Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFT-HD2, Houston’s Community Station. You can also hear the show:

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Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. My co-host and show editor is Andrew Ferguson.

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• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.
• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

1. Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter InformationTEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   1. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
      1. Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
      2. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
      3. Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX)
      4. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
      5. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
      6. Waller County (TX) Elections
      7. Chambers County (TX) Elections
      8. For personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information, Consider visiting Vote.ORG.   Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
      9. If you are denied your right to vote any place at any time at any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
      10. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting CentersHARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
          1. Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
          2. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
          3. Current utility bill
          4. Bank statement
          5. Government check
          6. Paycheck
          7. A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
          8. You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
             1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
             2. Sick or disabled;
             3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
             4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
             5. Make sure you are registered:
             6. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
             7. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
             8. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
             9. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
2. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL YOUR MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2022
   1. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
   2. May 7 Constitutional & Local Election
      1. 07Apr – Last Day to Register to Vote
      2. 25Apr – First Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
      3. 26Apr – Last Day to Apply for Ballot by Mail (Received, not Postmarked)
      4. 03May – Last Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
      5. 07May – Election Day & Last day to Receive Ballot by Mail
   3. May 24 Primary Runoff & Precinct Chair Election
      1. 25Apr – Last Day to Register to Vote
      2. 13May – Last Day to Apply by Mail (Received, not Postmarked)
      3. 16May – First Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
      4. 20May – Last Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
      5. 24May – Election Day & Last Day to Receive Ballot by Mail
3. Montgomery County returns $3.2 million in rental assistance to U.S. Treasury; By Jishnu Nair | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 10:00 AM Mar 11, 2022 CST
   3. Montgomery County commissioners approved a de-obligation of $3.2 million in emergency rental assistance funds to the U.S. Treasury Department at a March 8 commissioners court session.
   4. … The Treasury Department has set a March 31 deadline to recapture unused assistance funds.
   5. In 2020, the county received $18.1 million in emergency rental assistance funds through December; the county returned $7.1 million of that in November 2021, Community Impact Newspaper previously reported. Following that release, the county created a new assistance portal for residents to apply for aid.
   6. County Judge Mark Keough cited a lack of applicants in November but anticipated more residents would seek the ERA funding in 2022, when other federal grants expired. Community Development Director Rebecca Ansley told Community Impact Newspaper in a March 9 email that the county had spent $929,444.03 in aid as of December. …
   7. [Texas Housers researcher Ben Martin] said it was important that counties, including Montgomery County, keep unused rental funds in Texas by sending them to the Texas Rent Relief program, which is run by the Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
   8. Although Texas Rent Relief’s direct portal is closed as of January, spokesperson Kristina Tirloni said the program has invited counties to send unused funds to them, and has requested more funds from the Treasury Department.
   9. Martin said when money is recaptured by the Treasury, it is not guaranteed to return to Texas counties that may need it more.
   10. “We saw throughout the holiday period into the last few weeks another pandemic wave had a big impact on people,” Martin said. “Montgomery County needs to have a plan for voluntarily reallocating this money to the Texas Rent Relief fund.”
   11. Ansley told Community Impact Newspaper the county requested its first $7.1 million disbursement to go to Texas Rent Relief, but the March 8 disbursement was requested directly by the Treasury, and the funds were required “as soon as possible.” …

4. 1. Tomball ISD considers staggering start times for all campuses; By Kayli Thompson | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:47 PM Mar 8, 2022 CST | Updated 4:47 PM Mar 8, 2022 CST

   7. Steven Gutierrez, Tomball ISD’s chief operating officer, proposed staggering school start times in four tiers during a workshop presentation to the TISD board of trustees March 7. These adjusted start times are anticipated to enable students to arrive and leave school on time while accounting for the ongoing bus driver shortage TISD has been facing, Gutierrez said during the presentation.
   8. A 30-member school start time committee did research, received parental feedback and worked with the transportation department before settling on a draft four-tier bell schedule to present to the board, Gutierrez said.
