Transcript

6.10.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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June tenth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, Radio I
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is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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printed material. Your reader for to day is Cindy Fraser.
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To day's front page headlines from the Washington Post are
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Kennedy forces out vaccine advisers on precedent and move against CDC.
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Panel escalates policy overhaul. Next headline, Pentagon orders seven hundred
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marines to all a. Trump activates more guard units. State
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local officials decry summons as incendiary. Next newsom says threat
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to arrest him is authoritarian step. Next, seizing emergency powers
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is key to Trump's governing. Our next headline sly Stone
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nineteen forty three to twenty twenty five visionary musician defied definition.
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And the final headline from today's front page Empty desks
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how the district's failure to curb truancy in middle schools
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fueled the biggest youth crime surge in a generation. Now
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let's turn to our first item entitled Kennedy forces out
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vaccine advisors unprecedented move against CDC panel escalates policy overhaul
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by Lena H Son and Lauren Weber. Health and Human
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Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior said Monday he was
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removing the entire membership of the influential vaccine advisory panel
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that makes immunization recommendations for the United States, an unprecedented
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move by Kennedy and an escalation of his overaul to
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federal vaccination policy. In an op ed published in The
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Wall Street Journal, Unity said he decided to retire the
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seventeen independent vaxine experts from the Advisory Committee on Immunization
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Practices because the panel has been quote plagued with persistent
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conflicts of interest and has become a quote rubber stamp
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for vaccines. Doctors and pharmacists looked to the committee's recommendations
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to decide which shots to offer. Kennedy has long criticized
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the panel, which makes vaccine recommendations to the Director of
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the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the recommendations
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are approved by the Director, they become official public health
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guidance and are required to be covered by insurance plans
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at no cost to consumers. The aster of ACP members
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marks the latest move by Kennedy that raised alarms among
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proponents of vaccines. He also forced out the Food and
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Drug Administration's top vaccine scientists, hired a vaccine skeptic to
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scrutinize CDC vaccine safety data, and has offered mixed messages
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about measles vaccines. Amid one of the worst outbreaks in decades.
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In May, Kennedy bypassed ACIP to say federal health officials
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would no longer recommend coronavirus vaccines for healthy children and
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healthy pregnant women. Kennedy, the founder of an anti vaccine group,
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said his overhaul of ACIP would restore public trust in vaccines,
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but medical, public health, and infectious disease experts say his
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actions do the opposite. Bruce A. Scott, the president of
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the American Medical Association, said the Committee for Generations has
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been a trusted source for vaccine guidance. Today's action to
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remove the seventeen sitting members of the ACIP undermines that
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trust and up ends a transparent process that has saved
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countless lives. Scott said in a statement. With an ongoing
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measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move
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will further fuel the spread of vaccine preventable illnesses. Some
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of Kennedy's longtime allies in anti vaccine advocacy praised his move.
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Mary Holland, the chief executive of Children's Health Defense, the
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group founded by Kennedy, said on x the purge opens
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the doors for honest science. Voting members of the panel
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are independent medical and public health experts who do not
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work for the CDC. They meet in public several times
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a year and disclose conflicts of interest at the start
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of every meeting. Kennedy's opbed referred to ninety seven percent
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of ACIP members having omissions in their disclosure forms, according
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to a two thousand nine HHS Inspector General report, but
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an NPR investigation found that could include people putting information
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in the wrong section of the form or incompletely filling
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out a section, or reviewers for getting to initial and
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date amendments to the pages. The panel is still scheduled
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to meet June twenty fifth to twenty seventh. ACIP members
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began receiving notices of immediate termination by email more than
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an hour after Kennedy's announcement. According to members who spoke
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on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. Lakshmi Pamangiottachipoulos,
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a top CDC coronavirus vaccine advisor at ACIP, said Friday
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she resigned citing concerns that she could no longer help
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vulnerable people after federal health officials rescinded long standing coronavirus
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vaccine recommendations. Before casting a pivotal vote to confirm Kennedy,
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Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican from Louisiana, said he received a
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commitment to quote maintain the Vaccine Committee quote without changes,
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but Cassidy did not say that promise was broken, telling
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reporters Monday that Kennedy pledged not to change the process
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rather than the committee itself. Cassidy, a physician and chair
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of the Senate Health Committee, openly wrestled with whether to
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support Kennedy's nomination out of concern about his views on vaccines.
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Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will
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be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines.
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Accept suspicion. I've just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I'll
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continue to talk with him to ensure this is not
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the case, Cassidy wrote on acts on Monday, Senator Susan Collins,
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Republican from Maine, another member of the Senate Health Committee,
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said that the move to dismiss all ACIP members raises
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serious questions. Senate Minority Leader Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat
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from New York, condemned their auster. Firing experts that have
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spent their entire lives protecting kids from deadly disease is
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not reform. It's reckless, radical, and rooted in conspiracy, not science.
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Schumer said. Wiping out an entire panel of vaccine experts
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doesn't build trust, it shatters it, and worse, it sends
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a chilling message that ideology matters more than evidence and
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politics more than public health. As Health Secretary, Kennedy has
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the authority over appointments to the advisory group. While it
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is legal for Kennedy to dismiss members, doing so in
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this abrupt manner suggests a political, non substantive motive, said
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dorrit Rice, a professor at the University of California College
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of the Law at San Francisco, whose research focuses on
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public health law and anti vaccine groups. This will not
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restore trust in vaccines and is not designed to do so,
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She said, appointing new members so close to a meeting
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means they will not be properly vetted for conflicts of interest.
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Rice said the normal process of becoming an ACIP member
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often takes months. Members have said Kennedy has a long
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history of disparaging vaccines, which has alarmed public health experts.
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Because he is now able to reshape the nation's vaccination policy,
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you have to worry that he may be bringing in
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people who are like minded to him, said Paul Offittt,
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director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of
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Philadelphia and a former member of the panel. He just
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makes these decisions by himself, without any input from advisory
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committees or experts or professional societies. He's just running roughshot
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over public health. Dell big Tree, an anti vaccine activist
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who worked on Kennedy's presidential campaign, said it is wrong
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to assume Kennedy would stack the panel with anti vaccine scientists.
