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POSSIBLE TOPICS: ELECTION INFO; Project 2025 to end policy work after Democratic attacks angered Trump; What customers should know about CenterPoint Energy’s latest resiliency plan; CenterPoint intends to ask Texas PUC for rate increase to recoup losses from Hurricane Beryl response; Former prisoners describe suffocating heat in Texas lockups as they plead for air conditioning; ‘Too many old people’: A rural Pa. town reckons with population loss; Gov. JB Pritzker signs Illinois birth equity legislation into law; Thousands of vacation rentals could be removed in Hawaii; Belarus is building up its military on Ukraine’s border and bragging about the ‘high combat readiness’ of its troops; Russia is spending millions to create a new generation of militant Putin clones;

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. 

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) or Thursdays at 6PM on KPFT 90.1 FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Media. You can also hear the show:

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Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

1. ELECTION INFO: Be correctly registered for the fall General elections.
   1. The deadline to apply for a mail ballot is October 25. Click here for the application. Please fill it out, print it, and mail it to our office before the deadline.
   2. Early Vote Centers will be open from Monday, October 21– Friday, November 1 (Mon-Sat: 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Sun:12 p.m. – 7 p.m. )
   3. Vote Centers will accept voters from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5.
   4. Visit our “What’s on my Ballot?” page and enter your name or address to see all the contests and candidates you are eligible to vote on! (You can bring handwritten notes or printed sample ballots to the voting booth; just be sure to take it with you when you leave.)
2. On the subject of elections and voting, I ran across a couple of Threads comments that relate and thought I’d read to you. FROM THREADS, July 24^th:
   1. @hugspeak — “My 15yo daughter just told me the Swifties are figuring out voter registration requirements in every state where there’s a Swift concert, making QR codes with voter registration and donation links so people can do both at her concerts, and making “get out the vote” friendship bracelets. This is the generation that has been dubbed “anxious” and “not okay” by older people who don’t listen to or respect them. Seems to me, all they need to be hopeful and energized are people who believe in them.”
   2. https://www.threads.net/@hugspeak/post/C90JQNFvO5x?xmt=AQGzVCJpFhyoW0Lb4apKl9V6Fimeb0zijXW6cIg6K6cm6A
   3. I thought this was funny … and smart:
   4. @arfwego — “For those [who] patronize Starbucks and other coffee houses, how about using the name “Harris 2024″ so the barista will call that out when your order is ready? I don’t drink coffee but IUnderstandTheAssignment” https://www.threads.net/@arfwego/post/C92a4ZIJf4Y…
   5. MIKE: You can, of course, substitute the name of your choice.
3. I don’t usually start the show with a national story, but I’m making an exception here because I think this is too important to bury half way through the show — Project 2025 to end policy work after Democratic attacks angered Trump; By Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Updated July 30, 2024 at 3:53 p.m. EDT|Published July 30, 2024 at 3:06 p.m. EDT. TAGS: Donald Trump, Right-Wing Policy, Heritage Foundation, Republicans,
   1. The right-wing policy operation that became a rallying cry for Democrats and a nuisance for Republican nominee Donald Trump is trying to escape the public spotlight and repair relations with Trump’s campaign.
   2. Project 2025, a collaboration led by the Heritage Foundation among more than 110 conservative groups to develop a movement consensus blueprint for the next Republican administration, is winding down its policy operations, and its director, former Trump administration personnel official Paul Dans, is departing. The Heritage Foundation also recently distributed new talking points encouraging participants to emphasize that the project does not speak for Trump.
   3. The former president has repeatedly distanced himself from Project 2025 after relentless attacks from Democrats using some of the 900-page playbook’s more aggressive proposals to impute them to Trump’s agenda since many of the proposals were written by alumni of Trump’s White House. While some participants in the project started avoiding interviews and public appearances, Trump advisers grew furious that Heritage leaders continued promoting the project and feeding critical news coverage.
   4. Trump senior adviser Susie Wiles repeatedly called Heritage leaders instructing them to stop promoting Project 2025. She and Trump strategist Chris LaCivita repeatedly wrote public statements disavowing the project, and then Trump started saying so in his own social media posts. More recently, LaCivita has started saying that people involved in the project would be barred from a second Trump administration. …
   5. Some Project 2025 participants have responded by doubting a ban could be enforced when contributors include close Trump advisers such as former White House speechwriter Stephen Miller, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan, and former White House economic adviser Peter Navarro. Miller has denied his involvement in Project 2025, but his America First Legal group is a participating organization, and his deputy, Gene Hamilton, wrote the playbook’s chapter on the Department of Justice.
   6. Many of the plan’s proposals overlap with official pronouncements from Trump’s campaign.
   7. Both Trump and Project 2025 have proposed eliminating the Department of Education and reversing President Biden’s student loan relief program. Both have said they want to reintroduce a policy change to weaken tenure protections for career civil servants and tighten White House supervision of the Justice Department and other agencies. Both have proposed large-scale immigration raids and repealing temporary protections for migrants from unsafe countries. Both proposed ending affirmative action and rolling back Biden administration environmental regulations.
   8. At least some Heritage employees are considering leaving the organization because they do not want to alienate a future Trump administration and hurt their future job prospects, according to a current employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail internal dynamics. While Heritage President Kevin Roberts has told people privately that the storm will blow over, employees have texted and messaged one another with dismay about the Trump campaign’s continued attacks on the organization. …
   9. Roberts will take over direct supervision of the project. Earlier in the presidential primary, Roberts was perceived as closer to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. His relationship with Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) fueled new attempts by Democrats to tie Trump to the project since he chose Vance as his running mate.
   10. Heritage Foundation employees had raised money on Project 2025 and touted its work to donors and activists, even after Trump administration officials complained. Members of Project 2025 continued to meet as recently as this month, preparing for the next administration. Many of the participants were hoping for jobs in the Trump administration. One current employee at the Heritage Foundation said there had been requests from people to get their names taken off the work.
   11. Some donors have also expressed concerns about how angry the campaign seems about the project, the current employee said. Others agree that the controversy will pass.