   9. Gutierrez said this tiered plan works with the amount of drivers the district is currently able to employ. The district has continually been short 25 drivers, he said, which has contributed to lengthy bus routes, crowded buses, long ride times for students, and late drop-offs and pickups for students.
   10. “When you think about cost-savings and efficiency, first and foremost, our students get a better experience [with this plan], and we can do it with 25 drivers fewer,” Gutierrez said. …
   11. Kim McKinney, TISD’s Grand Lakes Junior High School principal, said during the meeting the four different tiers also allow the district to avoid busing intermediate students with junior high and high schoolers, which has been an ongoing safety concern for families in the district.
   12. “This has been a huge thing; we’ve heard it for years. From a safety perspective, there’s a huge gap in age there, and so this fixes that issue as well,” McKinney said. …
   13. During the workshop meeting, Trustee Michael Pratt asked if pushing start times later in the morning had been considered, instead of an early start. Superintendent Martha Salazar-Zamora said the concern with starting later is many older students work after school or are involved in school activities that often must be held at similar times as other competing districts. This means if students start their school day later, they also end it later, she said. …
   14. TISD trustees did not take action on the tiered schedule March 7, as the presentation was given during a workshop meeting.
5. Harris County Flood Control District breaks ground on 2 Spring-area projects in Cypress Creek watershed; By Hannah Zedaker | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 7:50 AM Mar 11, 2022 CST
   1. Harris County Flood Control District officials hosted a groundbreaking ceremony March 10 for two projects in the Spring area of the Cypress Creek watershed.
   2. According to a March 7 news release, the first project will include the construction of a stormwater detention basin on a 6.81-acre … located just north of Cypresswood Drive between I-45 and the Hardy Toll Road. …
   3. Upon completion, the basin will be able to hold roughly 37 acre-feet, or more than 12 million gallons, of stormwater during heavy rain events. …
   4. The second project, [is] located about a quarter of a mile north of the first project [and] will have an additional capacity of 12.2-acre feet, or roughly 3.9 million gallons, of stormwater. …
6. Light pollution, parking discussed as Bellaire continues debate over Fournace development district; By George Wiebe | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 11:01 AM Mar 9, 2022 CST | Updated 11:01 AM Mar 9, 2022 CST
   1. For the second council meeting in a row, the Bellaire City Council debated the land use of a former Chevron campus within city limits now known as the North Bellaire Special Development District. …
   2. [Among matters discussed, Council Member Catherine Lewis] made a presentation citing the potential effects of light from some of the taller proposed buildings in the … plan, emphasizing the need to protect surrounding neighborhoods from light pollution. The city’s requirements call for opaque screening in certain areas to block light from entering adjacent residences. …
   3. [Also on the agenda,] Officials with the Evelyn’s Park Conservancy Board announced an opening of the park’s second phase in either late March or early April. Improvements will include a solar-powered shade structure for small gatherings, a large covered pavilion with moveable seating, an interactive splash pad and two new interactive playgrounds.
   4. The council also approved a design contract with Ardurra Group Inc. for the installation of a 500-kilowatt generator at the Feld Park Water Treatment Facility, allocating $76,174.
   5. Once completed, he project “will provide the city with full generator power at two of the three water production facilities, which will provide for additional protection against the impacts of a prolonged power outage,” according to the council agenda packet.
7. Gastronome Russian Food Store in Spring changes name, sends support to Ukraine; By Emily Lincke | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 7:15 AM Mar 13, 2022 CDT
   1. Gastronome International Food, located at 1421 Spring Cypress Road, Spring, in Grace’s Nutrition Market, has changed its name from Gastronome Russian Food Store in light of the current Russia-Ukraine conflict.
   2. Owner Dmytro Ivanov is from Ukraine, but he originally included “Russian” in the name of his store, which sells treats from a variety of Eastern European countries, to make it easier to identify for Russian-speaking communities, he said.
   3. After Russian troops launched attacks in Ukraine in late February, Ivanov said he worried about the safety of his mother, who lives in the city of Kharkiv. The city has been bombed “nonstop” since the fighting began, Ivanov said.