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You're going to see choices that both liberals and Republicans say, hey,
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that looks like a good choice, big Tree said. They
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know they have to achieve that if they're going to
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achieve their ultimate goal, which is to have science that
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everyone trusts, the public's access to vaccines's is threats, and
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if Kennedy appoints anti vaccine allies to the advisory committee,
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said Jeremy Faust and, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at
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Harvard Medical School, We're going to have a sicker society,
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Fast said, We're going to have people missing school, being
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in the hospital instead of in school, being in the hospital,
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instead of at work, being in the graveyard, instead of
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at weddings, and bar mitzvahs. Rachel Rubin contributed to this report.
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Our next item is entitled Pentagon orders seven hundred Marines
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to alat Trump activates more Guard units. State local officials
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decry summons as incendiary by Lindsay Underwood, Rice Thebault, Molly
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Hennessy Fiske, and Danielle Paquette from Los Angeles. The Pentagon
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on Monday ordered a battalion of seven hundred Marines to
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Los Angeles and mobilized an additional two thousand National Guard
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troops as protests of the Trump administrations imm gri ration
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policies spilled into a fourth day, escalating a confrontation between
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the White House and the country's most populous state. The Marines,
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summoned from an infantry unit typically trained for overseas warfare,
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will assist about one thousand, seven hundred National Guard members
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that President Donald Trump already deployed to the city. Roughly
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two thousand, one hundred have been activated so far for
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the mission, according to the Defense Department. The deployments followed
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demonstrations against immigration rates that at times turned violent. The
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additional National Guard members and marines announced Monday pushed the
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number of military personnel designated for duty in Los Angeles
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to close to five thousand, a rapid escalation by the
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Trump administration. The marines, stationed east of Los Angeles in
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twenty nine palms, started moving out Monday afternoon, a Defense
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official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss
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ongoing operations. This marks the first time in six decades
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an American president has ordered such a military intervention without
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the approval of the state's governor, state and local officials
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in California, a frequent target of Trump's iire, denounced the
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deployments as incendiary. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, writing
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on social media, labeled the additional Guard mobilization reckless, pointless,
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and disrespectful to our troops. The governor claimed that an
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overwhelming majority of those activated so far are sitting unused
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in federal buildings without orders. Most protests have been peaceful,
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State and local officials said, even as they spread to
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cities across the country. This is unprecedented that the president
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is using the military against his own people in this way,
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said Los Angeles City council member Ugo Soto Martinez, whose
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district adjacent to downtown encompasses a range of immigrant communities.
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The Marines will deploy from a military base in twenty
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nine Palms, a three hour drive east of Los Angeles,
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to focus on quote protecting federal personnel and federal property,
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the Pentagon said in a statement, and they will partner
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with National Guard members who have been trained in crowd
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control and de escalation. The mobilization is a significant move
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by the Pentagon. Typically, National Guard members, rather than active
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duty troops such as the Marines, are mobilized for civil
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unrest missions at the behest of governors or the president.
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The Marines and Guard members under federal orders will serve
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in a support role and cannot participate in direct immigration
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or law enforcement operations that would change if Trump invoked
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the Insurrection Act, which gives the president broader powers to
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conduct policing operations with troops under federal control. Troops being
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sent to Los Angeles are trained in de escalation, crowd control,
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and standing rules for the use of force. Northern Command,
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which oversees operations in North America, said in a statement
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the activated units so far are drawn from combat units,
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not military police personnel who specialize in civil disturbance response.
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The additional two thousand National Guard members announced late Monday
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will support the administration's ongoing immigration enforcement activities, according to
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the Pentagon. In a statement posted to social media, Sean Parnell,
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a spokesman for and top adviser to Defend Secretary Pete Hexa,
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said the additional service members would enable immigration and Customs
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enforcement or ICE personnel to safely conduct their duties. The
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moves were met with skepticism among some of the protesters
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in downtown Los Angeles on Monday. Amars Leon, a thirty
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five year old lawyer from Sacramento, said he interpreted the
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deployment of marines as an effort to set the military
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on civilians for exercising their First Amendment rights. Trump is
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trying to rile people up, said Terry Merrick, a retired professor,
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so he can have an excuse to come in and
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stomp everybody down. The protests began after a week of
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immigration raids in southern California, which resulted in more than
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one hundred arrests at work places that neighbors described as
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normally calm, including a doughnut shop and home depot stores.
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Demonstrators took to the streets in response, lighting the fuse
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that sparked days of widely broadcasted dust ups. Portions of
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the One on one Freeway closed over the weekend when
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protesters clogged at southbound lanes, snarling already notorious traffic. Protesters
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hurled rocks at police cruisers, Tear gas filled the air,
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and phones captured videos of riders torching self driving vehicles,
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leading one robotaxi company to suspend part of its Los
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Angeles services. More than fifty protesters have been arrested. Acording
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to local law enforcement, the National Guard members had already
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improved the situation in Los Angeles. Trump said on Monday,
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thank goodness, we sent out some wonderful National Guard. They
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really helped. He said, a lot of problems that were
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having out there. They were afraid to do anything, and
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we sent out the troops and they've done a fantastic job.
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But local officials said the deployment was unnecessary. The chaos
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from their protests was contained to a few streets downtown
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that looked horrible, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said on CNN,
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But there has not been she added, citywide civil unrest.
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California sued the Trump administration Monday over the deployment of
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California National Guard members to Los Angeles without Newsom's consent.
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Newsom said later that the state would sue over Trump's
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use of the Marines, too, calling it a blatant abuse
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of power. The fallout from the protests appears to have
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deepened the political feud between Trump and Newsom, a potential
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till twenty twenty eight Democratic hopeful. The Trump administration has
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been weighing the cancelation of California's federal funding, an unprecedented
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mood that would decimate the state's budget, and Trump endorsed
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arresting Newsom on Monday after arriving on the south lawn
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of the White House. I would do it if I
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were Tom Trump told reporters as he returned to the
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White House, referring to Borderzar Tom Homan, I think it's great.
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Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be
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a great thing. Newsom responded minutes later in a social
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media post on x calling it an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.
