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"content": "\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state is working on emergency legislation that would allow doctors from Arizona to come to California to provide abortions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes days after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/04/09/1243679136/arizona-abortion-court-decision-ban\">Arizona Supreme Court ruled\u003c/a> that the state should follow a law from the 1860s that outlaws abortions in all cases except when the pregnant person’s life is in danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom, a Democrat, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1782157977069428900\">said Sunday\u003c/a> during an appearance on MSNBC’s \u003cem>Inside with Jen Psaki\u003c/em> that California is in a position to help those who are set to lose the ability to have an abortion in neighboring Arizona.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think really we need to start focusing on making the kind of progress that’s needed,” Newsom said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, Newsom spokesperson Brandon Richards told NPR via email that the administration was working closely with the California legislature on the proposal and also coordinating with the offices of Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, both of whom are Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Arizona AG Kris Mayes identified a need to expedite the ability for Arizona abortion providers to continue to provide care to Arizonans as a way to support patients in their state seeking abortion care in California,” Richards said. “We are responding to this call and will have more details to share in the coming days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Arizona Supreme Court justices stayed enforcement of their April 9 ruling for 14 days and possibly longer, permitting abortions to continue for now.[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='abortion-ban']Since the U.S. Supreme Court \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn\">reversed \u003cem>Roe v. Wade\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in 2022 and eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion, a number of more conservative states have been limiting or banning the procedure, while other states \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/23/1183646356/dobbs-roe-abortion-protections-illinois-maryland-michigan-colorado-minnesota\">have taken steps to protect\u003c/a> reproductive rights, including California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the weekend, Newsom also \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1782082600368283715\">debuted a new TV ad\u003c/a> through his Campaign for Democracy PAC that depicts a fictional scene of two women being pulled over by a police officer and asked to take a pregnancy test just before they can drive out of state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://act.gavinnewsom.com/signup/right_to_travel/\">According to the PAC\u003c/a>, lawmakers in Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma have introduced legislation to bar minors from traveling out of state to get an abortion without parental consent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All three states have among the “most restrictive” laws against abortion, \u003ca href=\"https://states.guttmacher.org/policies/\">according to the Guttmacher Institute\u003c/a>, a research group that supports abortion rights and tracks abortion laws across the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Alabama’s abortion ban has no exceptions for rape or incest. Now, Republicans are trying to criminalize young women’s travel to receive abortion care,” Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1782082600368283715\">said in a post on X\u003c/a>. “We cannot let them get away with this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, a federal judge \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/idaho-abortion-trafficking-travel-ban-270a403d7b4a5e99e566433556614728\">temporarily blocked\u003c/a> an Idaho law that was intended to prevent minors from going out of state to obtain abortions without parental consent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, Newsom spokesperson Brandon Richards told NPR via email that the administration was working closely with the California legislature on the proposal and also coordinating with the offices of Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, both of whom are Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Arizona AG Kris Mayes identified a need to expedite the ability for Arizona abortion providers to continue to provide care to Arizonans as a way to support patients in their state seeking abortion care in California,” Richards said. “We are responding to this call and will have more details to share in the coming days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Arizona Supreme Court justices stayed enforcement of their April 9 ruling for 14 days and possibly longer, permitting abortions to continue for now.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Google Worker Says the Company Is 'Silencing Our Voices' After Dozens Are Fired",
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"content": "\u003cp>The first time Zelda Montes heard about Google’s Project Nimbus was about six months ago, even though she had worked at the company since 2022. The project is a $1.2 billion contract to supply Israel with cloud computing services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As someone who’s opposed to the war in Gaza, Montes says she was shocked. This comes at a time when tension over the Israeli conflict is simmering across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that speaks volumes to just how little people at work actually know about this contract,” Montes says, who worked as a software engineer at YouTube, which Google owns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montes immediately joined a Google employee group called No Tech for Apartheid, which had been organizing around Project Nimbus since 2021. Their goal is for Google to drop its contract with the Israeli government. She says the group has raised its concerns with Google’s leadership, spoke in company town halls and set up tables in Google’s offices with fliers about Project Nimbus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she says, “Google was quite literally silencing our voices in the workplace and not allowing for any kind of worker dissent to be expressed around the project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, on Tuesday, the group went one step further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They staged \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NoTechApartheid/status/1780278895058518468\">sit-in protests\u003c/a> in Google’s offices in Silicon Valley, New York City and Seattle — more than 100 protesters showed up. A day later, Google fired Montes and 27 other employees who were part of the No Tech for Apartheid group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is one of the largest mass firings in the tech industry, and it comes as many Silicon Valley companies work with Israel. Some employees say they aren’t comfortable with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers at Amazon and Facebook parent Meta have also \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/22/google-amazon-meta-gaza-israel-contracts/\">clashed with their employers\u003c/a> over \u003ca href=\"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-employee-calls-toxic-rules-160852658.html\">speaking out against the war\u003c/a>. Last month, Google \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/08/google-fires-employee-who-protested-israel-tech-event-shuts-forum.html\">fired another software engineer\u003c/a> who protested at an Israeli tech event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Google spokesperson told NPR in an email when asked about Tuesday’s protesters, “physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies and completely unacceptable behavior. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"edTag\">Project Nimbus and cloud computing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Google, in partnership with Amazon, \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/google-cloud-selected-to-provide-cloud-services-to-the-state-of-israel\">started contracting\u003c/a> with the Israeli government on Project Nimbus in 2021. Last week, \u003cem>Time\u003c/em> magazine \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/6966102/google-contract-israel-defense-ministry-gaza-war/\">obtained an internal company document\u003c/a> that showed Israel’s Ministry of Defense contracted with Google as recently as last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Google spokesperson says its cloud services support several governments around the world, including Israel. Project Nimbus is for government ministries, the spokesperson says, and “this work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The No Tech for Apartheid group says that without clarity on the project, it’s still unclear how the technology is being used in Israel. They say they fear it could be used in the war in Gaza and be weaponized against Palestinian civilians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers have the right to know how their labor is being used and to have a say in ensuring the technology they build is not used for harm,” the group says in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"edTag\">Worker arrests and firings\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Around noon on the day of the sit-in, Montes says she and other protesters at Google’s New York office unfurled a 15-foot banner down an open staircase that read: “No tech for genocide.” (Israel rejects claims of genocide, saying it’s fighting in self-defense.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They sat around and played the card game Uno until Google security approached them. Montes says they were then told to leave or else they’d be arrested, but it wasn’t until about eight hours later that the police arrived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 100 protesters showed up. A day later, Google fired Montes and 27 other employees who were part of the No Tech for Apartheid group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is one of the largest mass firings in the tech industry, and it comes as many Silicon Valley companies work with Israel. Some employees say they aren’t comfortable with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers at Amazon and Facebook parent Meta have also \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/22/google-amazon-meta-gaza-israel-contracts/\">clashed with their employers\u003c/a> over \u003ca href=\"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-employee-calls-toxic-rules-160852658.html\">speaking out against the war\u003c/a>. Last month, Google \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/08/google-fires-employee-who-protested-israel-tech-event-shuts-forum.html\">fired another software engineer\u003c/a> who had protested at an Israeli tech event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a lot of weird energy because we kept thinking like, ‘Are they going to call the cops already?'” Montes says, recounting the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the police showed up, it was nighttime, and most everyone was gone from the office. They handcuffed four protesters who refused to leave the building, including Montes, walked them to a freight elevator and down into the garage, where a police van was waiting. The group spent about three and a half hours in jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11971467,news_11969898,news_11983333\"]In all, nine protesters were arrested in California and New York. It wasn’t until the following evening that Google began to fire workers. Montes says she was placed on administrative leave at first but then got an email saying she was terminated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The email says she had “violated Google’s code of conduct” and “policy on harassment, discrimination and retaliation” during the events on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several of the Google employees who were fired didn’t participate in the protests this week, according to No Tech for Apartheid. Google’s spokesperson says the company has been investigating employees individually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees and will continue to investigate and take action as needed,” the spokesperson says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montes says the firings are a fear tactic that won’t work. “Workers are agitated, and we’re organized,” she says, and even though she’s been fired, “we’ll keep organizing until this project is dropped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A day after sit-in protests in Google's offices in Silicon Valley, New York City and Seattle, Google fired Zelda Montes and 27 other employees who are part of the No Tech for Apartheid group.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The first time Zelda Montes heard about Google’s Project Nimbus was about six months ago, even though she had worked at the company since 2022. The project is a $1.2 billion contract to supply Israel with cloud computing services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As someone who’s opposed to the war in Gaza, Montes says she was shocked. This comes at a time when tension over the Israeli conflict is simmering across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that speaks volumes to just how little people at work actually know about this contract,” Montes says, who worked as a software engineer at YouTube, which Google owns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montes immediately joined a Google employee group called No Tech for Apartheid, which had been organizing around Project Nimbus since 2021. Their goal is for Google to drop its contract with the Israeli government. She says the group has raised its concerns with Google’s leadership, spoke in company town halls and set up tables in Google’s offices with fliers about Project Nimbus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she says, “Google was quite literally silencing our voices in the workplace and not allowing for any kind of worker dissent to be expressed around the project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, on Tuesday, the group went one step further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They staged \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NoTechApartheid/status/1780278895058518468\">sit-in protests\u003c/a> in Google’s offices in Silicon Valley, New York City and Seattle — more than 100 protesters showed up. A day later, Google fired Montes and 27 other employees who were part of the No Tech for Apartheid group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is one of the largest mass firings in the tech industry, and it comes as many Silicon Valley companies work with Israel. Some employees say they aren’t comfortable with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers at Amazon and Facebook parent Meta have also \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/22/google-amazon-meta-gaza-israel-contracts/\">clashed with their employers\u003c/a> over \u003ca href=\"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-employee-calls-toxic-rules-160852658.html\">speaking out against the war\u003c/a>. Last month, Google \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/08/google-fires-employee-who-protested-israel-tech-event-shuts-forum.html\">fired another software engineer\u003c/a> who protested at an Israeli tech event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Google spokesperson told NPR in an email when asked about Tuesday’s protesters, “physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies and completely unacceptable behavior. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"edTag\">Project Nimbus and cloud computing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Google, in partnership with Amazon, \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/google-cloud-selected-to-provide-cloud-services-to-the-state-of-israel\">started contracting\u003c/a> with the Israeli government on Project Nimbus in 2021. Last week, \u003cem>Time\u003c/em> magazine \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/6966102/google-contract-israel-defense-ministry-gaza-war/\">obtained an internal company document\u003c/a> that showed Israel’s Ministry of Defense contracted with Google as recently as last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Google spokesperson says its cloud services support several governments around the world, including Israel. Project Nimbus is for government ministries, the spokesperson says, and “this work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The No Tech for Apartheid group says that without clarity on the project, it’s still unclear how the technology is being used in Israel. They say they fear it could be used in the war in Gaza and be weaponized against Palestinian civilians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers have the right to know how their labor is being used and to have a say in ensuring the technology they build is not used for harm,” the group says in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"edTag\">Worker arrests and firings\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Around noon on the day of the sit-in, Montes says she and other protesters at Google’s New York office unfurled a 15-foot banner down an open staircase that read: “No tech for genocide.” (Israel rejects claims of genocide, saying it’s fighting in self-defense.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They sat around and played the card game Uno until Google security approached them. Montes says they were then told to leave or else they’d be arrested, but it wasn’t until about eight hours later that the police arrived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 100 protesters showed up. A day later, Google fired Montes and 27 other employees who were part of the No Tech for Apartheid group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is one of the largest mass firings in the tech industry, and it comes as many Silicon Valley companies work with Israel. Some employees say they aren’t comfortable with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers at Amazon and Facebook parent Meta have also \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/22/google-amazon-meta-gaza-israel-contracts/\">clashed with their employers\u003c/a> over \u003ca href=\"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-employee-calls-toxic-rules-160852658.html\">speaking out against the war\u003c/a>. Last month, Google \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/08/google-fires-employee-who-protested-israel-tech-event-shuts-forum.html\">fired another software engineer\u003c/a> who had protested at an Israeli tech event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a lot of weird energy because we kept thinking like, ‘Are they going to call the cops already?'” Montes says, recounting the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the police showed up, it was nighttime, and most everyone was gone from the office. They handcuffed four protesters who refused to leave the building, including Montes, walked them to a freight elevator and down into the garage, where a police van was waiting. The group spent about three and a half hours in jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In all, nine protesters were arrested in California and New York. It wasn’t until the following evening that Google began to fire workers. Montes says she was placed on administrative leave at first but then got an email saying she was terminated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The email says she had “violated Google’s code of conduct” and “policy on harassment, discrimination and retaliation” during the events on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several of the Google employees who were fired didn’t participate in the protests this week, according to No Tech for Apartheid. Google’s spokesperson says the company has been investigating employees individually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees and will continue to investigate and take action as needed,” the spokesperson says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montes says the firings are a fear tactic that won’t work. “Workers are agitated, and we’re organized,” she says, and even though she’s been fired, “we’ll keep organizing until this project is dropped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Tax Day 2024: From Credits to Extensions, What to Know About Filing",
"headTitle": "Tax Day 2024: From Credits to Extensions, What to Know About Filing | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>For something that’s legally required, taxes can be tough to figure out. The U.S. system is complicated — and unfortunately, most of us never learned how to do our taxes in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deadline to file your taxes this year is April 15. But it helps to get started as soon as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this guide from Life Kit, we share six expert tips you should know about filing your taxes — from what steps to take as the deadline approaches to whether hiring a tax preparer is worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. You don’t have to pay to file your taxes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One free option: \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-forms-and-publications\">Download your tax forms from the IRS website\u003c/a>, read the instructions, fill everything out and submit them by mail or online. That’s easier if someone like a parent has walked you through it before or if you have a simple tax situation, like one job in one state for the entire year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11980776 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/GettyImages-1941725396_qut-1020x680.jpg']If your tax situation is more complex, there’s free online software you can use. If your adjusted gross income is $79,000 or less, you qualify for a program called IRS Free File. \u003ca href=\"https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile\">Find out more\u003c/a> at the IRS website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t qualify, you can still get deals on online tax software, says Akeiva Ellis, a certified financial planner and the cofounder of \u003ca href=\"https://www.thebemusedtv.com/\">The Bemused\u003c/a>. She uses a service called Free Tax USA, which charges $14.99 per state and is free for the federal return.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. Consider tagging in a professional\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Another option is to go to an accountant or tax preparer. That might make sense if you’re doing your taxes for the first time or have had a major life change — like getting married or starting a new business. It may also make sense if you want to do some tax planning for the year ahead, says \u003ca href=\"https://aparnesscpa.com/\">Andrea Parness\u003c/a>, a CPA and certified tax coach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re looking for a pro, start by asking friends and family for referrals, she says. And then interview the person. Prepare questions for them: Will they be giving you tax advice or just filling out the forms and submitting them? Will you have an appointment? And what happens if they make a mistake?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. Gather your documents\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/things-to-remember-when-filing-a-2023-tax-return\">IRS has a list \u003c/a>of documents you might need. Tax preparers can give you one, too. Some common examples are W2 forms, which your employers send you by mail; student loan interest forms; bank interest forms; and any receipts for things you plan to take as a tax credit or deduction, like medical expenses or charitable donations.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. Look into tax credits and deductions\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Both are benefits that save you money on taxes. A tax credit lowers your final tax bill; it comes off the top of what you owe. A tax deduction, on the other hand, “reduces the amount of income you have to pay tax on,” Ellis says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To figure out which credits and deductions you’re eligible for, look at \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/credits-and-deductions\">the IRS \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/credits-and-deductions\">website\u003c/a>. If you use software, it’ll prompt you with questions to help figure this out. So will tax preparers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But do your research. “You certainly always want to be able to educate yourself and not just depend on someone else asking you, ‘Hey, did you buy a new car? Did you do this? Did you put your kid in daycare?’ … Everybody runs their practice differently, and not everybody asks those questions,” Parness says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>5. You can file an extension — but you still have to pay\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you think you won’t make the April 15 deadline this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/extension-of-time-to-file-your-tax-return\">file an extension\u003c/a> with the IRS online. Then, you’ll have until mid-October to file the forms. But if you owe money, you still need to estimate how much and pay it now, or you might get penalized later.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>6. Plan ahead for next year\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Think about what went wrong on your tax return this year. For instance, did you end up owing a ton of money? Did you get a huge refund? That often means you gave the federal government an interest-free loan. You can make changes now so that doesn’t happen next year. For instance, “ask your employer for a W-4 form so you can properly tell them how much taxes to take out of your check,” Ellis says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, look out for tax credits, deductions or rebates that you’re newly eligible for. A little planning and research now could lower your next tax bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Life Kit on\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3LdRb0X\">\u003cem> Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3K3xVln\">\u003cem> Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, or sign up for our\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3xN1tB9\">\u003cem> newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For something that’s legally required, taxes can be tough to figure out. The U.S. system is complicated — and unfortunately, most of us never learned how to do our taxes in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deadline to file your taxes this year is April 15. But it helps to get started as soon as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this guide from Life Kit, we share six expert tips you should know about filing your taxes — from what steps to take as the deadline approaches to whether hiring a tax preparer is worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. You don’t have to pay to file your taxes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One free option: \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-forms-and-publications\">Download your tax forms from the IRS website\u003c/a>, read the instructions, fill everything out and submit them by mail or online. That’s easier if someone like a parent has walked you through it before or if you have a simple tax situation, like one job in one state for the entire year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>If your tax situation is more complex, there’s free online software you can use. If your adjusted gross income is $79,000 or less, you qualify for a program called IRS Free File. \u003ca href=\"https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile\">Find out more\u003c/a> at the IRS website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t qualify, you can still get deals on online tax software, says Akeiva Ellis, a certified financial planner and the cofounder of \u003ca href=\"https://www.thebemusedtv.com/\">The Bemused\u003c/a>. She uses a service called Free Tax USA, which charges $14.99 per state and is free for the federal return.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. Consider tagging in a professional\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Another option is to go to an accountant or tax preparer. That might make sense if you’re doing your taxes for the first time or have had a major life change — like getting married or starting a new business. It may also make sense if you want to do some tax planning for the year ahead, says \u003ca href=\"https://aparnesscpa.com/\">Andrea Parness\u003c/a>, a CPA and certified tax coach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re looking for a pro, start by asking friends and family for referrals, she says. And then interview the person. Prepare questions for them: Will they be giving you tax advice or just filling out the forms and submitting them? Will you have an appointment? And what happens if they make a mistake?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. Gather your documents\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/things-to-remember-when-filing-a-2023-tax-return\">IRS has a list \u003c/a>of documents you might need. Tax preparers can give you one, too. Some common examples are W2 forms, which your employers send you by mail; student loan interest forms; bank interest forms; and any receipts for things you plan to take as a tax credit or deduction, like medical expenses or charitable donations.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. Look into tax credits and deductions\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Both are benefits that save you money on taxes. A tax credit lowers your final tax bill; it comes off the top of what you owe. A tax deduction, on the other hand, “reduces the amount of income you have to pay tax on,” Ellis says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To figure out which credits and deductions you’re eligible for, look at \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/credits-and-deductions\">the IRS \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/credits-and-deductions\">website\u003c/a>. If you use software, it’ll prompt you with questions to help figure this out. So will tax preparers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But do your research. “You certainly always want to be able to educate yourself and not just depend on someone else asking you, ‘Hey, did you buy a new car? Did you do this? Did you put your kid in daycare?’ … Everybody runs their practice differently, and not everybody asks those questions,” Parness says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>5. You can file an extension — but you still have to pay\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you think you won’t make the April 15 deadline this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/extension-of-time-to-file-your-tax-return\">file an extension\u003c/a> with the IRS online. Then, you’ll have until mid-October to file the forms. But if you owe money, you still need to estimate how much and pay it now, or you might get penalized later.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>6. Plan ahead for next year\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Think about what went wrong on your tax return this year. For instance, did you end up owing a ton of money? Did you get a huge refund? That often means you gave the federal government an interest-free loan. You can make changes now so that doesn’t happen next year. For instance, “ask your employer for a W-4 form so you can properly tell them how much taxes to take out of your check,” Ellis says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, look out for tax credits, deductions or rebates that you’re newly eligible for. A little planning and research now could lower your next tax bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Life Kit on\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3LdRb0X\">\u003cem> Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3K3xVln\">\u003cem> Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, or sign up for our\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3xN1tB9\">\u003cem> newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Biden administration unveiled a new set of plans on Monday that would eliminate student debt for millions of Americans. The administration says that, if fully implemented, it would bring the number of borrowers who’ve seen some or all of their debt forgiven during the president’s term to more than 30 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new plan, aiming to supplant an earlier version that was\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/30/1176839127/supreme-court-student-loan-forgiveness-decision\"> rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in June\u003c/a>, offers targeted relief to specific groups of borrowers, notably those who’ve carried debt for many years, and those struggling to make payments. And many borrowers, regardless of income, could see relief from high interest balances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11969190,news_11963857,news_11959751\" label=\"Related Stories\"]U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the new proposals will fulfill a promise the president made while a candidate in 2020. The relief offered, he added, will mean “breathing room” for many borrowers. “It means freedom from feeling like your student loan bills compete with basic needs like grocery or health care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement spelled out efforts aimed at four groups of borrowers: those who owe more money than they did at the start of their repayment, borrowers who started paying more than 20 years ago, those already eligible for existing loan forgiveness or discharge programs but haven’t yet applied, and borrowers facing economic hardship.