   12. Vice President Harris’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said Democrats will not stop talking about Project 2025.
   13. “Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real — in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding,” [Chavez Rodriguez] said in a statement. “Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country.”
   14. Project 2025 published its playbook in 2023, and it always planned to wind down the policy program and hand off recommendations to the official presidential transition when it starts this summer. Another arm of the project, a personnel database of more than 20,000 applicants for potential political appointments should Trump be reelected, will remain in operation, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has not established a transition, even though it is almost August. Should he win the presidency, his administration would have to immediately fill thousands of political jobs. Trump has told advisers in the past he did not want a transition because he was superstitious and had not won yet.
   15. In a departing message to staff Monday, [former Trump administration personnel official Paul Dans] lamented attacks on the project’s work as a “disinformation campaign” that aims to “falsely associate Former President Trump with the Project.” Dans ended by quoting Trump’s words after he survived an assassination attempt on July 13, which quickly became a MAGA movement mantra: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
   16. Dans did not respond to requests for comment.
   17. Democrats routinely use Project 2025 and Trump’s plans for a second term interchangeably. Left-wing discussion of the project surged in June as the Biden campaign and surrogates started focusing on proposals in Project 2025 to portray Trump as extreme. While some project contributors took pride in being vilified by Democrats and in news coverage, they grew concerned when they started feeling the pressure coming from Trump.
   18. Other areas of divergence have caused headaches for the Trump campaign. In particular, Project 2025 proposes restricting access to abortion medication and blocking shipments through the mail. Trump has said he opposes a federal abortion ban.
   19. In another recent message to participants, communications adviser Mary Vought advised them to respond to questions about the project saying it is not partisan and not affiliated with any candidate. “If asked during a media interview, you can use these points to pivot,” she wrote.
   20. The talking points included: “While President Trump and Project 2025 see eye-to-eye on many issues, President Trump alone sets his agenda. Project 2025 does not speak for President Trump or his campaign in any capacity.”
   21. MIKE: The lesson to be learned here is the one that Oprah Winfrey paraphrased from Maya Angelou: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
   22. MIKE: Project 2025 isn’t just a plan for a new Trump administration, should one come to pass. It’s a plan that will guide governance by the Republican Party at all levels of national and local government, because this is what the thinkers at the top ranks of the party currently believe.
   23. MIKE: At the end of the article is this quote: “While President Trump and Project 2025 see eye-to-eye on many issues, President Trump alone sets his agenda.”
   24. MIKE: The key phrase here is, “Trump and Project 2025 see eye-to-eye on many issues…”
   25. MIKE: Which issues? How many? Does Trump see eye-to-eye with Project 2025 on the least scary policy ideas or the most scary policy ideas? Does it make any difference?
   26. MIKE: The story has this quote: “Many of the participants were hoping for jobs in the Trump administration” But now, “One current employee at the Heritage Foundation said there had been requests from people to get their names taken off the work.”
   27. MIKE: This appears to be a classic case of when the lights are turned on, the cockroaches scurry for cover.
   28. MIKE: In other words, the people working on Project 2025 very much believed that these are the policies that any Trump administration would want to enact, but are now frightened of Trump’s — and the voters’ — wrath because these policies have been exposed to daylight and are getting sunburned.
   29. MIKE: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
   30. MIKE: As Oprah might say, those are words to live by.
4. What customers should know about CenterPoint Energy’s latest resiliency plan; By Melissa Enaje | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:56 PM Jul 26, 2024 CDT /
   Updated 10:19 AM Jul 29, 2024 CDT. TAGS: CenterPoint Energy, Texas Public Utility Commission, Hurricane Beryl, Resiliency Improvements,
   1. CenterPoint Energy executives laid out a three-phase resiliency and communications plan while appearing in front of the state’s public utility commissioners in Austin on July 25.
   2. The hearing was held as Texas policymakers continue investigations into how various utility companies performed in the wake of Hurricane Beryl — a Category 1 hurricane … At the July 25 hearing, officials discussed details and deadlines as early as Aug. 1.
   3. CenterPoint Energy [has proposed a] 3-phase timeline to implement resiliency improvements. …
   4. [MIKE: The list is lengthy with time targets, and is not comprehensive. For the full list, go to the original article linked at ThinkwingRadio[dot]com. Continuing …]
   5. After CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells told commissioners he took accountability for where the company fell short and apologized to customers, he also pointed to where he’s going to pick up after communication efforts fell short of customer expectations. …
   6. “I commit that, starting immediately, we will improve our communications with our customers, and we’ll take specific actions to build the most resilient coastal grid in the country,” Wells said.
   7. CenterPoint’s plan of action focuses on the following three tiers of priorities:
   8. Resiliency investments that use predictive modeling, including leveraging artificial intelligence, to assist and strategically deploy crews for work assignments and staging site selections; targeting more line miles with higher-risk vegetation; hardening nearly 350 distribution line miles to the latest extreme wind standards of 110 mph;
   9. Strengthened partnerships, including increasing backup emergency generation units and engaging with local emergency management offices for response capabilities for critical facilities and infrastructure;
   10. Customer communications, including launching a new cloud-based outage tracker on Aug. 1, and incorporating daily press briefings, press releases, public advertising and social media to effectively inform customers during major storms.
   11. Tony Gardner, senior vice president and chief customer officer at CenterPoint, said the previous outage tracker failed because it couldn’t accommodate the levels of increased traffic during significant storm events, including Beryl. The new cloud-based outage tracker will allow customers to see outages based on city, county or ZIP code, Gardner said.
   12. Gardner also addressed how customers experienced delays receiving their power or service restoration updates during Beryl. In order to provide restoration guidance to customers, he said the company is committed to communicating daily, especially when customers don’t have power.
   13. CenterPoint only has contact information for 42% of its customers, Gardner said, and not every customer is receiving power alert services. Commissioners expressed concerns with the 42% figure during the meeting.
   14. “The fact that you all don’t have contact with all of the customers. … You all have equipment on their premises, so they are your customers, and if you don’t have the information to your customers, then that’s your fault,” Commissioner Jimmy Glotfelty said.
