Transcript

2.17.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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February seventeenth, twenty twenty six. As a reminder, RADIOI is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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You're read it for today is Cindy Fraser. Today's front
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page headlines from The Washington Post are Rubio tries to
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boost ORBUN in Hungary. The Prime Minister A. Trump ally
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is facing a tough reelection bid. Next, popular anger burns
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and Iran citizens in shock after crackdown. Trump raises pressure
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going into nuclear talks. The next headline US versus Them
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Battle tears Small Virginia town apart Purceville drama involves Team Maybury,
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felony charges, lawsuits, and an attempted citizen revolt. Our next headline,
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Robert Duval nineteen thirty one through twenty twenty six, a
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chameleon of the Silver screen, dies at ninety five. Duval
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became one of the most respected acting talents of his generation.
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Our next headline, affordability surges to prominence. The term has
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become a campaign buzzword as key costs keep rising. In
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the final headline from today's front page. Trump offers Potomac's
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sewage spill response. Federal authorities will respond to major breach,
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the President said. Now, let's turn to our first item,
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entitled Rubio tries to boost Orbon in Hungary. The prime
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Minister a Trump ally, is facing a tough reelection bid
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by John Hudson from Budapest. Secretary of Saint Marco Rubio
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sought to throw Victor Orbn a political lifeline on Monday,
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as a Hungarian prime minister trails and most polls ahead
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of an election this spring that could see Europe's most
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pro rush and longest ruling prime minister voted out of power.
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The top US diplomat praised Orbun's leadership, signed a civilian
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nuclear cooperation agreement with his government, and defended issuing Hungary
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an exemption from US sanctions despite Orban's decision to continue
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buying Russian energy. We want this country to do well,
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said Rubio, standing alongside Orban during a news conference in Budapest.
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Especially as long as you are the prime Minister and
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the leader of this country. President Trump is deeply committed
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to your success, because your success is our success. Rubio added.
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Rubio's support for Orbon marks the latest example of the
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Trump administration working to keep in power right wing populist
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leaders who have praised Donald Trump and are seen as
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ideologically aligned. In summer, political neophyte Kiarol Noavotsky nearly won
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of presidential runoff in Poland after being invited to the
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White House by Trump. In a post on Truth's Social
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last week, Trump endorsed Orban for the April elections and
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called him a truly strong and powerful leader and a
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true friend, fighter and winner. Whether the efforts by Trump
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and Rubio will help Orban prevail in the election remains
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far from clear, in part because Orban's opponent, Peter Majore,
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is also conservative and has gained traction with an anti
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corruption message. Most Poland shows Manjoor's party with a significant lead.
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We're standing on the threshold of victory with fifty six
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days left to go, Majore said Sunday as he formally
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launched his party's election campaign in Budapest, vowing to crack
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down on corruption, return Hungary to its Western European orientation
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and end Orban's nearly sixteen year reign. Whenjour took control
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of the center right TISA party in twenty twenty four.
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The same year, the party one about thirty percent of
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the vote in European parliamentary elections. Before he pivoted to
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the center, he belonged to Orban's Fidest party. Orban and
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his Fidest Party are considered by a growing cohort of
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US conservatives as the intellectual vanguard of policies they seek
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to replicate in the United States, including hard line immigration
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policies and Christian nationalism. US conservatives have praised Orban for
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establishing offense on Hungary's southern border in twenty fifteen to
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keep out refugees fleeing from the Middle East and Africa.
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They have also praised him for cracking down on LGBTQ
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plus rights, such as banning the Budapest Pride celebration and
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approving facial recognition technology to identify scoff laws of the Ban.
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Hungary regularly plays host to US conservatives at his Conservative
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Political Action Conference events, which will again convene in Marks.
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Orban and the Prime Minister of neighboring Slovakia, whom Rubio
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visited on Sunday, are lonely voices in Europe offering enthusiastic
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praise for Trump, who has angered traditional US allies by
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imposing tariffs on them, threatening to take Greenland by force,
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and attacking European digital regulations. Both Hungary and Slovakia have
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hailed Trump's efforts to engage Russia and have expressed skepticism
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about Western support for Ukraine. Orban underscored that point on Monday,
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using this same hypothetical scenario Trump routinely brings up in
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his own remarks. If Donald Trump had been the president
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of the United States, this war would never have broken out,
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Orban said, And if he were not the president now,
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then we would not even stand the chance to put
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an end to the war. Rubio expressed exasperation that Washington's efforts,
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criticized in some parts of Europe for prioritizing Moscow's demands
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over Keeves, weren't being hailed widely. This is one of
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the few wars I've ever seen where some people in
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the international community condemn you for trying to help end
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a war. But that's what we're going to do as
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long as our role and engagement is a positive one,
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Rubio said. Orban also thanked the Trump administration for allowing
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Hungary to continue purchasing cheap energy from Russia despite significant
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efforts by the European Union to stop purchasing Russian oil
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and gas following the country's full scale invasion of Ukraine.
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Critics of Trump's rep approachment with Hungary question how it
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serves US interests. Hungary now buys a greater percentage of
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its oil from Russia than it did at the start
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of the invasion, said Jaffrathki, the president of the American
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German Institute and a former State Department official, so it
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is unclear how Orban contributes to any US objectives, aside
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from the ideological project of supporting right wing anti European
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would be detocrats. When asked about Hungary's deepening business ties
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with China and Russia, Rubio said it shouldn't surprise anyone
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that Budapest is pursuing its own national interests and emphasize
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the importance of Orban's personal relationship with Trump. I'm going
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to be very blunt with you, Rubio said, the Prime
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Minister and the President have a very very close personal
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relationship and working relationship, and I think it has been
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incredibly beneficial to the relationship between our two countries. Next,
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the front page did include a photo that I forgot
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to read earlier. The photo is entitled Welcoming in the
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Year the Horse. The caption reads, A worshiper lights incense
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sticks on the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year
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on Monday at Bonzanbieou Temple in teng Grang on the
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outskirts of Dakarta, Indonesia. Tuesday marks the start of the
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year the Horse. The photo shows a woman surrounded by
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candles with multiple flame lit lanterns above her. Now our
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next article is entitled popular anger burns in Iran. Citizens
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in shock have to crackdown. Trump raises pressure going into
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nuclear talks by Susanna George as Iran heads into a
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second round of nuclear talks with the United States in
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Geneva on Tuesday under the threat of U S forces
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building up in the region. Tehran is attempting to project
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strength and unity, but seething popular anger has not abated
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in the weeks following a government crackdown that killed thousands
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of protesters, according to accounts from inside the country, Following
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the partial rollback of a government imposed communications blackout that
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closed off Iran during the protests, and crackdown last month,
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More information has begun to circulate. Iranians described to The
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Washington Post a society deeply traumatized, with many people saying
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they only recently learned the full extent to the violence,
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as security forces continue to carry out waves of arrests.