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Addressing ‘runaway interest’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>More than 25 million borrowers, the administration said, owe more in student loans now than they took out originally, due to what Cardona called “runaway interest.” The first element of the new plan would allow any borrower, regardless of their income, to cancel up to $20,000 in interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, low- and middle-income borrowers who are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan would have all of their interest forgiven. This group of borrowers includes single borrowers earning $120,000 or less a year, and married borrowers who make $240,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the plans go through as proposed, there would be no application necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The administration estimates that this proposal would forgive some interest balances for 25 million borrowers, with 23 million receiving full forgiveness on their interest. Currently, about\u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/data-center/student/portfolio\"> 43 million Americans have some form of student loan debt. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Automatic discharge for eligible borrowers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since Biden took office, several student loan programs have been revamped or re-negotiated to help ease borrowers’ debt, though many still require borrowers to apply. (The programs can be dense, but NPR has previously reported on these programs and how to navigate them: including \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/12/1224265472/student-loan-forgiveness-save-plan#:~:text=SAVE%20is%20the%20most%20forgiving%20repayment%20plan%20yet%20(literally)&text=The%20SAVE%20plan%20exempts%20more,afford%20to%20pay%20each%20month.\">the SAVE program\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/10/26/1131461940/student-loan-forgiveness-pslf\">public service loan forgiveness, \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1101424651/corinthian-colleges-student-loan-forgiveness\">closed schools discharge\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the administration noted in its announcement, not every borrower who qualifies for these programs has applied, with more than 2 million eligible borrowers who have not done so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the proposed plan, qualifying borrowers would no longer have to enroll to receive forgiveness. The Education Department plans to use use data it already has to identify those borrowers, and automatically credit their accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Relief for long-time borrowers and those experiencing hardship\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The new proposals would also help long-term borrowers. According to the Education Department, more than 2.5 million borrowers have carried student loan debt for more than two decades. Under the plan, borrowers carrying undergraduate debt would qualify for forgiveness if they started repayment on or before July 1, 2005. Borrowers with graduate school debt would qualify if they started repayment on or before the same date in 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In keeping with the theme of these announcements, borrowers would not need to be enrolled in any plan to qualify. The relief would be automatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A separate component would help those experiencing economic hardship. Some of this relief would be also happen automatically — for example, if a borrower is at a high risk of defaulting on their student loans. Other relief would require an application. The administration says borrowers who are struggling with medical debt or child care could apply for this program, if it is implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A new legal foothold for sweeping debt relief\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has made multiple attempts at discharging student loan debt since taking office. Perhaps most notably in 2022: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/1118879917/student-loan-forgiveness-biden\">The president announced widespread relief of up to $20,000 for qualifying borrowers. \u003c/a>Millions of borrowers filled out the form to opt-in to the program, but the project was put on hold due to legal challenges. The Supreme Court struck down that plan in June of 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new approach has been in the works for some time, as the Education Department has been undergoing what’s called “negotiated rule-making” to develop a new avenue for debt relief since the original plan was overturned in June. They’ve been hearing from stakeholders, advocates, and critics in advance of this announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s expected the new proposals will take some time before eligible borrowers can begin to see their debt eliminated. The Education Department must gather public comment on the proposal before issuing a final version of its plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan will likely face legal challenges as well, though though the rulemaking process may put this effort on stronger legal ground than the first debt-relief plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Biden+seeks+student+debt+relief+for+millions&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Biden administration unveiled a new set of plans on Monday that would eliminate student debt for millions of Americans. The administration says that, if fully implemented, it would bring the number of borrowers who’ve seen some or all of their debt forgiven during the president’s term to more than 30 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new plan, aiming to supplant an earlier version that was\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/06/30/1176839127/supreme-court-student-loan-forgiveness-decision\"> rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in June\u003c/a>, offers targeted relief to specific groups of borrowers, notably those who’ve carried debt for many years, and those struggling to make payments. And many borrowers, regardless of income, could see relief from high interest balances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the new proposals will fulfill a promise the president made while a candidate in 2020. The relief offered, he added, will mean “breathing room” for many borrowers. “It means freedom from feeling like your student loan bills compete with basic needs like grocery or health care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement spelled out efforts aimed at four groups of borrowers: those who owe more money than they did at the start of their repayment, borrowers who started paying more than 20 years ago, those already eligible for existing loan forgiveness or discharge programs but haven’t yet applied, and borrowers facing economic hardship.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Addressing ‘runaway interest’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>More than 25 million borrowers, the administration said, owe more in student loans now than they took out originally, due to what Cardona called “runaway interest.” The first element of the new plan would allow any borrower, regardless of their income, to cancel up to $20,000 in interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, low- and middle-income borrowers who are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan would have all of their interest forgiven. This group of borrowers includes single borrowers earning $120,000 or less a year, and married borrowers who make $240,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the plans go through as proposed, there would be no application necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The administration estimates that this proposal would forgive some interest balances for 25 million borrowers, with 23 million receiving full forgiveness on their interest. Currently, about\u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/data-center/student/portfolio\"> 43 million Americans have some form of student loan debt. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Automatic discharge for eligible borrowers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since Biden took office, several student loan programs have been revamped or re-negotiated to help ease borrowers’ debt, though many still require borrowers to apply. (The programs can be dense, but NPR has previously reported on these programs and how to navigate them: including \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/12/1224265472/student-loan-forgiveness-save-plan#:~:text=SAVE%20is%20the%20most%20forgiving%20repayment%20plan%20yet%20(literally)&text=The%20SAVE%20plan%20exempts%20more,afford%20to%20pay%20each%20month.\">the SAVE program\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/10/26/1131461940/student-loan-forgiveness-pslf\">public service loan forgiveness, \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1101424651/corinthian-colleges-student-loan-forgiveness\">closed schools discharge\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the administration noted in its announcement, not every borrower who qualifies for these programs has applied, with more than 2 million eligible borrowers who have not done so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the proposed plan, qualifying borrowers would no longer have to enroll to receive forgiveness. The Education Department plans to use use data it already has to identify those borrowers, and automatically credit their accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Relief for long-time borrowers and those experiencing hardship\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The new proposals would also help long-term borrowers. According to the Education Department, more than 2.5 million borrowers have carried student loan debt for more than two decades. Under the plan, borrowers carrying undergraduate debt would qualify for forgiveness if they started repayment on or before July 1, 2005. Borrowers with graduate school debt would qualify if they started repayment on or before the same date in 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In keeping with the theme of these announcements, borrowers would not need to be enrolled in any plan to qualify. The relief would be automatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A separate component would help those experiencing economic hardship. Some of this relief would be also happen automatically — for example, if a borrower is at a high risk of defaulting on their student loans. Other relief would require an application. The administration says borrowers who are struggling with medical debt or child care could apply for this program, if it is implemented.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A new legal foothold for sweeping debt relief\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration has made multiple attempts at discharging student loan debt since taking office. Perhaps most notably in 2022: \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/1118879917/student-loan-forgiveness-biden\">The president announced widespread relief of up to $20,000 for qualifying borrowers. \u003c/a>Millions of borrowers filled out the form to opt-in to the program, but the project was put on hold due to legal challenges. The Supreme Court struck down that plan in June of 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new approach has been in the works for some time, as the Education Department has been undergoing what’s called “negotiated rule-making” to develop a new avenue for debt relief since the original plan was overturned in June. They’ve been hearing from stakeholders, advocates, and critics in advance of this announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s expected the new proposals will take some time before eligible borrowers can begin to see their debt eliminated. The Education Department must gather public comment on the proposal before issuing a final version of its plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan will likely face legal challenges as well, though though the rulemaking process may put this effort on stronger legal ground than the first debt-relief plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Biden+seeks+student+debt+relief+for+millions&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Despite Legalization, Black Market Cannabis Flourishes in California",
"headTitle": "Despite Legalization, Black Market Cannabis Flourishes in California | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>A funny thing happened on the way to cannabis legalization: Illegal pot is still big business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the decade since the first states \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/01/1222405951/colorado-legalized-recreational-pot-10-years-ago-heres-how-the-industry-has-grow?ft=nprml&f=1222405951\">legalized recreational marijuana\u003c/a>, about \u003ca href=\"https://norml.org/laws/legalization/\">half the country\u003c/a> has moved to allow adults to buy regulated pot from authorized sources. But in some states, that’s been more theory than practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In New York, which legalized marijuana in 2021, retail sales are dominated by ubiquitous illegal “smoke shops,” while the state struggles to license legitimate ones. Governor Kathy Hochul has called the transition “a disaster,” and has \u003ca href=\"https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-stands-legal-cannabis-retailers-announce-steps-forward-shutting-down-illicit\">pledged to crack down\u003c/a> on the illegal sellers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Tiffanie Perrault, postdoctoral researcher, McGill University\"]‘You remove risk — because you know, it’s legal — so you have more consumers. And at the same time, your black market is going to react strategically by adjusting prices and levels of quality.’[/pullquote]In Maine, the congressional delegation last summer \u003ca href=\"https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/maine-delegation-urges-doj-to-shut-down-foreign-owned-illegally-operated-marijuana-businesses\">asked the Justice Department for help\u003c/a> in combatting illegal cannabis producers, who outnumber the state’s licensed operations and are believed to be funded in part by Chinese investors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in California, where voters approved recreational pot in 2016, state officials readily acknowledge the industry still operates mostly in the shadows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The black market is very pervasive and it’s definitely larger than the legal market,” says Bill Jones, the head of enforcement for the state’s Department of Cannabis Control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is the biggest example of the unfulfilled promise of a legitimate cannabis market. Some entrepreneurs blame high taxes and start-up costs for licensed producers and retailers. Smaller operators often have trouble getting access to capital, as the continued federal prohibition on the marijuana business makes it virtually impossible for them to tap into traditional financial services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones, however, focuses on what law enforcement did — or rather, what it didn’t do — in the first few years after the vote to allow a licensed weed industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most jurisdictions — local jurisdictions — police or sheriff’s departments and district attorney’s offices, were very reluctant to do any kind of enforcement on cannabis,” he says. “It really created an air of impunity, and the unlicensed activity really skyrocketed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Washington state, by contrast, maintained law enforcement pressure on illegal marijuana after voters legalized pot in 2012, which gave the new licensed industry time to establish itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982175\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982175\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand on the street across from multiple vehicles, palm trees and people.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1701\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-2048x1361.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-1920x1276.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Passersby watch as California Department of Cannabis Control detectives, with support of Long Beach law enforcement, serve a search warrant on an unlicensed dispensary in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, on March 5, 2024. Like many unlicensed cannabis stores, this one is unmarked and still has signage from a previous business. \u003ccite>(Alisha Jucevic/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In California, the DCC is now trying to close the gap. It gathers anonymous tips about unlicensed cannabis stores, which operate semi-openly out of storefronts that aren’t hard to identify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ll occupy buildings [where] the business itself has moved or is out of business,” says Wilson Linares, the DCC’s head of enforcement for the Los Angeles area. His officers and local police recently raided a shabby storefront in Long Beach. The sign reads “Flores Cabinets,” but inside they find cannabis edibles for sale, as well as loose marijuana flowers, sold in jars — a practice called “deli style,” prohibited under California’s cannabis regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11974578,news_11971594,news_11981277\" label=\"Related Stories\"]Linares says some of the unlicensed stores are identified with the green cross emblem, borrowed from the medical marijuana movement that predated recreational stores. Another clue, though, is the level of security. The ostensible cabinet store in Long Beach has a heavy metal door and security grates over mirrored windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the biggest things that you can see is the cameras. The building itself is old but the cameras are new. That’s a pretty good indicator for us,” Linares says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These raids have ramped up in the last couple of years, especially in Los Angeles. Some of the unlicensed retailers have shifted toward delivery services. But the penalty for getting caught selling unlicensed marijuana is relatively light — usually a $500 fine, unless the person has broken other laws — and Linares says his officers find themselves raiding the same storefronts over and over again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These places don’t pay taxes, it doesn’t help provide services for the people who live around here,” Linares says. “And the individuals who run these places, they’re often not the best,” he says. “Gangs and organized crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This doesn’t come as much of a surprise to an economist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The black market becomes more competitive,” says Tiffanie Perrault, a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University in Montreal who studies cannabis markets. She says it’s understandable why illegal marijuana expanded in California after legalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You remove risk — because you know, it’s legal — so you have more consumers,” she says. “And at the same time, your black market is going to react strategically by adjusting prices and levels of quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The black market in California also benefits from the restrictions on the licensed competitors, such as the fact that only about \u003ca href=\"https://cannabis.ca.gov/cannabis-laws/where-cannabis-businesses-are-allowed/\">40% of local jurisdictions in California permit cannabis stores\u003c/a>. That leaves the other 60% to the retailers who don’t wait for official approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California cannabis buyers are often unaware of — or indifferent to — the legality of the product they buy, but they do notice prices. Depending on the jurisdiction,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/kcrw-features/this-week-in-weed-cannabis-taxes-la\"> taxes on licensed pot can reach 38%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got a disposable and some edibles,” says Camerin Remmington as he exits an authorized store on the edge of town in Riverside. “It’s almost 60 bucks for two items. It’s a little more expensive here!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says he appreciates the fact that the licensed products are tested for quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know it is what it is,” he says. “You can’t go wrong with it!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with cannabis, legality for its own sake is not a concern for Remmington. He volunteers that he grew it illegally on his land in the high desert during the post-legalization boom a couple of years ago. He says it made money, until police showed up a year and a half ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We got ticketed for it, for having a couple of processed plants, but they didn’t catch the bulk of anything,” he says. When he showed up for his court date, the case appeared to be a low priority. “They didn’t even know who we were!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982179\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982179\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man dressed in tactical police combat gear looks at bags of cannabis in the trunk of a vehicle.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1926\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-1020x767.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-1536x1156.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-2048x1541.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-1920x1444.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Riverside County Sheriff Department Sgt. Jeremy Parsons collects cannabis clippings and firearms from an unlicensed greenhouse in Perris. \u003ccite>(Martin Kaste/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Those raids are still happening in rural Riverside County. On a Tuesday morning, the sheriff’s department’s Marijuana Enforcement Team leads a ten-vehicle convoy through the outskirts of the town of Perris. They’re following up on a tip about a house hidden at the end of a private drive. The operation commander, Sgt. Jeremy Parsons, comes out to the main road to report that it is, indeed, an illegal grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we went up to the house we could smell marijuana. We found a greenhouse in the backyard which contained a few hundred small marijuana plants,” he says. They also found guns, and they run the names of two people on the site to see if either one is a felon, and not allowed to have a firearm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a lot of criminal consequences [for illegally growing marijuana],” Parsons says. But the strategy here is to try to charge growers with other crimes — that’s why the convoy of vehicles was so long, as it included people from California Fish and Wildlife, the local water board and even code inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what we’re charging these people with: water contamination, pesticides that are illegal, the fertilizers that are illegal. That’s where we’re getting people,” says Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for Bianco, the bigger issue is legalization itself. He’s against it, because he believes it encourages the illegal pot farms in the hills of Riverside County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made it worse. One hundred percent, it made it worse,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big problem, as he sees it, is exports. California has become a major exporter to states where marijuana is still illegal — and fetches a higher price — \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/3052013829132756857467.pdf\">despite the warning from the Justice Department (PDF)\u003c/a> back when legalization got started that the states that legalize pot should make sure to keep it inside their borders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bianco says the marijuana gold rush has attracted Mexican drug cartels and Asian human smuggling rings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, we’ve had multiple, multiple homicides, we’ve had multiple kidnappings, we’ve had multiple reports of human trafficking and rapes and the punishments that go with not doing your job — and it’s all related to this,” Bianco says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at the DCC, Bill Jones says he thinks legalization was, as he puts it, “imperative,” but he also believes it should be possible eventually to curb the black market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s doable. But it’s going to take a lot of resources and consistent enforcement over years to get our arms around this,” Jones says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Black+market+cannabis+thrives+in+California+despite+legalization&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A funny thing happened on the way to cannabis legalization: Illegal pot is still big business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the decade since the first states \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/01/1222405951/colorado-legalized-recreational-pot-10-years-ago-heres-how-the-industry-has-grow?ft=nprml&f=1222405951\">legalized recreational marijuana\u003c/a>, about \u003ca href=\"https://norml.org/laws/legalization/\">half the country\u003c/a> has moved to allow adults to buy regulated pot from authorized sources. But in some states, that’s been more theory than practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In New York, which legalized marijuana in 2021, retail sales are dominated by ubiquitous illegal “smoke shops,” while the state struggles to license legitimate ones. Governor Kathy Hochul has called the transition “a disaster,” and has \u003ca href=\"https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-stands-legal-cannabis-retailers-announce-steps-forward-shutting-down-illicit\">pledged to crack down\u003c/a> on the illegal sellers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In Maine, the congressional delegation last summer \u003ca href=\"https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/maine-delegation-urges-doj-to-shut-down-foreign-owned-illegally-operated-marijuana-businesses\">asked the Justice Department for help\u003c/a> in combatting illegal cannabis producers, who outnumber the state’s licensed operations and are believed to be funded in part by Chinese investors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in California, where voters approved recreational pot in 2016, state officials readily acknowledge the industry still operates mostly in the shadows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The black market is very pervasive and it’s definitely larger than the legal market,” says Bill Jones, the head of enforcement for the state’s Department of Cannabis Control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is the biggest example of the unfulfilled promise of a legitimate cannabis market. Some entrepreneurs blame high taxes and start-up costs for licensed producers and retailers. Smaller operators often have trouble getting access to capital, as the continued federal prohibition on the marijuana business makes it virtually impossible for them to tap into traditional financial services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones, however, focuses on what law enforcement did — or rather, what it didn’t do — in the first few years after the vote to allow a licensed weed industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most jurisdictions — local jurisdictions — police or sheriff’s departments and district attorney’s offices, were very reluctant to do any kind of enforcement on cannabis,” he says. “It really created an air of impunity, and the unlicensed activity really skyrocketed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Washington state, by contrast, maintained law enforcement pressure on illegal marijuana after voters legalized pot in 2012, which gave the new licensed industry time to establish itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982175\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982175\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand on the street across from multiple vehicles, palm trees and people.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1701\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-2048x1361.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/20240305_npr_cannabis_12_custom-c3f90ddbc39855881a3715371424575854cdf3ee-1920x1276.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Passersby watch as California Department of Cannabis Control detectives, with support of Long Beach law enforcement, serve a search warrant on an unlicensed dispensary in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, on March 5, 2024. Like many unlicensed cannabis stores, this one is unmarked and still has signage from a previous business. \u003ccite>(Alisha Jucevic/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In California, the DCC is now trying to close the gap. It gathers anonymous tips about unlicensed cannabis stores, which operate semi-openly out of storefronts that aren’t hard to identify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ll occupy buildings [where] the business itself has moved or is out of business,” says Wilson Linares, the DCC’s head of enforcement for the Los Angeles area. His officers and local police recently raided a shabby storefront in Long Beach. The sign reads “Flores Cabinets,” but inside they find cannabis edibles for sale, as well as loose marijuana flowers, sold in jars — a practice called “deli style,” prohibited under California’s cannabis regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Linares says some of the unlicensed stores are identified with the green cross emblem, borrowed from the medical marijuana movement that predated recreational stores. Another clue, though, is the level of security. The ostensible cabinet store in Long Beach has a heavy metal door and security grates over mirrored windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the biggest things that you can see is the cameras. The building itself is old but the cameras are new. That’s a pretty good indicator for us,” Linares says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These raids have ramped up in the last couple of years, especially in Los Angeles. Some of the unlicensed retailers have shifted toward delivery services. But the penalty for getting caught selling unlicensed marijuana is relatively light — usually a $500 fine, unless the person has broken other laws — and Linares says his officers find themselves raiding the same storefronts over and over again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These places don’t pay taxes, it doesn’t help provide services for the people who live around here,” Linares says. “And the individuals who run these places, they’re often not the best,” he says. “Gangs and organized crime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This doesn’t come as much of a surprise to an economist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The black market becomes more competitive,” says Tiffanie Perrault, a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University in Montreal who studies cannabis markets. She says it’s understandable why illegal marijuana expanded in California after legalization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You remove risk — because you know, it’s legal — so you have more consumers,” she says. “And at the same time, your black market is going to react strategically by adjusting prices and levels of quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The black market in California also benefits from the restrictions on the licensed competitors, such as the fact that only about \u003ca href=\"https://cannabis.ca.gov/cannabis-laws/where-cannabis-businesses-are-allowed/\">40% of local jurisdictions in California permit cannabis stores\u003c/a>. That leaves the other 60% to the retailers who don’t wait for official approval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California cannabis buyers are often unaware of — or indifferent to — the legality of the product they buy, but they do notice prices. Depending on the jurisdiction,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/kcrw-features/this-week-in-weed-cannabis-taxes-la\"> taxes on licensed pot can reach 38%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got a disposable and some edibles,” says Camerin Remmington as he exits an authorized store on the edge of town in Riverside. “It’s almost 60 bucks for two items. It’s a little more expensive here!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says he appreciates the fact that the licensed products are tested for quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know it is what it is,” he says. “You can’t go wrong with it!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with cannabis, legality for its own sake is not a concern for Remmington. He volunteers that he grew it illegally on his land in the high desert during the post-legalization boom a couple of years ago. He says it made money, until police showed up a year and a half ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We got ticketed for it, for having a couple of processed plants, but they didn’t catch the bulk of anything,” he says. When he showed up for his court date, the case appeared to be a low priority. “They didn’t even know who we were!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982179\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982179\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man dressed in tactical police combat gear looks at bags of cannabis in the trunk of a vehicle.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1926\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-1020x767.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-1536x1156.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-2048x1541.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/img_0024_custom-606ba73284b3b8a55f10dd72004217821ab8da69-1920x1444.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Riverside County Sheriff Department Sgt. Jeremy Parsons collects cannabis clippings and firearms from an unlicensed greenhouse in Perris. \u003ccite>(Martin Kaste/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Those raids are still happening in rural Riverside County. On a Tuesday morning, the sheriff’s department’s Marijuana Enforcement Team leads a ten-vehicle convoy through the outskirts of the town of Perris. They’re following up on a tip about a house hidden at the end of a private drive. The operation commander, Sgt. Jeremy Parsons, comes out to the main road to report that it is, indeed, an illegal grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we went up to the house we could smell marijuana. We found a greenhouse in the backyard which contained a few hundred small marijuana plants,” he says. They also found guns, and they run the names of two people on the site to see if either one is a felon, and not allowed to have a firearm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a lot of criminal consequences [for illegally growing marijuana],” Parsons says. But the strategy here is to try to charge growers with other crimes — that’s why the convoy of vehicles was so long, as it included people from California Fish and Wildlife, the local water board and even code inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what we’re charging these people with: water contamination, pesticides that are illegal, the fertilizers that are illegal. That’s where we’re getting people,” says Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for Bianco, the bigger issue is legalization itself. He’s against it, because he believes it encourages the illegal pot farms in the hills of Riverside County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made it worse. One hundred percent, it made it worse,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big problem, as he sees it, is exports. California has become a major exporter to states where marijuana is still illegal — and fetches a higher price — \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/3052013829132756857467.pdf\">despite the warning from the Justice Department (PDF)\u003c/a> back when legalization got started that the states that legalize pot should make sure to keep it inside their borders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bianco says the marijuana gold rush has attracted Mexican drug cartels and Asian human smuggling rings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, we’ve had multiple, multiple homicides, we’ve had multiple kidnappings, we’ve had multiple reports of human trafficking and rapes and the punishments that go with not doing your job — and it’s all related to this,” Bianco says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back at the DCC, Bill Jones says he thinks legalization was, as he puts it, “imperative,” but he also believes it should be possible eventually to curb the black market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s doable. But it’s going to take a lot of resources and consistent enforcement over years to get our arms around this,” Jones says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Black+market+cannabis+thrives+in+California+despite+legalization&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Universities Are Required to Offer Abortion Pills. Many Just Don't Mention It",