   15. The impact — Around half a million CenterPoint customers remained without power at least five days after Beryl landed. At least 18 deaths in Harris County have been attributed to Beryl, according to July 24 numbers from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. Half of the fatalities were caused by cases of hyperthermia—when the body overheats.
   16. MIKE: Each planned phase of improvements has a target date for completion, with intermediate steps also assigned target dates. As I understand the graphic, Phase 1 should be completed by August 1^st. Phase 2 is scheduled for completion by August 15^th. Phase 3, which has significant infrastructure elements included, should be completed by June 1 of 2025.
   17. MIKE: All I can say is, we’ll see.
   18. REFERENCE: ‘Customers deserve better’: Texas utility regulators criticize CenterPoint for slow Beryl response; By Hannah Norton | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM| 6:17 PM Jul 25, 2024 CDT / Updated 6:17 PM Jul 25, 2024 CDT
5. And along those same lines — CenterPoint intends to ask Texas PUC for rate increase to recoup losses from Hurricane Beryl response; By Ahmed Humble, Digital Content Producer & Rilwan Balogun, Reporter | CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: July 30, 2024 at 9:21 AM / Updated: July 30, 2024 at 1:07 PM. Tags: CenterPoint Energy, Hurricane Beryl, Houston, Austin, Greg Abbott, Jason Wells, John Whitmire, Power Outages, Public Utility Commission of Texas, Electricity,
   1. As CenterPoint Energy remains in the hot seat, facing scrutiny for its response to Hurricane Beryl, the CEO has promised the energy giant will do better, but Texas lawmakers are wondering how much of that weight taxpayers will have to carry going forward.
   2. During a hearing Monday held by a special senate committee in Austin, Senator Carol Alvarado asked CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells if the energy giant had any plans to go forward before the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) for a rate increase and what that would look like and how taxpayers would be affected.
   3. In summation, Wells admitted CenterPoint would ask for a rate increase, with the Senator sharing a brief bit of that exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter.
   4. [Said Alvarado,] “CenterPoint intends to increase their rates to recoup the cost of recovering from Hurricane Beryl, passing the cost on to the customer. That dog won’t hunt.”
   5. Before the exchange shown on social media, Sen. Alvarado hoped to get a look at the bigger picture and asked Wells what CenterPoint looks for when they ask PUC for a rate increase to recoup efforts, noting they have to be “just and reasonable.”
   6. Wells claimed the vast majority is to payback the lineworkers, vegetation management, and people who helped restore power, as well as materials used in the restoration efforts like power poles, and transformers. However, he emphasized the more than 50,000 workforce who helped restore service to over 2 million customers left in the dark for nearly a week. …
   7. In pressing Wells during the hearing, Sen. Alvarado felt uneasy about even a $1 or $2 rate per customer per month “that never goes away,” and asked if the buck would stop there. That’s because CenterPoint already has a contending rate case with the PUC.
   8. “We were required to file this rate case back in March of this year as part of our 2019 rate case for the company,” he said. “We made a commitment to file no later than the middle of March 2024 so we made it earlier this year.”
   9. “What were you trying to recoup for?” Alvarado asked.
   10. [Wells explained that,] “This rate case covered all our capital investments that the company has made since the 2019 rate case as well as an update on our current level of operating and maintenance costs as well as a current update on the allowed return on the investment of our electric system.”
   11. [Wells went on to say,] “We basically submit the amount we spent for 2023 and use that as the basis for the request moving forward,” Wells added.
   12. Still, Sen. Alvarado didn’t seem pleased with his response and pressed him again to ensure the rate increase would benefit the taxpayers despite having to pay extra on their electric bills.
   13. “I just want to make sure you’re not doing less on proactive maintenance on vegetation,” Alvarado explained. “And waiting till a storm hits because you can recoup the cost once a tree hits the wire on a stem.”
   14. “I can assure you, Senator we took proactive measures well beyond what we can recover in rates because it was the right thing to do given the impact the last several growing seasons have had on the trees in our area,” Wells said. “In the instance of the 35,000 trees we worked – that’s part of the restoration – that’s part of the cost we’d like to recover.”
   15. That’s when the senator asked the question she shared in her video on social media: “Are you planning to go to the PUC on this storm and ask for a rate increase?”
   16. “Yes, we are intending to file for recovery on the cost of this restoration,” Wells replied. “We have the burden of proof to prove those costs are prudent and reasonable but it is a cost – historically has been a cost that has been supported by the PUC.”
   17. Alvarado, however, felt otherwise suggesting Wells would have to “jump through hoops” with the PUC to try and recoup the loss.
   18. “I hope folks are really going to hone in on this and look carefully at what you’re asking for because there’s a lot of folks that are going to tune in; we’ve got a lot of our constituents [who] don’t want to pay – even if it’s a dollar or two extra a month when a lot of these costs could have been avoided.” …
   19. [The Monday hearing was livestreamed. You can watch it by clicking on the link provided by Click2Houston.]
   20. MIKE: The story goes on at some greater length.
   21. MIKE: It’s in no one’s best interest for a utility company to ultimately go bankrupt. I fully expect that the money to repair the damage from the derecho and Beryl, and to make our power infrastructure more resilient, will have to come from somewhere. It’s going to come from rates, or someplace else.
   22. MIKE: The ultimate question is whether there has been any corporate negligence leading up to the damage from a derecho and a Category 1 hurricane to be as severe as it was. In other words, were these circumstances foreseeable and to some extent, preventable? That is the answer I hope any hearings will push toward.
   23. MIKE: Going back to one of Wells’s remarks, I’m not sure I believe any company does anything because, as Wells put it, “…it was the right thing to do.” I’d be more inclined to believe him if he had said it because it was the smart thing to do. My days of naively believing that most companies are run by normal human beings with a sense of right and wrong have long abandoned me.