   4. “It took [my mom] four days to drive from Kharkiv, Ukraine, to Warsaw, Poland,” Ivanov said. “Very stressful four days in our lives.”
   5. Ivanov said his mother plans to travel to Spring by March 13. Meanwhile, Ivanov has been raising money and donations for the people of Ukraine, sending a truck with eight pallets of donations to those in need March 7, according to the business’s Facebook page. …
8. 2021 Houston job growth sets record; Russian invasion raises economic concerns; By Jishnu Nair | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 1:37 PM Mar 10, 2022 CST | Updated 1:37 PM Mar 10, 2022 CST
   1. 2021 was the best year on record for Houston job growth [since 1981], according to Patrick Jankowski, the Greater Houston Partnership’s senior vice president of research. …
   2. Restaurants and bars saw the strongest job recovery in 2021 …
   3. Jankowski raised concerns about potential data reporting issues for government employees, specifically teachers. …
   4. “I think data’s probably gonna be revised in the next week or so, but I bet government jobs are being created,” Jankowski said.
   5. Out of the 20 largest metropolitan areas, Houston ranks 10th in terms of jobs recouped, with 87% of the area’s employment returning to pre-pandemic levels, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. …
   6. Jankowski said Houston’s performance should not be attributed to the area’s energy sector, which recovered to … pre-pandemic levels, but rather to construction and manufacturing jobs [which are still short of prepandemic levels]. …
   7. Jankowski discussed Russia’s invasion into Ukraine in terms of potentially impacting economic growth in the Houston area. …
   8. One potential supply chain issue Jankowski discussed was the impact on grain production. … Russia and Ukraine combined produce [about 25% of the world’s grain production.]
   9. Other impacted products include palladium, fertilizers and corn. Jankowski said the lack of spring planting would affect crop yields and export markets. …
   10. Jankowski said he does not see “a recession in the cards” for the Houston area, but did see the potential for growth to slow. …
   11. Tags: Houston Metro Greater Houston Partnership Patrick Jankowski
9. At least 35 Texas hospitals were out of ICU beds last week, according to the latest federal data. Look up the ones near you; Each week, hospitals in Texas report their current ICU bed capacity to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. by Carla Astudillo and Karen Brooks Harper 23, 2021 Updated: March 14, 2022
   1. The COVID-19 virus continues to send unvaccinated Texans to the hospital with serious illness every day, putting those facilities under enormous pressure to find room for new patients. …
   2. Hospital staff has never been in shorter supply, which deepens the strain on all departments, including emergency rooms, respiratory therapy and even labor and delivery. Without the capacity to take on new patients — and with equally thin resources elsewhere to transfer them to — doctors fear they’ll have to start making heartbreaking decisions about care in order to save the most lives possible.
   3. According to the federal government, the weekly ICU capacity numbers should not discourage patients from seeking medical care in these facilities. “Hospitals have protocols in place to keep patients safe from exposure and to ensure all patients are prioritized for care,” the agency said. …
   4. The vast majority of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and ICUs are unvaccinated. Doctors say mask-wearing, hand-washing and social distancing are the best ways to slow down the hospital numbers in the short term, and that monoclonal antibody therapies for people with COVID-19 symptoms can keep them out of the hospital in many cases. They also say the only way to permanently slow down the spike in hospitalizations is to vaccinate a majority of the state.
   5. A. How many COVID-19 vaccines has Texas administered? Data Updated Mar 14  (USAFACTS.ORG)
      1. In Texas, 20,737,551 people or 72% of the state has received at least one dose.
      2. Overall, 17,503,509 people or 60% of Texas’s population are considered fully vaccinated.
      3. Additionally, 6,335,594 people or 22% of Texas’s population have [received] a booster dose.
   6. MIKE: There are charts in the article that show ICU occupancy for regional hospitals. I found some statistical discrepancies in the percentage of Texan’s that are fully vaccinated. The Tribune article implies that it’s less than 50%, but two sources agree that the percentage at least vaccinated-ish is in the low 70s.