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But some analysts say Aran's unprecedented weakness at home could
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diminish the flexibility of its country's leadership to make the
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kinds of compromises necessary for a deal. Iran remains a
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nation in shock. The government crackdown left more than seven
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thousand people dead, more than six thousand, five hundred of
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them protesters. According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency,
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a US Bay's advocacy organization for Rights and Iran, the
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figure is expected to climb. Thousands are missing and families
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are still in mourning. A campaign of arrests continues. Some
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businesses have reopened and schools are back in session, but
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many parents report keeping their children at home. Some of
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us don't work because we are still grieving, but some
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of us cannot work because there are no reliable prices,
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said a Tehran shopkeeper. Forty Inflation has skyrocketed since the crackdown,
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and with the added threat of u S strikes, no
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one wants to spend any money. He said. He has
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been increasing the prices of goods in his shop almost daily,
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like others in Iran. Interviewed for this article, he spoke
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on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Our
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reigning authorities have arrested tens of thousands of people since
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last month. According to activists and human rights groups, the
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campaign has expanded to include prominent political leaders. Azarmans Houri,
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head of the Reform Front of Iran, was arrested last
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week and released on bail days later. In some areas,
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security forces screen people on streets and in businesses for
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evidence they supported the protests. A forty three year old
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woman from Rasht, near Iran's Caspian Sea coast, said security
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forces showed up at her niece's school and strip searched
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students for wounds sustained at protests from the less lethal
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palad ammunition fired into crowds. Two girls fainted from the stress.
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She said her knees hasn't him back to the private
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school sense which the principal has allowed, but at some
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public schools, the woman from Rosch said, absences aren't tolerated,
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and students found with pellet wounds are expelled or arrested.
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In other parts of the country, popular anger is bubbling
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to the surface chance of death. The kammonee around Supreme
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Leader can be heard at some funerals for those killed
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during the protests, According to recent video shared with a post,
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Similar calls rang out in Tehran. Murderous commenee see it
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in your dreams, people yelled from their apartment windows last week,
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using a dismissive Farsi expression now associated with the January protests.
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While the crackdown occurred weeks ago, many Iranians say they
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are only now coming to terms with its scale. A
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woman from Bandar Abbas on the Person Call, who says
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she participated in the protests, said she saw security forces
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open fire into the crowds. The bullets wouldn't pause for
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a second, she said. As she was running away, someone
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running beside her was shot and fell to the ground.
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But even after what she saw, she wasn't prepared for
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what she learned at the scale of the killings. Once
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internet connectivity was partially restored, seeing the mass killing all
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over the country felt like waking up from a deep
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sleep with a slap on my face. I am so
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ashamed to be alive, she said. I am also full
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of rage. Before January, she would not have understood why
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someone would want their own country to be attacked, she said,
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as the thread of you as strikes loomed. But this
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time it is different, she said, espousing of you long
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unpopular in her on. The real enemy is the Islamic Republic,
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and any country or army that can weaken or attack
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them is going to liberate us. When Iraning officials do
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address the January protests, they blame the violence on terrorist
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groups linked to outside countries. Oran's president Masud Pesishkyon spoke
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last week to families of people killed. We are embarrassed
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because of what has happened in the country, he said
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in an even tone to men and women dressed in
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black sitting in a sterile meeting room. Pegishkiyhon pledged to
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help those who lost loved ones. As someone who has
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a responsibility to this country, sometimes I cannot even sleep
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thinking about what happened, he said. Iran used overwhelming force
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against the protesters to clear people out of the streets,
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but to also buy the government time by preventing any
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future ways of unrest, said alex Vetanka, a senior fellow
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at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank. They
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didn't mind the optics. In fact, they wanted to show
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how ruthless they were, he said. Right now, they want
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society to be scared. They don't care about their reputational cost.
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It's about survival. That could complicate negotiations with the US
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over Iran's nuclear program. Public comments by Iranian and US
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officials in recent days have ranged from optimism that a
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deal could be reached to threats of military action. Late
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last week, President Donald Trump said he was sending a
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second aircraft carrier group to the Middle East and said
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that regime change was the best thing that could happen
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in Iran. If Tarran wanted to avoid an attack, it
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should give us a deal that they should have given
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us the first time, he said, referring to talks last
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summer that ended when the US and Israel launched air
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attacks on Iran's nuclear sides. But Secretary of Saint Marco
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Rubio told reporters during a visit Sunday to Slovakia the
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President's made clear he prefers diplomacy and an outcome of
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a negotiated subse. He said US negotiators Steve Whitcock and
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Jared Kushner were headed for important meetings and we'll see
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how that turns out. Iran's deputy Foreign Minister Mashi Taktravaschani,
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told the BBC in a Sunday interview that the ball
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was in America's court to prove that they want to
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do a deal, adding that if they are sincere, I
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am sure we will be on the road to an agreement.
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Takravanshi said an Iranian offer to dilute its highly enriched
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uranium was proof of its willingness to compromise, and he
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did not rule out an agreement to ship its stockpile
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out of the country, saying it was too early to
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say what will happen in the course of negotiations. Robert Maley,
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a former US official who negotiated with Iran on the
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nuclear issue under President Joe Biden, said the talks are
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less likely to succeed if the Trump administration asks for
15:53
concessions like kurbs to Iran's ballistic missile program or the
15:57
end of support for armed groups in the region, a
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widening of scope Tehran has long rejected. Those are concessions
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Tehran's weakened regime will not make, especially because it is
16:09
weakened and thus cannot afford to give up the few
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remaining tools at its disposal, he said. While Iran's proxy
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network is significantly diminished after the war in Gaza, Israel's
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blows against Hesbola in Lebanon, and the end of Bashar
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al Assad's rule in Syria, Iran's missile program remains its
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only form of deterrence, he said. Karen de Young contributed
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to this report. Next, an item entitled US versus Them
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Battle tears small Virginia town apart purcefil drama involves Team Mayberry,
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felony charges, lawsuits, and an attempted citizen revolt by Paul Schwartzmann.