   24. MIKE: There’s a quote I saved in 2009 from a show called “REAPER”. It’s the Devil explaining corporations thusly: “Did you know, beginning in the late 19th century, corporations were granted all the rights of the individual, but none of the annoying responsibilities. They lack, almost by design, any kind of moral compass, conscience, or compassion. Basically, corporations are a way to enact sociopathic behavior on a grand scale. …” ~ The Devil (played by Ray Wise), TV Series “REAPER”, Episode 30: “Business Casualty”, Aired May 19, 2009
   25. MIKE: That succinctly sums up the reality.
6. Former prisoners describe suffocating heat in Texas lockups as they plead for air conditioning; By Jim Vertuno, Associated Press | ASSOCIATED PRESS via CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: July 30, 2024 at 2:27 PM / Updated: July 30, 2024 at 4:34 PM. TAGS: Texas Prisons, Cruel And Unusual Punishment, Prison Air Conditioning,
   1. Describing Texas prisons as so hot that inmates would cool off by splashing themselves with toilet water or faking suicide attempts to get moved to cooler medical areas, advocates on Tuesday asked a federal judge to declare the state prison system’s lack of air conditioning as unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.
   2. Tuesday began a multi-day hearing in a lawsuit that seeks to force Texas to fully air condition a prison system that houses more than 130,000 inmates, but has full AC in only about a third of its 100 prison units. The rest have partial or no air-conditioning.
   3. Inmate advocacy groups allege that temperatures inside can push above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 Celsius), and that the extreme heat has led to hundreds of inmate deaths in recent years. They want U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman to require Texas to maintain temperatures in prison housing and occupied areas between 65 and 85 degrees F (18 and 29 degrees Celsius), the same temperature range required by law in county jails.
   4. Texas is not alone in facing lawsuits over dangerously hot prisons. Cases also have been filed in Louisiana and New Mexico. One filed last week in Georgia alleged an inmate died in July 2023 after he was left in an outdoor cell for hours without water, shade or ice.
   5. The Texas lawsuit was initially filed in 2023 by Bernie Tiede, the former mortician whose murder case inspired the movie “Bernie.” Tiede, who is serving a life sentence for killing Marjorie Nugent, a wealthy widow in 1996, has diabetes and hypertension and alleged his life was in danger because he was being housed in a stifling prison cell without air conditioning.
   6. At Tuesday’s hearing, Marci Marie Simmons, who moved between three Texas prisons while serving 10 years for felony theft, described “oppressive, suffocating” conditions as temperatures rose from spring through summer. She was released in 2021.
   7. “In summer, I was in complete survival mode. I felt like a caged animal,” said Simmons, who is now the community outreach coordinator for Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. She said the organization represents about 700 current and former inmates.
   8. Simmons testified she once watched a kitchen worker bring an egg back to her cell and cook it on the concrete floor. In 2020, a hallway thermometer in one unit reached 136 degrees when Simmons and two other inmates peeled off the tape that was meant to hide the reading, she said. …
   9. Assistant State Attorney General Marlayne Ellis said the state would like to provide more air conditioning but is constrained by the Legislature’s budget.
   10. And she insisted conditions in Texas prisons do not meet a standard for being cruel and unusual. The agency defended its alternative protocols for extreme heat, which include providing fans, towels and access to cooler “respite” areas. In 2018, Texas agreed to install air conditioning at a prison for older and medically vulnerable inmates.
   11. But Simmons said access to respite areas was limited to short periods of time, coolers of ice water didn’t hold enough to serve an entire prison dorm, and up to 100 women would wait to use a single shower head that was changed from hot to cold water. …
   12. A November 2022 study by researchers at Brown, Boston and Harvard universities found that 13%, or 271, of the deaths in Texas prisons without universal air conditioning between 2001 and 2019 may be attributed to extreme heat. Prisoner advocates say those numbers are only likely to increase as the state faces more extreme weather and heat due to climate change. …
   13. Charlie Malouff, vice president of the advocacy group Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, spent more than three years in Texas prisons from 2015-2018. He said in one unit, inmates would set fires just so guards would spray their cell block with hoses. In another unit, he said he saw thermometers routinely approach 115 degrees (46 degrees Celsius) or higher.
   14. “It was horrible. It sucks the oxygen right out of you,” Malouff said.
   15. MIKE: I all too often feel the need to cite David Fowler’s question, Do we send people to prison AS punishment or do we send them to prison FOR punishment.
   16. MIKE: Predictably, a commenter said at the bottom of this story, “Don’t be a criminal and you won’t go to prison.” This person seems ignorant of the meaning of the Constitution’s barring of cruel and unusual punishment. I think that putting prisoners in a concrete Crock Pot to slowly stew to death fits the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.
   17. The question of climate control in the prisons of Texas and other states has been argued for decades.
   18. The story cites law for county jails that occupied areas must be maintained at between 65 and 85 degrees F (18 and 29 degrees Celsius). When I equate that to myself, I tell people that I keep the house at 77 degrees, and that’s fine as long as I have a ceiling fan and I’m not doing much of anything, and they still look at me like I’m crazy. To imagine having to live at 85 degrees most of the year while having no power over my own environment would make me crazy, and I think that would be true of most people.
   19. And these arguments in and out of court for prison air conditioning almost never mention or dwell upon the working conditions of prison employees who must also tolerate these temperatures. That’s usually only brought up in passing.
   20. I’m actually quite amazed that unions for prison employees haven’t hammered on this question. Intolerably hot prisons not only impact the health of guards and other workers, but intolerable heat probably makes their jobs harder and more dangerous when heat drives already-violent prisoners to act out their torment.
   21. Prisons without climate control are a lose-lose proposition. Their bad for inmates and bad for prison employees, and that makes them bad for Texas taxpayers and citizens of conscience.
7. Does America really need small towns? If it does, what should our governments do to help preserve them? That brings us to our next story — ‘Too many old people’: A rural Pa. town reckons with population loss; By Tim Craig | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | June 23, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EDT. TAGS: Sheffield (PA), Rural Towns, Population Decline, Small Towns, American Culture,
   1. … The caretaker of Sheffield Cemetery is busier than ever directing crews clearing trees to make space for more graves as deaths dramatically outpace births here and in other vast stretches of rural America. Each time he buries a newly deceased resident he wonders how the town that once drew scores of young families will survive.