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The President of the United States just called for the
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arrest of a sitting governor. This is a day I
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hoped I would never see in America. I don't care
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if you're a Democrat or a Republican. This is a
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line we cannot cross as a nation. This is an
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unmistakable step toward authoritarianism, he wrote. After a chaotic weekend,
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downtown Los Angeles residents woke to a jarring combination of
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calm streets and graffiti marred buildings just outside the city's core.
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In the coffee shop studded neighborhood of Silver Lake, people
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casually walked dogs and sipped cortadas as a workweek started.
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Yet the national spotlight remained glued to Hollywood's backyard, which
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was caught in the crosshairs of dueling political narratives, while
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right lending media looped videos of burning cars and street skirmishes,
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Democrats insisted that most protesters remained peaceful. Protests spread across
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the country after the Friday arrest of David Huerta, the
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fifty eight year old head of the Service Employees International
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Union's California branch. Cuerta was arrested after sitting in the
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path of federal agents targeting Los Angeles warehouse workers, and
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he now faces a federal conspiracy charge. The Service Employees
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International Union, which represent and thousands of janitors, cooks, security guards,
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and other service workers, organized rallies in more than a
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dozen states, with members and their supporters condemning immigration enforcement
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tactics they cast as in humane. Puerta was released from
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cassoday Monday on a fifty thousand dollars bond bill a sale.
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The U S Attorney for the Central District of California
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wrote in a post on Acts that Huerta had deliberately
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obstructed federal agents who were executing a warrant. No one
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has a right to assault, obstruct, or interfere with federal
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authorities carrying out their duties, as Saley wrote, some Los
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Angeles residents are bracing for more protests. Christian Frizzle, owner
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of the downtown Redwood Bar was trying to decide whether
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to close early Monday. They usually stay open until two
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a m. But he noticed in nearby Credit Union had
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boarded up its windows in anticipation of more protests. Back
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in twenty twenty, his bar was damaged during Black Lives
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Matter protests. Still, he wasn't sure if marines were the
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best choice to protect his property. It seems like a
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large escalation, he said of the coming deployment. I wish
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they would try to cool it down. Paquett reported from Washington.
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Molly Hennessy Fisk in Los Angeles, an Omita Kauer in Washington,
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and Kelsey Abeles in Seoul contributed to this report. Our
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Next Autumn is entitled Newsom says threat to arrest him
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is an authoritarian step. By May of Reston and Matt
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Viiser from Los Angeles, The relationship between the leader of
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the United States and the country's most popular estate reached
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a near breaking point Monday, as President Donald Trump said
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he thought California Governor Gavin Newsom should be arrested, a
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claim that Newsom described as an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.
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As the two men traded recriminations. Trump stepped up the
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military's presence on the streets of Los Angeles against Newsom's will.
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Trump repeatedly ridiculed Newsom, a Democrat, calling him grossly incompetent
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and saying he has done a terrible job. Asked about
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a threat by his borderzaar Tom Homann to arrest a governor,
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Trump said, I would do it if I were Tom.
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I think it's great, Trump added, without specifying any alleged
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criminal wrongdoing or charges, Gavin likes a publicity, but I
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think it would be a great thing. That's an American
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president in twenty twenty five threatening a political opponent who
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happens to be a sitting governor. Newsom said in an
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interview Monday, that's not with precedent in modern times. That's
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what we see around the globe and authoritarian regimes. Newsom's
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comments reflected a broader frustration for democratic leaders who have
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been unable to counter what they see as an escalation
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of Trump's anti Democrats actions in his emboldened second term.
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Newsom has tried all methods. He was a face of
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the resistance in the first term and a welcoming greeter
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during Trump's initial visit to California in his second term.
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All the while, he continued suing Trump while keeping up
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a cordial back channel relationship. On Monday, he sounded like
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he was at his end with Trump, calling him unrestrained
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and unhinged. Trump is a very different president than his
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first foray in office, Newsom said Monday. You've seen that
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as it relates to how he has completely obliterated any
21:36
oversight from Congress, how he seeks to obliterate oversight from
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the judicial branch by threatening impeachment of judges and running
21:44
up to the edge as it relates to court orders.
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The newest break in the historically tumultuous relationship between Newsom
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and Trump unfolded over a chaotic seventy two hour period
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that began with raids by federal immigration officials in Los
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Angeles on Friday that led to the arrests of forty
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four people, including two people whom state officials believed to
22:06
be miners. Trump, who had arrived at his golf club
22:09
at Bedminster, New Jersey for the weekend, left a message
22:13
for Newsom on his cell phone Friday night. The two
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had spoken intermittently since Trump's inauguration, including during a meeting
22:20
in the Oval office in February, as Newsom sought tens
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of billions of dollars in federal funding to help LA
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rebuild after the January wildfires. While they sparred publicly, their
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interactions in private during both Trump terms were more productive.
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On Friday, the immigration and customs enforcement arrests had triggered protests,
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with the Los Angeles Police Department reporting that agitators had
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hurled chunks of concrete at law enforcement officers. The Democratic
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governor assumed that was why Trump was calling. He was
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hoping to reassure him when they spoke after one thirty
22:56
a m. Eastern time, that state and local officials had
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protests under control, but he could scarcely get in a word.
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Trump talked about trivial subjects, According to people familiar with
23:07
a call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because
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they were not authorized to discuss details of a private conversation,
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Newsom unsuccessfully tried to steer the president towards serious subjects,
23:19
including reports that the administration was preparing to terminate California's
23:23
federal funding. In an interview Monday, Newsom said Trump was
23:28
gracious but never warned that he was about to federalize
23:31
the National Guard, as the president later claimed, and never
23:35
asked about the law enforcement response to that night's protests,
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risking complaints from some Democrats that he had been too accommodating.