"headTitle": "California Universities Are Required to Offer Abortion Pills. Many Just Don’t Mention It | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>When Deanna Gomez found out she was pregnant in September 2023, she felt the timing couldn’t have been worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The college senior at California State University-San Bernardino worked 60 hours a week at two jobs. She used birth control. Motherhood was not in the plan. Not yet. “I grew up poor. And I don’t want that for my children, like, ever,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She wanted a medication abortion. It’s a two-step process: one drug taken at a doctor’s office, and another a day later to induce cramping and bleeding and empty the uterus. Gomez didn’t bother going to the university health clinic, thinking it was only for basic health needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She ended up driving more than 300 miles and paying hundreds of dollars in medical and travel expenses to obtain a medication abortion. She missed a month of classes, which put her graduation date in jeopardy. She had no idea she was entitled to a free medication abortion right on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981691\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981691\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/CSU-04-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A young woman seen walking along a path surrounded by lawns on a campus.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deanna Gomez became pregnant during her senior year at California State University-San Bernardino and had no idea she was entitled to a free medication abortion on campus.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An LAist investigation has found that one year after California became the first state to require its public universities to provide abortion pills to students, basic information on where or how students can obtain the medication is lacking and, often, nonexistent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really upset when I found out,” Gomez told LAist. “I had to really push myself to make that money happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LAist initially found that 11 of 23 CSU campus clinics did not have any information about medication abortion on their clinic websites, nor did they list it as a service offered. Of the University of California’s 10 campuses, eight mentioned medication abortion on their clinic websites. (Five CSU campuses and one UC campus added information after \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/education/abortion-pill-california-universities-students-unaware-sb-24\">LAist published a version of this article\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through conversations with students and faculty at multiple campuses, LAist found there was little information for students to obtain the pills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Deanna Gomez, student, CSU-San Bernardino\"]‘You want to market the football games, you want to market the volleyball games. Why is that important, and abortions are not?’[/pullquote]“If I had known that, I would have taken advantage of it,” Gomez said. “I spent a lot of time driving around after work, switching schedules, putting my homework on the back burner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California legislators in 2019 passed the law that requires all the state’s 33 public university campuses to provide abortion pills. It took effect in January 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted to make sure that students, female students, had access to this right,” said Connie Leyva, the former Pomona-area state senator who authored the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislature created a $10.3 million fund of privately raised money to help universities implement the new law. Each campus received $200,000 in one-time funding to pay for the medication and cover costs such as facility upgrades, equipment, training, telehealth services, and security upgrades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The funding did not include any requirement that campus clinics inform students the medication was available to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leyva said she doesn’t recall any conversations about “including something on advertising that you could get a medicated abortion on campus.” She said she’s disappointed in the law’s implementation, but not surprised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything starts at the top. And if the president or chancellor of the university knows they have to offer it, but if they don’t agree that women should have access to abortion services, then they might just think, ‘We’ll leave it off, we don’t have to worry about it,’” Leyva said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spokesperson Ryan King said UC President Michael Drake was not available to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The student communities at each UC campus are unique,” Heather Harper, a spokesperson for UC Health in Drake’s office, wrote in an email. “As a result, communication to students at each location takes different forms and may include website content, flyers, emails, person-to-person conversations or other methods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The office of CSU Chancellor Mildred García did not reply to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981692\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981692\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/CSU-02-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a pharmacy with nobody behind the counter.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California State University-San Bernardino’s Student Health Center. California legislators in 2019 passed the law that requires all the state’s 33 public university campuses to provide abortion pills. It took effect in January 2023, but LAist found that basic information for students to obtain the medication is often nonexistent.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At Gomez’s San Bernardino campus, abortion as an option was mentioned only in one place: in small letters on a poster inside exam rooms at the health center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A student wouldn’t see that until they were already waiting for a doctor or nurse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11980822,news_11981607,news_11976304\"]“We need to work harder if there is a student who needed the service and wasn’t aware that they could access it through us and not have to pay for it,” said Beth Jaworski, executive director of health, counseling, and wellness at CSU-San Bernardino. “But it’s one student. We haven’t been providing the service very long. It’s been just about a year now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medication abortion has since been added to the list of services on the clinic’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray Murillo, California State University’s interim assistant vice chancellor of student affairs, said he and other administrative staffers are developing guidance so campuses share the same information “to help in our training efforts for the frontline staff and providers when they’re being asked questions about the service and what we provide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gomez wants more done, including flyers, emails, and social media posts directed at both faculty and students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You want to market the football games, you want to market the volleyball games. Why is that important, and abortions are not?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gomez did graduate in December 2023, becoming the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree. But she’s angry at her alma mater for keeping the abortion pills a secret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article is from a partnership that includes \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/\">LAist\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/\">NPR\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://kffhealthnews.org/\">KFF Health News\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Deanna Gomez found out she was pregnant in September 2023, she felt the timing couldn’t have been worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The college senior at California State University-San Bernardino worked 60 hours a week at two jobs. She used birth control. Motherhood was not in the plan. Not yet. “I grew up poor. And I don’t want that for my children, like, ever,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She wanted a medication abortion. It’s a two-step process: one drug taken at a doctor’s office, and another a day later to induce cramping and bleeding and empty the uterus. Gomez didn’t bother going to the university health clinic, thinking it was only for basic health needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She ended up driving more than 300 miles and paying hundreds of dollars in medical and travel expenses to obtain a medication abortion. She missed a month of classes, which put her graduation date in jeopardy. She had no idea she was entitled to a free medication abortion right on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981691\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981691\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/CSU-04-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A young woman seen walking along a path surrounded by lawns on a campus.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deanna Gomez became pregnant during her senior year at California State University-San Bernardino and had no idea she was entitled to a free medication abortion on campus.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An LAist investigation has found that one year after California became the first state to require its public universities to provide abortion pills to students, basic information on where or how students can obtain the medication is lacking and, often, nonexistent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really upset when I found out,” Gomez told LAist. “I had to really push myself to make that money happen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LAist initially found that 11 of 23 CSU campus clinics did not have any information about medication abortion on their clinic websites, nor did they list it as a service offered. Of the University of California’s 10 campuses, eight mentioned medication abortion on their clinic websites. (Five CSU campuses and one UC campus added information after \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/education/abortion-pill-california-universities-students-unaware-sb-24\">LAist published a version of this article\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through conversations with students and faculty at multiple campuses, LAist found there was little information for students to obtain the pills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘You want to market the football games, you want to market the volleyball games. Why is that important, and abortions are not?’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“If I had known that, I would have taken advantage of it,” Gomez said. “I spent a lot of time driving around after work, switching schedules, putting my homework on the back burner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California legislators in 2019 passed the law that requires all the state’s 33 public university campuses to provide abortion pills. It took effect in January 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted to make sure that students, female students, had access to this right,” said Connie Leyva, the former Pomona-area state senator who authored the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislature created a $10.3 million fund of privately raised money to help universities implement the new law. Each campus received $200,000 in one-time funding to pay for the medication and cover costs such as facility upgrades, equipment, training, telehealth services, and security upgrades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The funding did not include any requirement that campus clinics inform students the medication was available to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leyva said she doesn’t recall any conversations about “including something on advertising that you could get a medicated abortion on campus.” She said she’s disappointed in the law’s implementation, but not surprised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything starts at the top. And if the president or chancellor of the university knows they have to offer it, but if they don’t agree that women should have access to abortion services, then they might just think, ‘We’ll leave it off, we don’t have to worry about it,’” Leyva said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spokesperson Ryan King said UC President Michael Drake was not available to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The student communities at each UC campus are unique,” Heather Harper, a spokesperson for UC Health in Drake’s office, wrote in an email. “As a result, communication to students at each location takes different forms and may include website content, flyers, emails, person-to-person conversations or other methods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The office of CSU Chancellor Mildred García did not reply to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981692\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981692\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/CSU-02-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a pharmacy with nobody behind the counter.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California State University-San Bernardino’s Student Health Center. California legislators in 2019 passed the law that requires all the state’s 33 public university campuses to provide abortion pills. It took effect in January 2023, but LAist found that basic information for students to obtain the medication is often nonexistent.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At Gomez’s San Bernardino campus, abortion as an option was mentioned only in one place: in small letters on a poster inside exam rooms at the health center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A student wouldn’t see that until they were already waiting for a doctor or nurse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We need to work harder if there is a student who needed the service and wasn’t aware that they could access it through us and not have to pay for it,” said Beth Jaworski, executive director of health, counseling, and wellness at CSU-San Bernardino. “But it’s one student. We haven’t been providing the service very long. It’s been just about a year now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medication abortion has since been added to the list of services on the clinic’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray Murillo, California State University’s interim assistant vice chancellor of student affairs, said he and other administrative staffers are developing guidance so campuses share the same information “to help in our training efforts for the frontline staff and providers when they’re being asked questions about the service and what we provide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gomez wants more done, including flyers, emails, and social media posts directed at both faculty and students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You want to market the football games, you want to market the volleyball games. Why is that important, and abortions are not?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gomez did graduate in December 2023, becoming the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree. But she’s angry at her alma mater for keeping the abortion pills a secret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article is from a partnership that includes \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/\">LAist\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/\">NPR\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://kffhealthnews.org/\">KFF Health News\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "World Central Kitchen Has Fed Crisis Zones for Years, Including in California",
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"headTitle": "World Central Kitchen Has Fed Crisis Zones for Years, Including in California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The aid group World Central Kitchen said Tuesday that it is pausing its efforts to feed Palestinians in Gaza after seven of its workers were killed by an Israeli strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nonprofit\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/gaza-team-update\">said in a statement\u003c/a> that the team was hit while leaving a warehouse where they had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea, a route that World Central Kitchen \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/14/1238355996/gaza-aid-ship-world-central-kitchen\">helped establish\u003c/a> just last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization said the convoy had been traveling in a deconflicted zone, in armored cars branded with their logo, and after coordinating movements with Israel’s military, which now says it will investigate “at the highest levels.” Erin Gore, the CEO of World Central Kitchen, called it a “targeted attack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not only an attack against WCK; this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S.-based organization, which was founded by celebrity chef José Andrés and his wife Patricia in 2010, delivers food to people on the front lines of natural and humanitarian disasters around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has been \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/middle-east-2023\">working on the ground\u003c/a> in the region since Hamas\u003cstrong>–\u003c/strong>led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed more than 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government. Israeli’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, displaced an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/monthly-forecast/2024-04/the-middle-east-including-the-palestinian-question-15.php\">1.7 million\u003c/a> and left the territory on the\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/19/1239394316/gaza-famine-israel-humanitarian-aid\"> brink of famine\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WCK \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/wck-in-gaza\">said last week\u003c/a> that it had provided some 42 million meals to people in Gaza over 175 days, calling the situation there “the most dire we’ve ever seen or experienced in our 15-year history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More and more people, particularly children, are dying of starvation,” Gore and Andrés said in a joint statement. “We’ve known for months that famine is imminent, and the situation is getting worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/29/1241148952/gaza-hunger-famine-aid-israel-hamas-war\">food scarce and malnutrition rising\u003c/a>, international experts have warned that some 30% of Gaza’s population is already facing “\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/03/22/1239276897/theres-already-catastrophic-hunger-in-gaza-who-decides-when-to-call-it-a-famine\">catastrophic” levels of hunger\u003c/a> and that northern Gaza could \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/19/1239394316/gaza-famine-israel-humanitarian-aid\">officially see famine\u003c/a> anytime between now and May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=forum_2010101905110 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2024/03/Gaza-Famine-Getty-Images-crop-1020x574.jpg']World Central Kitchen isn’t the only organization working to get food into Gaza, where Israeli border restrictions, logistical challenges and ongoing fighting severely limit aid deliveries. However, it has played a major role in the humanitarian response, including sending two shipments of hundreds of tons of food to Gaza by sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second such shipment — stocked with shelf-stable items like rice, canned vegetables and proteins, as well as dates in honor of Ramadan — \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/en-us/news/sea-aid-2\">left Cyprus on Saturday\u003c/a>. The Cypriot foreign ministry said Tuesday that some 100 tons of aid had been unloaded in Gaza before WCK announced it was pausing its operations in the enclave, and the remaining 240 tons would be returned to Cyprus, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-04-02-2024-9bdf66771b62af37d85a2800f71c0e6c\">\u003cem>Associated Press\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just days ago, WCK vowed to keep pushing to get food into Gaza “until there is substantial aid getting in via land.” Now those plans are up in the air — it says it will be “making decisions about the future of our work soon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, here’s what else to know about the organization:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>WCK brings food to the front lines of disasters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981655\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981655\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1199\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Local residents in Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, wait to receive a hot meal from volunteers of World Central Kitchen after living without electricity for more than four months on Dec. 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Andrés is a Spanish-American chef known for his numerous U.S. restaurants, PBS travel series and humanitarian work of over a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He traveled to Haiti after it was struck by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in 2010, cooking for displaced people in camps — an ad hoc relief mission that helped set World Central Kitchen in motion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WCK has responded to a long list of natural and man-made disasters ever since, working with local partners on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Erin Gore, the CEO of World Central Kitchen\"]‘This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war.’[/pullquote]It served more than 20,000 meals in the Houston area after \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/20000-meals-harvey\">Hurricane Harvey\u003c/a> in 2017 and another 3.7 million across Puerto Rico in the wake of \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/wck-hurricane-maria\">Hurricane Maria\u003c/a>, for which Andrés was named the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/jose-andres-named-2018-humanitarian-of-the-year\">James Beard humanitarian\u003c/a> of the year in 2018 (seven years after winning its “outstanding chef” award).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/04/02/1242221379/world-central-kitchen-history-about#646242247/after-hurricane-maria-chef-jos-andr-s-had-a-crazy-dream-to-feed-puerto-rico\">He told NPR \u003c/a>that same year that he expected to see more chefs getting involved in disaster response, since “restaurant people” are particularly well suited to managing chaos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we are very good at is understanding the problem and adapting,” he said. “And so a problem becomes an opportunity … We’re practical. We’re efficient. And we can do it quicker, faster and better than anybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/story\">organization has grown\u003c/a> substantially over the years and expanded its efforts to focus not only on disaster response but also resilience training and longer-term community needs, including opening a culinary school in Port-au-Prince several years after the earthquake that started it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has fed survivors of major wildfires in \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/chefsforcalifornia-camp-fire-and-woolsey-fire-update\">California\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/hawaii-wildfires-2023\">Hawaii\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/chefsforfedsupdate\">federal workers in D.C.\u003c/a> during the 2019 government shutdown and \u003ca href=\"https://www.bamco.com/blog/bon-appetit-joins-forces-with-world-central-kitchen-to-feed-stranded-cruise-ship-passengers/\">stranded cruise ship passengers\u003c/a> during the early days of the \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/chefs-for-america\">COVID-19 pandemic\u003c/a>, throughout which it provided food for front-line workers and other vulnerable groups in the U.S. as well as Spain, Indonesia and the Dominican Republic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It delivered hot meals and fresh produce to a Buffalo, N.Y., neighborhood after 10 people were killed in a \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/buffalo-newyork\">mass shooting at a supermarket\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/es-es/relief/uvalde-texas\">distributed food\u003c/a> after the Uvalde school shooting in Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, WCK provided more than \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/turkiye-syria-earthquakes\">20 million meals\u003c/a> to people impacted by the dual earthquakes in Turkey and Syria last April. It has also responded to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by providing \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/timeline/ukraine-2-years\">millions of meals to people there\u003c/a>, first in hard-hit population centers and neighboring countries, and increasingly in more remote and vulnerable areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>This is not the first time WCK has lost workers in a conflict zone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981657\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981657\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Two men are hugging, one man's shirt reads "Relief Team."\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1199\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers hug on Tuesday after recovering the bodies of World Central Kitchen staff who were killed by Israeli air strikes in Rafah, Gaza. \u003ccite>(Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>World Central Kitchen has lost workers before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several team members have been killed in Ukraine in recent years, according to the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It said in June that a 60-year-old \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/remembering-igor\">volunteer named Igor\u003c/a> was killed when Russian shelling hit his apartment building in Kharkiv and that two other volunteers, Sardor and Viktoria, had been killed in a strike in Chuhuiv the previous July. (The group only identified them by their first names.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11976509,news_11978744,forum_2010101904469\"]\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/12/28/1221942443/gaza-food-crisis-is-nothing-like-anything-chef-jose-andres-had-seen-before\">Andrés told NPR’s \u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in December that WCK had lost a total of six people in Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a cook, as a chef, when I founded this organization, I never expected that this will happen,” he said. “And I almost wanted to pull World Central Kitchen immediately out of Ukraine. But the locals told me: ‘José, You cannot leave. We need you. We need your organization.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While conflict zones are inherently dangerous, the organization has also faced criticism over its safety record in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-12-08/jose-andres-world-central-kitchen-charity-faces-internal-crisis?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-businessweek&utm_content=businessweek&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter\">\u003cem>Bloomberg\u003c/em> published a story\u003c/a> alleging — among other accusations — that Andrés looked the other way on matters of staff safety, including demanding that staff send a food truck into parts of Turkey that local officials had declared “no-gos” due to landslides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrés told NPR that disaster and war zones come with risks, and the organization doesn’t “push anybody to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obviously, it’s people that maybe they don’t feel safe doing this job, but then they shouldn’t be in these kind of humanitarian situations,” he added. “But from there to say that José Andrés puts people in danger — I’d never be able to tell anybody to do what I’m not willing to do on my own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The organization has won awards and faced upheaval\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981659\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981659\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A white helicopter on a tarmac with people taking cases and boxes out of it, and another peron in foreground arranging boxes of food and supplies.