   7. MIKE: Regardless, one of the most concerning things is that this week’s number of Texas ICU beds in use is at levels equivalent to the latter half of 2020 according to the Tribunes graphics.
   8. MIKE: For those folks who say we should start treating Covid as endemic and get back to life as usual, I say, “Tell it to the medical professionals.” We need full vaccination rates in the 90% range in areas where life can get back to “normal”.
10. Greg Abbott replaces Texas military leader who has overseen heavily criticized border mission; Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Suelzer will take over as the military department’s new leader. He replaces Maj. Gen. Tracy Norris, who was criticized for her handling of Operation Lone Star, as adjutant general of the Texas Military Department. by James Barragán, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE, and Davis Winkie, MILITARY TIMES | March 14, 2022
    1. … Norris began her three-year tenure at the helm of the department in 2019 but came under heavy criticism in recent months after a massive ramp-up of Operation Lone Star last fall led to pay issues, poor living conditions and a lack of appropriate gear for troops on the mission. …
    2. Abbott did not acknowledge criticism of Norris in his statement, instead thanking her for her work with the department. Her predecessor as adjutant general of the department served for nearly seven years. …
    3. Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat challenging Abbott in the November election, put the blame for the mission’s recent controversies squarely at the incumbent governor’s feet.
    4. “You can switch Generals, but we all know where the buck stops. Greg Abbott took 10,000 Guard members from their families, jobs, and communities,” O’Rourke said in a statement. “He has treated them with incredible disrespect as he has delayed their pay, cut their tuition benefits in half, and used them as political pawns in his re-election campaign. It’s time to bring them back home.” …
    5. Hunter Schuler, a soldier on the border mission who represents fellow troops as a coordinator for the Texas State Employees Union’s Military Council, welcomed the change in leadership as well.
    6. “When faced with logistical failures, suicides, and abhorrent conditions, MG Norris and her executive staff were slow to make corrections, deflected from their mistakes, repeatedly misled service members, and lied to the public,” Schuler said in a text message. “We are optimistic about MG Suelzer and hope that he will make other overdue leadership changes and advocate for his service members’ best interests – including releasing them from this involuntary political stunt on the border.”
    7. A unionization effort was largely spurred by what service members saw as failures by leadership during Operation Lone Star. …
    8. MIKE: For Governor Abbott, the buck stops somewhere down the line. This was an ill-conceived and pointless mission that has severely and pointlessly disrupted the lives of service members, and in which they actually have no meaningful impact on illegal border crossing. No wonder it provoked a unionization effort.
11. Raskin withdraws as Biden’s Fed nominee; Sarah Bloom Raskin has been stuck in the Senate Banking Committee amid a GOP boycott of a committee vote on her nomination, effectively blocking her confirmation from advancing to the Senate floor. By Kate Davidson | POLITICO.COM | 03/15/2022 03:16 PM EDT, Updated: 03/15/2022 04:29 PM EDT
    1. … Raskin, a former Fed governor and deputy Treasury secretary during the Obama administration, had been confirmed twice before for those posts with no opposition from Republicans. But she faced blowback this time from GOP lawmakers and [Joe] Manchin over her calls for regulators to more closely scrutinize bank lending to oil and gas companies and help mitigate climate-related risks to the financial system.
    2. “Their point of contention was my frank public discussion of climate change and the economic costs associated with it,” she wrote in a letter to Biden, according to the New Yorker. “It was – and is – my considered view that the perils of climate change must be added to the list of serious risks that the Federal Reserve considers as it works to ensure the stability and resiliency of our economy and financial system.”
    3. While the financial industry raised no public objections to Raskin’s nomination, Republicans … expressed fear that she might pursue measures that would make it more expensive for banks to lend to oil companies. …
    4. MIKE: Energy independence is essential for the U.S., so what constitutes energy independence? Energy is just about hydrocarbons, and “energy independence” should include all forms of energy usable by American society. To say or imply otherwise is just deception, self- or otherwise.
