47:06
Lebib began taking on unusual cases in twenty twenty one,
47:10
soon after arriving in Baltimore, where he works for the
47:13
Medical Center and is an assistant professor of Neurosurgery at
47:17
the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In two procedures
47:22
totaling more than twenty one hours, he rescued a woman
47:25
with five brain aneurysms, potentially life threatening bulges that appear
47:32
in arteries and blood vessels. As surgeons, Labib said, sometimes
47:37
we are captives of our fear, especially when another doctors
47:41
label the case inoperable. Fear should ignite us in the
47:45
motivation to try and understand why are we not able
47:49
to do these cases, just pondering the question, he said,
47:53
can reveal a solution. Flores, a young woman with fondness
47:58
for horror movies and the Call of Duty video game series,
48:02
had been healthy most of her life. While learning to
48:05
drive in twenty twenty three, however, she encountered problems when
48:10
she peered through the windshield. She saw two stripes on
48:14
the road when there was only one two cars up
48:17
ahead instead of one. Her primary care doctor thought she
48:22
might be experiencing double vision because she was forgetting to
48:25
wear her glasses, But to Flores's alarm, the scan that
48:30
the eye doctor ordered revealed a large mass pressing against
48:35
her left eye. It was a rare tumor called a chlordoma,
48:40
a malignant growth known for its diversive texture, including sections
48:45
that are fluid, gelatinous, and calcified. About three hundred are
48:50
diagnosed in the United States each year. After receiving a referral,
48:56
Flores said in Labibe's office last spring, listening as the
48:59
surgeon explained that it would take two operations to remove
49:03
all of the brain tumor. He would perform the first
49:07
task himself and the second with his frequent partner. Had
49:11
a next surgeon Andrea Hebert was an associate professor at
49:15
the School of Medicine. As he talked, Labie was struck
49:19
by the extraordinary calm of his young patient. Horace showed
49:24
poise explaining the surgery to her parents, who lacked her
49:28
skill with English. If the teenager was afraid, she hid
49:32
it well. The first surgery, on April sixteenth, twenty twenty four,
49:37
involved removing a palm sized chunk for skull, then gently
49:44
pushing the brain aside to reach the tumor underneath. After
49:48
removing a section of the tumor, it was too large
49:52
to eliminate in a single procedure, the surgeon reinstalled the
49:56
piece of skull. Although the surgery went well well, that
50:01
was the day La Bibie realized he was not dealing
50:03
with one chlorodoma, but two. The discovery of her second chlordoma,
50:10
a thumb sized mass, and her cervical spinal cord meant
50:14
that after undergoing a second surgery to remove the remainder
50:17
of the brain tumor, flores would still face a third
50:21
lengthy procedure. If not treated aggressively, the spinal cordoma could
50:27
grow significantly, increasing pressure on the spinal cord and eventually
50:32
paralyzing or killing her. Removing the second tumor presented a dilemma.
50:39
The medical team could blast it with radiation, but that
50:43
option risk allowing the tumor to grow back more quickly.
50:47
Doctors could approach the tumor by going through the neck
50:50
and the back of flor of Flores's neck, but that
50:53
would leave them with an obstructed view of the mass
50:56
they were trying to remove, since most of it lay
50:59
in the front of the spinal column. They could enter
51:03
from the front through her mouth, but Mouth's team with germs,
51:08
so floors would be at risk of infection. They could
51:11
enter through a nostril, but their path to the spine
51:14
would be limited by sections of the palette and upper jaw.
51:18
One more option existed, strategy Lebib had laid out in
51:22
a paper the previous year. They could proceed through the
51:27
lower eye socket and opening Lebib had dubbed as the
51:30
third nostril. Although surgery through the eye socket was not new,
51:35
using that route to reach down to the spine waws.
51:40
In his paper, Lebib suggested the opening as a way
51:43
to reach tumors below the inner ear, in a region
51:46
called the jugular foreman. He based his findings on working
51:50
cadaver heads, he had never used the technique on a
51:53
living patient. To determine whether the route would work, Labibe
51:59
and Herbert describe Flores's case to Cowpitch Vakrana, a forty
52:04
four year old facial, plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the
52:07
hospital who was also an associate professor at the School
52:11
of Medicine. They asked, could you go through the eye
52:15
socket to get us to the spine? Bachhara knew the
52:19
procedure would be novel and said it felt awesome to
52:22
be chosen for it, but his excitement was tempered with
52:26
an awareness that on the other end of this is
52:29
a human being. Can I take the week in and
52:33
think how that would be possible, Bakharia asked. The three
52:38
surgeons met again the following week and discussed their two
52:41
major concerns, the novelty of the procedure and the risk
52:46
that it might place pressure on the eyeball, damaging or
52:49
even destroying Flores's vision. They all agreed the eye socket
52:54
offered the best chance of success. Lebi then met with
52:58
Flores and explained whether were considering He made sure she
53:03
understood the procedure had never been done. He told her
53:06
the decision was hers. Flores appreciated the surgeon's sense of urgency.
