Archives for October 2022

Celebrating, reflecting and looking to the future after National Hispanic Heritage Month

Featured at Roll Call

When America started officially honoring Hispanic heritage in 1968, it was a one-week celebration. Though the country now marks National Hispanic Heritage Month, acknowledging how generations of Hispanic Americans have influenced and contributed to our nation, it doesn’t have to end when that month is over. This episode of Equal Time reflects on the issues and challenges facing the community and the country now and into the future.

Equal Time host Mary C. Curtis speaks with Larry Gonzalez, an experienced participant in policy-making at the federal and state levels and a founder and principal of the communications firm The Raben Group, and Teresa Puente, an assistant professor who teaches journalism at California State University Long Beach and has spent her career reporting on immigration and Latino issues in the U.S., with extensive reporting from Mexico.

Read the rest atRoll Call
Oct312022 TAGS: , , ,

Local News Roundup: Early voting starts, McCaffrey trade, Mecklenburg leaders look at how to end violence and new toll lanes discussed for I-77

Featured at WFAE

Early voting is underway in Mecklenburg county. How are the numbers?

Mecklenburg County leaders talked about a long-term approach to stopping violence in the region this week. The plan, “The Way Forward,” approaches violence as a public health issue.

The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization met with North Carolina DOT officials this week to talk about a plan to add new toll lanes to I-77 south of uptown. Are the lanes on the horizon?

Mayor Vi Lyles says the city will learn from mistakes that allowed a talent coach without certification to get over $400,000 in work over other qualified businesses. What she said about what happened and how city staff will handle the situation.

Mecklenburg County Health officials are concerned about the BQ.1 subvariant of omicron, now that a case has been found in Mecklenburg county. Dr. Raynard Washington, county health director, is encouraging county residents to get the latest booster shot.

And trouble already for the Hornets despite a win on the road for their first game, as they start the season without key players for a variety of reasons.

Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and all the week’s top local and regional news on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.

GUESTS:

Shamarria Morrison, WCNC reporter

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”

Steve Harrison, WFAE’s political reporter

Nick Ochsner, WBTV’s executive producer for investigations & chief investigative reporter

Read the rest atWFAE
Oct212022 TAGS: , , , ,

A depressing return to a well-worn election playbook — because it works

Featured at Roll Call

It’s no surprise that fear of the other — of what they want and what they might do to you and yours — is on the ballot in November.

Former President George H.W. Bush’s success in making Willie Horton the figurative running mate of his Democratic opponent, Michael Dukakis, has nothing on race-baiting, the 2022 edition. In a close midterm election cycle, attack ads and accusations aimed at Black candidates, or any candidate that might be interested in restorative justice, are front and center, as Republicans running for office have returned to the playbook, one that unfortunately has worked time and again.

To many, Black people are viewed with suspicion straight out of the womb, and I’m only slightly exaggerating. Data backs me up. Just look at the greater percentage of Black boys and girls suspended or arrested for school infractions that earn white peers a lecture or visit to the principal’s office. Take note of the litany of unarmed Black people shot or choked by trained police officers who “feared for their lives,” with no benefit of the doubt to save them.

Even when the Black person under the microscope is educated and accomplished and has reached the highest of heights, the “othering” doesn’t go away. If the person can’t be tagged a criminal, he or she must be sympathetic to criminals. Guilt by historical association, you might say, because the tactic can be traced back hundreds of years, when dehumanizing Black people, connecting them to violence and crime, was the best way to justify murder, rape and lynching.

As Margaret A. Burnham, a law professor who founded the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University, points out in her book “By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners,” throughout American history it was whites — bus drivers, store owners, ordinary people — who perpetrated random terror against Black people without consequence.

For the best example of predominantly white mob violence in the past few years, you need look no further than the videos and other evidence of windows and doors smashed, American institutions defiled and law enforcement beaten and attacked on Jan. 6, 2021. The goal was lawlessness, the overturning of a free and fair election.

I might add that it was left to mostly minority government employees to clean up the literal mess.

But stubborn facts won’t get in the way when there is political hay to be made.

Read the rest atRoll Call
Oct202022 TAGS: , , , , , ,

Five Years of #MeToo

Featured at Slate.com

Five years after exposés in the New Yorker and New York Times, Harvey Weinstein is in jail—but a major rallying point of #MeToo was just how widespread this sexual harassment, abuse, and violence really is in workplaces across industries. Looking back, from the top of media to blue- and pink-collar work, how much has the #MeToo movement changed?

Guest: Christina Cauterucci, senior writer at Slate.

Read the rest atSlate.com
Oct182022 TAGS: , , , ,

An American Surgeon in Wartime Ukraine

Featured at Slate.com

Why one volunteer doctor keeps going back into countries wrecked by Russian bombs.

As a Syrian American surgeon living in Chicago, Dr. Samer Attar felt compelled to be of service during the Syrian civil war, when doctors were being driven underground by Syria’s Russia-backed military. When Russian bombs began raining down in Ukraine this year, Dr. Attar once more raised his hand to cross the border and treat the war-wounded.

Guest: Dr. Samer Attar, associate professor of surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Read the rest atSlate.com
Oct172022 TAGS: , , ,

A majority of Americans will have election deniers on the ballot. What could this mean for the future?

Featured at WFAE

Donald Trump’s name is not on the ballot this November, but his ideology certainly is.

As the former president continues to spread misinformation about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, FiveThirtyEight reports that 60% of U.S. voters are to have someone who either casts doubt or completely denies the results from 2020 on the ballot in 2022.

This all comes while restrictive legislation is being pushed across the country in the name of election security and the Supreme Court is considering cases that impact voting and our democratic process.

Mike Collins and our panel of guests look at the short and long-term impact these election deniers may have in Congress and what it says about our republic.

GUESTS

Susan Roberts, political science professor at Davidson College

Nathaniel Rakich, senior elections analyst at FiveThirtyEight

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Roll Call podcast “Equal Time”

Read the rest atWFAE
Oct102022 TAGS: , , , , ,

Local News Roundup: CATS gets riders’ input on new station; CMS school performance update; Panthers continue to lose

Featured at WFAE

CATS is now turning to its customers for their input on the plans for the new and improved Transit Center in Uptown. The design plans have been a source of controversy at recent city council meetings and now people who use the service get to have their say. We’ll hear what riders think about the design plans.

In a time when schools are struggling to perform nationwide after the pandemic and when many reports are illuminating low levels of performance at CMS, a new list has emerged that gives some optimism in the district- several schools within the district scored among the highest in the state for academic progress last year. We’ll learn more.

CMPD is investigating a high number of recent shootings in the city this week, most of which stemmed from some kind of dispute leading to one party pulling a gun on another, many times in a populated area. We’ll discuss the disturbing frequency of these shootings.

North Carolina’s Supreme Court returned to the topic of redistricting and new boundaries this week. We’ll hear the latest.

And the Panthers’ poor performance this season continues, leading many to speculate that Matt Rhule’s days as head coach are numbered. What can we expect this week against the 49ers?

Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and all the week’s top local and regional news on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.

GUESTS

Ann Doss Helms, WFAE education reporter

Erik Spanberg, managing editor for the Charlotte Business Journal

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”

Read the rest atWFAE
Oct072022

When Climate Change Makes You Sell Your House

Featured at Slate.com

With disaster relief funds from Hurricane Harvey, Houston’s Harris County instituted a mandatory buyout program for residents in flood-prone areas. But some residents didn’t want to leave.

Read the rest atSlate.com
Oct012022 TAGS: , , ,