12. First Amendment Scholars Want to See the Media Lose These Cases; Some legal experts say it is time to draw a sharp line between protected speech and harmful disinformation. By Jeremy W. Peters | NYTIMES.COM | March 13, 2022, 5:02 a.m. ETTop of FormBottom of Form
    1. The lawyers and First Amendment scholars who have made it their life’s work to defend the well-established but newly-threatened constitutional protections for journalists don’t usually root for the media to lose in court.
    2. But that’s what is happening with a series of recent defamation lawsuits against right-wing outlets that legal experts say could be the most significant libel litigation in recent memory.
    3. The suits, which are being argued in several state and federal courts, accuse Project Veritas, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, One America News and others of intentionally promoting and profiting from false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election, and of smearing innocent civil servants and businesses in the process.
    4. If the outlets prevail, these experts say, the results will call into question more than a half-century of precedent that created a clear legal framework for establishing when news organizations can be held liable for publishing something that’s not true.
    5. Libel cases are difficult to prove in the United States. Among other things, public figures have to show that someone has published what the Supreme Court has called a “calculated falsehood” or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
    6. But numerous First Amendment lawyers said they thought the odds were strong that at least one of these outlets would suffer a rare loss at trial, given the extensive and well-documented evidence against them. …
    7. The high legal bar to prove defamation had become an increasingly sore subject well before the 2020 election, mainly but not exclusively among conservatives, prompting calls to reconsider the broad legal immunity that has shielded journalists since the landmark 1964 Supreme Court decision New York Times v. Sullivan. Critics include politicians like former President Donald J. Trump and Sarah Palin, who lost a defamation suit against The Times last month and has asked for a new trial, as well as two Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch.
    8. [Lee Levine, a veteran First Amendment lawyer who has defended some of the biggest media outlets in the country in libel cases,] said a finding of liability in the cases making their way through the courts could demonstrate that the bar set by the Sullivan case did what it was supposed to: make it possible to punish the intentional or extremely reckless dissemination of false information while protecting the press from lawsuits over inadvertent errors. …
    9. The Sullivan case, which legal scholars consider as seminal to the First Amendment as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was to civil rights, established the “actual malice” standard for defamation. It requires that a suing public figure prove a person or media outlet knew what it said was false or acted with “reckless disregard” for the high probability that it was wrong.
    10. Calls to weaken that precedent drew considerable resistance from advocates for press freedom. But many of them have come to see the threat of a defamation suit — a tactic often used by the powerful to retaliate against and mute unwelcome criticism — as an essential tool in the battle against disinformation.
    11. Increasingly, many First Amendment lawyers see the courts as one of the last viable paths to deter the spread of political disinformation and help prevent repeats of dangerous situations — from another Jan. 6-style riot to the more isolated threats against local officials that grew out of Mr. Trump’s false insistence that the election was stolen from him.
    12. “I think we are at a time in U.S. history and world history of losing any ability as a civilization to distinguish between truth and falsity,” said Rodney Smolla, a lawyer representing Dominion Voting Systems, a technology company suing Fox News and several individuals who promoted conspiracy theories about the last election, including Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell. …
    13. A judge in Delaware, where the Dominion suit was filed, denied Fox’s motion to dismiss the case in December, and it is now in the discovery phase.
    14. As a defense, Fox and others invoke the First Amendment and Sullivan, arguing that their reporting on the 2020 election and its aftermath is legally indistinguishable from the kind of basic, just-the-facts journalism that news organizations have always produced. Fox has portrayed itself as a neutral observer, saying it did not endorse claims about hacked voting machines and systemic voter fraud but instead offered a platform for others to make statements that were unquestionably newsworthy.
    15. As Fox News mounts its defense in the Dominion case and in a lawsuit by another voting systems company, Smartmatic, the network’s lawyers have argued that core to the First Amendment is the ability to report on all newsworthy statements — even false ones — without having to assume responsibility for them.