23:44
The California governor had been restrained in the month since inauguration,
23:48
avoiding personal attacks, but by Sunday, when Newsom arrived in
23:52
Los Angeles, crowds or protesters in the city's downtown had
23:56
swelled to thousands. California Highway troll officers under Newsom's command
24:02
were arresting people who had blocked the southbound lanes of
24:05
the one oh one Freeway, a major artery through the city,
24:08
and throwing objects at local law enforcement officers as several
24:12
way more vehicles were set on fire. The gripping and
24:16
chaotic scene in a democratic run city was, in Newsom's view,
24:20
the kind of made for television crisis that Trump had
24:23
always hoped to manufacture. Newsom, who blamed Trump for the escalation,
24:28
said Sunday on social media that Trump's actions had diverged
24:32
into those of a dictator, not a president. This is
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an act of recklessness that quite literally puts people's lives
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at risk, Newsom said, of Trump's decision to federalize the
24:44
National Guard. From Trump's perspective, the situation in Los Angeles
24:48
County had gotten out of control, leaving him no choice
24:52
but to step in. A White House official briefed on
24:55
the administration's response to the protests, who spoke on the
24:58
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly,
25:03
said that the president had hoped that Coling Newsom would
25:06
compel him to take more aggressive law enforcement action, something
25:09
Trump stressed in the phone call the official insisted. Throughout Saturday,
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according to White House officials, the President and his advisers
25:18
were being briefed about what was happening on the ground
25:21
and watching provocative images on social media and television. They
25:25
saw images of agents with lacerations and of rocks being
25:28
thrown at enforcement vehicles. By around nine p m. Trump
25:33
had signed a memorandum authorizing the National Guard. That decision
25:37
was announced in the early evening in Los Angeles, a
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time that a White House official said was designed to
25:43
deter for their protests. That evening, you watched the same
25:47
clips as I did, cars burning all over the place,
25:50
people riding, Trump said. On Monday afternoon, he cast himself
25:55
as the savior of the state, and said he had
25:57
no choice but to intervene Mocking, who disagreed as politically correct.
26:03
If we didn't do the job, the place would be
26:05
burning down, just like the houses burned down, he said,
26:09
comparing it to other protests like those in Minneapolis in
26:12
the aftermath of George Floyd's killing. There's so many different
26:16
places where we let it burn. We want to be
26:18
politically correct, we want it to be nice. We want
26:21
to be nice to the criminal. And what you're doing
26:24
is destroying the fabric of our life in this country.
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He said that he should be credited, and I think Gabon,
26:30
in his own way, is probably happy I got involved,
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Trump said Later on Monday, a senior Administration official said
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that about seven hundred active duty U. S. Marines would
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be deployed from Camp Pendleton to Los Angeles on Monday
26:44
night in light of increased threats to federal officers and
26:48
federal billings. Newsom called the act Unamerican. The Pentagon on
26:53
Monday night said an additional two thousand National Guard troops
26:56
were being called up as well. U. S. Marines have
27:00
served honorably across multiple wars in defense of democracy. Their heroes.
27:05
Newsom wrote on x they shouldn't be deployed on American soil,
27:10
facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of
27:13
a dictatorial president. While Trump expressed support for arresting Newsom,
27:19
he did not have an explanation for what crime he
27:21
thinks the governor committed. I think his primary crime is
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running for governor because he's done such a bad job.
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He said. What he's done to that state is like
27:30
what Joe Biden did to this country, and that's pretty bad.
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White House officials later suggested that Trump was serious about
27:37
his threats to have Newsom arrested. No one, regardless of
27:41
status as an elected official, is above the law. A
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White House official said, if Galvin Newsom is obstructing federal
27:48
law enforcement, he may face consequences. The relationship between Newsom
27:53
and Trump never strong, has long seen headed this way.
27:57
According to observers, this is a symbia relationship right now,
28:01
said David Axelrod, a former adviser to Barack Obama, noting
28:06
that both Trump and Newsom are improvisational politicians who are
28:10
habitually trying to read the room. But at the end
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of the day, Newsom clearly wants to run for president,
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and to be president, he has to be the Democratic nominee.
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Axelrod said. And when this kind of provocation takes place,
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when the President of the United States is sending marines
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to l A, yeah, you damn well better have something
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to say. Newsom said Trump had crossed a line with
28:35
his conduct that would be difficult to come back from.
28:39
He just threatened my arrest. One would assume or presume
28:43
that's the point of no return. Newsom said, I'm constitutionally
28:47
capable of working with people, even those a call from
28:50
my arrest. So I remain resolved in that respect, as
28:54
I remain resolved to have the backs of kids whose
28:57
lives are being threatened by his authoritarian tendencies. Emily Davies
29:02
and Katzaruski contributed to this report. Our next item is
29:08
entitled Seizing emergency powers is Key to Trump's governing by
29:13
Noftali Ben David. The specter of federally controlled troops in
29:17
American streets has historically signaled a seismic social crisis, from
29:23
forcing integration in Arkansas to protecting civil rights marchers in Alabama.
29:28
But President Donald Trump set the National Guard to Los
29:31
Angeles at a time when state and local officials said
29:34
they had protests there under control. The move reflects an
29:38
increasingly evident pattern of his presidency. Trump declares an emergency
29:43
or crisis where many others do not see one, enabling
29:47
him to take sweeping actions, rally supporters, and fight on
29:51
political terrain he finds favorable. Trump's declaration of an economic
29:56
emergency in April enabled sweeping tariffs. His declaration of an
30:01
invasion on the southern border paved the way for intensified deportations.
30:06
An energy emergency made it easier for him to ease regulations.
30:10
His pronouncement that sentinel entering from Canada was an emergency
30:14
justified sanctious, as did a similar finding on the International
30:18
Criminal Court's approach to Israel. By many measures, the emergencies
30:23
were hard to discern, but Trump's ability to pronounce them
30:27
the executive order enabled him to instantly deploy the resulting authority.
30:32
It gives him extraordinary powers to not go through the
30:35
normal machinery and bureaucracy of government, said Mike Madrid, a
30:40
long time Republican strategist who has been critical of Trump.
30:44
The goal is to wield extraordinary powers to get rid
30:47
of government where he wants, to get rid of the
30:50
bureaucracy where he can, and to step on the neck
30:53
of his opponents. The stream of emergency declarations has contributed
30:58
to a sense cultivated by Trump that the country is
31:01
facing perpetual crisis under threat from foreign nations and domestic enemies.