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The town council meeting had reached the point on the
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agenda where the public could speak on any topic and
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emotions to put a or tad raw. It's not too
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late to resign, a woman shouted at the lawmakers, four
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of whom including the mayor, are the focus of a
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recall campaign. Stop screwing our town. A man railed, We
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are broke and sicker of you than ever some one
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else yelled. Small towns are often known for their quirky,
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insular intrigue, but the drama unfolding in Purceville, a Virginia
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excerp that's a fifty mile drive west of Washington, is
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a brass knuckled version of quaint. The battle is rooted
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intentions that often divide communities across the country, change versus
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status quo, growth versus no growth. Only in Purceville the
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weapons are lawsuits, an attempted citizen revolt, and the kind
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of ferocious rhetoric that defines much of public life in
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contemporary America. Residents could be forgiven for needing a whiteboard
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to chart the dizzying developments. Over the past year, state
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police accused the vice mayor and town manager of orchestrating
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a bid rigging scheme, charges both men deny. The vice
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mayor has filed a forty two million dollar lawsuit against
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a gaggle of town and law enforcement officials, alleging that
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his rights have been violated. The interim police chief has
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filed a twenty million dollar defamation lawsuit against the vice mayor.
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Then there are the more than one thousand, one hundred
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residents who signed petitions seeking to recall the mayor, vice
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mayor and two council members, a campaign that has caught
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the attention of state lawmakers in Richmond, who are weighing
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whether to intervene. The civic discourse has grown so uncivil
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that a police officer stands guard by the dais during
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council meetings, as was the case Tuesday. The meeting went
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on for more than five hours and drew a crowd
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large enough to fill town hall, including some who brought
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bags of popcorn to snack on. More than a thousand
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people watched online. We are a microcosm of how politics
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are in this country right now, said Josh Shields, forty seven,
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who has lived in Purceville since twenty sixteen. Nobody is
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willing to meet in the middle. Nobody is willing to
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discuss issues. It's us versus them. A town council meeting
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should be like watching paint dry. Instead, it's a dumpster fire.
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Shields added to the theatrics at the meeting when he
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shouted at the lawmakers after the audience was warned that
19:26
outbursts could mean being asked to leave. Christopher Berteaux, Purceville's
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mayor furrowed his brow and ordered Shields to escort himself out.
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As Shields departed, the mayor could be heard saying jackass
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under his breath, a hot mike moment caught on video
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that someone shared with five thousand, six hundred followers on
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a Purceville centric Facebook page, Maybury versus Metropolis. The council's
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to do list that night included deciding whether to reappoint
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as vice mayor the man at the center, the Maelstrom
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Karl Ben Nett, a council member whose official biography says
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he has worked for the U. S. Secret Service and
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as a contract CIA intelligence officer. Nett, fifty one, gained
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a measure of national attention in Kentucky in twenty nineteen when,
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as a candidate for Secretary of State, he unsuccessfully tried
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to add Trump, including the exclamation point as his middle name,
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on the ballot. At another point, he deleted a tweet
20:29
suggesting he wanted to use a Democratic congressman for target practice. Nett,
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who apologized for what he described as my attempt to
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be clever, received thirteen percent of the vote in the
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GOP primary and finished fourth. After buying a home in Purceville.
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In twenty twenty one, Nett joined the town's police force, and,
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while still a patrol officer, ran for a council seat
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in twenty twenty four. He aligned himself with a slate
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of candidates who called themselves t Mayberry, a reference to
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the u Andy Griffith Show, the nineteen sixty sitcom about
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a sheriff and his son OPI. Team Maybury touted itself
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as a defender of Purceville's small town identity and tagged
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its opponents as Team Metropolis, advocates of city slicker style
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development and higher taxes and utility rates. Net's team won,
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after which Purceville's raft of troubles and his own exploded
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into public view. First, in April, the police terminated him
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over allegations that he improperly used sick time. Then in July,
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a grand jury indicted Net and then town manager Quasi
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Fraser for allegedly conspiring to steer a twelve thousand dollars
21:42
contract to assess a police department to a consultant with
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whom they had discussed the work before soliciting bids. Net,
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in a memo to the consultant, laid out a restructuring
21:53
plan for the department that included the vice mayor becoming
21:57
police chief. Net and Fraser, who are our awaiting trial,
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have each pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of
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bid rigging and commercial fraud. Net faces four additional charges
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for allegedly using his position as a police officer to
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improperly obtain information from a database about two political opponents. Fraser,
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reached by phone, called the case against him laughable and
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said he is being defamed and slandered every day in
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the court of public opinion. Referring to his meeting with
22:30
a consultant before seeking bids, Fraser said his position as
22:34
town manager allowed him to meet with anyone prior to
22:38
a procurement decision. I am ready to take this to
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court so the truth can prevail, he said. Net in
22:45
an interview, said the allegations, as well as his firing,
22:49
are part of a coordinated campaign to deprive him of
22:52
his right to due process and ruin his political career.
22:56
His lawsuit alleges that those behind the effort to damage
22:59
him includes several of his council colleagues, as well as
23:03
Purceville's interim police chief and Loudun County's chief prosecutor. I'm
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not the bad guy in this, ned said, I'm the victim.