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">World Central Kitchen brought food to the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian in September 2019, one of many natural disasters to which it responded. \u003ccite>(Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>WCK has earned plenty of accolades for its work over the years but has also recently weathered a string of scandals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrés was awarded the 2015 National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama and has twice been named one of \u003cem>TIME\u003c/em>‘s most influential people among them. A handful of Democratic lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4439439-democrats-nominate-chef-jose-andres-for-nobel-peace-prize/\">nominated WCK and Andrés\u003c/a> himself for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nonprofit — which operates on \u003ca href=\"https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/world-central-kitchen/\">non-governmental contributions\u003c/a> — has grown exponentially since its founding. It brought in \u003ca href=\"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/273521132/202343199349310414/full\">more than $500 million\u003c/a> in contributions and grants in 2022, which the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/world/middleeast/what-is-world-central-kitchen.html\">\u003cem>New York Times \u003c/em>reports\u003c/a> was a fourfold increase from the year before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While WCK gets perfect scores on watchdog sites like Charity Navigator and Charity Watch, there have been some concerns and criticisms raised recently about where exactly that money is going — including from within the organization itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WCK \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/working-with-the-fierce-urgency-of-now\">announced last June\u003c/a> that as it was spending some $2 million a day in Ukraine, it “learned of suspected instances of fraud” and commissioned a law firm to investigate. It ultimately confirmed instances of fraud that amounted to several million dollars, which the organization called “unacceptable, but still represents a tiny percentage of the $432 million we spent feeding people impacted by war.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It acknowledged it could have invested more in its internal operations to discover “bad actors” and said it was making changes among personnel and partners in both Ukraine and Turkey as a result — as well as implementing additional safeguards to combat fraud, like an anonymous tip line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization has also grown in size, now counting thousands of volunteers and 94 employees, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/world-central-kitchen,273521132/\">2022 filings\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Humanitarian leaders are condemning the strike\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981661\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Two men with hats and blue vests speak behind a wreckage.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">United Nations staff members gather around the car of the US-based aid group World Central Kitchen that was hit by an Israeli strike the previous day in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on April 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(AFP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>WCK said the seven workers killed in the Israeli strike included a Palestinian and citizens of Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom and Canada — with one a dual citizen of the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. and foreign leaders, as well as international organizations, are offering their condolences and condemnations and calling for an independent investigation into the Israeli military strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/UNLazzarini/status/1775061743615557935?s=20\">Philippe Lazzarini\u003c/a>, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) — which has lost at least \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/UNRWA/status/1775158002405761135?s=20\">176 employees\u003c/a> in Gaza — said the organization provides “much-needed food assistance to a starving population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said humanitarian workers are #NotATarget, a hashtag that other human rights groups and public officials are using in their posts about the attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrés \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/chefjoseandres/status/1774947232539644286?s=20\">wrote on X\u003c/a> that he is heartbroken and grieving for the loved ones of those killed, whom he described as “people … angels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing,” he said. “It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The U.S.-based nonprofit founded by celebrity chef José Andrés and his wife announced a pause to its Gaza aid operations after an Israeli strike killed seven World Central Kitchen workers on April 1.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The aid group World Central Kitchen said Tuesday that it is pausing its efforts to feed Palestinians in Gaza after seven of its workers were killed by an Israeli strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nonprofit\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/gaza-team-update\">said in a statement\u003c/a> that the team was hit while leaving a warehouse where they had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea, a route that World Central Kitchen \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/14/1238355996/gaza-aid-ship-world-central-kitchen\">helped establish\u003c/a> just last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization said the convoy had been traveling in a deconflicted zone, in armored cars branded with their logo, and after coordinating movements with Israel’s military, which now says it will investigate “at the highest levels.” Erin Gore, the CEO of World Central Kitchen, called it a “targeted attack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not only an attack against WCK; this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S.-based organization, which was founded by celebrity chef José Andrés and his wife Patricia in 2010, delivers food to people on the front lines of natural and humanitarian disasters around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has been \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/middle-east-2023\">working on the ground\u003c/a> in the region since Hamas\u003cstrong>–\u003c/strong>led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed more than 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government. Israeli’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, displaced an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/monthly-forecast/2024-04/the-middle-east-including-the-palestinian-question-15.php\">1.7 million\u003c/a> and left the territory on the\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/19/1239394316/gaza-famine-israel-humanitarian-aid\"> brink of famine\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WCK \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/wck-in-gaza\">said last week\u003c/a> that it had provided some 42 million meals to people in Gaza over 175 days, calling the situation there “the most dire we’ve ever seen or experienced in our 15-year history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More and more people, particularly children, are dying of starvation,” Gore and Andrés said in a joint statement. “We’ve known for months that famine is imminent, and the situation is getting worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/29/1241148952/gaza-hunger-famine-aid-israel-hamas-war\">food scarce and malnutrition rising\u003c/a>, international experts have warned that some 30% of Gaza’s population is already facing “\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2024/03/22/1239276897/theres-already-catastrophic-hunger-in-gaza-who-decides-when-to-call-it-a-famine\">catastrophic” levels of hunger\u003c/a> and that northern Gaza could \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/19/1239394316/gaza-famine-israel-humanitarian-aid\">officially see famine\u003c/a> anytime between now and May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>World Central Kitchen isn’t the only organization working to get food into Gaza, where Israeli border restrictions, logistical challenges and ongoing fighting severely limit aid deliveries. However, it has played a major role in the humanitarian response, including sending two shipments of hundreds of tons of food to Gaza by sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second such shipment — stocked with shelf-stable items like rice, canned vegetables and proteins, as well as dates in honor of Ramadan — \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/en-us/news/sea-aid-2\">left Cyprus on Saturday\u003c/a>. The Cypriot foreign ministry said Tuesday that some 100 tons of aid had been unloaded in Gaza before WCK announced it was pausing its operations in the enclave, and the remaining 240 tons would be returned to Cyprus, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-04-02-2024-9bdf66771b62af37d85a2800f71c0e6c\">\u003cem>Associated Press\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just days ago, WCK vowed to keep pushing to get food into Gaza “until there is substantial aid getting in via land.” Now those plans are up in the air — it says it will be “making decisions about the future of our work soon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, here’s what else to know about the organization:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>WCK brings food to the front lines of disasters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981655\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981655\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1199\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/ap22362642138270-a3df0d2f7f98537f5cc64fe0c646d0d97ab60332-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Local residents in Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, wait to receive a hot meal from volunteers of World Central Kitchen after living without electricity for more than four months on Dec. 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Andrés is a Spanish-American chef known for his numerous U.S. restaurants, PBS travel series and humanitarian work of over a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He traveled to Haiti after it was struck by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in 2010, cooking for displaced people in camps — an ad hoc relief mission that helped set World Central Kitchen in motion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WCK has responded to a long list of natural and man-made disasters ever since, working with local partners on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It served more than 20,000 meals in the Houston area after \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/20000-meals-harvey\">Hurricane Harvey\u003c/a> in 2017 and another 3.7 million across Puerto Rico in the wake of \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/wck-hurricane-maria\">Hurricane Maria\u003c/a>, for which Andrés was named the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/jose-andres-named-2018-humanitarian-of-the-year\">James Beard humanitarian\u003c/a> of the year in 2018 (seven years after winning its “outstanding chef” award).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/04/02/1242221379/world-central-kitchen-history-about#646242247/after-hurricane-maria-chef-jos-andr-s-had-a-crazy-dream-to-feed-puerto-rico\">He told NPR \u003c/a>that same year that he expected to see more chefs getting involved in disaster response, since “restaurant people” are particularly well suited to managing chaos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we are very good at is understanding the problem and adapting,” he said. “And so a problem becomes an opportunity … We’re practical. We’re efficient. And we can do it quicker, faster and better than anybody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/story\">organization has grown\u003c/a> substantially over the years and expanded its efforts to focus not only on disaster response but also resilience training and longer-term community needs, including opening a culinary school in Port-au-Prince several years after the earthquake that started it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has fed survivors of major wildfires in \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/chefsforcalifornia-camp-fire-and-woolsey-fire-update\">California\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/hawaii-wildfires-2023\">Hawaii\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/chefsforfedsupdate\">federal workers in D.C.\u003c/a> during the 2019 government shutdown and \u003ca href=\"https://www.bamco.com/blog/bon-appetit-joins-forces-with-world-central-kitchen-to-feed-stranded-cruise-ship-passengers/\">stranded cruise ship passengers\u003c/a> during the early days of the \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/chefs-for-america\">COVID-19 pandemic\u003c/a>, throughout which it provided food for front-line workers and other vulnerable groups in the U.S. as well as Spain, Indonesia and the Dominican Republic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It delivered hot meals and fresh produce to a Buffalo, N.Y., neighborhood after 10 people were killed in a \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/buffalo-newyork\">mass shooting at a supermarket\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/es-es/relief/uvalde-texas\">distributed food\u003c/a> after the Uvalde school shooting in Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, WCK provided more than \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/relief/turkiye-syria-earthquakes\">20 million meals\u003c/a> to people impacted by the dual earthquakes in Turkey and Syria last April. It has also responded to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by providing \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/timeline/ukraine-2-years\">millions of meals to people there\u003c/a>, first in hard-hit population centers and neighboring countries, and increasingly in more remote and vulnerable areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>This is not the first time WCK has lost workers in a conflict zone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981657\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981657\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Two men are hugging, one man's shirt reads "Relief Team."\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1199\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2132321739-85b6cbccce65b49592fd48dc1cba22640d6008f0-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1151.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers hug on Tuesday after recovering the bodies of World Central Kitchen staff who were killed by Israeli air strikes in Rafah, Gaza. \u003ccite>(Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>World Central Kitchen has lost workers before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several team members have been killed in Ukraine in recent years, according to the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It said in June that a 60-year-old \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/remembering-igor\">volunteer named Igor\u003c/a> was killed when Russian shelling hit his apartment building in Kharkiv and that two other volunteers, Sardor and Viktoria, had been killed in a strike in Chuhuiv the previous July. (The group only identified them by their first names.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/12/28/1221942443/gaza-food-crisis-is-nothing-like-anything-chef-jose-andres-had-seen-before\">Andrés told NPR’s \u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em>\u003c/a> in December that WCK had lost a total of six people in Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a cook, as a chef, when I founded this organization, I never expected that this will happen,” he said. “And I almost wanted to pull World Central Kitchen immediately out of Ukraine. But the locals told me: ‘José, You cannot leave. We need you. We need your organization.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While conflict zones are inherently dangerous, the organization has also faced criticism over its safety record in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-12-08/jose-andres-world-central-kitchen-charity-faces-internal-crisis?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-businessweek&utm_content=businessweek&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter\">\u003cem>Bloomberg\u003c/em> published a story\u003c/a> alleging — among other accusations — that Andrés looked the other way on matters of staff safety, including demanding that staff send a food truck into parts of Turkey that local officials had declared “no-gos” due to landslides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrés told NPR that disaster and war zones come with risks, and the organization doesn’t “push anybody to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obviously, it’s people that maybe they don’t feel safe doing this job, but then they shouldn’t be in these kind of humanitarian situations,” he added. “But from there to say that José Andrés puts people in danger — I’d never be able to tell anybody to do what I’m not willing to do on my own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The organization has won awards and faced upheaval\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981659\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981659\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"A white helicopter on a tarmac with people taking cases and boxes out of it, and another peron in foreground arranging boxes of food and supplies.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-1166140781-7887e774f4a122a5426d40f3d6087538b371292e-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">World Central Kitchen brought food to the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian in September 2019, one of many natural disasters to which it responded. \u003ccite>(Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>WCK has earned plenty of accolades for its work over the years but has also recently weathered a string of scandals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrés was awarded the 2015 National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama and has twice been named one of \u003cem>TIME\u003c/em>‘s most influential people among them. A handful of Democratic lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4439439-democrats-nominate-chef-jose-andres-for-nobel-peace-prize/\">nominated WCK and Andrés\u003c/a> himself for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nonprofit — which operates on \u003ca href=\"https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/world-central-kitchen/\">non-governmental contributions\u003c/a> — has grown exponentially since its founding. It brought in \u003ca href=\"https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/273521132/202343199349310414/full\">more than $500 million\u003c/a> in contributions and grants in 2022, which the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/world/middleeast/what-is-world-central-kitchen.html\">\u003cem>New York Times \u003c/em>reports\u003c/a> was a fourfold increase from the year before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While WCK gets perfect scores on watchdog sites like Charity Navigator and Charity Watch, there have been some concerns and criticisms raised recently about where exactly that money is going — including from within the organization itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WCK \u003ca href=\"https://wck.org/news/working-with-the-fierce-urgency-of-now\">announced last June\u003c/a> that as it was spending some $2 million a day in Ukraine, it “learned of suspected instances of fraud” and commissioned a law firm to investigate. It ultimately confirmed instances of fraud that amounted to several million dollars, which the organization called “unacceptable, but still represents a tiny percentage of the $432 million we spent feeding people impacted by war.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It acknowledged it could have invested more in its internal operations to discover “bad actors” and said it was making changes among personnel and partners in both Ukraine and Turkey as a result — as well as implementing additional safeguards to combat fraud, like an anonymous tip line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization has also grown in size, now counting thousands of volunteers and 94 employees, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/world-central-kitchen,273521132/\">2022 filings\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Humanitarian leaders are condemning the strike\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981661\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy.jpg\" alt=\"Two men with hats and blue vests speak behind a wreckage.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/gettyimages-2123636509-fd20c6b0d3feaa8aa00b8607c02cb9f094f63bac-s1600-c85-copy-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">United Nations staff members gather around the car of the US-based aid group World Central Kitchen that was hit by an Israeli strike the previous day in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on April 2, 2024. \u003ccite>(AFP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>WCK said the seven workers killed in the Israeli strike included a Palestinian and citizens of Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom and Canada — with one a dual citizen of the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. and foreign leaders, as well as international organizations, are offering their condolences and condemnations and calling for an independent investigation into the Israeli military strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/UNLazzarini/status/1775061743615557935?s=20\">Philippe Lazzarini\u003c/a>, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) — which has lost at least \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/UNRWA/status/1775158002405761135?s=20\">176 employees\u003c/a> in Gaza — said the organization provides “much-needed food assistance to a starving population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said humanitarian workers are #NotATarget, a hashtag that other human rights groups and public officials are using in their posts about the attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrés \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/chefjoseandres/status/1774947232539644286?s=20\">wrote on X\u003c/a> that he is heartbroken and grieving for the loved ones of those killed, whom he described as “people … angels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing,” he said. “It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Google Commits to Deleting 'Incognito' Search Data of Millions",
"headTitle": "Google Commits to Deleting ‘Incognito’ Search Data of Millions | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Google will destroy the private browsing history of millions of people who used “incognito” mode in its Chrome browser as a part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24527110-google-unopposed-settlement\">a settlement\u003c/a> filed to federal court on Monday in a case over the company’s secret tracking of web activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, Google simply informed users of Chrome’s internet browser that “you’ve gone Incognito” and “now you can browse privately” when the supposedly untraceable browsing option was turned on — without saying what bits of data the company had been harvesting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24527422-amended-google-complaint\">a 2020 class-action lawsuit\u003c/a>, the tech giant continued to scrape searches by hoovering up data about users who browsed the internet in incognito mode, grabbing “potentially embarrassing” searches of millions of people to measure web traffic and sell advertising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Google has made itself an unaccountable trove of information so detailed and expansive that George Orwell could never have dreamed it,” wrote lawyer Mark Mao and other plaintiffs’ attorneys who sued the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the suit was pending, Google changed the splash screen of incognito mode to state that websites, employers, schools and internet service providers can view browsing activity in incognito mode. But under the deal, Google will have to state that the company itself can also track browsing during incognito mode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, when users use incognito mode, Google will, by default, block third-party companies from tracking peoples’ so-called cookies, which is how advertisers glean information about a person’s search history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981552\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 921px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981552\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25.png\" alt=\"A screenshot of a logo of a hat and glasses under white text that reads "You've gone incognito."\" width=\"921\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25.png 921w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25-800x451.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25-160x90.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 921px) 100vw, 921px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google now informs users of the limitations of its so-called “incognito mode,” which enables more private web browsing. \u003ccite>(NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Class members, including the tens of millions of people who have browsed using incognito mode, will not receive any monetary damages. But individual users are able to sue Google in California state court to recover money over the covert data tracking, according to the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Google spokesman José Castañeda said the company is “happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.” He pointed out that the lawsuit sought $5 billion in damages, but Google will not be making any payment as part of the proposed settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Google employees complained to management about incognito\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The suit revealed that Google saved the standard and incognito browsing history of users in the same profile. That data was then used to inform personalized ads that the company served up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even when users are browsing the internet in ‘private browsing mode,’ Google continues to track them,” according to the suit. “Google’s tracking occurred and continues to occur no matter how sensitive or personal users’ online activities are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers representing the consumers who sued Google cited internal emails from the company showing employees complaining to management about incognito mode not living up to its name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to stop calling it incognito and stop using a Spy Guy icon,” an engineer wrote to Google colleagues in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another Google employee recommended changing the incognito splash page to say: “You are NOT protected from Google.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit referenced an email sent by Google’s marketing chief, Lorraine Twohill, to CEO Sundar Pichai, suggesting that the company was misleading the public about the browsing tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are limited in how strongly we can market incognito because it’s not truly private, thus requiring really fuzzy, hedging language that is almost more damaging,” Twohill wrote Pichai in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers originally set a February trial date for the case, but that was put on hold in light of the agreement hammered out by both parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal still needs final approval from Gonzalez Rogers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Google+to+delete+search+data+of+millions+who+used+%27incognito%27+mode&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Google will destroy the private browsing history of millions of people who used “incognito” mode in its Chrome browser as a part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24527110-google-unopposed-settlement\">a settlement\u003c/a> filed to federal court on Monday in a case over the company’s secret tracking of web activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, Google simply informed users of Chrome’s internet browser that “you’ve gone Incognito” and “now you can browse privately” when the supposedly untraceable browsing option was turned on — without saying what bits of data the company had been harvesting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24527422-amended-google-complaint\">a 2020 class-action lawsuit\u003c/a>, the tech giant continued to scrape searches by hoovering up data about users who browsed the internet in incognito mode, grabbing “potentially embarrassing” searches of millions of people to measure web traffic and sell advertising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Google has made itself an unaccountable trove of information so detailed and expansive that George Orwell could never have dreamed it,” wrote lawyer Mark Mao and other plaintiffs’ attorneys who sued the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the suit was pending, Google changed the splash screen of incognito mode to state that websites, employers, schools and internet service providers can view browsing activity in incognito mode. But under the deal, Google will have to state that the company itself can also track browsing during incognito mode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, when users use incognito mode, Google will, by default, block third-party companies from tracking peoples’ so-called cookies, which is how advertisers glean information about a person’s search history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981552\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 921px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981552\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25.png\" alt=\"A screenshot of a logo of a hat and glasses under white text that reads "You've gone incognito."\" width=\"921\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25.png 921w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25-800x451.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/44444_custom-7e31ede47b505ec4ec03787cd1c4876e47eb4b25-160x90.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 921px) 100vw, 921px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google now informs users of the limitations of its so-called “incognito mode,” which enables more private web browsing. \u003ccite>(NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Class members, including the tens of millions of people who have browsed using incognito mode, will not receive any monetary damages. But individual users are able to sue Google in California state court to recover money over the covert data tracking, according to the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Google spokesman José Castañeda said the company is “happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.” He pointed out that the lawsuit sought $5 billion in damages, but Google will not be making any payment as part of the proposed settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Google employees complained to management about incognito\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The suit revealed that Google saved the standard and incognito browsing history of users in the same profile. That data was then used to inform personalized ads that the company served up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even when users are browsing the internet in ‘private browsing mode,’ Google continues to track them,” according to the suit. “Google’s tracking occurred and continues to occur no matter how sensitive or personal users’ online activities are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers representing the consumers who sued Google cited internal emails from the company showing employees complaining to management about incognito mode not living up to its name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to stop calling it incognito and stop using a Spy Guy icon,” an engineer wrote to Google colleagues in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another Google employee recommended changing the incognito splash page to say: “You are NOT protected from Google.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit referenced an email sent by Google’s marketing chief, Lorraine Twohill, to CEO Sundar Pichai, suggesting that the company was misleading the public about the browsing tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are limited in how strongly we can market incognito because it’s not truly private, thus requiring really fuzzy, hedging language that is almost more damaging,” Twohill wrote Pichai in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers originally set a February trial date for the case, but that was put on hold in light of the agreement hammered out by both parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal still needs final approval from Gonzalez Rogers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Google+to+delete+search+data+of+millions+who+used+%27incognito%27+mode&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Sikhs Rally in Sacramento, 'Vote' on Independence From India",