31:07
Trump appears to thrive in this atmosphere, adopting the role
31:10
of fighter and savior. If he had not federalized the
31:14
National Guard, Trump said Monday on Truth's Social Los Angeles
31:18
would have been completely obliterated. Late Monday, a senior administration
31:23
official said the Pentagon was sending seven hundred marines to
31:26
Los Angeles to backstop the National Guard. Democrats responded that
31:31
there was no crisis from the protests in Los Angeles
31:34
of Trump's immigration policies until he inflamed matters. Trump, some said,
31:41
was seeking to shift attention from such topics as Republican
31:44
divisions over his Marquis budget bill and on to political
31:48
turf where he is relatively strong, such as illegal immigration
31:51
and urban ills. I'm not suggesting that the yahoos who
31:56
showed up and threw bottles and lit a fire were okay.
32:00
They need to be identified and arrested, said Representative Zoe Lofgren,
32:04
Democrat from California. But it was under control until they
32:08
sent in the guard. I think this was intended to incite. Lofgren,
32:13
a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Trump's
32:16
despatch of the National Guard clearly violated the law since
32:20
he was relying on a statute that can only be
32:23
invoked when there is an invasion or rebellion. The state
32:26
of California on Monday soothed the administration over the move.
32:31
I can't get into the head of the president, but
32:34
this is something a dictator would do, Lofgren said, adding
32:38
if people aren't concerned about it, they could watch our
32:41
country's liberties drip away. The White House said Trump is
32:46
using his rightful powers because Democrats left the country in
32:49
shambles and strong action is needed. For years, Democrats like
32:54
Gavin Newsom and Joe Biden have done nothing to protect
32:57
Americans from economic and nationals security threats, said spokeswoman Taylor Rogers.
33:03
President Trump is rightly using his executive authority, as evidence
33:07
by our many victories in court. Trump's supporters contend that
33:11
his decisive actions in Los Angeles and elsewhere are welcomed
33:15
by Americans after decades of frustration at Washington's inability to
33:20
solve problems. A recent CBS News Yugov poll, for example,
33:25
found that Americans approve of Trump's deportation policies by fifty
33:29
four to forty six percent. Trump has been declaring emergencies, invasions,
33:35
and rebellions almost from the moment he took office in January,
33:39
enabling him to frame not only the political landscape but
33:43
also established legal grounds for his unorthodox actions. He has
33:48
declared eight separate emergencies since taking office, far more than
33:52
other recent presidents, according to Elizabeth Gotime, and expert on
33:56
emergency powers at the Brennan Center for Justice. On his
34:00
first day, Tromp declared an energy emergency, although the United
34:04
States has a healthy supply of energy and is hardly
34:08
facing a crisis in the view of most experts, blaming
34:11
the Biden administration for an inadequate energy supply, Trump said
34:15
the situation would quickly deteriorate without immediate remedy. Also on
34:21
his first day, Tromp declared an emergency regarding drug cartels,
34:26
enabling him to declare them terrorist organizations more easily. A
34:30
few weeks later, he declared that fentnyl coming over the
34:33
Canadian border constituted another emergency, although authorities say little of
34:38
the drug comes from that direction. In early April, Trump
34:42
declared an emergency based on the nation's trade deficit, which
34:46
has existed for decades, enabling him to impose unprecedented global tariffs,
34:51
though he has suspended many of them for now. He
34:54
has used crisis language even for smaller matters, such as
34:58
his Executive Order des regulating shower heads, which denounce the
35:03
Obama Biden war on showers. They give him extraordinary powers
35:08
that he otherwise wouldn't have and that Congress has determined
35:11
to be inappropriate in non emergency situations. Goetine said, the
35:17
actions a president can take during war or a national
35:20
emergency are and should be very different than he takes
35:24
in peace time. Said Krishna Prakash, a law professor at
35:28
the University of Virginia, said Trump is hardly alone in
35:32
taking advantage of the emergency powers that Congress has given
35:35
presidents over the years. Trump is following in the footsteps
35:39
of his predecessors in being willing to declare an emergency.
35:42
Prakash said He's probably doing it more often because he
35:46
wants to do more things, and obviously the groups who
35:49
want action in a particular area will welcome the declaration. Still,
35:54
Prakash said presidents too often invoke emergencies simply to justify
35:59
the things that want to do. Congress has basically given
36:03
presidents lots of emergency power in various areas, they have
36:07
used it, and the courts are reluctant to second guess it,
36:10
he said. The National Emergencies Act of nineteen seventy six,
36:15
enacted after the Watergate scandal, sought to put restraints around
36:19
a president's ability to declare emergencies, in part by allowing
36:23
Congress to terminate them, but it did not define an
36:27
emergency or limit its duration, and in practice it has
36:31
done little to rein in such declarations. Trump's official declarations
36:36
in some ways match his public rhetoric, which frequently suggests
36:40
the country is facing an unprecedented crisis that only he
36:44
can solve. With an ongoing drumbeat of unilateral actions, social
36:49
media posts and executive orders, Trump has created the constant
36:53
sense of a nation under siege requiring strong action by
36:57
its leader. He is not going to view him himself
37:00
is constrained said Christie Parker, special counsel for Protect Democracy,
37:05
a nonprofit that fights authoritarianism. Emergency powers are like manner
37:10
from heaven for someone like him. He can just wave
37:13
a wand in the form of an executive order and
37:16
absolve himself, as he sees it, from the need to
37:19
answer to Congress. Trump's willingness to test the bounds of
37:23
American law and tradition have often thrown Democrats on the defensive.
37:28
That seems especially true in areas like immigration and crime,
37:32
where Democrats fear being seen as defending the status quo.
37:37
Immigration remains Donald Trump's strongest issue, said Madrid, the political
37:41
strategist in Los Angeles. He added, this issue will change
37:45
pretty quickly away from immigration and toward law and order,
37:49
and that is where he has always done well. He
37:51
will take a tough approach, a militaristic approach, all of
37:55
it designed to send a message to his enemies domestically.
37:59
Eric Ericton, a conservative radio host, put it more succinctly.
38:03
The Summit Riot season is here, he posted an X.