   2. “We already lost our bank,” [said Lee Goldthwaite] as he took a break from trimming the grass around headstones. “We lost our liquor store, and we may be about to lose our high school.”
   3. Across rural Pennsylvania, there is a deepening sense of fear about the future as population loss accelerates. The sharp decline has put the state at the forefront of a national discussion on the viability of the small towns that have long been a pillar of American culture.
   4. America’s rural population began contracting about a decade ago, according to statistics drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau.
   5. A whopping 81 percent of rural counties had more deaths than births between 2019 and 2023, according to an analysis by a University of New Hampshire demographer. Experts who study the phenomena say the shrinking baby boomer population and younger residents having smaller families and moving elsewhere for jobs are fueling the trend.
   6. According to a recent Agriculture Department estimate, the rural population did rebound by 0.25 percent from 2020 to 2022 as some families decamped from urban areas during the pandemic. But demographers say they are still evaluating whether that trend will continue, and if so, where. …
   7. State lawmakers and other leaders now consider the population loss a crisis and are drawing up plans to try to reverse the trend. They say neither Pennsylvania nor the nation can afford to lose small towns and the institutions that power them. Not only are they a touchstone of American life, but they are also key to driving certain sectors of the economy, like agriculture.
   8. Already, the demographic shift is affecting where students attend school, how long residents have to wait for an ambulance and whether they can quickly see a doctor. In some cases, local governments themselves are on the verge of collapse as they struggle to fill open jobs and leadership positions.
   9. The decline of small-town life is expected to be a looming topic in the presidential election as both President Biden and former president Donald Trump vie for votes in this critically important battleground state. Trump won many rural voters during his last two presidential campaigns with his populist economic message. Biden, meanwhile, is highlighting his administration’s investments in broadband and major public works projects. …
   10. [Sheffield Township’s] decline started decades ago as the lumber mills and tannery shops started closing. But it’s been only in the last decade or so that the full weight of the community’s future challenges began to be felt in intimate ways.
   11. Sheffield’s only ambulance was taken out of service about two years ago, around the same time the community’s only day care closed due to low enrollment. Starting this school year, teens are being bused to a distant high school because there are not enough teachers to staff the local one. …
   12. During its heyday, Sheffield was packed with commercial and recreational businesses that gave residents here just about everything they needed to maintain an active, middle-class lifestyle. There was a bowling alley, auto dealerships, doctors offices and pool halls. …
   13. Today, downtown Sheffield consists primarily of a small grocery store, a 150-year-old bar, one restaurant, two convenience stores, an antique shop and a small video-gambling room.
   14. After most businesses closed or moved elsewhere, today one of the township’s biggest employers, Sheffield Container, employs just 25 people, said Lonny Connolly, the manager of the industrial packing company. The average salary is $18 an hour. …
   15. Although Warren County lacks easy access to an interstate highway, Decker said the county will try to market its location near state forests and recreational areas such as the Allegheny River to draw in new residents. He even wonders whether climate change could one day force more people to seek out cooler climates such as northwestern Pennsylvania.
   16. But Decker acknowledged the planning for Warren County’s recovery is “a daunting task.”
   17. Kenneth M. Johnson, the demographer at the University of New Hampshire, said the deck remains stacked against most rural communities, except for those within proximity to larger metropolitan regions or those with industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor.
   18. “Barring some outside occurrence, it’s very unusual for counties to recover,” Johnson said. …
   19. MIKE: There’s a lot more in the article that focuses on the travails caused by shrinking population in Sheffield especially and small-town rural Pennsylvania generally.
   20. MIKE: I think that in a broad sense, a shrinking population in small towns is a debatable problem. It’s obviously important to the people that live in these small towns for the reasons delved into by the article, but the history of humanity generally is about migrations to cities from small rural and agricultural communities.
   21. MIKE: Cities certainly have their disadvantages for people moving from rural areas, such as noise, crowding, and — often — dirtiness, and sometimes, danger. But the main advantages of living in a city are more and better jobs, more social life and entertainment opportunities, more chances of meeting a suitable partner, etc.
   22. MIKE: In short, cities offer a more expansive lifestyle with exposure to more information, cultures, and personal growth.
   23. MIKE: But cities are not for everyone. Some folks prefer the quiet peacefulness of small-town life. While some city dwellers may feel uncomfortable in a small town where not only does everyone know everyone, but everyone knows almost everything about everyone, some folks like the feeling of extended family that creates.
   24. MIKE: Not all businesses can be conducted in cities. The act of farming, logging, mining, and some manufacturing is necessarily or best done in rural areas. Then you develop support systems like retail, dining, schools, medical facilities, etc.
   25. MIKE: The problem with that is when towns are dependent on one or two or three companies for almost all the jobs in a town, a company decision to close or move elsewhere can be devastating. Money stops entering the town’s economy. Jobs dry up. The economic impact on a small town can be akin to a sudden Depression, with high unemployment and small businesses having to close up.
   26. MIKE: In a capitalist society, the expectation from some is that when a company moves, people should move with it in order to keep their jobs or find new ones, but human nature isn’t like that. Pulling up roots and leaving behind everything and everyone you know is really hard.
   27. MIKE: What’s the solution for small towns that want to survive and thrive? One of Sheffield’s gambits is to try to attract more tourism dollars into the town, and that’s something many rural areas attempt, but it’s hard to accomplish.
   28. MIKE: Maybe as a society, we need to think more about what are the necessary functions of small towns in our nation, and what are the best ways to preserve them if that’s really a national goal?
   29. MIKE: Perhaps that’s the national policy discussion that states and the federal government should be having.
8. JB Pritzker signs Illinois birth equity legislation into law; By Todd Feurer, John Odenthal | CBSNEWS.COM | July 29, 2024 / 4:45 PM CDT / CBS Chicago. TAGS: Illinois, JB Pritzker, Pregnancy, Childbirth,
   1. Illinois is trying to make sure all women get the same care when having a baby.
   2. JB Pritzker on Monday signed legislation meant to improve post-partum care and save the lives of new Black mothers.
   3. The new law requires insurance companies to cover all pregnancy, post-partum, and newborn care provided by doulas, lactation consultants, and midwives for a year. That would include home births, home visits, and other support before and after labor.