"headTitle": "California Sikhs Rally in Sacramento, ‘Vote’ on Independence From India | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It’s a busy Saturday at the Sacramento Gurdwara Bradshaw at the edges of the city surrounded by fields and strip malls. In front of the new, gleaming white temple, a crowd of people are dressed in their finest for a wedding. The sounds of worship are piped out into the morning air through loudspeakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walk around the back of the domed building and you encounter something else, a sea of bright yellow flags emblazoned with bold, blue letters spelling out a word: Khalistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khalistan doesn’t exist on any map, but it is an imagined homeland for some Sikhs who dream of their own nation separate from India. The calls for an independent state have grown more urgent among Sikhs in the wake of last year’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/1216647148/after-foiled-assassination-attempt-theres-fear-amid-american-sikhs?ft=nprml&f=1216647148\">foiled assassination attempt\u003c/a> of a Sikh activist on U.S. soil. The Justice Department \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/30/1216005701/u-s-charges-indian-national-in-an-alleged-assassination-plot-of-a-sikh-separatis?ft=nprml&f=1216005701\">charged an Indian national\u003c/a> in the plot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sikhs are an ethno-religious group who come originally from what is now the Indian state of Punjab. There are an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.sikhcoalition.org/blog/2023/updated-census-figures-severely-undercount-u-s-sikhs/\">half a million\u003c/a> Sikhs in America, many of them based in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A long line of truck cabs and cars snake across the Gurdwara parking lot — trucks because Sikhs make up an increasing percentage of truckers in America. This caravan is getting ready to take to the streets of Sacramento and its sprawling suburbs — a rally on wheels to get out the vote ahead of Sunday’s referendum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question on the ballot: Should there be an independent Khalistan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After stops in Europe and Canada, the nonbinding Khalistan referendum is rolling out in the U.S. The first vote was in San Francisco at the end of January. Organizers say it was so popular that they scheduled a second vote for the end of March.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘We will be no more’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The fight for Khalistan has a long history, but the roots of this referendum can be traced to events that happened 40 years ago, says Irbanjit Sahota, who helped organize the rally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to let the world know that this happened to us in India, that there was a Sikh genocide in November 1984.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1980s some Sikh separatists were violent in their demands for Khalistan. In 1984 in response to growing unrest, the Indian army took over the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh sites, along with other Gurdwaras. A few months later, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What followed was more horrific bloodshed — angry mobs pulled people from their homes, temples were burned to the ground, Sikhs disappeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re never going to get justice from India,” Sahota says. “I don’t know that the world can do much to get us justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2005 then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh formally apologized for the anti-Sikh violence. For some Sikhs, that wasn’t enough. They wanted what happened in 1984 recognized as a genocide. Sahota says they also wanted something else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel our only way forward is to make Punjab an independent state where we can practice our religion, preserve our culture, preserve our history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sahota says even though that violence happened decades ago, the current government in India — the Hindu nationalist BJP, led by Narendra Modi — is targeting religious and cultural minorities, including Sikhs. At the rally, one truck towed a U-Haul trailer with a giant sign: “Modi: Face of Hindu Terror.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just makes it worse,” Sahota says. “Now we have no place. Before we felt like we were not just equal citizens. But now we feel like either we have to do something or we will be no more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Sikhs are happy in India’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not every American Sikh believes the Modi government’s Hindu nationalist agenda is dangerous for Sikhs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To say that it’s a systematic, some kind of program going against Sikhs in this day and age is not there,” says Jasdip Singh, the leader of Sikhs for America. “What we do” he says of his group, “is highlight the contributions of the Sikh community in the U.S. and we try to integrate the community into the mainstream America.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"ad-header third\">\n\u003cp>Singh was also a founding member of the group Sikhs for Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Irbanjit Sahota, rally organizer\"]‘I feel our only way forward is to make Punjab an independent state where we can practice our religion, preserve our culture, preserve our history.’[/pullquote]He says the situation for Sikhs has significantly improved since the violence of the ’80s and ’90s. “Sikhs do have issues in India like any other community, but they have a legal framework, they have a constitution, they have a justice system in India,” he says. “Sikhs in India are happy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Sikhs living outside of India, he says, “which is a very, very small percentage of the Sikh population to start asking for a separate homeland, I mean, I don’t understand that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He noted the referendum has no legal standing — it is nonbinding. Even if millions of Sikhs vote for Khalistan, nothing will happen, because it’s a purely symbolic exercise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As immigrants, when we come here, we come here to contribute to this country — positive things,” he says. “If we want to protest for Khalistan, we should go to India, Punjab and start protesting. Why are we using the soil of this country to bring issues that are not relevant to America?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the U.S. government has begun to take notice of the Indian government’s treatment of minority religious and ethnic groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the U.S. State Department to list India as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/uscirf-deeply-concerned-indias-transnational-repression-against\">country of particular concern\u003c/a>” due to “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, the \u003ca href=\"https://humanrightscommission.house.gov/events/hearings/india-recent-human-rights-reporting\">Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights\u003c/a> heard testimony from experts and activists about the threat to minority communities coming from the Indian government.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Transnational repression\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There are three moments in recent history that shift and shape Sikh American identity, according to Harman Singh, with the Sikh Coalition. The civil rights advocacy group was itself founded as a result of the initial moment, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11869988,news_11770976,news_11850784\"]The first post-9/11 hate crime was the murder of \u003ca href=\"https://storycorps.org/stories/remembering-balbir-singh-sodhi-sikh-man-killed-in-post-911-hate-crime/\">Balbir Singh Sodhi\u003c/a>, a Sikh man in Mesa, Arizona by a white man who wanted to “kill a Muslim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a decade later, in 2012, a white supremacist walked into a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/08/05/1115931555/remembering-the-oak-creek-killings-a-harbinger-of-white-supremacist-violence\">Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin\u003c/a> and started shooting, in the deadliest hate crime in an American place of worship at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both tragedies brought American Sikhs together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the third moment, the one we are in right now, Singh says, reveals a very different threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This past winter, the FBI \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-charges-connection-foiled-plot-assassinate-us-citizen-new-york\">unsealed an indictment\u003c/a> accusing an Indian government employee of orchestrating a murder-for-hire assassination attempt of a Sikh separatist activist in New York City. The agency labeled the incident an example of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/transnational-repression\">transnational repression\u003c/a> — oppression or interference by foreign governments on citizens or former citizens abroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a major turning point within the Sikh community,” Singh says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are significant problems with the safety of Sikhs in the United States, but also the targeted harassment, intimidation attempts by India to silence dissent here,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh and the Sikh Coalition are not involved in the Khalistan referendum, but Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the man targeted for assassination in New York is. Pannun is the leader of Sikhs for Justice, which is organizing the referendum campaign. The Indian government has labeled him a terrorist, and banned him and Sikhs for Justice from India.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The revelations of the plot to kill Pannun came on the heels of the murder of another \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200569975/canada-india-sikh-hardeep-singh-nijjar#:~:text=Canada%2C%20India%20and%20the%20death,know%20about%20the%20case%20%3A%20NPR&text=Throughline-,Canada%2C%20India%20and%20the%20death%20of%20a%20Sikh%20activist%3A%20What,a%20Sikh%20homeland%20in%20India.\">Sikh activist in British Columbia\u003c/a>. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of being behind his death. The Indian government denied any involvement and says that in the U.S. case their employee had acted alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The ballot, not the bullet\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While the killing in Canada and the assassination attempt in New York drew attention, transnational repression is not new to many in the Sikh community, says Harman Singh. “Folks who advocate for this idea of Khalistan, an independent Sikh state, have been very vulnerable to transnational repression for several decades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"ad-header overflow-4\">\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Avtar Singh Pannu, coordinator, Sikhs for Justice\"]‘We believe ballot. We don’t believe bullet, and this is how we stand for that.’[/pullquote]Sikhs who advocate for Khalistan or vote in the referendum are not terrorists, he argues. “What India has done is criminalize the right to self determination,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Gurdwara Bradshaw Sacramento, the trucks are gearing up to get on the road, horns are honking and music is blasting from loudspeakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sikhs for Justice’s coordinator Avtar Singh Pannu is there helping to fire up the crowd. He says the referendum is a chance to tell their story and vote for freedom. After California, the next stop is New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if he is afraid of being targeted or killed, Pannu says no, because “everyone dies someday.” But, he says, everyone should also have the right to self determination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe ballot,” he says. “We don’t believe bullet, and this is how we stand for that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s a busy Saturday at the Sacramento Gurdwara Bradshaw at the edges of the city surrounded by fields and strip malls. In front of the new, gleaming white temple, a crowd of people are dressed in their finest for a wedding. The sounds of worship are piped out into the morning air through loudspeakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walk around the back of the domed building and you encounter something else, a sea of bright yellow flags emblazoned with bold, blue letters spelling out a word: Khalistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khalistan doesn’t exist on any map, but it is an imagined homeland for some Sikhs who dream of their own nation separate from India. The calls for an independent state have grown more urgent among Sikhs in the wake of last year’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/1216647148/after-foiled-assassination-attempt-theres-fear-amid-american-sikhs?ft=nprml&f=1216647148\">foiled assassination attempt\u003c/a> of a Sikh activist on U.S. soil. The Justice Department \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/30/1216005701/u-s-charges-indian-national-in-an-alleged-assassination-plot-of-a-sikh-separatis?ft=nprml&f=1216005701\">charged an Indian national\u003c/a> in the plot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sikhs are an ethno-religious group who come originally from what is now the Indian state of Punjab. There are an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://www.sikhcoalition.org/blog/2023/updated-census-figures-severely-undercount-u-s-sikhs/\">half a million\u003c/a> Sikhs in America, many of them based in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A long line of truck cabs and cars snake across the Gurdwara parking lot — trucks because Sikhs make up an increasing percentage of truckers in America. This caravan is getting ready to take to the streets of Sacramento and its sprawling suburbs — a rally on wheels to get out the vote ahead of Sunday’s referendum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question on the ballot: Should there be an independent Khalistan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After stops in Europe and Canada, the nonbinding Khalistan referendum is rolling out in the U.S. The first vote was in San Francisco at the end of January. Organizers say it was so popular that they scheduled a second vote for the end of March.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘We will be no more’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The fight for Khalistan has a long history, but the roots of this referendum can be traced to events that happened 40 years ago, says Irbanjit Sahota, who helped organize the rally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to let the world know that this happened to us in India, that there was a Sikh genocide in November 1984.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1980s some Sikh separatists were violent in their demands for Khalistan. In 1984 in response to growing unrest, the Indian army took over the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh sites, along with other Gurdwaras. A few months later, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What followed was more horrific bloodshed — angry mobs pulled people from their homes, temples were burned to the ground, Sikhs disappeared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re never going to get justice from India,” Sahota says. “I don’t know that the world can do much to get us justice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2005 then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh formally apologized for the anti-Sikh violence. For some Sikhs, that wasn’t enough. They wanted what happened in 1984 recognized as a genocide. Sahota says they also wanted something else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel our only way forward is to make Punjab an independent state where we can practice our religion, preserve our culture, preserve our history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sahota says even though that violence happened decades ago, the current government in India — the Hindu nationalist BJP, led by Narendra Modi — is targeting religious and cultural minorities, including Sikhs. At the rally, one truck towed a U-Haul trailer with a giant sign: “Modi: Face of Hindu Terror.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just makes it worse,” Sahota says. “Now we have no place. Before we felt like we were not just equal citizens. But now we feel like either we have to do something or we will be no more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Sikhs are happy in India’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not every American Sikh believes the Modi government’s Hindu nationalist agenda is dangerous for Sikhs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To say that it’s a systematic, some kind of program going against Sikhs in this day and age is not there,” says Jasdip Singh, the leader of Sikhs for America. “What we do” he says of his group, “is highlight the contributions of the Sikh community in the U.S. and we try to integrate the community into the mainstream America.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"ad-header third\">\n\u003cp>Singh was also a founding member of the group Sikhs for Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I feel our only way forward is to make Punjab an independent state where we can practice our religion, preserve our culture, preserve our history.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He says the situation for Sikhs has significantly improved since the violence of the ’80s and ’90s. “Sikhs do have issues in India like any other community, but they have a legal framework, they have a constitution, they have a justice system in India,” he says. “Sikhs in India are happy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Sikhs living outside of India, he says, “which is a very, very small percentage of the Sikh population to start asking for a separate homeland, I mean, I don’t understand that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He noted the referendum has no legal standing — it is nonbinding. Even if millions of Sikhs vote for Khalistan, nothing will happen, because it’s a purely symbolic exercise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As immigrants, when we come here, we come here to contribute to this country — positive things,” he says. “If we want to protest for Khalistan, we should go to India, Punjab and start protesting. Why are we using the soil of this country to bring issues that are not relevant to America?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the U.S. government has begun to take notice of the Indian government’s treatment of minority religious and ethnic groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the U.S. State Department to list India as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/uscirf-deeply-concerned-indias-transnational-repression-against\">country of particular concern\u003c/a>” due to “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, the \u003ca href=\"https://humanrightscommission.house.gov/events/hearings/india-recent-human-rights-reporting\">Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights\u003c/a> heard testimony from experts and activists about the threat to minority communities coming from the Indian government.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Transnational repression\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There are three moments in recent history that shift and shape Sikh American identity, according to Harman Singh, with the Sikh Coalition. The civil rights advocacy group was itself founded as a result of the initial moment, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The first post-9/11 hate crime was the murder of \u003ca href=\"https://storycorps.org/stories/remembering-balbir-singh-sodhi-sikh-man-killed-in-post-911-hate-crime/\">Balbir Singh Sodhi\u003c/a>, a Sikh man in Mesa, Arizona by a white man who wanted to “kill a Muslim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About a decade later, in 2012, a white supremacist walked into a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/08/05/1115931555/remembering-the-oak-creek-killings-a-harbinger-of-white-supremacist-violence\">Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin\u003c/a> and started shooting, in the deadliest hate crime in an American place of worship at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both tragedies brought American Sikhs together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the third moment, the one we are in right now, Singh says, reveals a very different threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This past winter, the FBI \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-charges-connection-foiled-plot-assassinate-us-citizen-new-york\">unsealed an indictment\u003c/a> accusing an Indian government employee of orchestrating a murder-for-hire assassination attempt of a Sikh separatist activist in New York City. The agency labeled the incident an example of \u003ca href=\"https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/transnational-repression\">transnational repression\u003c/a> — oppression or interference by foreign governments on citizens or former citizens abroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a major turning point within the Sikh community,” Singh says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are significant problems with the safety of Sikhs in the United States, but also the targeted harassment, intimidation attempts by India to silence dissent here,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh and the Sikh Coalition are not involved in the Khalistan referendum, but Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the man targeted for assassination in New York is. Pannun is the leader of Sikhs for Justice, which is organizing the referendum campaign. The Indian government has labeled him a terrorist, and banned him and Sikhs for Justice from India.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The revelations of the plot to kill Pannun came on the heels of the murder of another \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200569975/canada-india-sikh-hardeep-singh-nijjar#:~:text=Canada%2C%20India%20and%20the%20death,know%20about%20the%20case%20%3A%20NPR&text=Throughline-,Canada%2C%20India%20and%20the%20death%20of%20a%20Sikh%20activist%3A%20What,a%20Sikh%20homeland%20in%20India.\">Sikh activist in British Columbia\u003c/a>. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of being behind his death. The Indian government denied any involvement and says that in the U.S. case their employee had acted alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The ballot, not the bullet\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While the killing in Canada and the assassination attempt in New York drew attention, transnational repression is not new to many in the Sikh community, says Harman Singh. “Folks who advocate for this idea of Khalistan, an independent Sikh state, have been very vulnerable to transnational repression for several decades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"ad-header overflow-4\">\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We believe ballot. We don’t believe bullet, and this is how we stand for that.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Sikhs who advocate for Khalistan or vote in the referendum are not terrorists, he argues. “What India has done is criminalize the right to self determination,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Gurdwara Bradshaw Sacramento, the trucks are gearing up to get on the road, horns are honking and music is blasting from loudspeakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sikhs for Justice’s coordinator Avtar Singh Pannu is there helping to fire up the crowd. He says the referendum is a chance to tell their story and vote for freedom. After California, the next stop is New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if he is afraid of being targeted or killed, Pannu says no, because “everyone dies someday.” But, he says, everyone should also have the right to self determination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe ballot,” he says. “We don’t believe bullet, and this is how we stand for that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Chevron Owns Richmond's Main Local News Source — and Many Refinery-Related Stories Go Untold",
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"headTitle": "Chevron Owns Richmond’s Main Local News Source — and Many Refinery-Related Stories Go Untold | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR’s David Folkenflik reported this story with Miranda Green of\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.floodlightnews.org/\">\u003cem> Floodlight\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RICHMOND, Calif. — Open flames shot upward from four smokestacks at the Chevron refinery on the western edge of Richmond, California Soon, black smoke blanketed the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News spread quickly that day last November, but by word of mouth, says Denny Khamphanthong, a 29-year-old Richmond resident. “We don’t know the full story, but we know that you shouldn’t breathe in the air or be outside, for that matter,” Khamphanthong says now. “It would be nice to have an actual news outlet that would actually go out there and figure it out themselves.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\" Gayle McLaughlin, former mayor, Richmond\"]‘\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> will never, ever print anything that is critical of Chevron, and it will never print anything that upholds the community’s victories against Chevron.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s primary local news source, \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/\">\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, didn’t cover the flare. Nor had it reported on a 2021 Chevron refinery pipeline rupture that dumped nearly 800 gallons of diesel fuel into San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron is the city’s largest employer, largest taxpayer and largest polluter. Yet when it comes to writing about Chevron, \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> consistently toes the company line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there’s a reason for that: Chevron owns \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you look at Chevron’s website and you look at \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>, a lot of the information is copy and paste,” says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. “They present a very skewed viewpoint that is bought and paid for by Chevron.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a city landscape with trees and a refinery in the background.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Richmond exists in the shadow of the nearby Chevron refinery, which has been connected to poor air quality and health issues in the nearby community. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The site’s very name evokes the history of Chevron, which was created when John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil was broken up by federal trust-busters more than a century ago. \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> prides itself on being the “number one source for local, community-driven news” about the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around town, in coffee shops, an architect’s office, at a Mexican restaurant, even at a waterside National Park Service site, the Standard is recognized as the main source of news about the city. It carries stories about \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/03/27/rich-city-rides-launches-capital-campaign-to-purchase-home-base/\">charity drives\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/09/19/emergency-rail-replacement-prompts-closure-on-s-garrard-blvd/\">street closings\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/lifestyle/entertainment-and-food/2020/07/13/the-factory-bar-sets-opening-date/\">New bars\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/09/20/art-exhibition-celebrates-latinx-heritage-month-in-richmond/\">art exhibits\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/07/17/girl-power-coming-to-soccer-field-in-richmond/\">Youth soccer events\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/05/15/point-richmond-music-announces-lineup-for-summer-concert-series/\">local concerts\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/community/2024/02/06/richmonds-ons-loves-on-at-risk-people-to-end-gun-violence/\">safety initiatives\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades ago, the city relied on the Richmond \u003cem>Independent \u003c/em>and the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> to report on the community. And then a pattern familiar across the U.S. unfolded. The \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> pulled back. The \u003cem>Independent\u003c/em> got folded into a newspaper in nearby Berkeley, which itself shut down in 1984. Papers in other East Bay cities shriveled up. Now, the city’s news landscape is dominated by its major corporate force. Markets where news outlets shut down are often called news deserts. The Standard has created something of a news mirage: Stories are told — but with an agenda. Facts displeasing to Chevron are omitted; hard truths softened. The company is seeking to get its point of view across and to convey that it can be trusted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent February night, a city council meeting repeatedly focused on developments involving Chevron. Other than journalists for NPR and Floodlight, not a single journalist attended in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same San Francisco public relations firm that operates the Standard for Chevron runs a similar site about developments in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, where Chevron has major business interests. It also runs one of the company’s sites in Ecuador, where the energy giant has fought back decades of litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981098\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981098\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person rides a bike through an intersection with cars waiting at a stoplight.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Richmond Standard is a local news site funded by Chevron, which runs a large refinery in town. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chevron’s bid to control the public discourse comes as efforts to combat climate change threaten the fossil fuel industry, especially in California. State regulators would effectively \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/california-bans-the-sale-of-new-gas-powered-cars-by-2035.html\">ban\u003c/a> the sales of gas-powered cars by 2035. They released the world’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/11/16/california-releases-worlds-first-plan-to-achieve-net-zero-carbon-pollution/\">first plan\u003c/a> to achieve net-zero carbon pollution. Other states and countries have adopted similar goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11975650,news_11856920\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/231027-CHEVRON-RICHMOND-REFINERY-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" label=\"Related Stories\"]In February, Chevron revealed that it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/ixviewer/ix.html?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/93410/000009341024000013/cvx-20231231.htm#ib7903ee4cd7540d8ab5b70d4bf454edd_121\">losing about $1.8 billion \u003c/a>on assets, mainly in California, because of the state’s tougher regulatory climate. Chevron’s corporate headquarters is in San Ramon, about a 35-mile drive southeast of Richmond, though the company has moved the bulk of its workforce to Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The company saw a need to offer the community more news coverage of Richmond, which had been largely ignored by traditional media with the exception of crime stories,” says Braden Reddall, a manager of external affairs at Chevron. “Most people in Richmond will tell you there is a lot more to the community than what is known and reported by traditional media outlets. It’s a proud community, filled with interesting people who are doing interesting things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reddall, who earlier covered the company for the international news service \u003cem>Reuters\u003c/em>, added that other outlets more than adequately cover Chevron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981099\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a green shirt with orange design patterns leans against the side of a building outside.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former schoolteacher Patricia Dornan says she reads The Richmond Standard but skips the stories about Chevron. “I don’t read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is,” she says. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lifelong Richmond resident Patricia Dornan says she cherry-picks which stories she reads in the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you understand that it’s going to have a Chevron-Standard Oil point of view, it’s fine because most of the stuff that they’re putting out has nothing to do with them,” says Dornan, a retired middle school teacher. “And so long as it doesn’t have to do with Chevron, it’s fine. I don’t read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dornan volunteers at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm\">Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park\u003c/a>. She tells visitors about the marvels of American manufacturing in a time of war and about the women welders of Richmond who were able to turn out warships in 51 days rather than two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1444px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png\" alt=\"A map showing Richmond with red and blue lines outlining pipelines in the area.