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Caleb Stout, a council member who is among those named
23:15
as defendants in the Vice mayor's lawsuit, said Nett's claims
23:19
defy reason and have made an already toxic situation much
23:23
much worse. We have horses, hemp, and hybrid SUV's. The
23:29
center of Percevale, by all appearances, could be a postcard
23:33
from another era. Nicholls Hardware, opened in nineteen fourteen, is
23:37
still in this same location, across from an American Legion Hall,
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on a stretch lined with century old brick buildings, a
23:45
smattering of shops and restaurants, and a gazebo furnished with
23:48
poor green Adirondack chairs. It's the American dream, said Ron Riis,
23:54
sixty nine, a retired aerospace executive and a town resident
23:58
since nineteen eighty eight. You know that little girl in
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Miracle on thirty fourth Street, What did she want? A
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little house in a place like Purceville. And now I
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feel so sad for this little town, Rise said, The
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hate is just so awful. Perceville's population began swelling a
24:17
generation ago. From three thousand, five hundred to about nine thousand,
24:22
as developers poured into Loudin County, propelled by the tech
24:25
boom that brought data centers, shopping centers, and subdivisions that
24:30
made the region among the countries most rapidly changing. We
24:34
have six generation farmers and fresh off the Beltway transplants,
24:38
photographer Becky Gardner told the council last week. We have horses,
24:42
hemp and hybrid SUV's. We have small business owners, homeschooling parents,
24:47
federal employees, retirees, developers, preservationists. As Perceville's population grew, a
24:55
rift emerged over how to oversee the town's growth. The
24:59
tension manifes testing in battles over land annexation and proposals
25:03
to raise utility rates and build roads intended to ease traffic.
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Net and his allies won their twenty twenty four races
25:11
and gained majority control of the council after promoting their
25:15
ticket with the slogan Maybury not Metropolis. They promised to
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cut utility rates and maintain Purceville's small town feeld no
25:24
six story buildings. As Nett wrote in The Blue Ridge Leader,
25:27
a news outlet, that his foes alleged seeks to bolster
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Team Maybury. Valerie Curry, the Leader's publisher, wrote in a
25:35
December opinion article that the town is divided between a
25:39
majority fulfilling the will of the voters and a very
25:42
well connected political minority determined to reverse the outcome of
25:46
an election. The headline view from the Ridge Purceville isn't corrupt,
25:51
it is being sabotaged. Curry declined to be interviewed. Beverly
25:57
Chayson seventy two, a third generation and Persval resident and
26:01
a former council member, understands the appeal of Team Mayberry's
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anti growth message, even as she also knows change is inevitable.
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I would have loved to keep my little town, she said,
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but I knew that wasn't an option. The council in
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fighting began almost immediately after net and his allies took
26:21
office thirteen months ago. Without warning or discussion, the new
26:25
majority voted to fire the town manager and install Fraser
26:29
Purceville's former mayor. The three dissenting council members, Aaron Rayner,
26:35
Kevin Wright and Stout, accused Team Mayberry of operating in
26:39
secret to impose its agenda. A near constant refrain when
26:43
the Maybury majority wins votes by a four to three margin.
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The machinations prompted residents to take the extraordinary step of
26:51
organizing the petition drive to recall Net and Bertau, along
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with council members Susan Khalil and Carol Luke the other
26:59
team Mayburyan members. Every single meeting, they were coming in
27:03
and ramming something through, said Brian Morgan sixty one, the
27:07
recall campaign's organizer. They don't respond to emails. It was audacious.
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It was a lack of transparency. Net said the last
27:16
election proved that most personal residents support the Maybury Majority
27:21
and predicted the recall effort will fail when it goes
27:24
to court. In March, Berteaux, Calil and Luke declined to
27:28
be interviewed. The fireworks became louder in April after the
27:32
town's interim police chief, Sarah Lombrona, fired Net. Less than
27:37
a week later, Nett and his council allies, again without warning,
27:41
signaled that they'd seek to disband the police department, provoking
27:45
enough of a public outcry that the lawmakers subsequently rejected
27:49
the idea. The sequence of events prompted Loundon County's chief prosecutor,
27:54
Bob Anderson, to allege at Net, in what Anderson described
27:58
as a blatant conflict of interest, appeared to have used
28:02
his council seat to retaliate against the police for his firing.
28:06
Net counters that eliminating the police would save the town money.
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By then, Anderson had placed Net on a list of
28:13
cops deemed unreliable to testify in court, a designation that
28:18
effectively strips police officers of their power. A grievance panel
28:22
eventually reversed Net's termination, but a special prosecutor, Eric Olsen,
28:27
nullified that decision, contending that the panel had not followed
28:31
state and local law. Then in July, State police announced
28:36
the arrests of Net and Fraser, and pursval once again
28:40
generated headlines that made it a topic of chatter well
28:43
beyond its borders. The other day, a guy I know
28:47
in Ohio called and said, why is your town on
28:50
the news? Said Dale Thompson, fifty eight, who owns a
28:53
main street gunshop. I don't want to be on the
28:56
news for some scandal all the time. It's embarrassing. Thesago
29:01
also has brought residence together in unexpected ways, whether it's
29:05
rallying around the recall campaign or meeting up to attend
29:09
council sessions and court hearings. Christina Buffington, a local entrepreneur,
29:14
said she was inspired to start a website, Purceville News,
29:18
to track developments. The chaos of the past year, she said,
29:22
has caused her anxiety that she tries to manage by
29:26
thinking of each council meeting as an episode of reality TV.
29:31
You have to find the humor in it, she said,
29:33
or it'll make you crazy, an expected outcome. The council
29:38
meeting was well passed its second hour last week. When
29:41
a member of Team Maybury nominated Net for another one
29:44
year term as vice mayor. Laughter could be heard in
29:48
the audience. Net has neither the temperament, the personality, nor
29:53
the character to serve as its town's vice mayor, Stode
29:56
said when the mayor opened the floor to discussion, the
29:59
crowd of after everything mister Nett has been through, he
30:03
knows the role very well and he is shown he
30:05
can deal with it, Luke said when it was her turn.
30:08
The council approved Net's reappointment by a four to three vote,
30:12
as expected. Next Robert Duval nineteen thirty one through twenty
30:19
twenty six, a chameleon of the silver screen. Dies at
30:22
ninety five. Duval became one of the most respected acting
30:26
talents of his generation by Adam Bernstein. Robert Duval an
30:32
Oscar winning actor who disappeared into an astonishing range of
30:36
roles lawman and outlaws, Southern fried alcoholics, and Manhattan boardroom sharks,
30:42
a hot headed veteran, and a cool tempered mob consiglire,
30:46
and emerged as one of the most respected screen talents
30:49
of his generation. Died February fifteenth. He was ninety five.
30:55
His wife, Luciana Pedraza Duval said in the Facebook post
30:59
that mister dub All died at home without sighting a cause.