   4. It would also invest in grant programs to identify barriers to care.
   5. Pritzker said the changes will ensure no women needlessly die from preventable pregnancy-related deaths.
   6. “Black women are three times more likely than White women to die from medical complications during pregnancy and childbirth. That is appalling, and it’s unacceptable, and we’re not going to let that happen anymore in the state of Illinois,” he said.
   7. The changes go into effect Jan. 1, 2026.
   8. MIKE: The story speaks for itself, so I have nothing to add except that this is great news, and should be a model for more states.
9. Housing shortages or lack of affordability are problems all over the United States, but it may be most acute in the State of Hawai’i. — Thousands of vacation rentals could be removed in Hawaii; By Libby Leonard | SFGATE.COM | July 14, 2024. TAGS: Hawaii, Vacation Rental Properties, Hawaii Senate Bill 2919, Short-Term Rentals, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green,
   1. In early May, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green signed historic legislation that gives counties across the islands more power to regulate — and even phase out — short-term rentals. The law marks a significant change in how these rentals can be managed statewide in a move that is trying to put the needs of local communities ahead of vacation rental properties.
   2. Senate Bill 2919 is an answer to a Hawaii housing crisis that was so bad it necessitated an emergency proclamation in 2023 and a large outward migration of locals moving to the continental US. This was exacerbated by the 8 fires in Lahaina that destroyed over 2,500 structures and displaced nearly 13,000 people. As of June 10, over 200 displaced families from the Lahaina fires representing 581 individuals were still in hotels.
   3. Since the bill was signed, officials on Maui, Oahu and Hawaii Island have taken quick and rigorous action to create change.
   4. On Maui, Mayor Richard Bissen announced a proposal to phase out thousands of transient vacation rentals on the “Minatoya List.” Named after the late Richard Minatoya, county attorney, the list comprises short-term rentals built before 1989 located in apartment districts (current legislation mandates short-term rentals be limited exclusively to hotel zones). The Minatoya List is a collection of rentals that were grandfathered in and exempted from standard permitting. Bissen’s proposal seeks to revert the properties to long-term residential housing.
   5. According to data compiled by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, there are 7,160 properties on the list, with 96% in West and South Maui. Most are owned by people out of state, with Californians managing 36.1% of those units. Hawaii residents own 14.9% of the properties, but addresses in Washington and Canada represent the next two largest groups of property owners.
   6. Only 1 out of 17 (6%) of Minatoya short-term rental owners offered long-term leases to fire survivors, despite incentives like a 12-to-18-month wildfire property tax exemption.
   7. “These mostly off-island owners have benefited immensely from turning our apartment-zoned housing into investments, displacing working-class families from our communities long before the fire,” said Paele Kiakona of Lahaina Strong at a May press conference. Lahaina Strong, which is made up of fire survivors and advocates for long-term dignified housing, occupied Kaanapali Beach, the center of West Maui’s tourism, for 175 days until SB 2919 passed.
   8. Bissen’s proposal needs to be presented to three different planning commissions, representing Maui, Molokai and Lanai. Recommendations from the commissions will be consolidated into a bill that must then be approved by County Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee, before going to the nine-member council for the final vote.
   9. The first hearing was on June 25 before the Maui Planning Commission, which included nearly 10 hours of emotional testimony from both opponents and supporters.
   10. Before those testified, Matt Jachowski, a data consultant with the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, gave a presentation that argued against pushback from opponents to the bill. He debunked contentions that the units on the Minatoya List weren’t fit for long-term housing — because they are only one to two bedrooms, according to opponents — pointing to data from both FEMA and CNHA confirming one- and two-bedroom units were the most requested by displaced families.
   11. Jachowski also referenced a new analysis by UHERO that said the mayor’s proposal could increase long-term residential housing by 13%, and asserted that increasing housing supply by converting the transient vacation rentals to long-term residential properties would help reduce housing costs across Maui. …
   12. “Maui’s housing ecosystem is broken and it’s breaking our residents with so much of our housing supply dedicated to nonresidents. Maui’s residents make up less and less of the population each day, yet it’s our residents that form the fabric of the community and make this island the incredible place it is,” Jachowski said. …
   13. Opponents are concerned about the economic fallout from these measures, citing the potential loss of jobs, property tax revenue and tourist dollars. As a result, the Maui County Council recently passed a budget amendment that allotted $300,000 to study impacts of the phase-outs.
   14. Thus far, state data shows that phasing out short-term rentals on the Minatoya List would affect only 15 percent of the visitor inventory, leaving many hotels and legal short-term rentals open.
   15. There would be a significant loss in county revenue, though.
   16. According to the Maui Vacation Rental Association, about 13,000 units are getting taxed at the short-term rental rate. The estimated property tax revenue for fiscal year 2025, starting July 1, would garner $246.3 million from short-term rentals, making up 42% of the overall property tax revenue. …
   17. Currently, there is nothing in place yet that would ensure that the new long-term housing stock would make it into the hands of locals.
   18. “The County would likely still need to pass a rent control ordinance, as it has in previous emergencies, to rein in the runaway rent problem that local folks have been and are experiencing across the island,” attorney Lance Collins told SFGATE. …
   19. He added that the units on the Minatoya List could go into the long-term rental market, but then be rented by newcomers who can work remotely. “We have seen [this] with housing developments marketed for local working residents that end up being bought up by the leisure class from elsewhere, and do not actually contribute to ameliorating the shortage of available worker housing in Maui.” …
   20. Hawaii Island Council Member Heather Kimball … said there were a lot of red herrings during the session, specifically the notion that they must focus on infrastructure or building more housing to solve the housing crisis.
   21. “Well, yes, we’ve got to do all the things. But one of the things we also need to do is keep housing from slipping into other uses that are not providing homes for our residents, and we need to keep the market in check,” she said at the meeting. …
   22. The housing crisis in Hawaii has been unfolding over decades due to a combination of high interest rates, high prices, low supply (particularly of affordable housing for low-income households) and the unchecked proliferation of short-term rentals, both legal and illegal. This has led to a rise in unsheltered individuals, and the aforementioned out-migration. 