\" width=\"1444\" height=\"1432\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png 1444w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-800x793.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-1020x1012.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-160x159.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1444px) 100vw, 1444px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pipeline locations are approximate. Source: Google Earth, US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, California Department of Technology, OpenStreetMap contributors \u003ccite>(Hilary Fung/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her grandmother moved to town in 1905 — just three years after the refinery first opened — and her family has been there ever since. One of the streets in town is named after her father. She says Richmond can’t function without Chevron, but a true local news outlet would help hold it accountable to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she wants to know what Chevron is up to, Dornan says, “I usually ask my friends who are retirees from the refinery — what’s going on?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Richmond deserves more news coverage’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When the Standard launched in 2014, it proclaimed: “Richmond deserves more news coverage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the first time in more than 30 years, Richmond will have a community-driven daily news source dedicated to shining a light on the positive things that are going on in the community,” the \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/chevron-speaks/2013/01/23/richmond-deserves-more-news-coverage/\">site announced.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron presents the Standard as an investment in the Richmond community. \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/115094/documents/HHRG-117-II15-20220914-SD007.pdf\">The public relations firm operating the Standard wrote (PDF)\u003c/a>, “This site would tell the stories other outlets had lost the resources to tell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11940114\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS55021_004_KQED_ChevronRefineryStrike_04072022-qut.jpg\" label=\"Related Stories\"]But not all of the stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent review found\u003cem> The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> had published 434 stories that touch on its owner, Chevron, since the site’s inception. Eight articles refer to flaring incidents. None cite oil spills. The majority of the stories that mention Chevron focus on profiles, \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/uncategorized/2024/02/16/chevron-richmond-recognized-for-helping-red-cross-sound-the-alarm-on-fire-safety/\">awards\u003c/a> ceremonies, community projects and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/10/20/chevron-richmond-celebrates-hispanic-heritage-month-with-classic-cars-and-much-more/\">celebrations\u003c/a> it throws on such occasions as \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2024/02/26/chevron-richmond-marks-milestone-with-25th-black-history-awareness-celebration/\">Black History\u003c/a> and Hispanic Heritage months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Bay Area air pollution regulators secured landmark concessions from Chevron in February to settle a lawsuit, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11975650/bay-air-district-hails-decisive-victory-in-battle-to-cut-refinery-pollution\">they called it a “decisive victory\u003c/a>.” The \u003cem>San Jose Mercury News\u003c/em> headline cited “\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/east-bay-refineries-settle-with-bay-area-air-quality-agency-agree-to-20-million-in-fines-for-hundreds-of-violations/\">$20 million in fines for hundreds of air-quality violations\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11901875\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/02/RS53159_013_Richmond_ChevronRefinery_01132022-qut.jpg\"]\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2024/02/13/chevron-agreement-with-air-district-called-win-for-environment-and-energy/\">Richmond Standard\u003c/a> \u003c/em>was more reserved: “Chevron agreement with Air District called win for environment and energy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The article did not clearly lay out the core of the litigation. The words “fine” and “penalty” did not appear. Careful readers might have been able to piece together what transpired: The news outlet described an agreement involving $20 million that “solidifies the future of energy production at the Richmond Refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a whole host of news outlets around the Bay Area that cover the refinery,” says Reddall, the Chevron spokesperson. “The Standard seeks to fill in the gaps. From where I’m sitting, I don’t think that it’s a refinery that’s not written about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981100\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person rides a bike down a street with a mural in the background.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond is a working-class city of 115,000 — nearly half of whom are Latino. Most people working at the Chevron refinery live outside the city. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A news mirage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Boundaries blur between city and corporation in this largely working-class city of 115,000 people, almost half of whom are Latino. The tech boom of nearby Silicon Valley and the opulence of neighboring Marin County feel like universes away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11912101\" hero=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/RS55033_019_KQED_ChevronRefineryStrike_04072022-qut.jpg\"]The public high school’s mascot is the Oilers. Streets are named Ammonia and Petrolite and Xylene. Chevron’s network of pipes, low-lying cooling ponds and even sulfuric stench have become defining parts of the town’s character. A nature park where tufted egrets and hummingbirds frolic abuts the nearly 3,000-acre refinery itself — an expansive preserve of smokestacks, pipelines and tanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron, which recorded $21.3 billion in profits last year, has played an outsized role in Richmond for decades. It supplies the city with jobs — yet most Chevron employees live elsewhere. It pays roughly $50 million a year to Richmond — more than a sixth of the town’s annual revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company’s relationship with Richmond turned sour rather abruptly in 2012. An explosion at the refinery injured \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/chevron-refinery-fire-cal-osha-fine-calosha-fined/2247343/\">19 employees.\u003c/a> The air pollution from the resulting industrial fire could be seen from miles away. In the ensuing days, 15,000 Bay Area residents went to medical centers for respiratory complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981101\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981101\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg\" alt='A sign with red lettering on the side of a building that reads \"Richmond Oilers.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Richmond High School mascot is the Oilers. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State and local prosecutors charged Chevron with \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/chevron-convicted-of-labor-codes-pays-2m-after-refinery-fire/1951195/\">criminal negligence\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/05/chevron-2m-fire/2620303/\">other crimes. T\u003c/a>he company settled by pleading no contest to six charges, paying out roughly $10 million to affected local residents, agencies and hospitals. Chevron also paid $5 million directly to the city of Richmond to settle a separate civil lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time of the incident, political sentiment in Richmond had started to swing away from the company. As the months passed, progressives threatened to take control of the city government. They promoted a future without the refinery — just as Chevron sought approval from city officials for a sweeping project to overhaul and modernize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the 2014 election cycle dawned, Chevron took action to ensure its voice was heard. It promised a huge investment in scholarships and public health programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron also spent $3 million to help propel pro-industry candidates. They all lost. “The election became a referendum on Chevron,” says Tom Butt, at the time a city council member who won election as mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron also launched\u003cem> The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the outset, the company disclosed its involvement. In small letters at the top of its homepage, the site reads, “Funded by Chevron.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981102\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981102\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An elderly white man wearing a tan jacket sits down outside.\" width=\"1703\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-800x1203.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1020x1533.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-160x241.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1362x2048.jpg 1362w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1920x2886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Butt was elected mayor of Richmond in 2014. He says that election was a referendum on Chevron. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the election, the Standard published a 428-word statement from \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/chevron-speaks/2014/11/19/election-mattered/\">Chevron\u003c/a> in its entirety that defended the company’s actions and criticized the city’s new leaders. “The question for Richmond is: Will local leaders recognize that business is integral to the city’s success?” the Chevron statement read. “Or, will city leaders continue to oppose efforts to create growth, preferring instead to watch the business climate — and the prosperity that business helps generate — decline?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We should be outraged’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Katt Ramos, who helps lead Communities for a Better Environment’s Richmond chapter, stages tours to demonstrate what she says is Chevron’s destructive legacy. It also illustrates what happens when independent local news disappears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She stops by Peres K–8 School in the Iron Triangle, a nickname derived from the three train tracks that intersect here. Older kids play soccer on a field with a coach while younger ones cavort on a playground. Beyond the school fence, the Chevron plant stands less than a mile away. A sign next to the school’s entrance warns of a shallow hazardous liquid pipeline from the refinery, a warning not to dig there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond,” Ramos says. Adults have to tell kids they can’t play outdoors due to a high number of bad air days, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981103\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A close up image of woman with black hair and a greenish scarf outside.\" width=\"1703\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-800x1203.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1020x1533.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-160x241.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1362x2048.jpg 1362w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1920x2886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond,’ says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. She says the city’s air pollution problems and residents’ health issues are rarely covered in the news. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perhaps the best way of gauging the seriousness of such concerns is to look at child admissions to emergency rooms for asthma, says Anne Kelsey Lamb, who oversees asthma research for the Oakland-based Public Health Institute. Children in the ZIP code of the Iron Triangle — which includes the refinery as well as the neighborhoods surrounding the Peres school — are admitted for emergency care for asthma at triple the rate for California at large. (The institute provided an analysis of the most recent available state statistics at the request of NPR and Floodlight.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parceling out responsibility for air pollution is complicated, given Richmond’s many highways and railroads, along with the refinery. The regional board that regulates air quality found that Chevron accounts for 63% of all particle pollution in Richmond and two neighboring towns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These issues rarely get covered, Ramos says. She starts to weep gently when talking about the city’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, at best, we should be outraged, you know?” she says. “Everyone should be concerned about the conditions that our community has to face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The PR firm running the Standard\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Chevron owns the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>, San Francisco-based Singer Associates runs it from across the bay. The consulting firm is known for handling PR crises. Founder Sam Singer is no stranger to Richmond; he grew up in Berkeley and briefly worked at the Richmond \u003cem>Independent\u003c/em> and a sister paper before moving on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singer Associates has written that the news outlet came about after Chevron developed a “fractured relationship with many stakeholders, including city government leaders.” The site was part of an effort “to provide the company with greater freedom to operate by increasing awareness for the positive role it plays in Richmond,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/115094/documents/HHRG-117-II15-20220914-SD007.pdf\">according to Singer’s application for an industry award\u003c/a>, as cited in a U.S. House Natural Resources Committee staff report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981104\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man swings a fishing pole over his head by a body of water.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man fishes for leopard sharks in the waterways along Point Richmond, a thoroughfare for petroleum that has been the site of several oil and chemical spills. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Singer Associates employee Mike Aldax, a former reporter for the defunct \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> and the Bay City News Service, writes most Standard articles. (Aldax did not return messages seeking comment.) The site also hired two journalists who live in Richmond to write for the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our team has worked hard to build relationships with the community, which is why people trust us, and turn to us, to cover community stories,” Singer wrote in an email for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pace of reporting ebbs and flows. Some featured videos on the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>‘s homepage are several years old. The metabolism of fresh posts stepped up in early March, shortly after NPR and Floodlight first sent a series of queries about the Standard to Chevron and Singer for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chevron newsrooms begin in South America\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In launching the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>, Chevron followed a path the fossil fuel giant had first forged thousands of miles to the south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2009, Singer has run The Amazon Post in Ecuador at Chevron’s direction. The English-language site emerged as Chevron confronted lengthy multibillion-dollar litigation seeking to hold it liable for the pollution from oil drilling there. (Chevron had acquired Texaco in 2001, which was responsible for the oil extraction.) Chevron’s legal battle spread to other nations, including the U.S. and Brazil. The American attorney who led the suits against Chevron for Ecuadorian farmers and Indigenous peoples was a frequent target of the site. He was ultimately disbarred in New York for his actions in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981105\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981105\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Flames flicker from a refinery surrounded by trees.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flames flicker through the thick green trees of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest — where gas flares, oil wells and refineries darken the landscape and poison the environment — shown in Shushufindi, Ecuador, in 2023. The legacy there of Texaco, which Chevron acquired, has inspired lengthy legal battles in several countries. \u003ccite>(Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://theamazonpost.com/\">The Amazon Post\u003c/a> caters to English-speaking audiences and clearly discloses that it reflects “Chevron’s Views & Opinions on the Ecuador Lawsuit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A subsequent Spanish-language site called Juicio Crudo (an allusion to crude oil) focuses\u003ca href=\"https://www.juiciocrudo.com/\"> squarely\u003c/a> on a damning legal judgment against Chevron that a U.S. court later \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/business/federal-judge-rules-for-chevron-in-ecuadorean-pollution-case.html\">found to be fraudulent\u003c/a>. It reprints text directly from Chevron’s Spanish-language \u003ca href=\"https://www.juiciocrudo.com/documentos/f8eda1d720.pdf\">press releases\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.eloriente.com/\">El Oriente\u003c/a>, a Spanish-language digital outlet launched in 2019, presents as a news site aimed at audiences residing in the Ecuadorian Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until recently, it noted at the bottom of its page that it was “sponsored by Chevron.” Days after NPR and Floodlight started posing questions about Chevron’s sites, the affiliation was moved to the top, just beneath the site’s name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sites link to one another. Chevron says those sites are managed separately, not by Singer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In at least one instance, the controversies surrounding Chevron in Ecuador inspired fodder for the Standard back in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, Richmond’s then-mayor, \u003ca href=\"https://ci.richmond.ca.us/directory.aspx?EID=1070\">Gayle McLaughlin\u003c/a>, traveled to see Ecuador’s environmental degradation at a time when her party sought to force Chevron to pay more to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after she returned home, the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>‘s Aldax reported: “The mayor’s six-day trip to Ecuador was in support [of] the South American nation in its ongoing battle against Chevron, which it falsely blames for polluting the rain forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2014/06/11/richmond-mayor-gayle-mclaughlins-association-with-ecuadors-u-s-pr-firm-raises-questions/\">Aldax wrote\u003c/a> that McLaughlin was late filing $4,499 in expenses for the trip, which the Ecuadorian government had paid for. The article embedded a \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/ugtMBkqmXbQ\">video \u003c/a>produced by The Amazon Post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman wearing glasses and a purple shirt with design speaks and gestures with her hands next to a Black woman with locs and glasses.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gayle McLaughlin, then Richmond’s mayor, speaks onstage during a 2014 event in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Mike Windle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was a rare instance of the Standard producing anything other than benign community news. She had to pay a $200 fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, McLaughlin calls her misstep minor. She tells NPR and Floodlight she believes the story was intended to warn Chevron’s critics that it could embarrass them or just ignore them altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> will never, ever print anything that is critical of Chevron,” McLaughlin says, “and it will never print anything that upholds the community’s victories against Chevron. And we need to spread the word about those victories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expanding to Texas\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chevron launched its latest newsroom, called Permian Proud, in the Permian Basin in August 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The site posts stories about West Texas and New Mexico, which are home to the nation’s highest-producing oil fields, where Chevron has substantial drilling interests — and where \u003ca href=\"https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/explore/#/state-localnewslandscape?state=TX&stateCode=48\">local news has been hard hit\u003c/a>. Permian Proud explained its mission this way: “We aim to complement the important work of existing local media by providing hyper-local news you won’t find anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike California, Texas is a deeply red state with a broader support base for the oil and gas industry. Even so, Chevron’s future there is similarly deeply reliant on the goodwill of residents and regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the past year and a half, Permian Proud has put a spotlight on national spelling bee contestants, the local arts community, nonprofit organizations, community events, high school sports, industry accomplishments, and much more,” Chevron spokesperson Catie Matthews wrote in a statement for this story. “Additionally, the platform has amplified coverage of local stories by other news outlets and provided a digital arm to some of our rural communities and smaller nonprofit organizations who would otherwise not have one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Permian Proud also promotes Chevron’s perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the articles on the site are rewritten press releases. For example, Permian Proud’s article “\u003ca href=\"https://permianproud.com/chevrons-permian-basin-operations-to-tap-into-more-recycled-water/\">Chevron’s Permian Basin operations to tap into more recycled water\u003c/a>” is almost identical to Chevron’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/newsroom/2022/q3/permian-basin-operations-to-tap-into-more-recycled-water#:~:text=We%20reached%20an%20agreement%20with,by%20the%20end%20of%202023.\">press release\u003c/a>. The original text read, “By using recycled water in our fracking operations, we help preserve fresh water and groundwater in drought-prone areas.” Permian Proud swapped “Chevron helps” for “we help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the few listed bylines: Mike Aldax of Singer and \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981107\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with black hair and a greenish scarf outside stands in front of a mural with a microphone painted.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramos says locals share news about Chevron by word of mouth because The Richmond Standard is ‘giving us the opposite of the truth.’ \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Relying on word of mouth\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the absence of independent local news sources, Richmond residents say they rely on each other for accurate information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A husband-and-wife team started a small news site last year. A former mayor shares his thoughts about local politics in a newsletter. When school is in session, journalism students at the nearby University of California, Berkeley, cover Richmond as part of their studies. A nonprofit group has held listening sessions about plans to extend a hyperlocal site to the area. And sometimes — when the news is big enough — San Francisco TV stations cross the bay to cover it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mostly, there’s word of mouth. Activist Katt Ramos points to the February 2021 pipeline rupture. As Chevron publicly conceded, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11931168/chevron-agrees-to-pay-200000-for-2021-bay-fuel-spill-at-richmond-refinery\">resident spotted the tainted water\u003c/a> long before Chevron or any news outlet alerted the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our news is really from me, gathered by our local kind of independent folks that go around covering things for us,” Ramos says. “Because we have to deal with publications like \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> that are giving us the opposite of the truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Felicia Alvarez, Maria Fernanda Bernal and Richard Tzul of the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Chevron+owns+this+city%27s+news+site.+Many+stories+aren%27t+told&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR’s David Folkenflik reported this story with Miranda Green of\u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.floodlightnews.org/\">\u003cem> Floodlight\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>RICHMOND, Calif. — Open flames shot upward from four smokestacks at the Chevron refinery on the western edge of Richmond, California Soon, black smoke blanketed the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News spread quickly that day last November, but by word of mouth, says Denny Khamphanthong, a 29-year-old Richmond resident. “We don’t know the full story, but we know that you shouldn’t breathe in the air or be outside, for that matter,” Khamphanthong says now. “It would be nice to have an actual news outlet that would actually go out there and figure it out themselves.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s primary local news source, \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/\">\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, didn’t cover the flare. Nor had it reported on a 2021 Chevron refinery pipeline rupture that dumped nearly 800 gallons of diesel fuel into San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron is the city’s largest employer, largest taxpayer and largest polluter. Yet when it comes to writing about Chevron, \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> consistently toes the company line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there’s a reason for that: Chevron owns \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you look at Chevron’s website and you look at \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>, a lot of the information is copy and paste,” says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. “They present a very skewed viewpoint that is bought and paid for by Chevron.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a city landscape with trees and a refinery in the background.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5693_custom-2a426eb8dde45252963199495680bc4bb9d327d0-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Richmond exists in the shadow of the nearby Chevron refinery, which has been connected to poor air quality and health issues in the nearby community. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The site’s very name evokes the history of Chevron, which was created when John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil was broken up by federal trust-busters more than a century ago. \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> prides itself on being the “number one source for local, community-driven news” about the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around town, in coffee shops, an architect’s office, at a Mexican restaurant, even at a waterside National Park Service site, the Standard is recognized as the main source of news about the city. It carries stories about \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/03/27/rich-city-rides-launches-capital-campaign-to-purchase-home-base/\">charity drives\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/09/19/emergency-rail-replacement-prompts-closure-on-s-garrard-blvd/\">street closings\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/lifestyle/entertainment-and-food/2020/07/13/the-factory-bar-sets-opening-date/\">New bars\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/09/20/art-exhibition-celebrates-latinx-heritage-month-in-richmond/\">art exhibits\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/07/17/girl-power-coming-to-soccer-field-in-richmond/\">Youth soccer events\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/05/15/point-richmond-music-announces-lineup-for-summer-concert-series/\">local concerts\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/community/2024/02/06/richmonds-ons-loves-on-at-risk-people-to-end-gun-violence/\">safety initiatives\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades ago, the city relied on the Richmond \u003cem>Independent \u003c/em>and the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> to report on the community. And then a pattern familiar across the U.S. unfolded. The \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em> pulled back. The \u003cem>Independent\u003c/em> got folded into a newspaper in nearby Berkeley, which itself shut down in 1984. Papers in other East Bay cities shriveled up. Now, the city’s news landscape is dominated by its major corporate force. Markets where news outlets shut down are often called news deserts. The Standard has created something of a news mirage: Stories are told — but with an agenda. Facts displeasing to Chevron are omitted; hard truths softened. The company is seeking to get its point of view across and to convey that it can be trusted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent February night, a city council meeting repeatedly focused on developments involving Chevron. Other than journalists for NPR and Floodlight, not a single journalist attended in person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same San Francisco public relations firm that operates the Standard for Chevron runs a similar site about developments in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, where Chevron has major business interests. It also runs one of the company’s sites in Ecuador, where the energy giant has fought back decades of litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981098\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981098\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person rides a bike through an intersection with cars waiting at a stoplight.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5591_custom-714680c19940b1fb0af95746d3b95944f8dcc85b-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Richmond Standard is a local news site funded by Chevron, which runs a large refinery in town. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chevron’s bid to control the public discourse comes as efforts to combat climate change threaten the fossil fuel industry, especially in California. State regulators would effectively \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/california-bans-the-sale-of-new-gas-powered-cars-by-2035.html\">ban\u003c/a> the sales of gas-powered cars by 2035. They released the world’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/11/16/california-releases-worlds-first-plan-to-achieve-net-zero-carbon-pollution/\">first plan\u003c/a> to achieve net-zero carbon pollution. Other states and countries have adopted similar goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In February, Chevron revealed that it was \u003ca href=\"https://www.sec.gov/ixviewer/ix.html?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/93410/000009341024000013/cvx-20231231.htm#ib7903ee4cd7540d8ab5b70d4bf454edd_121\">losing about $1.8 billion \u003c/a>on assets, mainly in California, because of the state’s tougher regulatory climate. Chevron’s corporate headquarters is in San Ramon, about a 35-mile drive southeast of Richmond, though the company has moved the bulk of its workforce to Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The company saw a need to offer the community more news coverage of Richmond, which had been largely ignored by traditional media with the exception of crime stories,” says Braden Reddall, a manager of external affairs at Chevron. “Most people in Richmond will tell you there is a lot more to the community than what is known and reported by traditional media outlets. It’s a proud community, filled with interesting people who are doing interesting things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reddall, who earlier covered the company for the international news service \u003cem>Reuters\u003c/em>, added that other outlets more than adequately cover Chevron.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981099\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a green shirt with orange design patterns leans against the side of a building outside.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1000858_custom-e488c363fd777c761cf9a17ccd50d608a8e57480-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former schoolteacher Patricia Dornan says she reads The Richmond Standard but skips the stories about Chevron. “I don’t read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is,” she says. