npr--2020-10-19--COVID-19 Test Results Get Faster, But Still Too Slow To Help Slow Disease Spread

COVID-19 Test Results Get Faster , But Still Too Slow To Help Slow Disease Spread People are getting the results of coronavirus tests in the U.S. faster than they were in the spring , but testing still takes far too long to help effective disease control measures such as contact tracing and quarantining , according to the results of a large national survey .
The survey , which is conducted monthly by a consortium of researchers from Northeastern , Northwestern , Harvard and Rutgers universities , also finds that Hispanics and African-Americans are waiting about a day longer than whites @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic is hitting minorities harder .
The researchers also found that a disturbingly high proportion of those testing positive — almost half — are never contacted by a health worker to determine who they may have infected , a crucial step for preventing outbreaks .
`` That is how you limit the spread of the disease and limit the number of people who have to socially isolate and avoid lockdowns , '' says Dr. David Lazer of Northeastern University , who led the team conducting the survey .
`` The good news @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The bad news is everything is still taking far too long . ''
The researchers surveyed 52,329 people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in July , August and September as part of a series of ongoing surveys the team has been conducting since April .
Of those surveyed , 12,911 got a coronavirus test , including 8,843 whose sample was collected with a nasal swab .
Among that group , the average wait time for results was 2.7 days in September , down from four days in April , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the proportion of people getting their results back within 24 hours increased from 23 % to 37 % .
While that 's an improvement , the turnaround time is still `` too slow in most cases to support a successful strategy of contact tracing , '' and most people are still waiting far too long , the researchers wrote .
`` Despite decreased average wait times , a substantial proportion of Americans still endure long waits , '' they added .
They noted that in September , 42 % of those tested had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting their results .
The average black respondent waited 4.4 days to receive results and the average Hispanic respondent waited 4.1 days .
In comparison , white and Asian American respondents respectively waited an average of 3.5 and 3.6 days , the researchers found .
`` We know that African-Americans and Hispanics are underserved medically , '' Lazer says .
`` This is reflective of that larger reality .
It 's terrible . ''
To keep outbreaks from occurring , people who are infected need to be contacted quickly , ideally within 24-36 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infect other people and find out who they may have come into contact with so those people can be told to quarantine and get tested .
In fact , only 56 % of those who tested positive were contacted by a health worker to get contact tracing information , the researchers found .
White respondents and black respondents are roughly equally likely to report contact tracing — 61 % and 56 % respectively .
`` Delivering results is just one part of the testing process , '' the researchers note .
`` Many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place . ''
It 's not just delays in test results that are styming public health efforts .
Many respondents report obstacles in getting tested to start with .
Thirty-five percent of people in the August and September surveys had to wait at least three days between deciding to get a test and actually getting the test , the researchers found .
The average person who got tested in the August and September surveys was tested within 2.5 days and waited 3.7 days for the results of the test .
That means it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deciding on a test and receiving results , the researchers wrote .
`` So even with the improvement in results , people are waiting about week .
And by that point much of the harm that could occur in spreading through that person 's social network has already occurred , '' Lazer says .
`` What you want to do is cut that to within 24 hours to 36 hours . ''
The reasons people have trouble getting tested varied .
One-third of people did not know how or where to get a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ site was too far away , and 14 % said the test was too expensive .
The delays between deciding to get a test and getting final results were worst for Black respondents .
The average white person surveyed waited 5.7 days for their results after seeking a test .
The average Asian-American , Hispanic , or Black respondent waited 6.1 , 6.9 , and 7.4 days respectively .