   23. In 2023, an analysis of 2020 census data showed that for the first time, more Native Hawaiians lived on the continent than in Hawaii. That same year, the median single-family housing cost statewide was over $850,000. 
   24. A lot of units across the islands also sit vacant. In 2020, out of more than 550,000 housing units, 12.6% were considered vacant. That’s almost 71,000 units. In 2023, that percentage rose to 14.8%. The largest category of vacant housing is units used for seasonal, recreational or occasional uses (read: vacation or second homes). …
   25. Tanaka added that the new statewide short-term rental legislation is a long-neglected, long-awaited step forward, which was taken thanks in large part to the leadership of Lahaina Strong. “But continued grassroots advocacy and brave political decision-making remain essential to realizing its benefits,” he said.
   26. MIKE: Air B&Bs — so-called “short-term rentals” — seem to be the source of housing and neighborhood quality-of-life issues all over. We’ve talked about it on this show from time to time.
   27. MIKE: I first became sharply aware of the crisis of housing availability and affordability in Hawai’i when I was on the island of Kauai in 2012, and at that time it became apparent to me on literally the first night I was there that there were a lot of people that I thought of as “homeless”, but I was corrected by a local as terming them “unsheltered”.
   28. MIKE: Many if not most of these people are employed, but their wages aren’t sufficient to pay for housing in Kauai’s tight and expensive housing market.
   29. MIKE: Many of them sleep on the beaches, a situation that the government tries to discourage. They pitch tents, and sleep in cars and vans. They gather around campfires. The next day, they go to work.
   30. MIKE: The single most common complaint back then was that there were many time shares on the island that are empty most of the time, yet are not available tor locals to live in. And this is in an era before Air B&Bs, which I suspect has only made things worse.
   31. MIKE: And this does not even address the property tax gimmicks that favor the wealthy landowners, such as claiming that their property is agricultural by planting a few fruit trees and setting up an unmanned fruit stand at the front of their property. The substantial tax money that these families avoid paying could go toward affordable housing subsidies, among other things.
   32. MIKE: In Hawaii, housing is especially dear because all land is ultimately bordered by the Pacific Ocean. Efforts to change land use laws to benefit housing and farming may create unintended consequences for some legitimate small agricultural businesses.
   33. MIKE: I did a couple of interviews on the subject for KPFT. I’ve linked to them as a reference at the bottom of this piece. That show page then has many additional links that go into aspects of the problem.
   34. REFERENCE: “Homeless In Hawaii” a 2-part show, will air Weds. and Thurs. [VIDEO & AUDIO] — THINKWING RADIO, April 10, 2013.
   35. REFERENCE: ‘Fake Farms’ Are Squeezing Out Serious Agriculture Potential In Hawaii; Some developers have turned acreage earmarked for farming into high-end luxury homes with high prices and restrictions on what the land can be used for. By Stewart Yerton , Claire Caulfield | CIVILBEAT.ORG | March 15, 2021
   36. REFERENCE: Honolulu Bill To Rein In Fake Farms Threatens Real Ag Enterprises; Beekeepers, kennels and livestock owners say a proposed change to Honolulu’s land use ordinance would drive them out of business. By Annabelle Ink | ORG | July 5, 2024
10. In international news from earlier this month — Belarus is building up its military on Ukraine’s border and bragging about the ‘high combat readiness’ of its troops; By Sinéad Baker | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Jul 3, 2024, 7:31 AM CDT. TAGS: Belarus, Ukraine, Aleksander Lukashenko, Arms Buildup,
    1. Russian neighbor and ally Belarus said it is boosting its military presence along its border with Ukraine, with its president saying its troops are combat-ready.
    2. Aleksander Lukashenko called Ukraine an “enemy” in a recent speech and said his soldiers along Ukraine’s border have a “high combat readiness,” according to a translation of his remarks by Ukrainian outlet Euromaidan.
    3. He also said Belarus has increased the number of its troops and missile systems. …
    4. Belarus, which borders both Ukraine and Russia, is seen as loyal to Russia and something of a Russian puppet state. Lukashenko has been in power since 1994 and is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
    5. The country has not been directly involved in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but it has aided Russia’s efforts since it began in February 2022.
    6. Thousands of Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarus at the start of the invasion. Russia also launched ballistic missiles into Ukraine from Belarusian territory, and Russian bomber aircraft launched missiles at Ukraine from Belarus’ air space.
    7. Russia has also stationed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus since the full-scale invasion began.
    8. Lukashenko’s comments suggest that he’s worried about Ukrainian troops getting closer to his border, something other Belarusian officials have also expressed concerns about. …
    9. In response, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said that all of Ukraine’s activities near Belarus’ border were just defensive, Euromaidan reported. …
    10. There have been no signs that Ukraine would send any troops into Belarus, and it’s something that would likely be met with a strong Russian response.
    11. There is also no indication as yet that Lukashenko is considering sending troops into Ukraine. …
    12. MIKE: Let’s hope that Belarus is making these kinds of statements to keep Ukrainian forces tied down in the north to passively aid Russia in the east and south. Anything else would represent a very dangerous expansion of the war.
11. Russia is spending millions to create a new generation of militant Putin clones; By Cameron Manley | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Jul 20, 2024, 4:15 AM CDT. TAGS: Russia Putin
    1. For years, Russia’s youth has been fed hardline nationalistic ideology as the Kremlin has sought to engineer a new generation of Putin
    2. In July last year, Sergei Novikov, a senior Kremlin official, said that Russia was fighting three wars — a war on the frontlines in Ukraine, an economic war, and an ideological war “for the minds of young people.”
    3. The Russian government has taken significant steps to win that battle for young minds by pumping money into so-called “patriotic education.”
    4. The Kremlin is set to allocate around 45.85 billion rubles (roughly $520 million) toward “patriot projects” in 2024, Russia’s RBC daily reported last year.
    5. State-run youth groups have also dramatically increased in size since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
    6. The “Movement of the First” group, which aims to provide Russian children with the “education of a citizen and a patriot,” was launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022. It had just shy of 5 million members as of January this year, Russian officials have said.