38:07
It helps Donald Trump and the Democrats know it. Democrats, though,
38:12
contend that if Trump continues to assert extraordinary powers, he
38:16
will eventually provoke a backlash. Activists are planning major demonstrations
38:21
this Saturday, as Trump reviews a military parade in Washington
38:25
with a theme of no Kings. To argue that Trump
38:28
is acting more like an authoritarian than a president. His
38:32
decision to deploy the National Guard over the impassioned objections
38:36
of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Democrat, marks a striking just
38:41
of position with the way the Guard was used during
38:43
the Civil Rights era. During that turbulent period, presidents on
38:48
several occasions took over the Guard to enforce the rights
38:51
of black Americans facing threats by segregationist state authorities. In
38:56
this case, Trump is using the Guard to confront a
38:59
minority group and its supporters who say the administration is
39:03
violating its rights. Tom Homan Trump's borders are set on
39:08
msncb's mourning Joe on Monday that the administration was reacting
39:13
to egregious lawlessness that local authorities were ignoring, a claim
39:17
strongly denied by leaders of California and Los Angeles. They
39:22
should have taken action the last two days while the
39:24
city birned Holman said, adding I was there when a
39:28
thousand protesters were surrounding the federal building, breaching that federal building,
39:33
putting our officers at risk, putting illegal aliens we arrested
39:37
or in custody at risk. It was out of control.
39:41
Democrats have also been quick to contrast Trump's recent actions
39:45
with his notable passivity during the January sixth, twenty twenty
39:49
one attack on the U. S. Capitol that constituted a
39:53
true emergency, they say, as members of Congress certifying a
39:57
legitimate election faced assault from a dist instructive mob. Yet
40:01
Trump did little to call off writers acting on his behalf,
40:05
and after getting office again, pardoned hundreds convicted of crimes
40:10
in the attack. Beyond his other declarations, Trump has not
40:14
ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act, which allows the deployment
40:18
of active duty US military personnel at home in cases
40:22
of unrest or rebellion, a prospect that alarms his critics.
40:27
Lofgren said Trump's declarations of various kinds of crisis bear
40:32
little relation to actual conditions. He is making it up.
40:36
She said, he has made up these fake emergencies to
40:39
seize power unconstitutionally. Our next item is entitled sly Stone
40:46
nineteen forty three to twenty twenty five Visionary musician defied
40:51
definition by Brian Murphy sly Stone, whose band sly in
40:57
the Family. Stone electrified Woodstock audience and introduced a genre
41:02
fusing brand of psychedelic funk with hits such as Family
41:05
Affair and Everyday People, but then mostly vanished from the
41:09
music scene for decades. In the Grip of drug Abuse,
41:12
died June ninth at his home in Granada Hills, California.
41:16
He was eighty two. The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary
41:20
disease and other health related complications, said his manager, Arlene Herkshowitz.
41:26
Mister Stone's musical adventurism and ear for the times created
41:30
an enduring soundtrack of the nineteen sixties and early seventies.
41:35
The Joyful Hot Fun in the Summer Time in nineteen
41:38
sixty nine was a break from the aras political storms.
41:42
The Boom Laca Laca Laca Mojo of I Want to
41:45
Take You Higher that same year uncorked pure energy. The
41:49
song had the Woodstock throng dancing at four a m.
41:53
On August seventeenth, nineteen sixty nine, with mister Stone jamming
41:57
on keyboards and roaming the stage in a white jumps
42:00
suit with fringe flying and is afro haloed by the lights.
42:04
I sang I want to take you higher, and they
42:07
sang back the last word higher, all of them. Damn,
42:11
we kept it going. I kept it going, mister Stone
42:15
wrote in his twenty twenty three memoir, co authored with
42:18
music journalist Ben Greenman, thank you Thalatime be myself again,
42:23
the song title of another sliding the family Stone chart
42:26
climber in nineteen seventy. This was mister Stone's full command
42:31
of his craft. For years, he had experimented with rapping
42:34
strains of soul rock and gospel's call and response style
42:38
around a funk downbeat. By the summer of nineteen sixty nine,
42:42
his sound had come together, breaking into mainstream radio and
42:46
writing the currents at the end of a wild decade
42:49
of change and upheaval. Mister Stone could be edgy and
42:53
rebellious in his music, using the N word in a
42:56
song titled Whitey not to invoke the term. Then he'd
43:00
amble into a happy place with tracks such as nineteen
43:03
sixty eight Slinky Danced to the Music. He channeled the
43:06
Age of Aquarius with songs from nineteen sixty nine's stand
43:10
album such as You Can make it if you try,
43:13
and the prejudice bashing everyday people. There is a yellow
43:17
one that won't accept, the black one that won't accept,
43:21
the red one that won't accept the white one. Different
43:24
strokes for different folks. Like the Sixties itself, mister Stone's
43:29
music spanned generations in its influence. The band's base slapping
43:34
funk groove was embraced by groups such as the Ohio
43:36
Players and mister Stone's friend George Clinton in his band's
43:40
Parliament and Funkadelic. Others from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder
43:45
to Prince to the Black Eyed Peas, carried on mister
43:48
Stone's eclectic musical mixology sly in the family, Stone was
43:53
like Noah's Ark. Musician and recorder producer Don Wass wrote
43:57
in Rolling Stone, they had blacks and white men and women.
44:01
This was a joyful noise and a joyful vision. To
44:05
mister Stone, the band and its eclectic beats came from
44:09
his own street anthropology. I wasn't going on any other
44:13
program or agenda or philosophy, mister Stone told Vanity Fair
44:17
in two thousand seven. It was just what I observed
44:21
where I was at. He was also disappearing into a
44:25
fog of drugs. Just as he reached his peak popularity,
44:29
cocaine and PCP, known as Angel Does, became his escapes.
44:33
He started showing up late for gigs or not at all.