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lifelong Richmond resident Patricia Dornan says she cherry-picks which stories she reads in the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you understand that it’s going to have a Chevron-Standard Oil point of view, it’s fine because most of the stuff that they’re putting out has nothing to do with them,” says Dornan, a retired middle school teacher. “And so long as it doesn’t have to do with Chevron, it’s fine. I don’t read any of the articles about how wonderful their company is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dornan volunteers at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm\">Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park\u003c/a>. She tells visitors about the marvels of American manufacturing in a time of war and about the women welders of Richmond who were able to turn out warships in 51 days rather than two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1444px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png\" alt=\"A map showing Richmond with red and blue lines outlining pipelines in the area.\" width=\"1444\" height=\"1432\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM.png 1444w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-800x793.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-1020x1012.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-10.14.03-AM-160x159.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1444px) 100vw, 1444px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pipeline locations are approximate. Source: Google Earth, US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, California Department of Technology, OpenStreetMap contributors \u003ccite>(Hilary Fung/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her grandmother moved to town in 1905 — just three years after the refinery first opened — and her family has been there ever since. One of the streets in town is named after her father. She says Richmond can’t function without Chevron, but a true local news outlet would help hold it accountable to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she wants to know what Chevron is up to, Dornan says, “I usually ask my friends who are retirees from the refinery — what’s going on?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Richmond deserves more news coverage’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When the Standard launched in 2014, it proclaimed: “Richmond deserves more news coverage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the first time in more than 30 years, Richmond will have a community-driven daily news source dedicated to shining a light on the positive things that are going on in the community,” the \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/chevron-speaks/2013/01/23/richmond-deserves-more-news-coverage/\">site announced.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron presents the Standard as an investment in the Richmond community. \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/115094/documents/HHRG-117-II15-20220914-SD007.pdf\">The public relations firm operating the Standard wrote (PDF)\u003c/a>, “This site would tell the stories other outlets had lost the resources to tell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But not all of the stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent review found\u003cem> The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> had published 434 stories that touch on its owner, Chevron, since the site’s inception. Eight articles refer to flaring incidents. None cite oil spills. The majority of the stories that mention Chevron focus on profiles, \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/uncategorized/2024/02/16/chevron-richmond-recognized-for-helping-red-cross-sound-the-alarm-on-fire-safety/\">awards\u003c/a> ceremonies, community projects and \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2023/10/20/chevron-richmond-celebrates-hispanic-heritage-month-with-classic-cars-and-much-more/\">celebrations\u003c/a> it throws on such occasions as \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2024/02/26/chevron-richmond-marks-milestone-with-25th-black-history-awareness-celebration/\">Black History\u003c/a> and Hispanic Heritage months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Bay Area air pollution regulators secured landmark concessions from Chevron in February to settle a lawsuit, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11975650/bay-air-district-hails-decisive-victory-in-battle-to-cut-refinery-pollution\">they called it a “decisive victory\u003c/a>.” The \u003cem>San Jose Mercury News\u003c/em> headline cited “\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/east-bay-refineries-settle-with-bay-area-air-quality-agency-agree-to-20-million-in-fines-for-hundreds-of-violations/\">$20 million in fines for hundreds of air-quality violations\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2024/02/13/chevron-agreement-with-air-district-called-win-for-environment-and-energy/\">Richmond Standard\u003c/a> \u003c/em>was more reserved: “Chevron agreement with Air District called win for environment and energy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The article did not clearly lay out the core of the litigation. The words “fine” and “penalty” did not appear. Careful readers might have been able to piece together what transpired: The news outlet described an agreement involving $20 million that “solidifies the future of energy production at the Richmond Refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a whole host of news outlets around the Bay Area that cover the refinery,” says Reddall, the Chevron spokesperson. “The Standard seeks to fill in the gaps. From where I’m sitting, I don’t think that it’s a refinery that’s not written about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981100\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981100\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A person rides a bike down a street with a mural in the background.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001528_custom-8f3c0ecaa5280f513873a046609f97a67b508583-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richmond is a working-class city of 115,000 — nearly half of whom are Latino. Most people working at the Chevron refinery live outside the city. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A news mirage\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Boundaries blur between city and corporation in this largely working-class city of 115,000 people, almost half of whom are Latino. The tech boom of nearby Silicon Valley and the opulence of neighboring Marin County feel like universes away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The public high school’s mascot is the Oilers. Streets are named Ammonia and Petrolite and Xylene. Chevron’s network of pipes, low-lying cooling ponds and even sulfuric stench have become defining parts of the town’s character. A nature park where tufted egrets and hummingbirds frolic abuts the nearly 3,000-acre refinery itself — an expansive preserve of smokestacks, pipelines and tanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron, which recorded $21.3 billion in profits last year, has played an outsized role in Richmond for decades. It supplies the city with jobs — yet most Chevron employees live elsewhere. It pays roughly $50 million a year to Richmond — more than a sixth of the town’s annual revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company’s relationship with Richmond turned sour rather abruptly in 2012. An explosion at the refinery injured \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/chevron-refinery-fire-cal-osha-fine-calosha-fined/2247343/\">19 employees.\u003c/a> The air pollution from the resulting industrial fire could be seen from miles away. In the ensuing days, 15,000 Bay Area residents went to medical centers for respiratory complications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981101\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981101\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg\" alt='A sign with red lettering on the side of a building that reads \"Richmond Oilers.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5002_custom-7b06acdc68e74ea0931de6c640522261dd48c5d1-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Richmond High School mascot is the Oilers. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State and local prosecutors charged Chevron with \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/chevron-convicted-of-labor-codes-pays-2m-after-refinery-fire/1951195/\">criminal negligence\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/05/chevron-2m-fire/2620303/\">other crimes. T\u003c/a>he company settled by pleading no contest to six charges, paying out roughly $10 million to affected local residents, agencies and hospitals. Chevron also paid $5 million directly to the city of Richmond to settle a separate civil lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time of the incident, political sentiment in Richmond had started to swing away from the company. As the months passed, progressives threatened to take control of the city government. They promoted a future without the refinery — just as Chevron sought approval from city officials for a sweeping project to overhaul and modernize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the 2014 election cycle dawned, Chevron took action to ensure its voice was heard. It promised a huge investment in scholarships and public health programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron also spent $3 million to help propel pro-industry candidates. They all lost. “The election became a referendum on Chevron,” says Tom Butt, at the time a city council member who won election as mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron also launched\u003cem> The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> that year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the outset, the company disclosed its involvement. In small letters at the top of its homepage, the site reads, “Funded by Chevron.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981102\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981102\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"An elderly white man wearing a tan jacket sits down outside.\" width=\"1703\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-scaled.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-800x1203.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1020x1533.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-160x241.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1362x2048.jpg 1362w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_5353_custom-70d0b60670307735f71cb85a8507b0f4ce42ab21-1920x2886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Butt was elected mayor of Richmond in 2014. He says that election was a referendum on Chevron. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the election, the Standard published a 428-word statement from \u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/chevron-speaks/2014/11/19/election-mattered/\">Chevron\u003c/a> in its entirety that defended the company’s actions and criticized the city’s new leaders. “The question for Richmond is: Will local leaders recognize that business is integral to the city’s success?” the Chevron statement read. “Or, will city leaders continue to oppose efforts to create growth, preferring instead to watch the business climate — and the prosperity that business helps generate — decline?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We should be outraged’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Katt Ramos, who helps lead Communities for a Better Environment’s Richmond chapter, stages tours to demonstrate what she says is Chevron’s destructive legacy. It also illustrates what happens when independent local news disappears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She stops by Peres K–8 School in the Iron Triangle, a nickname derived from the three train tracks that intersect here. Older kids play soccer on a field with a coach while younger ones cavort on a playground. Beyond the school fence, the Chevron plant stands less than a mile away. A sign next to the school’s entrance warns of a shallow hazardous liquid pipeline from the refinery, a warning not to dig there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond,” Ramos says. Adults have to tell kids they can’t play outdoors due to a high number of bad air days, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981103\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A close up image of woman with black hair and a greenish scarf outside.\" width=\"1703\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-scaled.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-800x1203.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1020x1533.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-160x241.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1362x2048.jpg 1362w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4959_custom-9ae1328aaedb9053674e149d6ad183dc5bf607a9-1920x2886.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Nothing that is normalized about childhood is normalized in Richmond,’ says Katt Ramos, a local climate activist. She says the city’s air pollution problems and residents’ health issues are rarely covered in the news. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perhaps the best way of gauging the seriousness of such concerns is to look at child admissions to emergency rooms for asthma, says Anne Kelsey Lamb, who oversees asthma research for the Oakland-based Public Health Institute. Children in the ZIP code of the Iron Triangle — which includes the refinery as well as the neighborhoods surrounding the Peres school — are admitted for emergency care for asthma at triple the rate for California at large. (The institute provided an analysis of the most recent available state statistics at the request of NPR and Floodlight.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parceling out responsibility for air pollution is complicated, given Richmond’s many highways and railroads, along with the refinery. The regional board that regulates air quality found that Chevron accounts for 63% of all particle pollution in Richmond and two neighboring towns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These issues rarely get covered, Ramos says. She starts to weep gently when talking about the city’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think, at best, we should be outraged, you know?” she says. “Everyone should be concerned about the conditions that our community has to face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The PR firm running the Standard\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Chevron owns the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>, San Francisco-based Singer Associates runs it from across the bay. The consulting firm is known for handling PR crises. Founder Sam Singer is no stranger to Richmond; he grew up in Berkeley and briefly worked at the Richmond \u003cem>Independent\u003c/em> and a sister paper before moving on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singer Associates has written that the news outlet came about after Chevron developed a “fractured relationship with many stakeholders, including city government leaders.” The site was part of an effort “to provide the company with greater freedom to operate by increasing awareness for the positive role it plays in Richmond,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/115094/documents/HHRG-117-II15-20220914-SD007.pdf\">according to Singer’s application for an industry award\u003c/a>, as cited in a U.S. House Natural Resources Committee staff report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981104\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981104\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man swings a fishing pole over his head by a body of water.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/l1001474_custom-1539e2b09a55fba135d92ed538aee324aa2fdedb-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A man fishes for leopard sharks in the waterways along Point Richmond, a thoroughfare for petroleum that has been the site of several oil and chemical spills. \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Singer Associates employee Mike Aldax, a former reporter for the defunct \u003cem>San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> and the Bay City News Service, writes most Standard articles. (Aldax did not return messages seeking comment.) The site also hired two journalists who live in Richmond to write for the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our team has worked hard to build relationships with the community, which is why people trust us, and turn to us, to cover community stories,” Singer wrote in an email for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pace of reporting ebbs and flows. Some featured videos on the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>‘s homepage are several years old. The metabolism of fresh posts stepped up in early March, shortly after NPR and Floodlight first sent a series of queries about the Standard to Chevron and Singer for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chevron newsrooms begin in South America\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In launching the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>, Chevron followed a path the fossil fuel giant had first forged thousands of miles to the south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2009, Singer has run The Amazon Post in Ecuador at Chevron’s direction. The English-language site emerged as Chevron confronted lengthy multibillion-dollar litigation seeking to hold it liable for the pollution from oil drilling there. (Chevron had acquired Texaco in 2001, which was responsible for the oil extraction.) Chevron’s legal battle spread to other nations, including the U.S. and Brazil. The American attorney who led the suits against Chevron for Ecuadorian farmers and Indigenous peoples was a frequent target of the site. He was ultimately disbarred in New York for his actions in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981105\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981105\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Flames flicker from a refinery surrounded by trees.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-1247205074_custom-4333df7acdf33ebf2db696a0a6694986214e004c-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flames flicker through the thick green trees of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest — where gas flares, oil wells and refineries darken the landscape and poison the environment — shown in Shushufindi, Ecuador, in 2023. The legacy there of Texaco, which Chevron acquired, has inspired lengthy legal battles in several countries. \u003ccite>(Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://theamazonpost.com/\">The Amazon Post\u003c/a> caters to English-speaking audiences and clearly discloses that it reflects “Chevron’s Views & Opinions on the Ecuador Lawsuit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A subsequent Spanish-language site called Juicio Crudo (an allusion to crude oil) focuses\u003ca href=\"https://www.juiciocrudo.com/\"> squarely\u003c/a> on a damning legal judgment against Chevron that a U.S. court later \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/business/federal-judge-rules-for-chevron-in-ecuadorean-pollution-case.html\">found to be fraudulent\u003c/a>. It reprints text directly from Chevron’s Spanish-language \u003ca href=\"https://www.juiciocrudo.com/documentos/f8eda1d720.pdf\">press releases\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.eloriente.com/\">El Oriente\u003c/a>, a Spanish-language digital outlet launched in 2019, presents as a news site aimed at audiences residing in the Ecuadorian Amazon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until recently, it noted at the bottom of its page that it was “sponsored by Chevron.” Days after NPR and Floodlight started posing questions about Chevron’s sites, the affiliation was moved to the top, just beneath the site’s name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sites link to one another. Chevron says those sites are managed separately, not by Singer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In at least one instance, the controversies surrounding Chevron in Ecuador inspired fodder for the Standard back in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, Richmond’s then-mayor, \u003ca href=\"https://ci.richmond.ca.us/directory.aspx?EID=1070\">Gayle McLaughlin\u003c/a>, traveled to see Ecuador’s environmental degradation at a time when her party sought to force Chevron to pay more to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after she returned home, the \u003cem>Standard\u003c/em>‘s Aldax reported: “The mayor’s six-day trip to Ecuador was in support [of] the South American nation in its ongoing battle against Chevron, which it falsely blames for polluting the rain forest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2014/06/11/richmond-mayor-gayle-mclaughlins-association-with-ecuadors-u-s-pr-firm-raises-questions/\">Aldax wrote\u003c/a> that McLaughlin was late filing $4,499 in expenses for the trip, which the Ecuadorian government had paid for. The article embedded a \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/ugtMBkqmXbQ\">video \u003c/a>produced by The Amazon Post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman wearing glasses and a purple shirt with design speaks and gestures with her hands next to a Black woman with locs and glasses.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1705\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/gettyimages-467523155_custom-62bb18a46688cf4f9983ca4f55478a33127b602c-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gayle McLaughlin, then Richmond’s mayor, speaks onstage during a 2014 event in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Mike Windle/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was a rare instance of the Standard producing anything other than benign community news. She had to pay a $200 fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, McLaughlin calls her misstep minor. She tells NPR and Floodlight she believes the story was intended to warn Chevron’s critics that it could embarrass them or just ignore them altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> will never, ever print anything that is critical of Chevron,” McLaughlin says, “and it will never print anything that upholds the community’s victories against Chevron. And we need to spread the word about those victories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expanding to Texas\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chevron launched its latest newsroom, called Permian Proud, in the Permian Basin in August 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The site posts stories about West Texas and New Mexico, which are home to the nation’s highest-producing oil fields, where Chevron has substantial drilling interests — and where \u003ca href=\"https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/explore/#/state-localnewslandscape?state=TX&stateCode=48\">local news has been hard hit\u003c/a>. Permian Proud explained its mission this way: “We aim to complement the important work of existing local media by providing hyper-local news you won’t find anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike California, Texas is a deeply red state with a broader support base for the oil and gas industry. Even so, Chevron’s future there is similarly deeply reliant on the goodwill of residents and regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the past year and a half, Permian Proud has put a spotlight on national spelling bee contestants, the local arts community, nonprofit organizations, community events, high school sports, industry accomplishments, and much more,” Chevron spokesperson Catie Matthews wrote in a statement for this story. “Additionally, the platform has amplified coverage of local stories by other news outlets and provided a digital arm to some of our rural communities and smaller nonprofit organizations who would otherwise not have one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Permian Proud also promotes Chevron’s perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the articles on the site are rewritten press releases. For example, Permian Proud’s article “\u003ca href=\"https://permianproud.com/chevrons-permian-basin-operations-to-tap-into-more-recycled-water/\">Chevron’s Permian Basin operations to tap into more recycled water\u003c/a>” is almost identical to Chevron’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.chevron.com/newsroom/2022/q3/permian-basin-operations-to-tap-into-more-recycled-water#:~:text=We%20reached%20an%20agreement%20with,by%20the%20end%20of%202023.\">press release\u003c/a>. The original text read, “By using recycled water in our fracking operations, we help preserve fresh water and groundwater in drought-prone areas.” Permian Proud swapped “Chevron helps” for “we help.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the few listed bylines: Mike Aldax of Singer and \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11981107\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11981107\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with black hair and a greenish scarf outside stands in front of a mural with a microphone painted.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-2048x1362.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/z62_4979_custom-b783932e7783d65df058ad8dc7ca9e7cb07cd0a7-1920x1277.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramos says locals share news about Chevron by word of mouth because The Richmond Standard is ‘giving us the opposite of the truth.’ \u003ccite>(Brian L. Frank/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Relying on word of mouth\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the absence of independent local news sources, Richmond residents say they rely on each other for accurate information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A husband-and-wife team started a small news site last year. A former mayor shares his thoughts about local politics in a newsletter. When school is in session, journalism students at the nearby University of California, Berkeley, cover Richmond as part of their studies. A nonprofit group has held listening sessions about plans to extend a hyperlocal site to the area. And sometimes — when the news is big enough — San Francisco TV stations cross the bay to cover it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But mostly, there’s word of mouth. Activist Katt Ramos points to the February 2021 pipeline rupture. As Chevron publicly conceded, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11931168/chevron-agrees-to-pay-200000-for-2021-bay-fuel-spill-at-richmond-refinery\">resident spotted the tainted water\u003c/a> long before Chevron or any news outlet alerted the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our news is really from me, gathered by our local kind of independent folks that go around covering things for us,” Ramos says. “Because we have to deal with publications like \u003cem>The Richmond Standard\u003c/em> that are giving us the opposite of the truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Felicia Alvarez, Maria Fernanda Bernal and Richard Tzul of the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Chevron+owns+this+city%27s+news+site.+Many+stories+aren%27t+told&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads — is making good on its promise to tamp down the amount of political posts that users see on their feeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meta \u003ca href=\"https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/continuing-our-approach-to-political-content-on-instagram-and-threads\">said in early February\u003c/a> that Instagram and Threads would stop recommending political content from accounts that users don’t already follow. It said it would roll out the changes “slowly over time,” though did not specify when.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram\"]‘Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to choose to interact with political content while respecting each person’s appetite for it.’[/pullquote]The change started unrolling for users last week, Meta confirmed to NPR on Monday. And Instagram users quickly started noticing that their default settings had changed to limit content that is “likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large,” as the app now puts it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change has caught even the most online off guard, with many users \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/mattxiv/status/1771201399289696576?s=20\">criticizing Meta\u003c/a> for \u003ca href=\"https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/instagram-users-outraged-by-app-limiting-political-content-ahead-of-elections/\">limiting political content\u003c/a> in a year when the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/20/1225795005/2024-is-a-big-election-year-around-the-globe-will-democracy-win\">U.S. and several other countries\u003c/a> will hold pivotal elections — and for doing so with relatively little warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And many noted that Meta’s definition of political content — “potentially related to things like laws, elections, or social topics” — appears rather broad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has refused to clarify further what exactly constitutes political content under its cryptic definition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the move aligns with a yearslong shift away from news across Meta’s services. Last year, the company’s executives said Threads would not boost posts about news and social issues, angering many who turn to social media to stay up to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spokesperson Dani Lever told several media outlets that the change builds on “years of work on how we approach and treat political content based on what people have told us they wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While company executives argue that the shift away from news is what users want, experts say Meta is also trying to distance itself from accusations of political bias and being blamed for the rise of misinformation and the growth of online extremism.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What the change does — and how to undo it\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Meta has emphasized that the new setting won’t affect content from accounts that people already follow and that it gives them the option to choose how much political content they get recommended otherwise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instagram head Adam Mosseri \u003ca href=\"https://www.threads.net/@mosseri/post/C3IjVOovcS5\">said on Threads\u003c/a> last month that the change will influence what people see on their main feeds of Instagram and Threads, like the explore page, reels, feed recommendations and suggested users.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to choose to interact with political content while respecting each person’s appetite for it,” Mosseri said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meta has stressed that people who want political recommendations can still opt in to getting them. Here’s how:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Go to your Instagram profile\u003c/strong> and tap the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner to open the “Settings and activity” tab.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Scroll down to the “What you see”\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>section\u003c/strong> and click on “Content preferences.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Open the “Political content” page\u003c/strong> and turn on the “Don’t limit political content” option.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Meta is characterizing the change as an extension of its current approach to political content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It made \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/2022/07/21/facebook-tiktok-feed-changes\">significant changes to its algorithm\u003c/a> in recent years after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190383104/new-study-shows-just-how-facebooks-algorithm-shapes-conservative-and-liberal-bub\">mounting evidence and criticism\u003c/a> of the role that Facebook and Instagram played in sowing misinformation and polarization in the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections. Facebook has increasingly leaned into entertainment and away from news, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/22/metas-retreat-from-news-accelerated-in-2023-leaving-media-scrambling.html\">disrupting traffic for many major publishers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have told us they want to see less political content, so we have spent the last few years refining our approach on Facebook to reduce the amount of political content — including from politicians’ accounts — you see in Feed, Reels, Watch, Groups You Should Join, and Pages You May Like,” Meta \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/features/approach-to-political-content\">explained in February\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It said Facebook users will also get the choice to opt in to political recommendations “at a later date.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR’s Bobby Allyn contributed reporting. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">NPR.org\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Meta+is+limiting+how+much+political+content+users+see.