Coronavirus Test Results Get Faster, But Still Too Slow To Help Slow Disease Spread
Enlarge this image toggle caption David L. Ryan/Boston Globe via Getty Images David L. Ryan/Boston Globe via Getty Images
People are getting the results of coronavirus tests in the U.S. faster than they were in the spring, but testing still takes far too long to help with effective disease control measures such as contact tracing and quarantining, according to the results of a large national survey.
The survey, which is conducted monthly by a consortium of researchers from Northeastern, Northwestern, Harvard and Rutgers universities, also finds that Hispanics and African Americans are waiting about a day longer than whites on average, underscoring yet another way the pandemic is hitting minorities harder.
The researchers also found that a disturbingly high proportion of those testing positive — almost half — are never contacted by a health worker to determine who they may have infected, a crucial step for preventing outbreaks.
"That is how you limit the spread of the disease and limit the number of people who have to socially isolate and avoid lockdowns," says Dr. David Lazer of Northeastern University, who led the team conducting the survey. "The good news is there has been some improvement. The bad news is everything is still taking far too long."
The researchers surveyed 52,329 people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in July, August and September as part of a series of ongoing surveys the team has been conducting since April.
Of those surveyed, 12,911 got a coronavirus test, including 8,843 whose sample was collected with a nasal swab.
Among that group, the average wait time for results was 2.7 days in September, down from four days in April, the researchers found. In addition, the proportion of people getting their results back within 24 hours increased from 23% to 37%.
While that's an improvement, the turnaround time is still "too slow in most cases to support a successful strategy of contact tracing," and most people are still waiting far too long, the researchers wrote.
"Despite decreased average wait times, a substantial proportion of Americans still endure long waits," they added.
They noted that in September, 42% of those tested had to wait at least three days before getting their results.
The average black respondent waited 4.4 days to receive results and the average Hispanic respondent waited 4.1 days. In comparison, white and Asian American respondents respectively waited an average of 3.5 and 3.6 days, the researchers found.
"We know that African Americans and Hispanics are underserved medically," Lazer says. "This is reflective of that larger reality. It's terrible."
To keep outbreaks from occurring, people who are infected need to be contacted quickly, ideally within 24-36 hours to make sure they don't infect other people and find out who they may have come into contact with so those people can be told to quarantine and get tested.
In fact, only 56% of those who tested positive were contacted by a health worker to get contact tracing information, the researchers found.
White respondents and black respondents are roughly equally likely to report contact tracing — 61% and 56% respectively.
"Delivering results is just one part of the testing process," the researchers note. "Many face difficulties accessing tests in the first place."
It's not just delays in test results that are stymieing public health efforts. Many respondents report obstacles in getting tested to start with. Thirty-five percent of people in the August and September surveys had to wait at least three days between deciding to get a test and actually getting the test, the researchers found.
The average person who got tested in the August and September surveys was tested within 2.5 days and waited 3.7 days for the results of the test. That means it took a total of 6.2 days between deciding on a test and receiving results, the researchers wrote.
"So even with the improvement in results, people are waiting about week. And by that point much of the harm that could occur in spreading through that person's social network has already occurred," Lazer says. "What you want to do is cut that to within 24 hours to 36 hours."
The reasons people have trouble getting tested varied. One-third of people did not know how or where to get a test, 23% said the testing site was too far away, and 14% said the test was too expensive.
The delays between deciding to get a test and getting final results were worst for Black respondents. The average white person surveyed waited 5.7 days for results after seeking a test. The average Asian American, Hispanic or Black respondent waited 6.1, 6.9, and 7.4 days respectively.


npr--2020-10-19--A Pastor Rescues A Cemetery For Enslaved People, Then Buries Her Son In It