    7. The group’s head said it had opened around 40,000 offices across Russia as of December 2023, per Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
    8. Ian Garner, a historian and analyst of Russian culture and war propaganda, believes such figures indicate that scenes of young Russians fleeing the country, spoiling ballot boxes, and publicly protesting are “ancient history.”
    9. “Russia knows that that generation is probably never going to become super ideological,” Garner said.
    10. So instead, “Russia is piling huge amounts of money and resources, and has been for the last decade, into creating a highly ideologized, highly nationalized younger generation.”
    11. Mikhail Komin, a visiting fellow with the Wider Europe program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told BI that new “ideological subjects” introduced in Russian schools and universities will likely lead, in the next decade, to a generation of Russian youth that will “share conservative values” and be “much more anti-Western.”
    12. One of the most conservative Russian college fraternities is the “Fraternity of the Academics.”
    13. The Academics frat opposes Ukrainian statehood and views Russia as a “third Rome” — the idea that the country, led by Moscow, is the successor to the former Roman capitals of Rome and Constantinople — and “a unique civilization, distinguished from others by its special spiritual and historical mission.”
    14. “Russia,” a line on the fraternity’s website reads, “does not end anywhere.”
    15. Nikita Izyumov, a coordinator for the Academics, told BI that they “openly and explicitly promote Imperial ideals in society.”
    16. “We inherit the ancient imperial tradition of the first Rome and the new Rome, which accept Christ,” he added.
    17. The organization is sponsored by the [Western-sanctioned] Russian billionaire Konstantin Malofeyev, the owner of the nationalist Tsargrad media network.
    18. The Fraternity of the Academics uses a website, social media, and a YouTube channel to attract potential recruits.
    19. The frat said in January that it had around 1,000 members across 28 regions of Russia.
    20. Izyumov said the Academics had a presence in “almost every major university in Russia.”
    21. For its part, the Kremlin is “wary of working directly with [Tsargrad and the Fraternity],” Komin said. “It considers them too radical.”
    22. The various Academics fraternity cells are largely similar in style, though some display more extreme behavior than others. …
    23. “One of the tasks of the Academics is to train defenders of the Fatherland,” Izymov said.
    24. They learn drone control skills, weave camouflage nets, make trench candles, and even conduct masterclasses for students on how to make an army dry shower.
    25. “A man in Russia has always been a warrior, it was the case 1000 years ago and will be the case in another 1000 years,” Izyumov said. “If an academic decides to go to the front, we give him all the necessary support.”
    26. The UK’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed that some members of the Fraternity have already gone to fight in Ukraine.
    27. According to the UK’s MoD, the existence of such a movement shows that “there is a constituency in Russia for a more militant approach towards both the war on Ukraine and the West.”
    28. The department says that this will likely impact the “generational turnover that is likely to take place in the Russian administrative elites over the rest of this decade.”
    29. The Academics organization says it will form “the future elite of Russia.”
    30. But the government wishes to “avoid the rise of … powerful ultra-patriotic movements that could become a future threat to the regime,” Lewis said.
    31. “On the one hand, the Kremlin wants to see more of this kind of ‘patriotic’ civil society, but it also wants to make sure it remains under strict political control,” he added. It’s all part of “a much bigger campaign to target the next generation of Russian youth.”
    32. Though not huge, what organizations like the Fraternity of the Academics provide is the “illusion of choice,” Garner said.
    33. Young people might participate in the youth army, they might participate in a much smaller club like the Fraternity of the Academics, he continued. “But when you strip back the layers, they’re really all disseminating the same messages that are highly charged with this nationalist, hateful ideology.”
    34. Young people are made to feel that if they want a successful career, or want to participate in civil society, they have “no option but to participate in some manifestation of these organizations,” Garner added.
    35. It is an attempt to keep Putinism alive even after the leader is dead and buried. “Putin isn’t essential to the Putinist project,” he said.
    36. MIKE: I think that before commenting on this story, it’s important to contextualize it. There is a saying, “Give me the child until he is seven, and I will give you the man.”
    37. MIKE: All nations use their educational systems to indoctrinate their children and young adults in the history and culture of their nation. The intent is always to inculcate patriotism and national loyalty, a sense of national unity, and a general sense that their nation has been on the “right side of history”.
    38. MIKE: Various Scouting-type organizations in the West also do various degrees of indoctrination in patriotism and faith.
    39. MIKE: Even in the United States, we have a culture war between how small “l”, small “d” liberal democrats want to educate the nation’s young people versus how the conservative Right wants to educate them.
    40. MIKE: I think it’s important to keep all that in mind as we consider what I might call “Putin Youth” programs.
    41. MIKE: My allusion to the Hitler Youth Corps is deliberate because Putin’s “Movement of the First” sounds somewhat like the Hitler Youth in terms of how it wants to shape its young people’s minds and its ultimate goals. I’ve linked to an English version of the Russian website explaining the “Movement of the First” from the Russian perspective.
    42. MIKE: Wikipedia describes the Movement of the First this way: “The Movement of the First^[1] … is a youth movement in Russia created on 18 December 2022 at the initiative of Russian president Vladimir Putin. It’s stated goal is to organize leisure activities for youth and form a worldview “based on traditional Russian spiritual and moral goals”. The movement is modeled after the Soviet Union’s Young Pioneers … , and is for youths beginning at the age of six until they finish school. The organization has been found by independent governments to be complicit in the abduction of Ukrainian children during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
    43. MIKE: The USSR’s Young Pioneers, the Nazis’ Hitler Youth, and the Putin’s Movement of the First all share overarching common goals: Glorification of the Fatherland and ideological indoctrination to inculcate patriotic fervor and an expansive sense of national history and national destiny.
    44. MIKE: These young people will be the diplomats and government apparatchiks and ideologues of their nation’s future, just as they were nearly a century ago.
    45. MIKE: We should be wary and concerned.
    46. MIKE: I’ve added several reference links at the bottom of this story for your information at ThinkwingRadio [dot] com. I’ve tried to mix up sources to give a broader view of the topics.

=====================================================

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