31:03
He had long lived at Burnley, a horse farm in
31:06
Fouquier County, Virginia, near the Plains. By his own account,
31:10
mister Duval was a late looming youth, a Navy rear
31:13
admirals son whose only discernible talent in childhood was for
31:17
meticulous mimicry. His repertoire included western ranchers and the military brass,
31:23
and his stage was the dinner table. Metamorphosis became a
31:28
hallmark of his career. Newsweek film critic David Anson once
31:32
called mister duval a character actor who approaches each role
31:36
with the diligence of an ethnologist on a field trip
31:39
into the soul. Without matinee idle looks. He had a
31:44
sinewy frame, chlorine blue eyes, a slightly bent nose, and
31:48
sandy brown hair slipped back on either side of his
31:51
balding pate. He seemed destined to portray taciturna outsiders, macho adbalds,
31:57
and rugged eccentrics. Mister was a near constant presence on screen,
32:03
beginning with his movie debut as the ghostly, feeble minded
32:06
Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird nineteen sixty two,
32:10
based on the Harper Lee novel. Over the next half century,
32:14
he had a few top build parts, notably his Academy
32:18
Award winning turn as an alcoholic country Western singer in
32:21
Tender Mercies nineteen eighty three. He performed the songs so
32:26
authentically with his lived in tenor that he was invited
32:29
to record an album in Nashville with veteran music producer
32:33
Chip's Moment. Mister Duvall received Oscar nominations for his starring
32:37
roles as a tyrannical, hyper competitive military father in The
32:41
Great Santini nineteen seventy nine, based on the Pat Conroy novel,
32:46
and as a fallen Pentecostal preacher seeking grace in The
32:50
Apostle nineteen ninety seven, which he also wrote and directed.
32:55
But in a career spanning about one hundred forty film
32:58
and TV credits, mister Duval's prime turf was the supporting role.
33:03
The personality carries a movie, not some one like me,
33:06
he once told the Chicago Tribune. But the star may
33:10
have a mediocre part, and there I am in the
33:12
second or third lead, quietly doing quality things. No two
33:18
films showcase the spectrum of those quality things more than
33:21
The Godfather nineteen seventy two and Apocalypse Now nineteen seventy nine,
33:27
both critical and cultural juggernauts, directed by Francis Ford Coppola,
33:33
and for which mister Duval earned Oscar nominations for supporting work.
33:37
In the first, he portrayed Tom Hagen, the discreet mob
33:41
lawyer and the informal foster son of the Corleone family,
33:45
whose patriarch was played by Marlon Grando. Film scholar David
33:49
Thompson called mister duvals Hagen, a role he reprised in
33:53
the nineteen seventy fourth sequel, a detailed study of a
33:56
self effacing man, one willing to suffer humilily to earn
34:00
his place as a non Italian among Italians. In Apocalypse Now,
34:06
an epic film about war and madness set in Vietnam,
34:10
mister Duval played Kilgore, the surfing of cess Lieutenant Colonel,
34:14
who declares in one of the movie's oft quoted lines
34:18
that he loves the smell of napalm in the morning.
34:21
Instead of devolving into crackpot flamboyance, mister Duval delivered, in
34:26
the description of New York Times film critic Vincent Canby
34:30
a performance of breathtaking force and charm. Can't be called
34:34
mister Duval one of the most resourceful, most technically proficient,
34:39
most remarkable actors in America, likening him to Laurence Olivier
34:43
in his shape shifting Prowess. Mister Duval was a convincingly
34:48
British doctor Watson to Nicol Williamson's Sholock Holmes in The
34:52
Seven Percent Solution nineteen seventy six, an eye patch sporting
34:56
Nazi colonel who masterminds a plot to kidnap with in
35:00
Churchill in The Eagle As Landed nineteen seventy six, a
35:04
hard boiled Los Angeles police detective in True Confessions nineteen
35:08
eighty one, and an aging Cuban emigret in Wrestling Ernest
35:12
Hemingway nineteen ninety three. Over and over again, he was
35:18
a top choice of many directors for rural American characters.
35:22
He was an illiterate sharecropper caring for a woman and
35:25
her child in Tomorrow nineteen seventy two, a psychopathic Jesse
35:29
James in the Great Northfield Minnesota Raid nineteen seventy two,
35:34
a good hearted Southern lawyer in Rambling Rose nineteen ninety one,
35:38
and a Tennessee backwoods hermit in get Low two thousand nine.
35:44
Perhaps his definitive country role was the wise and garrulous
35:47
Texas ranger Gus mc cray in the hit CBS TV
35:51
mini series Lonesome Dove nineteen eighty nine, based on Larry
35:56
McMurtry's Pull Surprize winning novel about a cattle drive. It
36:00
brought mister duval later named an honorary ranger. Many crusty
36:04
cowboy rolls unsettled by typecasting, he agreed to play Soviet
36:09
dictator Joseph Stalin, not ultimately one of his better moves
36:13
in a TV film. In preparing for a role, mister
36:17
Duval spent time with cowboys, day laborers, policemen, fighter pilots,
36:22
ball players, bowery drunks, Baptist ministers, and ex cohns, scrupulously
36:28
studying their rhythms of speech, their hand gestures, the twists
36:31
of their personalities. He said, he tried to find pockets
36:35
of contradiction shadings to suggest multi dimensional character. I hang
36:41
around a guy's memories, he told another interviewer. I store
36:45
up bits and pieces about him. Last resort becomes a
36:49
long career. Robert Selden Duval was born in San Diego
36:54
on January fifth, nineteen thirty one. He was in middle
36:57
of three boys raised by their mother during their father's
37:00
long absences at sea. Mister Duval described himself as an
37:05
aimless youth without distinction in the classroom or on the
37:09
playing field. He frequently indulged in mischievous behavior with his siblings.
37:14
We used to put tide in milshakes from my mother,
37:17
he told The Washington Post in nineteen eighty three. His
37:20
practical jokes, including a pension for mooning other actors, continued
37:24
well into adulthood. After Army service, he enrolled at Principia College,
37:30
a small Christian science school his family's faith in Illinois.