    16. “The public had a right to know, and Fox had a right to cover,” its lawyers wrote. As for inviting guests who made fallacious claims and spun wild stories, the network — quoting the Sullivan decision — argued that “giving them a forum to make even groundless claims is part and parcel of the ‘uninhibited, robust and wide-open’ debate on matters of public concern.’”
    17. Last week, a federal judge ruled that the Smartmatic case against Fox could go forward, writing that at this point, “plaintiffs have pleaded facts sufficient to allow a jury to infer that Fox News acted with actual malice.” …
    18. [M]any aren’t on Fox’s side this time. If the network prevails, some said, the argument that the actual malice standard is too onerous and needs to be reconsidered could be bolstered. …
13. Veteran cameraman and Ukrainian journalist killed near Kyiv while reporting for Fox News; By Oliver Darcy and Brian Stelter, CNN Business | Updated 4:12 PM ET, Tue March 15, 2022
    1. A Monday attack on a Fox News crew reporting near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv left two of the network’s journalists dead and its correspondent severely injured, the channel said on Tuesday.
    2. Killed in the attack were Pierre Zakrzewski, a 55-year-old longtime war photojournalist, and Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, a 24-year-old Ukrainian journalist working as a consultant for the network. Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall was seriously injured and remains hospitalized. …
    3. The deaths come as journalists working in Ukraine increasingly find themselves coming under fire. Brent Renaud, an award-winning American documentarian, was killed Sunday in an attack that also injured journalist Juan Arredondo. A Sky News team released footage earlier this month showing them being violently ambushed.
    4. MIKE: The rest of the article is mostly background on these individuals and tributes to them.
    5. MIKE: What we should remember is all war correspondents – especially those that report from the actual war zones – have balls of steel, and deserve both our deep respect and our deep, deep gratitude.
14. Biden heading to Brussels for NATO meeting; Ted Kemp, Chloe Taylor, Amanda Macias | CNBC | Updated Wed, Mar 16 20221:26 AM EDT
    1. S. President Joe Biden plans to travel to Brussels next week to meet with NATO allies about bolstering support for Ukraine as it fights to fend off Russia’s unprovoked attack.
    2. The “extraordinary summit” on March 24 will bring together North American and European leaders to discuss “further strengthening NATO’s deterrence & defence,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
    3. The alliance is expected to call on its military commanders Wednesday to send more troops and missile defenses to eastern Europe, Reuters reported.
15. SPEAKING OF MISSILES …
16. Russia Deploys a Mystery Munition in Ukraine; Iskander-M short-range ballistic missiles are releasing a previously unknown decoy designed to evade air-defense systems, an American official said. By John Ismay | NYTIMES.COM | March 14, 2022
    1. … The devices are each about a foot long, shaped like a dart and white with an orange tail, according to an American intelligence official. They are released by the Iskander-M short-range ballistic missiles that Russia is firing from mobile launchers across the border, … when the missile senses that it has been targeted by air defense systems.
    2. Each is packed with electronics and produces radio signals to jam or spoof enemy radars attempting to locate the Iskander-M, and contains a heat source to attract incoming missiles. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about intelligence matters, described the devices on the condition of anonymity.
    3. The use of the decoys may help explain why Ukrainian air-defense weapons have had difficulty intercepting Russia’s Iskander missiles. …
    4. The devices are similar to Cold War decoys called “penetration aids,” the intelligence official said, that have accompanied nuclear warheads since the 1970s and were designed to evade antimissile systems and allow individual warheads to reach their targets. The incorporation of the devices into weapons like the Iskander-M that have conventional warheads has not been previously documented in military arsenals.
    5. “The minute people came up with missiles, people started trying to shoot them down, and the minute people started trying to shoot them down, people started thinking about penetration aids,” Jeffrey Lewis, a professor of nonproliferation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif., said in an interview. “But we never see them because they’re highly secret — if you know how they work, you can counteract them.” …
    6. The use of the decoys may point to some level of carelessness or urgency by Russian military leadership, Mr. Lewis said, given that Russia knows they will inevitably be collected and studied by Western intelligence services so that NATO air defenses can be programmed to defeat the Iskander’s countermeasures.