44:37
More than a third of the band's eighty concerts were
44:40
canceled in nineteen seventy. A riot broke out in Chicago's
44:44
Grant Park that July when fans wrongly believed that the
44:47
band Late as Usual was a no show. More and more,
44:52
mister Stone holed up in a rented mansion in the
44:54
bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, hosting NonStop parties or
44:59
riding a soloed rug and voo's bender, surrounded by a
45:02
pit bull named Gun and mobsters doubling its bodyguards. With
45:07
a nineteen seventy one album, There's a Riot Going On,
45:10
the band cast off much of its brightness and can't
45:13
We Get Along and Glow? The music took on darker
45:16
tones and a muddier sound, the result of mister Stone
45:19
obsessively overdubbing the tracks in a makeshift studio a Winnebago
45:24
parked in the mansion's driveway. The album's family Affair was
45:28
the band's last chart stopping single, spending three weeks leading
45:32
the Billboard Hot one hundred. In twenty ten, Rolling Stone
45:36
ranked the band forty third among its greatest artists of
45:39
all time, just behind Van Morrison. The chorus line The
45:43
Family Stone, which included some of mister Stone's real family,
45:48
held together for two more albums, but his unreliability was
45:52
corrosive in the end. By many accounts, it was mister
45:56
Stone who effectively broke ranks. He peeled away for several
46:00
independent projects, sometimes still using the band's name, and collaborations
46:05
that reviewers found stiff and uninspired. Mister Stone made more
46:10
headlines as a tragicomic spectacle. Seemingly high on something, mister
46:15
Stone left the normally unflappable talk show host Dick Cavot
46:19
slack jawed. In nineteen seventy one. You're great, gushed mister Stone.
46:23
He pounded his heart boom right on sure thing. Mister
46:28
Stone rambled, no, for real, for real, Dick, Hey, Dick, Dick, Dick,
46:33
you're great. He grabbed Kevit's hands to clap them together.
46:37
Cabot deadpanned, Well, you're not so bad yourself, well, said
46:42
mister Stone. I am kind of bad a pause and
46:45
a half smile, but I'm not so bad. On The
46:49
Mike Douglas Show in nineteen seventy four, mister Stone repeatedly
46:53
interrupted a Stone face Mohammed Ali, and tried to hoist
46:56
the champ's arm in a black powerish salute. Ali yanked
47:00
it away. If you don't like it, said a rail
47:03
thin and bleary eyed mister Stone, I'm going to whoop you.
47:07
Even Mister Stone's wedding was a scene. He married a
47:11
nineteen year old actress Kathy Silva at Madison Square Garden
47:15
before a concert in June nineteen seventy four, but backed
47:19
off plans to release thousands of doves and have a
47:22
high wire angel sprinkled glitter over the crowd. Before the
47:26
year was out, the couple was divorced. Mister Stone's pitbull
47:29
had attacked their one year old son, Sylvester bub Ali
47:33
Stewart Junior, when slying the family. Stone was inducted into
47:37
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety three.
47:40
Mister Stone was on hand, but he snubbed his siblings
47:44
and other former bandmates, and then largely disappeared from public
47:48
view for years. He's been in seclusion for so long.
47:52
He's like J. D. Salinger. Greg Zola, a director working
47:56
on a documentary about Stone and the band, told The
47:59
Washington Post in two thousand six, referring to the reclusive
48:03
author of the Catching the Rye. Zola's Small Talk about
48:07
Sly was released in twenty seventeen. Mister Stone surfaced at
48:12
the two thousand six Grammy Awards, which included a tribute
48:15
to Sly in the family Stone. He was called on
48:18
stage by aerosmith Stephen Tyler, Hey, Sly, let's do it
48:22
like we used to do it. Mister Stone, in a
48:24
silver lammet outfit and towering bleach blonde mohawk, joined, I
48:29
want to take you higher on keyboards. Three minutes later,
48:32
mister Stone wandered off the stage mid jam. It was
48:36
never clear which version of mister Stone would show up
48:39
as he made his way back into music. At a
48:42
two thousand and eight concert in Santa Rosa, California, he
48:45
told the audience he needed to go to the bathroom
48:48
and never returned, But there were also thoughtful and reflective moments.
48:53
In a two thousand nine interview with NPR affiliate k
48:56
c r W in Santa Monica, California. Misters Sis Stone
49:00
was asked about the meaning behind his nineteen seventy hit
49:03
if You Want Me to Stay. It was a message
49:06
to his band and fans as his drug use deepened.
49:08
He replied, if you want me to stay, let me
49:11
know otherwise, Syinara, friends, audience, everybody, he said. A decade
49:18
after that interview, doctors told me to Stone that crack
49:21
cocaine had left his body near collapse. He said. He
49:25
chose to get sober, but he was too physically battered
49:28
by then to return to the studio or stage. His
49:32
health troubles haven't stopped me from hearing music, he told
49:35
the Guardian, but they have stopped me from making it.
49:39
Gospel roots. Sylvester Stewart was born in Denton, Texas, on
49:44
March fifteenth, nineteen forty three, and grew up in Vallejo, California,
49:48
north of Oakland. His father ran a janitorial business and
49:53
was a deacon at a Pentecostal church. His mother helped form
49:56
their five children into a gospel ensemble. Sylvester, the second child,
50:01
formed the Stewart Four with his brother Fred and sisters
50:05
Rose and Vietta. The eldest Loretta played piano. As a teenager,
50:10
he joined a doo wop group, the Viscaynes, and later
50:14
studied music at Vallejo Junior College now Soalono Community College.
50:19
He started trying out the nickname Sly after a fifth
50:22
grade classmate misspelled his first name as Slyvester. In nineteen
50:27
sixty four, he signed with Autumn Records and cut several singles.
50:31
Mister Stone initially shined more as a producer, teaming up
50:35
with rhythm and blues stylist Bobby Freeman on the nineteen
50:38
sixty four hit Come On and Swim. Mister Stone then
50:42
worked on records with bands including Great Society led by
50:45
Grace Slick later of Jefferson Airplane, and The Warlocks, which
50:50
became The Grateful Dead. Under a new name, sly Stone,
50:54
he landed jobs as a disc jockey at a M
50:57
stations in the Bay Area, perfecting a flat and a
51:00
raspy vocal style that became a hallmark of some of
51:03
the songs. At the same time, he was developing the
51:07
overall Sly panache. His Jaguar x K E was painted
51:11
candy purple, and he wore clothes to match. His first band,
51:16
the Stoners broke up in nineteen sixty six. His next
51:20
try included his brother Fred on guitar. Sister Rose later
51:24
joined as pianist, along with other Bayery musicians sly in
51:28
the family. Stone's nineteen sixty seven debut album, A Whole
51:32
New Thing had modest sales, but mister Stone had laid
51:36
down his marker. The song sampled from a rich musical buffet,
51:40
and his band had a big tent identity of race
51:43
and gender he liked a surprise. The band's nineteen seventy
51:48
three album Fresh included a gospel infused version of K
51:53
Sarah Sarah, Whatever will Be Will Be, which had been
51:56
popularized in the nineteen fifties by actress Doristhy Mister Stone
52:01
and Day, who met through her music producer's son, Terry Melcher,
52:05
became improbable friends. A nineteen seventy one tune Spaced Cowboy,
52:11
included mister Stone yodling like a member of the Von
52:14
Trapp family, featured in the film The Sound of Music.