+Here%27s+how+to+opt+out+of+that&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The change started unrolling for users last week, Meta confirmed to NPR on Monday. And Instagram users quickly started noticing that their default settings had changed to limit content that is “likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large,” as the app now puts it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change has caught even the most online off guard, with many users \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/mattxiv/status/1771201399289696576?s=20\">criticizing Meta\u003c/a> for \u003ca href=\"https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/instagram-users-outraged-by-app-limiting-political-content-ahead-of-elections/\">limiting political content\u003c/a> in a year when the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/20/1225795005/2024-is-a-big-election-year-around-the-globe-will-democracy-win\">U.S. and several other countries\u003c/a> will hold pivotal elections — and for doing so with relatively little warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And many noted that Meta’s definition of political content — “potentially related to things like laws, elections, or social topics” — appears rather broad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company has refused to clarify further what exactly constitutes political content under its cryptic definition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the move aligns with a yearslong shift away from news across Meta’s services. Last year, the company’s executives said Threads would not boost posts about news and social issues, angering many who turn to social media to stay up to date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spokesperson Dani Lever told several media outlets that the change builds on “years of work on how we approach and treat political content based on what people have told us they wanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While company executives argue that the shift away from news is what users want, experts say Meta is also trying to distance itself from accusations of political bias and being blamed for the rise of misinformation and the growth of online extremism.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What the change does — and how to undo it\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Meta has emphasized that the new setting won’t affect content from accounts that people already follow and that it gives them the option to choose how much political content they get recommended otherwise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instagram head Adam Mosseri \u003ca href=\"https://www.threads.net/@mosseri/post/C3IjVOovcS5\">said on Threads\u003c/a> last month that the change will influence what people see on their main feeds of Instagram and Threads, like the explore page, reels, feed recommendations and suggested users.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to choose to interact with political content while respecting each person’s appetite for it,” Mosseri said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meta has stressed that people who want political recommendations can still opt in to getting them. Here’s how:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Go to your Instagram profile\u003c/strong> and tap the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner to open the “Settings and activity” tab.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Scroll down to the “What you see”\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>section\u003c/strong> and click on “Content preferences.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Open the “Political content” page\u003c/strong> and turn on the “Don’t limit political content” option.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Meta is characterizing the change as an extension of its current approach to political content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It made \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/2022/07/21/facebook-tiktok-feed-changes\">significant changes to its algorithm\u003c/a> in recent years after \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190383104/new-study-shows-just-how-facebooks-algorithm-shapes-conservative-and-liberal-bub\">mounting evidence and criticism\u003c/a> of the role that Facebook and Instagram played in sowing misinformation and polarization in the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections. Facebook has increasingly leaned into entertainment and away from news, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/22/metas-retreat-from-news-accelerated-in-2023-leaving-media-scrambling.html\">disrupting traffic for many major publishers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have told us they want to see less political content, so we have spent the last few years refining our approach on Facebook to reduce the amount of political content — including from politicians’ accounts — you see in Feed, Reels, Watch, Groups You Should Join, and Pages You May Like,” Meta \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/features/approach-to-political-content\">explained in February\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It said Facebook users will also get the choice to opt in to political recommendations “at a later date.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR’s Bobby Allyn contributed reporting. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">NPR.org\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Meta+is+limiting+how+much+political+content+users+see.+Here%27s+how+to+opt+out+of+that&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Just months after the Supreme Court overturned \u003cem>Roe v. Wade \u003c/em>in 2022, a newly formed group called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine sued the Food and Drug Administration, challenging its approval of mifepristone, a medication used for abortion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the same justices who undid constitutional protection for abortion will hear arguments in the next frontier of abortion restriction: tightening access across the country for a medication that’s used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions nationally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Mary Ziegler, law professor, UC Davis\"]‘This is a reminder that what happens in the federal courts can override what voters decide.’[/pullquote]That is the main issue in \u003cem>FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. \u003c/em>On one side are anti-abortion rights physicians and organizations. \u003ca href=\"https://adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net/files/AllianceForHippocraticMedicineComplaint.pdf\">Originally\u003c/a>, they argued that the FDA should not have approved mifepristone in 2000; now, they’re \u003ca href=\"https://adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net/files/AHM-OpeningBrief.pdf\">focusing on the argument\u003c/a> that it should not have made it easier to access in 2016 and 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other side is FDA and the drugmaker, Danco, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/medication-abortion-fda-supreme-court-alliance-hippocratic-medicine/\">who say\u003c/a> that the challengers aren’t actually harmed by the prescribing rules (and thus don’t have standing to bring the case) and that the FDA followed correct procedure and the scientific evidence in making its decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a closely-watched case because the stakes are extremely high – not just for abortion access and reproductive health care, but for the drug industry and even the authority of federal agencies. Here is a summary of what’s at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. It could make medication abortion much harder to get\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At least \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/19/1238293143/abortion-data-how-many-us-2023\">63% of all abortions\u003c/a> last year were medication abortions. They involve taking one dose of mifepristone, which blocks the pregnancy hormone progesterone, and one dose of misoprostol, which causes cramping and empties the uterus. Dozens of studies have found that the combination of these pills is \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507232/#sec_000054\">safe and effective\u003c/a> for abortion, whether prescribed in a clinic or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/15/1231652715/abortion-pill-telehealth-supreme-court-safe-study-mifepristone#:~:text=All%20Things%20Considered-,Abortion%20pills%20prescribed%20via%20telehealth%20are%20safe%20and%20effective%2C%20study,by%20any%20serious%20adverse%20events.\">through telemedicine\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11973441,news_11976304,news_11958412\" label=\"Related Stories\"]Last August, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/16/1194280392/ruling-deals-blow-to-access-to-abortion-pill-mifepristone-but-nothing-changes-ye\">ruled\u003c/a> that the FDA should roll back its prescribing rules to what they were in 2011. That would dramatically reduce the number of people able to access this medication for several reasons. It would shut down telemedicine access to the medication and could undo retail pharmacies’ \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/01/1235265078/abortion-pill-cvs-walgreens-mifepristone#:~:text=CVS%20and%20Walgreens%2C%20two%20of,companies%20separately%20confirmed%20to%20NPR.\">new ability to dispense it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would also make it only available until seven weeks of pregnancy, instead of 10 weeks under the current rules, along with other changes. (Globally, the medication can be used \u003ca href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/2023/07/mifepristone-abortion-global-context-safe-effective-and-approved-nearly-100-countries#:~:text=The%20World%20Health%20Organization%20(WHO,methods%20of%20ending%20a%20pregnancy.\">as late as 12 weeks\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the difference between seven and 10 weeks might not sound like much, nearly half of medication abortions happen after seven weeks, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/ss/ss7209a1.htm#T13_down\">according to the CDC\u003c/a>. Melissa Grant, COO of \u003ca href=\"https://carafem.org/\">carafem\u003c/a>, which runs abortion clinics and provides telemedicine abortions, explains that’s because the earliest someone might find out they’re pregnant is at four weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A seven-week limit gives people three weeks, at most, “to get a positive pregnancy test, determine what option is best for them, potentially involve people that they care about in their lives, find an appointment, look at potential assistance for the finances of it, and then actually go and get the medication and use it,” she says. “That’s a rapid turnaround.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many abortion providers are prepared to switch to another regimen, using \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/04/10/1168857095/misoprostol-only-medical-abortion\">only misoprostol\u003c/a>, but it requires more doses, which come with more side effects. And Grant says that regimen might be the next target if the challengers succeed in restricting mifepristone. “We wouldn’t be surprised if the next move on the political chessboard is to make both of these drugs unavailable,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. It would hamper miscarriage care\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When someone has a miscarriage, doctors often prescribe the same mifepristone plus misoprostol regimen. The treatment can potentially ward off weeks of waiting, worrying and bleeding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, Michelle Brown \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/17/1176514276/mifepristone-abortion-miscarriage-pill\">told NPR\u003c/a> that after she learned she was miscarrying, she was nervous she would start bleeding on her long commute to work in Louisiana, where there was no safe place to pull over. Taking mifepristone allowed her to plan ahead so she could be comfortable at home with her then-fiancé.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larissa Adams explained to NPR that taking mifepristone allowed her to get through years of family planning challenges that involved miscarriage after miscarriage after miscarriage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We use this medication in lots of different ways and for lots of different care,” including for miscarriage and pregnancy loss, says \u003ca href=\"https://prh.org/staff/dr-jamila-perritt-president-ceo/\">Dr. Jamila Perritt\u003c/a>, an OB-GYN in Washington D.C. who’s the President of Physicians for Reproductive Health. “If this medication is restricted or banned completely, no one will be able to get access to it with any ease,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. It could affect the whole country, including voters’ preferences in blue states\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the nearly two years since the Supreme Court overturned \u003cem>Roe\u003c/em>, states have moved in two opposing directions – about half of states ban or seriously restrict abortion, and the other half have passed measures to protect access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Supreme Court decision that restricts access to mifepristone would affect the whole country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there’s been to some degree a false sense of security created by ballot initiatives [protecting abortion access] in some states,” says \u003ca href=\"https://law.ucdavis.edu/people/mary-ziegler\">Mary Ziegler,\u003c/a> a law professor at the University of California-Davis. “People are thinking, ‘What happens in the Supreme Court doesn’t really matter because I live in California or I live in Michigan or I live in Ohio’ – that, essentially, if you voted for a ballot initiative or you live in a blue state, you don’t have to worry about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a reminder that what happens in the federal courts can override what voters decide,” she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. It could interfere with state sovereignty\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A ruling to limit access to mifepristone would extend into the states that have attempted to protect access. That’s why a group of 22 Democratic governors \u003ca href=\"https://governor.wa.gov/news/2024/reproductive-freedom-alliance-urges-supreme-court-respect-longstanding-fda-authority-access-safe\">filed an amicus brief\u003c/a> in this case. It argues that, if successful, the challengers’ strategy of using federal courts to override the FDA’s judgment, “would have an enormously disruptive impact on state governance and hamstring governors’ ability to fulfill their mandate of protecting public health and safety in the reproductive health care context and beyond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ziegler observes there’s an irony here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the Supreme Court overruled \u003cem>Roe\u003c/em>, the takeaway, if you will, from Justice Alito, was, ‘It’s time for this question to be returned to the people and their elected representatives,'” she observes. “And yet, fast forward less than two years later and we have two major abortion cases at the Supreme Court, both of which could very much reconfigure what happens in states.” (The other \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/05/1216284896/supreme-court-allows-idaho-abortion-ban-to-be-enacted-first-such-ruling-since-do\">case, from Idaho\u003c/a>, challenges federal rules requiring abortion during a medical emergency, regardless of state restrictions.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>6. The drug industry could face destabilizing uncertainty\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Drugmakers are quite concerned about the mifepristone case. Hundreds of drug company executives \u003ca href=\"https://docsend.com/view/2ahvmwy8djzxax3g\">signed a letter\u003c/a> last year in support of the FDA’s authority to regulate medications without judicial interference. Many also submitted \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-235/299230/20240130145318224_23-235%20236%20tsac%20Pharma%20Merits%20Amicus%20FINAL.pdf\">an amicus brief\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This case is about mifepristone right now – it’s about one medicine, but it really could be any medicine, ” Dr. Amanda Banks, a consultant who signed the amicus brief, says in a press conference this month organized by the ACLU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The [FDA] regulatory process that we rely upon as an industry is rigorous and long and it’s expensive,” she explained, adding that it’s not a perfect process, but it’s predictable. If it can be undone by plaintiffs who morally object to a medicine and friendly federal courts, that predictability goes out the window, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The uncertainty could affect investors and drug companies and “could put innovation for new drugs and much, much-needed therapies for patients, not just in the United States, but globally, at fundamental risk,” Banks says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could also set a new precedent, Ziegler adds. “Any drug could get a second look from federal judges who are not reviewing as much evidence [as FDA scientists], or are not competent to review as much evidence, because they don’t like the way the FDA handled it,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-235/299512/20240201143618529_23-235%20and%2023-236%20tsac%20Motion%20For%20Leave%20To%20File%20Brief%20And%20Ac%20Former%20Commissioners%20Of%20The%20U.S.%20Food%20And%20Drug%20Administration.pdf\">another amicus brief\u003c/a>, former FDA commissioners argued that drug companies could make use of a precedent set by this case to challenge a competitor’s FDA approval. Or, they write, “Organizations representing patients who experience rare adverse events could challenge FDA’s risk-benefit analyses and attempt to bar access to safe and effective remedies for others who need them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that’s why the pharmaceutical industry is nervous,” Ziegler says. “They’re saying, if this could happen with mifepristone, which has a very, very low complication rate and which is very, very well studied because it’s been controversial, then what would stop anyone from doing it with every other drug?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>7. A path toward a national abortion ban is embedded in the cas\u003cstrong>e\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Legal scholars like Ziegler also note that there’s an even bigger way that this case could affect everyone in the country. “You have, lurking in the background, the possibility that the Comstock Act is going to be reinvented as an abortion ban,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/04/18/1170371877/abortion-pill-mifepristone-judge-comstock\">The Comstock Act\u003c/a> is a 19th-century law prohibiting the mailing of things for “indecent” or “immoral” use. The plaintiffs in this case use Comstock in one of their arguments, treating it as a straightforward statute and not a defunct law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rules included in the Comstock Act could encompass not just abortion pills but birth control and any equipment used for any type of abortion, and Ziegler says this could effectively inhibit all abortion care in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless of what the ultimate decision on mifepristone is, “if the court says, ‘your reading of the Comstock Act is right,’ there are any number of anti-abortion groups that will try to find a way to get back to the Supreme Court to explore all those implications,” Ziegler says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=What%27s+at+stake+in+the+Supreme+Court+mifepristone+case&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Just months after the Supreme Court overturned \u003cem>Roe v. Wade \u003c/em>in 2022, a newly formed group called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine sued the Food and Drug Administration, challenging its approval of mifepristone, a medication used for abortion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the same justices who undid constitutional protection for abortion will hear arguments in the next frontier of abortion restriction: tightening access across the country for a medication that’s used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions nationally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That is the main issue in \u003cem>FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. \u003c/em>On one side are anti-abortion rights physicians and organizations. \u003ca href=\"https://adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net/files/AllianceForHippocraticMedicineComplaint.pdf\">Originally\u003c/a>, they argued that the FDA should not have approved mifepristone in 2000; now, they’re \u003ca href=\"https://adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net/files/AHM-OpeningBrief.pdf\">focusing on the argument\u003c/a> that it should not have made it easier to access in 2016 and 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other side is FDA and the drugmaker, Danco, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/medication-abortion-fda-supreme-court-alliance-hippocratic-medicine/\">who say\u003c/a> that the challengers aren’t actually harmed by the prescribing rules (and thus don’t have standing to bring the case) and that the FDA followed correct procedure and the scientific evidence in making its decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a closely-watched case because the stakes are extremely high – not just for abortion access and reproductive health care, but for the drug industry and even the authority of federal agencies. Here is a summary of what’s at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. It could make medication abortion much harder to get\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At least \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/19/1238293143/abortion-data-how-many-us-2023\">63% of all abortions\u003c/a> last year were medication abortions. They involve taking one dose of mifepristone, which blocks the pregnancy hormone progesterone, and one dose of misoprostol, which causes cramping and empties the uterus. Dozens of studies have found that the combination of these pills is \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507232/#sec_000054\">safe and effective\u003c/a> for abortion, whether prescribed in a clinic or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/15/1231652715/abortion-pill-telehealth-supreme-court-safe-study-mifepristone#:~:text=All%20Things%20Considered-,Abortion%20pills%20prescribed%20via%20telehealth%20are%20safe%20and%20effective%2C%20study,by%20any%20serious%20adverse%20events.\">through telemedicine\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Last August, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/16/1194280392/ruling-deals-blow-to-access-to-abortion-pill-mifepristone-but-nothing-changes-ye\">ruled\u003c/a> that the FDA should roll back its prescribing rules to what they were in 2011. That would dramatically reduce the number of people able to access this medication for several reasons. It would shut down telemedicine access to the medication and could undo retail pharmacies’ \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/01/1235265078/abortion-pill-cvs-walgreens-mifepristone#:~:text=CVS%20and%20Walgreens%2C%20two%20of,companies%20separately%20confirmed%20to%20NPR.\">new ability to dispense it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It would also make it only available until seven weeks of pregnancy, instead of 10 weeks under the current rules, along with other changes. (Globally, the medication can be used \u003ca href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/2023/07/mifepristone-abortion-global-context-safe-effective-and-approved-nearly-100-countries#:~:text=The%20World%20Health%20Organization%20(WHO,methods%20of%20ending%20a%20pregnancy.\">as late as 12 weeks\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the difference between seven and 10 weeks might not sound like much, nearly half of medication abortions happen after seven weeks, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/ss/ss7209a1.htm#T13_down\">according to the CDC\u003c/a>. Melissa Grant, COO of \u003ca href=\"https://carafem.org/\">carafem\u003c/a>, which runs abortion clinics and provides telemedicine abortions, explains that’s because the earliest someone might find out they’re pregnant is at four weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A seven-week limit gives people three weeks, at most, “to get a positive pregnancy test, determine what option is best for them, potentially involve people that they care about in their lives, find an appointment, look at potential assistance for the finances of it, and then actually go and get the medication and use it,” she says. “That’s a rapid turnaround.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many abortion providers are prepared to switch to another regimen, using \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/04/10/1168857095/misoprostol-only-medical-abortion\">only misoprostol\u003c/a>, but it requires more doses, which come with more side effects. And Grant says that regimen might be the next target if the challengers succeed in restricting mifepristone. “We wouldn’t be surprised if the next move on the political chessboard is to make both of these drugs unavailable,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. It would hamper miscarriage care\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When someone has a miscarriage, doctors often prescribe the same mifepristone plus misoprostol regimen. The treatment can potentially ward off weeks of waiting, worrying and bleeding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, Michelle Brown \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/17/1176514276/mifepristone-abortion-miscarriage-pill\">told NPR\u003c/a> that after she learned she was miscarrying, she was nervous she would start bleeding on her long commute to work in Louisiana, where there was no safe place to pull over. Taking mifepristone allowed her to plan ahead so she could be comfortable at home with her then-fiancé.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Larissa Adams explained to NPR that taking mifepristone allowed her to get through years of family planning challenges that involved miscarriage after miscarriage after miscarriage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We use this medication in lots of different ways and for lots of different care,” including for miscarriage and pregnancy loss, says \u003ca href=\"https://prh.org/staff/dr-jamila-perritt-president-ceo/\">Dr. Jamila Perritt\u003c/a>, an OB-GYN in Washington D.C. who’s the President of Physicians for Reproductive Health. “If this medication is restricted or banned completely, no one will be able to get access to it with any ease,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. It could affect the whole country, including voters’ preferences in blue states\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the nearly two years since the Supreme Court overturned \u003cem>Roe\u003c/em>, states have moved in two opposing directions – about half of states ban or seriously restrict abortion, and the other half have passed measures to protect access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Supreme Court decision that restricts access to mifepristone would affect the whole country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there’s been to some degree a false sense of security created by ballot initiatives [protecting abortion access] in some states,” says \u003ca href=\"https://law.ucdavis.edu/people/mary-ziegler\">Mary Ziegler,\u003c/a> a law professor at the University of California-Davis. “People are thinking, ‘What happens in the Supreme Court doesn’t really matter because I live in California or I live in Michigan or I live in Ohio’ – that, essentially, if you voted for a ballot initiative or you live in a blue state, you don’t have to worry about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a reminder that what happens in the federal courts can override what voters decide,” she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>4. It could interfere with state sovereignty\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A ruling to limit access to mifepristone would extend into the states that have attempted to protect access. That’s why a group of 22 Democratic governors \u003ca href=\"https://governor.wa.gov/news/2024/reproductive-freedom-alliance-urges-supreme-court-respect-longstanding-fda-authority-access-safe\">filed an amicus brief\u003c/a> in this case. It argues that, if successful, the challengers’ strategy of using federal courts to override the FDA’s judgment, “would have an enormously disruptive impact on state governance and hamstring governors’ ability to fulfill their mandate of protecting public health and safety in the reproductive health care context and beyond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ziegler observes there’s an irony here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the Supreme Court overruled \u003cem>Roe\u003c/em>, the takeaway, if you will, from Justice Alito, was, ‘It’s time for this question to be returned to the people and their elected representatives,'” she observes. “And yet, fast forward less than two years later and we have two major abortion cases at the Supreme Court, both of which could very much reconfigure what happens in states.” (The other \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/05/1216284896/supreme-court-allows-idaho-abortion-ban-to-be-enacted-first-such-ruling-since-do\">case, from Idaho\u003c/a>, challenges federal rules requiring abortion during a medical emergency, regardless of state restrictions.)\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>6. The drug industry could face destabilizing uncertainty\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Drugmakers are quite concerned about the mifepristone case. Hundreds of drug company executives \u003ca href=\"https://docsend.com/view/2ahvmwy8djzxax3g\">signed a letter\u003c/a> last year in support of the FDA’s authority to regulate medications without judicial interference. Many also submitted \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-235/299230/20240130145318224_23-235%20236%20tsac%20Pharma%20Merits%20Amicus%20FINAL.pdf\">an amicus brief\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This case is about mifepristone right now – it’s about one medicine, but it really could be any medicine, ” Dr. Amanda Banks, a consultant who signed the amicus brief, says in a press conference this month organized by the ACLU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The [FDA] regulatory process that we rely upon as an industry is rigorous and long and it’s expensive,” she explained, adding that it’s not a perfect process, but it’s predictable. If it can be undone by plaintiffs who morally object to a medicine and friendly federal courts, that predictability goes out the window, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The uncertainty could affect investors and drug companies and “could put innovation for new drugs and much, much-needed therapies for patients, not just in the United States, but globally, at fundamental risk,” Banks says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It could also set a new precedent, Ziegler adds. “Any drug could get a second look from federal judges who are not reviewing as much evidence [as FDA scientists], or are not competent to review as much evidence, because they don’t like the way the FDA handled it,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-235/299512/20240201143618529_23-235%20and%2023-236%20tsac%20Motion%20For%20Leave%20To%20File%20Brief%20And%20Ac%20Former%20Commissioners%20Of%20The%20U.S.%20Food%20And%20Drug%20Administration.pdf\">another amicus brief\u003c/a>, former FDA commissioners argued that drug companies could make use of a precedent set by this case to challenge a competitor’s FDA approval. Or, they write, “Organizations representing patients who experience rare adverse events could challenge FDA’s risk-benefit analyses and attempt to bar access to safe and effective remedies for others who need them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that’s why the pharmaceutical industry is nervous,” Ziegler says. “They’re saying, if this could happen with mifepristone, which has a very, very low complication rate and which is very, very well studied because it’s been controversial, then what would stop anyone from doing it with every other drug?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>7. A path toward a national abortion ban is embedded in the cas\u003cstrong>e\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Legal scholars like Ziegler also note that there’s an even bigger way that this case could affect everyone in the country. “You have, lurking in the background, the possibility that the Comstock Act is going to be reinvented as an abortion ban,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/04/18/1170371877/abortion-pill-mifepristone-judge-comstock\">The Comstock Act\u003c/a> is a 19th-century law prohibiting the mailing of things for “indecent” or “immoral” use. The plaintiffs in this case use Comstock in one of their arguments, treating it as a straightforward statute and not a defunct law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rules included in the Comstock Act could encompass not just abortion pills but birth control and any equipment used for any type of abortion, and Ziegler says this could effectively inhibit all abortion care in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"snap-judgment": {
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