A Pastor Rescues A Cemetery For Enslaved People , Then Buries Her Son In It Five years ago , Pastor Michelle Thomas was looking for a place to build a church in Loudoun County , which borders the Potomac River in northern Virginia .
She had no idea her search would lead her to a neglected burial ground for enslaved people , nor that her 16-year-old son would die and become , as she put it , `` the first African American person who was born free to be buried in this cemetery . ''
At the time , Thomas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for her congregation , Holy & Whole Life Changing Ministries International , a non-denominational church in Landsdowne , Va. She knew several plantations had been located in the area , and she wanted to be sure she would not inadvertently build on the graves of the enslaved .
Searching in county records , she found a listing that caught her eye : Slave Cemetery — Belmont Plantation .
`` I saw it on a cemetery index , and so I just literally saw the points on a plot and I just went through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she said .
Thomas found unmarked rocks in the ground , at the ends of long , narrow depressions in the soil .
She persuaded the Toll Brothers real estate developers who owned the land to donate it .
She worked with Boy Scout volunteers to pave trails into the forest .
It bothered her that the county knew about this cemetery since at least the 1850s .
`` All that paperwork existed .
We just had no one that was interested or demanding that this history be told , '' she said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a increasing interest in African American sites that has accelerated in the wake of the death of George Floyd , says Elizabeth Kostelny , CEO of the Richmond-based Preservation Virginia , a nonprofit historic preservaton group founded in 1889 .
Kostelny says she recruited Thomas to speak on an upcoming panel because her approach offered a possible model for others .
`` We felt that Pastor Michelle 's advocacy , the way she organized her work , the way she acquired the control of the property was something that many people could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Then , this summer , the historical project became tragically personal for Thomas .
On June 4 , her son was swimming with friends in a tributary of the Potomac River when he drowned .
The decision to bury him in the graveyard she had restored was simple , she says .
`` Let 's bury him in the place that I give my best care to , '' she said .
`` It 's very rare to hear of someone burying their loved one in an old , underserved cemetery , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation .
`` It 's the reclaiming of history and space , and the way communities can ensure that Black cemeteries are cared for and respected in perpetuity , '' he wrote in an email .
Fitz 's grave has since become a pilgrimage site for family and neighbors , many of whom have questions about the circumstances of his death .
`` Fitz was a strong athlete , young kid , swimming all his life , '' said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Loudoun NAACP and an attorney who advised Thomas following the drowning .
`` I live in that neighborhood .
The creek was maybe 20-30 yards .
It should n't have been a tough swim . ''
Fitz 's death led to an ongoing investigation by Loudoun County Sheriff 's Office and it triggered a cascade of reforms in the local rescue department , which has come under scrutiny because of the response time to the drowning .
Fitz 's friends called 911 , but emergency crews took nearly 40 minutes to reach the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in both Virginia and Maryland found that even though Fitz was swimming in Virginia , cell towers routed calls to the Maryland side of the Potomac , leading to a time-consuming ping pong of call transfers .
Ultimately , neighbors helped Fitz 's friends find his body and performed CPR as they waited for help , but he did not survive .
Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Chief Keith Johnson says many people took to swimming in the Potomac River system this summer because public pools were closed due to the pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overwhelm swimmers .
The incident included several recommendations for changes , including implementing new software to pinpoint the location of emergency callers , mapping the river to make it easier for callers to explain where they are , and training dispatchers to listen better .
`` Obviously , it 's a tragic event .
And I believe we have done everything we can do to make the changes , '' Johnson said .
Thomas says those changes should have been implemented long before her son went swimming .
Now she says she wants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ changes .
She also seeks compensation for what she believes is wrongful death .
Thomas 's demands have found a receptive audience in Loudoun County , where the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis drew crowds onto the streets .
In July , following public pressure , the Daughters of the Confederacy removed a monument that stood outside the county courthouse for more than a century .
On what would have been Fitz 's 17th birthday weekend , about 200 people joined Thomas for a rally in her son 's memory .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call for a reckoning on race , shouting : '' What do we want ? ''
In the old cemetery , Thomas has counted 44 graves , but she believes there are more .
She says a drainage pond dug on the grounds in the 1950s cut into some graves , and some of that dirt was spread on a highway named for the segregationist Harry Byrd .
She hopes to launch an archaeological dig to unearth more remains , although she may never get a full count .
As she stood at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up a megaphone , and urged the crowd to see her son 's death — and his grave — as a call to action .
`` Fitz 's Life Matters .
With an S. It still matters .
And we 're going to fight to change laws and regulations and policy until all of us are protected , '' she said .
She asked for a moment of silence , then crouched down and leaned her arms on his tombstone .
It sits removed from the older graves , under a clearing in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left behind by visitors .
Then the pastor wept .
She had rescued the cemetery from its long neglect , but no one had saved her son .