53:12
She too wanted to be free of the tumor as
53:14
soon as possible, but she did not feel ready for
53:18
a third surgery, and it made her nervous that she
53:20
would be the first person ever to undergo the procedure. Still,
53:25
she had come to trust Lebibe. She liked his calm,
53:28
straightforward way he explained what would happen. He said, it
53:32
was in God's hands. Flores recalled, and that's what gave
53:35
me a lot of faith. Like the doctor, she prayed
53:39
before surgery. She told Obib she would go forward with
53:43
the procedure first, though, doctors removed the remainder of Flores's
53:47
brain tumor eight days after the first surgery, proceeding through
53:51
both nostrils to reach a portion of the naval cavity
53:55
nasal cavity, and after a fourteen hour surgery, Flores had
53:58
a week before he was due back in the operating room.
54:02
In the days leading up to the third surgery, she
54:04
tried not to imagine it, worried that she would be
54:07
left with a giant scar near her eye. Her parents
54:11
told her again and again everything would be all right,
54:14
that she needn't worry, But when Flores looked in their eyes,
54:19
worry was what she saw. She tried to focus on
54:23
an image of life after surgery, the whole family laughing
54:27
together in the living room of their Maryland home, her
54:30
cat Sushi curled up beside her. On May first, twenty
54:34
twenty fourth, the morning of the surgery, Labie boke, feeling
54:36
hyper alert, down to his customary three shots of espresso,
54:40
no food, and then left for the hospital. Excited and nervous.
54:45
Hebert was reviewing Flora's scans and running through all the
54:48
steps involved in the surgery. Bakaria, feeling the tension of
54:52
attempting a medical first, tried imagining his calm place an
54:56
ocean washing over a sandy beach, a scene he'd grown
54:59
up with during his childhood in California. As Flores told
55:03
her parents and drove to the hospital that morning, they
55:06
sat quietly, each alone with her thoughts. Just a week earlier,
55:10
Flores had undergone a second long surgery, and the family
55:13
felt destruct facing the fear and stress one more time.
55:17
Flores's younger sister had advised her to stay strong, so
55:20
she tried. Shortly after entering the operating room at eight am,
55:25
Flores went under anesthesia with six doctors, nurses, and residents
55:30
looking on. Vakaria then made an incision in the upper gums,
55:34
allowing him to separate the soft tissue from bone in
55:37
both cheeks and lower eyelid. Peering down at Flora's eye
55:42
through a microscope, he made several small incisions in the
55:45
inner portion of the eyelid, releasing the eyeball and surrounding
55:48
muscle and fat so they could be shifted a few
55:51
millimeters back in the socket. That way, the surgeons would
55:55
not put pressure on the eyeball or its delicate web
55:58
of nerves. If you are in the eye socket, you
56:01
have to be mindful that you have to treat the
56:03
eye like a newborn baby. Then, through Flora's right nostril,
56:08
Hebert wielded the endoscope, a combination light and camera that
56:11
illuminated the passage to the spine so that Lebib could
56:14
see it clearly on the screen in front of him.
56:17
Through the left nostril, lebib blower, the suction device used
56:21
to pull out the sections of the tumor that he
56:23
cut away. Her surgery ended at two point fifty am,
56:27
almost nineteen hours after it began. Flora spent a month
56:31
and a half recovering, first in rehabilitation center and then
56:34
at home. She's eager to resume her old job and
56:38
pictures herself working and is an established nail sitle salon.
56:41
But one day she hopes to create a shop of
56:43
her own, and amazingly it was successful. And this concludes
56:47
the reading of the Washington Post for today, Monday, May fifth.
56:51
Your reader has been Rod Brotherton. If any questions about
56:54
the program, please feel free to call us at eight
56:57
five nine four two two sixty three ninety. Thank you
56:59
for listening and now plays. Stay tuned for continued programming
57:03
right here on Radio LI