37:35
He was a social studies major on the brink of
37:37
flunking out when a drama teacher remarked on his promise
37:41
in several plays. His parents, pleased that he seemed to
37:44
excel in something, pushed him to major in dramatics and
37:48
then toward an acting career. It was like a last resort,
37:51
he said. He graduated in nineteen fifty five, then attended
37:56
the Neighborhood Playhouse Workshop in New York, where classmates included
38:00
Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, and James Kahan. His breakthrough came
38:05
in a nineteen fifty seven Long Island production of Arthur
38:08
Miller's drama A View from the Bridge. The noted director
38:12
Ulu Grossbard cast Minster Duval in the lead role as
38:15
a Brooklyn longshoreman struggling with his attraction to his knees.
38:20
Even then, he had the thing you go for as
38:22
an actor and director, perfect control, but the feeling of
38:26
total unpredictability. Grossbard later told The Los Angeles Times, A
38:31
lot of good actors will give you technique, precision and
38:34
a character's arc, and that's important, but not that many
38:38
give you the sense that this is actually what's transpiring
38:41
at the moment in front of your eyes. The one
38:45
night only show sparked attention and proved a catalyst for
38:48
my career, mister Duval later said, leaving to offers to
38:52
play menacing roles on TV and stage. He made his
38:56
Broadway debut in the thriller Wait Until Dark nineteen sixty
39:00
six as a criminal who taunts a blind woman Lee Remick,
39:04
and played an ex con in American Buffalo nineteen seventy seven,
39:08
David Mommett's first play to reach Broadway. Meanwhile, mister Duval
39:13
gained a foothold in Hollywood. Pulitzer winning playwright Horton foot
39:18
was instrumental in launching the actor's flourishing movie Presents. Foote,
39:23
who wrote the screenplay for it To Kill a Mockingbird,
39:25
had been bowled over by mister Duval's balance of intensity
39:29
and naturalism on stage and recommended him for the part
39:33
of Boo Radley that led to memorable roles in some
39:37
of the defining movies of the era. He played the
39:40
pompous hypocrite major Frank Burns and director Robert Altman's Mash
39:44
nineteen seventy. In Coppola's The Conversation nineteen seventy four, a
39:49
much admired drama of Watergate era paranoia, he was a
39:53
mysterious businessman who bankrolls a surveillance operation. Mister Duval played
39:59
a corporate hatchetman in Network nineteen seventy six, a brilliant
40:03
satire broadcast journalism morphing into ratings driven entertainment. Mister Duval
40:08
was also top billed in director George Lucas's feature film debut,
40:13
The Dystopian THHX eleven thirty eight nineteen seventy one. Later
40:19
in his career, mister Duval enlivened many a big budget
40:22
mediocrity with a gruff, leathery persona on display in the
40:27
Tom Cruise car racing drama Days of Thunder nineteen ninety,
40:31
the Nicholas Cage heist film Gone in Sixty Seconds two thousand,
40:35
and the violent action thriller Jack Reacher twenty twelve, also
40:40
starring Cruise, still capable of deft underplaying. Mister Duval received
40:46
Oscar nominations for his supporting roles in A Civil Action
40:50
nineteen ninety eight, playing a wily corporate attorney who duels
40:54
over a settlement with John Travolta's lawyer character, and in
40:58
The Judge twenty fourteen as a domineering small town magistrate
41:02
accused of murder who was defended by his son, Robert
41:06
Downey junior. Mister Duval's well paying Hollywood projects subsidized his
41:11
passions small budget films he wrote and directed, including Angelo
41:16
My Love nineteen eighty three about Romani people in New York,
41:20
The Apostle, which was fifteen years in the planning, and
41:24
Assassination Tango two thousand two, about a Brooklyn hit man
41:29
with a weakness for the central Argentine dance. Like the character,
41:34
mister Duval was a dedicated tango dancer. His marriages to
41:38
Barbara Benjamin, actress Gail Youngs, and dancer Scheron Brofi ended
41:43
in divorce. In two thousand four, he married Luciana Pedraza,
41:48
an Argentine actress forty one years his junior, who appeared
41:51
with him in Assassination Tango. Complete information on Survivors was
41:56
not immediately available. Mister Duval said he a horrid acting
42:00
that called attention to itself, leveling criticism of revered leading
42:04
men such as Brando Lazy or Olivier Two. Stylized an
42:10
actor was at his best and most real, he said,
42:13
when he could summon emotions from his own life without
42:16
actorly ego being a leading man. No I never dreamed
42:21
of that, he told the Chicago Tribune. It's an agent's dream,
42:25
not an actor's. This article is accompanied by photos. One
42:31
is captioned Robert Duval as Tom Hagen in the nineteen
42:35
seventy two movie The Godfather Betman Archive. It shows mister
42:39
Duval sitting at a desk speaking on an old fashioned telephone.
42:44
The next is caption mister Duval plays a marine pilot
42:47
in The Great Santini nineteen seventy nine. He shows mister
42:52
Duval in uniform standing in front of a fighter plane.
42:58
The next photo captioned mister Duval in nineteen seventy eight
43:03
as a title character Dwight D. Eisenhower in ike a
43:06
made for TV miniseries about the D Day Landings, The
43:11
bizac Ap. The photo shows mister Duval in a general's
43:16
uniform with two other actors in uniform behind him. Next
43:21
a photo captioned mister Duval holds the Golden Globe award
43:24
he won for tender Mercies in nineteen eighty four Lenny's
43:28
McClendon ap. And the final photo accompanied this article is
43:33
captioned mister Duval dances the tango with his wife Luciana
43:37
Padrazza in twenty ten Lucian Perkins, The Washington Post. Next
43:43
an item entitled affordability surgeis to prominence. The term has
43:48
become a campaign buzzword as key costs keep rising. By
43:53
Julie z Wild, affordability is the political word of the moment.
43:59
The prices of three day essentials such as housing and
44:02
healthcare are at the top of americans concerns, and affordability
44:07
has become many politicians favorite term to refer to the issue,
44:11
rather than older buzzwords such as cost of living, the
44:14
more basic prices or specific economic measures such as inflation.
44:20
Affordability rocketed up in Google trends in November when Democrats
44:24
Abigail Spenberger, Mikey Cheryl, and Zorain mam Dying all won
44:29
elections as governor Virginia, governor of New Jersey, and Mayor
44:33
of New York City, respectively, in part on the strength
44:36
of campaigns that centered on the word. The New York
44:40
Times noted that email newsletters from members of Congress almost
44:44
never used the word before Joe Biden's presidency, and used
44:47
it fewer than ten times a month before President Donald
44:50
Trump's second term. In November and December, they mentioned it
44:55
seventy times a month. The article includes a graph entitled
44:59
Google searches for affordability started soaring in November. The word
45:04
took off around the time of the twenty twenty five elections.
