The Tense Relationship Between Newspapers and Politicians; Mpox Is Still Definitely a Thing–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Nov. 2, 2023

Indy Digest: Nov. 2, 2023

I sighed when I saw The Washington Post headline: Local journalists arrested in small Alabama town for grand jury story.

Here’s the story’s explanation of what happened:

Publisher Sherry Digmon and reporter Don Fletcher of the Atmore News in southwestern Alabama were arrested last week after a story by Fletcher disclosed details of an investigation into the local school board’s payments to seven former school-system employees.

Digmon and Fletcher were charged by the Escambia County district attorney with revealing grand-jury proceedings, a felony under Alabama law. They face up to five years in jail.

While it’s illegal for a grand juror, witness or court officer to disclose grand-jury proceedings, it’s not a crime for a media outlet to publish such leaked material, provided the material was obtained by legal means, legal experts said.

Just as important is this portion later in the piece: “Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, said the Atmore arrests follow a number of other recent cases in which local prosecutors have used warrants, threats and criminal proceedings to harass or pressure journalists. Such prosecutions can be costly, especially for small news organizations, she said. They also serve as ‘a dead crow on a fence,’ a warning to would-be leakers and other journalists that they will face legal jeopardy if they disclose secret or sensitive information or pursue aggressive investigations.”

“Costly” is an understatement. A few months back, I mentioned the plight of the Wausau Pilot & Review, whose legal bills are well into the six figures after the Wisconsin news outlet reported—accurately, according to three people who gave sworn statements—that a business owner (who later went on to become a state senator) used an anti-gay slur at a county board meeting. He sued the Pilot & Review; the case was dismissed, but he appealed; and the Pilot & Review’s bills keep adding up. (Fortunately, a GoFundMe effort, launched this summer when the mess made national news, has raised the publication more than $120,000 so far; if you want to help, click this link.)

The relationship between elected officials and the press has always been filled with tension—but in recent years, it seems like that the relationship has gotten more contentious. It’s harder than ever to get elected officials to return phone calls, and even the most basic public records requests are often stonewalled, or ignored.

Maybe years of having the president call us enemies of the people is having an effect—as is the fact that there are far fewer of us around to raise hell.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• As Greater Palm Springs Pride arrives, consider this a reminder that mpox is still around. Two cases have been reported in Riverside County this week (one of which was here in the Coachella Valley). Seven were reported in the Las Vegas area in October, while 11 were reported just down the road in San Diego last month.

• Without fail, every time I (or any other reporter on the planet) mention vaccines or face masks, I get crabby responses from conspiracy theorists saying they don’t work. Well, yet more science is in that shows they do indeed work. First, here’s a new piece in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association. Key quote: “Robust available data support the use of face masks in community settings to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and should inform future responses to epidemics and pandemics caused by respiratory viruses.”

• On vaccines, here are the findings of a working paper from USC and Brown University researchers. Key takeaway: “The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in 141 countries averted 2.4 million excess deaths by August 2021 and would have saved another 670,000 more lives had vaccines been distributed equitably.”

• The state’s unemployment insurance fund is in debt … in a big, big way. Our partners at Calmatters say: “California’s unemployment insurance fund is $20 billion in debt, putting the state in a terrible position in case of a recession. … It’s … top of mind for businesses, which face an increase in required contributions toward the state’s unemployment insurance fund as a result. And it’s on the minds of those who are concerned about whether the state’s unemployment system can handle another crisis such as a pandemic or a recession.  The unemployment insurance fund had regular solvency issues even before the pandemic. Now the situation is more dire, with the Employment Development Department issuing a spring forecast that the debt—which the Legislative Analyst’s Office has said does not include the infamous unemployment fraud that mostly involved temporary federal benefits that the state doesn’t have to pay back—would grow to $19.7 billion at the end of the year. In addition, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office said this summer that for the first time during a period of job growth, it expects California’s unemployment insurance fund to have fewer contributions coming in than benefits being paid out.” The piece goes on to say the debt could cost the state billions in interest alone.

• The country’s infant-mortality rate went up a disturbing 3 percent last year. The Associated Press reports: “White and Native American infants, infant boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier had significant death rate increases. The CDC’s report, published Wednesday, also noted larger increases for two of the leading causes of infant deaths—maternal complications and bacterial meningitis. ‘It’s definitely concerning, given that it’s going in the opposite direction from what it has been,’ said Marie Thoma, a University of Maryland researcher who studies maternal and infant mortality. Dr. Eric Eichenwald, a Philadelphia-based neonatologist, called the new data ‘disturbing,’ but said experts at this point can only speculate as to why a statistic that generally has been falling for decades rose in 2022.”

• The National Association of Realtors’ CEO has resigned, just days after a federal jury determined the organization worked to inflate home commissions. The New York Times says: “The resignation of Bob Goldberg was announced at a closed-door staff meeting, as leaders scrambled to address the outcry that has followed the fallout from the legal verdict. NAR and several brokerages were ordered to pay damages of at least $1.8 billion to home sellers who said they were forced to pay excessive fees to real estate agents. NAR said it plans to appeal. … Some Realtors and homeowners have questioned the organization’s grip on the industry—a monopoly at the heart of the antitrust lawsuit filed by home sellers in U.S. District Court in Missouri. In a landmark ruling, a jury determined that NAR and several large brokerages conspired to enforce a NAR rule that requires home sellers to pay commissions to the agent representing the buyer, resulting in sellers paying what they described as excessive fees. The decision has the potential to rewrite the entire structure of the real estate industry in the United States, lowering the cost of moving homes by reducing commissions.”

• And finally … CNBC reports that the student-loan-payment restart has been a complete and total mess: “In a memo quietly published Wednesday night on the U.S. Department of Education’s website, senior officials in the department’s office of Federal Student Aid detail how some of its servicers botched the return to repayment, and possibly put the government at ‘substantial reputational risk.’ … Education Department staff said in the memo that they had identified 78,000 borrowers who received incorrect monthly bills under the Biden administration’s new Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan. That plan, which was touted as the ‘most affordable repayment plan ever,’ was meant to ease the transition back to payments for borrowers. Federal student loan payments had been on pause for more than three years until they resumed last month. Yet one woman who signed up for the SAVE plan got a bill for $355, the memo says, when she was only supposed to owe $58. Her bill before the pandemic was $130 per month. More than 21,000 people were billed ‘very high’ and ‘potentially incorrect’ amounts, according to the memo. One borrower was told they owed $108,895.19 for the month. (That was their total balance, but their servicer had erroneously reduced their loan term to two months from 120 months.)”

Support the Independent!

Happy Pride! Please click the button below to become a Supporter of the Independent if 1) you find this newsletter, or anything in the Independent, to have value, and 2) you have the means to do so. Thanks for reading!