52:18
Then it all started to unravel. At times, mister Stone
52:22
appeared just one bad break away from homelessness. A two
52:26
thousand nine documentary Coming Back for More, portrayed mister Stone
52:30
living in a camper van and getting by with help
52:33
from friends and relatives. Mister Stone blamed most of his
52:37
financial woes on his former manager, Jerry Goldstein, alleging that
52:41
he and others cheated him out of tens of millions
52:44
of dollars in royalties. In January twenty fifteen, a Los
52:49
Angeles jury awarded the musician five million dollars, but the
52:53
decision was overturned on appeal. The jury had not been
52:56
told that mister Stone had assigned his royalties to a
52:59
production company in exchange for an ownership's dake. The company, however, foundered.
53:06
In addition to his son with his former wife, mister
53:09
Stone had daughters, Silvette Robinson and Novina Carmel with different partners,
53:14
a brother, two sisters, and four grandchildren. During mister Stone's
53:19
interview with Vanity Fair, reporter David Camp asked about his
53:23
life during the Hermit years. Did he keep up on
53:26
new TV shows? Read? Did he know of American idol?
53:31
I do regular things a lot, mister Stone said, but
53:34
it's probably more of a sly Stone life. It's probably
53:37
it's probably not very normal and the final item from
53:42
to Day's front page is entitled Empty Desks, How the
53:46
district's failured to curb truancy in middle schools fueled the
53:50
biggest youth crime surge in a generation by Robert Samuels,
53:55
Lauren Lumpkin, and John D. Harden. As the first bell
53:59
rang at Brooklyn Middle School on April third, twenty twenty four,
54:03
Irving leboard's desk sat empty. An hour earlier, police had
54:08
found his body in Fort du Pont Park. He had
54:11
been shot and killed. Irving was fourteen, an eighth grader.
54:16
Growing up, he was a strong reader who loved tossing footballs,
54:20
playing the piano, and analyzing the deeper meaning of Marvel movies.
54:24
But in the last year of his life, Irving was
54:26
detained in Maryland after being accused of stealing cars that
54:30
arrested and charged in the district with theft and unauthorized
54:34
use of a vehicle. Weeks before his death, Nadine Younger,
54:38
Irving's great aunt, had been looking for any clue that
54:41
could help explain what had gone wrong with him. She
54:45
found a letter from his middle school, dated February first,
54:48
that said Irving had missed forty seven days of class
54:52
half the school year. How can you miss all those
54:55
days she recalled thinking. Irving was one of nearly sixty
55:00
eighteen thousand d C Public School students one third of
55:03
his K through twelve enrollment, who were truant that school year,
55:07
meaning they missed at least two weeks of classes without
55:10
an excuse. For more than a decade, district leaders have
55:14
linked school attendance to youth crime, saying tackling one will
55:18
curbed the other. But a Washington Post investigation found that
55:23
the d C Council and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, a Democrat,
55:27
have failed to follow through on key initiatives that promise
55:30
to keep students in class and out of trouble. The
55:34
district's child welfare agency has largely abandoned the early warning
55:38
system that city leaders had set up more than a
55:41
decade ago to find absent students and help return them
55:44
to the classroom. More than eighteen thousand reports of truancy
55:48
when uninvestigated in the last three full school years, The
55:52
Post found. We're basically reporting into a vacuum, said Cory Chapman,
55:58
a math and special education teacher at MacFarlane Middle School.
56:02
More than forty percent of the approximately five hundred seventy
56:05
students at the Petworth neighborhood school were truant in twenty
56:09
twenty three through twenty twenty four, the most recently completed
56:12
school year. We saw something, We said something. Meanwhile, the
56:18
number of d CPS students who missed at least two
56:20
weeks of class in a school year increased one hundred
56:24
ten percent over the past decade, according to a Post analysis.
56:29
In the district and across the nation, high schoolers had
56:32
the highest rates of absenteeism. Still, a Post analysis found
56:36
that d c's truancy problem has been growing the fastest
56:40
among middle school students, an age group that helped drive
56:43
the city's spike in carjacking and other serious crimes. In
56:47
twenty twenty three. Last year, thirty percent of middle schoolers,
56:52
or five times more students than a decade ago, were truant.
56:56
City leaders blamed the coronavirus pandemic for an uptickt unexcused absences,
57:01
as well as a rise in youth crime. However, the
57:05
Post found the truancy rate began rising for d CPS
57:09
middle schools before the pandemic, from ten percent in the
57:12
twenty fourteen through twenty fifteen school year to more than
57:16
thirty percent in twenty eighteen through twenty nineteen and one
57:19
third last year. Truancy rates increased most drastically in the
57:24
historically underserved black neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. Last
57:29
school year, more than twenty percent of SUSA Middle School's
57:33
two hundred sixty eight students missed at least a month's
57:35
worth of class. When you ask the child why they
57:39
missed school, the child will shrug their shoulders, said a
57:42
SUSA teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for
57:46
fear of retribution from the school district. It continues to
57:49
happen because there is no consequences. The d C Council
57:54
passed anti truancy laws intended to address youth violence after
57:58
a series of shootings in twenty ten and left five
58:01
young people dead. The legislation established a process to identify
58:06
at risk students before they ended up in the court system,
58:10
and directed the mayor to create a plan to staff
58:13
schools with mental health specialists. Due to the constraints of time,
58:18
we will be unable to complete this item. This concludes
58:21
a reading of the Washington Post for to Day, Tuesday,
58:24
June tenth, twenty twenty five. Your reader for to day
58:28
has been Cindy Fraser. If you have any questions, comments,
58:32
or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call
58:35
it at eight five nine four two two six three
58:39
nine zero. Thank you for listening, and now please stay
58:43
tuned for continued programming on Radio I