45:08
The graph shows from twenty twenty two through the middle
45:11
of twenty twenty five, searches were in the twenties or
45:14
thirties per month. Reached forty in June of twenty twenty five,
45:18
fifty four in July of twenty twenty five, forty two
45:23
in October of twenty twenty five, eighty three in November
45:28
of twenty twenty five, ninety five in December twenty twenty five,
45:32
and one hundred in January twenty twenty six. Source Google Trends.
45:38
Julius Alzeimer Wild The Washington Post. Why this word and
45:42
why now. The term speaks to an uncomfortable gap between
45:46
certain key costs, such as housing, and people's incomes, With
45:51
inflation much cooler than as sky high twenty twenty two
45:54
peak of nine percent. On Friday, the latest report showed
45:57
annual inflation at two point four percent. Affordability speaks to
46:01
people's ongoing complaints about costs, without referencing economic benchmarks. Trump
46:07
won the presidency in part because of surging prices during
46:11
the Biden administration, and promised to bring down prices, but
46:15
he has downplayed discussions about affordability, pointing to stock market
46:19
gains that have boosted for a one case, and other
46:22
positive economic signs. Of course, concerns about high prices have
46:26
shaped politics before, but the term affordability is particularly buzzy now.
46:32
While the verb afford dates back to Old English, according
46:35
to the Oxford English Dictionary, and the adjective affordable appeared
46:40
in sixteen forty seven, affordability is a relatively new term,
46:45
possibly coined in nineteen ten in an article in the
46:48
Indianapolis Star. Affordability was scarcely used intil the nineteen fifties,
46:53
according to the dictionary. Google's The Grand Viewer shows that
46:57
the term started appearing more and more or often in
47:00
books from the mid seventies to the mid nineties. Before
47:05
the affordability moment, the word affordable took on political connotations
47:10
through his associations with states subsidized affordable housing, and then
47:14
the twenty ten Affordable Care Act that reshaped health care
47:18
policy under President Barack Obama. Just before the coronavirus pandemic,
47:24
journalist Annie Lowry wrote a piece headlined the Great Affordability
47:28
Crisis Breaking America. She argued that positive numbers about the economy,
47:33
unemployment down, wages up masks the hardship cause by rising prices.
47:40
A year later, polster Jeff garn pushed Democrats to talk
47:43
about affordability, arguing that Biden's habit of talking about jobs
47:48
created wasn't resonating with voters who would rather hear about
47:52
how the government could bring down prices whether they were
47:55
employed or not, Voters worried about the cost of health
47:59
care care, and more. Garran argued Kieron looks Back Now
48:04
at a presentation he gave to Senate Democrats Campaign Committee
48:08
in twenty twenty one that had the word affordability in
48:11
bold at the top of the slide. The word's important
48:15
because it speaks to the real world challenge that Americans
48:18
feel it's hard for them to afford the things that
48:22
they consider essential to a middle class standard of living,
48:25
he said. Guaran credits the act of this group groundwork
48:29
with pushing the ship from Biden's emphasis on new jobs
48:33
to democrats current focus on bringing down costs. Congress passed
48:38
legislation early in Biden's term that flooded the economy with money,
48:43
a move that helped the US rebound quickly from the pandemic,
48:47
but many economists said contributed to higher inflation. Trump beat
48:51
Democrat Kamala Harris in twenty twenty four with a message
48:55
focused on the problem of high prices and avow to
48:58
reduce the cost of growth on day one. By October
49:03
of last year, economic thought leaders were working to reclaim
49:06
the term. The left leaning Economic Security Project published its
49:11
Affordability Framework, and the Urban Institute launched an American Affordability Tracker.
49:18
In November, after the election victories by Democrats who ran
49:22
on affordability, Groundwork published an Affordability for All agenda of
49:27
ten policy ideas. The affordability agendas keep coming. Just this month,
49:32
the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, and the new Democrat coalition
49:37
in Congress launched them too. The new Democrat Socialist mayor
49:41
of New York, who promised to free some tenants rent
49:44
and make bus rides in day care for two year
49:47
olds free, is perhaps the most prominent affordability politician, but
49:52
even he didn't use the word much before the summer.
49:55
Andrew Epstein, who was Mamdani's communications director during his primary
49:59
came campaign, personally favored the term cost of living over affordability,
50:05
which he says he viewed as clunky. When mam Donnie
50:08
announced his candidacy, he said the city was unlivable for
50:12
the working class, calling it a quiet, grinding crisis. But
50:17
he didn't use the word affordability in that speech and
50:20
rarely used it en route to his win in the
50:22
Democratic primary. In mam Donnie's general election campaign against then
50:28
Mayor Eric Adams and former Governor Andrew m cuomo, however,
50:32
affordability became his catchword. I lost that argument in the campaign,
50:37
Epstein said, laughing. We feel very gratified that we identified
50:41
and ran at something which clearly tapped into a broader
50:45
political hunger in the country. Jeffrey Lerner, a longtime Democratic
50:50
operative who became Mom Donnie's communications director for the general election,
50:55
likes the term. We can talk about prices going up
50:58
and people being paid more, but the truth is, for
51:01
most Americans, the math doesn't math. You just can't make
51:06
the budget add up week after week. Affordability capture that
51:10
in a way that cost of living or inflation or
51:13
wage gains doesn't. Lerner said. More and more americans, not
51:19
just working poor, not just single parents, not just new immigrants,
51:23
even middle class, upper middle class people are getting to
51:27
a place where they cannot afford what they could five
51:30
or ten years ago. To day, Republican voters are even
51:34
more concerned about the problem than Democrats. In yugob polling
51:38
this month, thirty one percent of Republicans said that inflation
51:42
or prices are the single most important problem in America
51:46
right now, compared with twenty three percent of Democrats and
51:50
twenty one percent of Independents. For every age group, inflation
51:54
or prices are the top concern. But while Democrats have
51:59
embraced the word affordability, Trump has called it a hoax
52:03
and a fake word by Democrats. In an email, Republican
52:07
National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Pells pointed to Trump's deals with
52:12
pharmaceutical companies on drug prices and sweeping tax cuts that
52:16
reduce taxes for most households. Democrats, claiming to be the
52:20
Party of affordability is pure gas lotting. Pells said their
52:24
policies delivered skyrocketing grocery bills, outrageous gas prices, and the
52:28
worst inflation in forty years, crushing working families. President Trump
52:33
is cleaning up the Biden era economic wreckage, driving prices down,
52:37
lowering mortgage rates, and restoring affordability where Democrats failed. Tim Hogan,
52:43
who runs a Democratic National Committee's war room, which pushes
52:47
out political messages each day, said that a string of
52:50
election wins sense of presidential loss in twenty twenty four
52:54
has shown Democrats the power of running on bringing down prices,
52:58
including a state senator who flipped a seat in Iowa
53:01
in August while talking about child care and housing, and
53:05
two Georgia candidates who flip seats in November in a
53:08
state election that hinged on utility prices. Food is more expensive,
53:13
mortgage delinquencies are going up, credit card debt is climbing.
53:18
This sticker shock coalesced into affordability. Hogan said, affordability is
53:24
shorthand for an understanding that things are getting harder. The
53:28
very real, concrete, lived experience is people are going to
53:32
the grocery store, trying to heat their homes and seeing
53:35
that their paychecks aren't keeping up. Signa Mary mc cernan,
53:40
an economists who guided the creation of the Urban Institute's
53:43
affordability agenda, said the word works better than many terms
53:48
because it covers not just prices, but also whether workers
53:51
earnings are high enough to pay costs. We've had something
53:55
of an economic conundrum for a while, mc cernan said.
53:59
On the one hand, we've had consistent GDP growth and
54:02
stock market increases since twenty twenty two. Inflation is down
54:06
below three percent, and yet the overwhelming economic experience for
54:11
most Americans is this sense of unaffordability or inability to
54:15
get ahead. People want what they're experiencing validated. McCurtain's answer
54:22
to that puzzle is that essential costs have risen faster
54:26
than inflation and more quickly than people's wages. Her tracker
54:30
shows that wages have risen thirty eight percent since twenty seventeen,
54:34
but childcare costs have gone up forty percent, health insurance
54:38
forty one percent, rent fifty percent, and home sale prices
54:44
eighty percent. Mike Counsel, who co wrote the Economic Security
54:49
Project paper, recently charted how four key expenses groceries, housing, healthcare,
54:55
and transportation have eaten up a larger fraction of Americans
54:59
spen in recent years, leaving people feeling squeezed even under
55:04
supposedly good economic conditions. I think affordability speaks to that
55:09
security of life being a little further out of reach,
55:12
he said. It also helps pull together a lot of
55:16
different things, from people's access to healthcare to access to
55:20
a home, all very different phenomena that have gotten more expensive.
55:24
There's a little less left over to enjoy things. The
55:28
final item from today's front page is entitled Trump offers
55:32
Potomac's sewage spill response. Federal authorities will respond to major breach,
55:37
the President, said by Hannah Hedgebeth Carolyn y Johnson, and
55:42
Joe him. President Donald Trump said Monday that federal authorities
55:47
will respond to a major sewage spill that occurred four
55:50
weeks ago in the Potomac River, which flows between Maryland, Washington,
55:54
and Virginia. In a post on his social network Truth
55:58
Social Trump said that Federal Emergency Management Agency would play
56:02
a key role in a response, involving management, direction, and
56:06
coordination to protect the Potomac. FEMA is one of the
56:10
agencies affected by the current partial government shut down. In
56:13
past shutdowns, its employees have largely been required to work
56:17
without pay. White House officials did not immediately respond to
56:21
questions about what the federal response to the spill would entail.
56:26
Trump blamed local Democrat leaders for Grossman's management in his post,
56:31
and he singled out Maryland Governor Wesmore, a Democrat, suggesting
56:35
that the governor is incapable of handling the situation. On
56:38
Air Force one on Monday afternoon, en route to Washington
56:42
from mar Lago, Trump again criticized Moore. I don't like
56:47
the fact that he did that horrible you know, with
56:49
the pipes and the Potomac, and he's not doing the job.
56:51
Trump said, I'm going to have to get the federal
56:54
government involved in getting it fixed, because he can't fix anything. Moore,
56:59
who often spars with Trump, accused the President of using
57:02
the Potomac as a talking point and said the Environmental
57:06
Protection Agency refused to participate in a major hearing about
57:10
the clean up Friday. If the federal government is just
57:14
now showing up to take action, we will work collaboratively
57:18
as we always do, to be responsive and keep the
57:21
public informed about the federal government's plan to remediate the damage,
57:25
More said in his statement. A spokesperson for d C
57:28
Mayor Muriel E. Bauser, Democrat, declined to comment on Trump's post.
57:34
A two hundred million gallons spill of ross sewage was
57:37
discovered on January nineteenth, when security cameras captured the collapse
57:41
of a large pipeline called the Potomac Interceptor near the
57:45
Clara Barton Parkway in Montgomery County, Maryland. Officials were able
57:50
to stop the flow of waste into the river within
57:52
a week of the pipeline's failure, according to d C
57:55
Water Chief Executive David L. Gadis, The utility, based in Washington,
58:00
owns and operates a pipeline. According to Brookie Crawford, a
58:04
spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health, there was an
58:08
additional spill on February seventh, as d C Water crews
58:12
worked to deal with the sewage. Crawford said Virginia is
58:16
expecting the potential for more spills as DC officials repair
58:20
the pipe. A spokesperson for d C Water said the
58:23
emergency repairs to the pipeline could take four to six weeks.
58:28
Although Trump said in its posts that state and local
58:31
authorities have failed to request needed emergency help, Gatis said
58:35
in a statement that his agency is coordinating with federal
58:38
partners on the response to the spill. Due to time constraints,
58:42
we will need to end this item at this time.
58:45
This concludes the readings of the Washington Post for today, Tuesday,
58:50
February seventeenth, twenty twenty six. Your reader today has been
58:54
Cindy Fraser. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions
58:57
concerning this program, please fiell free to call us at
59:01
eight five nine four two two six three nine zero.
59:04
Thank you for listening, and now please stay tuned for
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continued programming on Radio I