A Pastor Rescues A Cemetery For Enslaved People, Then Buries Her Son In It
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tyrone Turner/WAMU Tyrone Turner/WAMU
Five years ago, Pastor Michelle Thomas was looking for a place to build a church in Loudoun County, which borders the Potomac River in northern Virginia.
She had no idea her search would lead her to a neglected burial ground for enslaved people, nor that her 16-year-old son would die and become, as she put it, "the first African American person who was born free to be buried in this cemetery."
At the time, Thomas was just looking to build a church for her congregation, Holy & Whole Life Changing Ministries International, a non-denominational church in Landsdowne, Va.
She knew several plantations had been located in the area, and she wanted to be sure she would not inadvertently build on the graves of the enslaved. Searching in county records, she found a listing that caught her eye: Slave Cemetery — Belmont Plantation.
"I saw it on a cemetery index, and so I just literally saw the points on a plot and I just went through the woods to find it," she said.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tyrone Turner/WAMU Tyrone Turner/WAMU
A forgotten cemetery is restored
Thomas found unmarked rocks in the ground, at the ends of long, narrow depressions in the soil. She persuaded the Toll Brothers real estate developers who owned the land to donate it. She worked with Boy Scout volunteers to pave trails into the forest. It bothered her that the county knew about this cemetery since at least the 1850s.
"All that paperwork existed. We just had no one that was interested or demanding that this history be told," she said.
Thomas's restoration effort is part of a increasing interest in African American sites that has accelerated in the wake of the death of George Floyd, says Elizabeth Kostelny, CEO of the Richmond-based Preservation Virginia, a nonprofit historic preservaton group founded in 1889. Kostelny says she recruited Thomas to speak on an upcoming panel because her approach offered a possible model for others.
"We felt that Pastor Michelle's advocacy, the way she organized her work, the way she acquired the control of the property was something that many people could benefit from hearing," Kostelny said.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tyrone Turner/WAMU Tyrone Turner/WAMU
Then, this summer, the historical project became tragically personal for Thomas. On June 4, her son was swimming with friends in a tributary of the Potomac River when he drowned. The decision to bury him in the graveyard she had restored was simple, she says.
"Let's bury him in the place that I give my best care to," she said.
Race Preserving African-American Cemeteries Preserving African American Cemeteries Listen · 5:55 5:55
"It's very rare to hear of someone burying their loved one in an old, underserved cemetery," said Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
"It's the reclaiming of history and space, and the way communities can ensure that Black cemeteries are cared for and respected in perpetuity," he wrote in an email.
Fitz's grave has since become a pilgrimage site for family and neighbors, many of whom have questions about the circumstances of his death.
"Fitz was a strong athlete, young kid, swimming all his life," said Phil Thompson, former president of the Loudoun NAACP and an attorney who advised Thomas following the drowning. "I live in that neighborhood. The creek was maybe 20-30 yards. It shouldn't have been a tough swim."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tyrone Turner/WAMU Tyrone Turner/WAMU
A 38-minute wait for rescue services
Fitz's death led to an ongoing investigation by Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and it triggered a cascade of reforms in the local rescue department, which has come under scrutiny because of the response time to the drowning.
Fitz's friends called 911, but emergency crews took nearly 40 minutes to reach the scene. An incident review by authorities in both Virginia and Maryland found that even though Fitz was swimming in Virginia, cell towers routed calls to the Maryland side of the Potomac, leading to a time-consuming ping pong of call transfers. Ultimately, neighbors helped Fitz's friends find his body and performed CPR as they waited for help, but he did not survive.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tyrone Turner/WAMU Tyrone Turner/WAMU
Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Chief Keith Johnson says many people took to swimming in the Potomac River system this summer because public pools were closed due to the pandemic, and he says strong currents can easily overwhelm swimmers.
National How Mt. Vernon's History Is Being Retold How Mt. Vernon's History Is Being Retold Listen · 3:57 3:57
The incident included several recommendations for changes, including implementing new software to pinpoint the location of emergency callers, mapping the river to make it easier for callers to explain where they are, and training dispatchers to listen better.
"Obviously, it's a tragic event. And I believe we have done everything we can do to make the changes," Johnson said.
Thomas says those changes should have been implemented long before her son went swimming. Now she says she wants a say in the oversight of the changes. She also seeks compensation for what she believes is wrongful death.
A rallying point and a sanctuary
Thomas's demands have found a receptive audience in Loudoun County, where the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis drew crowds onto the streets. In July, following public pressure, the Daughters of the Confederacy removed a monument that stood outside the county courthouse for more than a century.
On what would have been Fitz's 17th birthday weekend, about 200 people joined Thomas for a rally in her son's memory. They framed his death as part of the call for a reckoning on race, shouting:
"What do we want?"
"Justice!"
"Justice for who?"
"Fitz!"
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tyrone Turner/WAMU Tyrone Turner/WAMU
In the old cemetery, Thomas has counted 44 graves, but she believes there are more. She says a drainage pond dug on the grounds in the 1950s cut into some graves, and some of that dirt was spread on a highway named for the segregationist Harry Byrd. She hopes to launch an archaeological dig to unearth more remains, although she may never get a full count.
As she stood at her son's grave, Thomas held up a megaphone, and urged the crowd to see her son's death — and his grave — as a call to action.
"Fitz's Life Matters. With an S. It still matters. And we're going to fight to change laws and regulations and policy until all of us are protected," she said.
She asked for a moment of silence, then crouched down and leaned her arms on his tombstone. It sits removed from the older graves, under a clearing in the trees, covered in small stones left behind by visitors.
Then the pastor wept. She had rescued the cemetery from its long neglect, but no one had saved her son.


npr--2020-10-19--Removing Cops From Behavioral Crisis Calls: 'We Need To Change The Model'

Removing Cops From Behavioral Crisis Calls : 'We Need To Change The Model' In what will be among the largest and boldest urban police reform experiment in decades San Francisco is creating and preparing to deploy teams of professionals from the fire and health departments — not police — to respond to most calls for people in a psychiatric , behavioral or substance abuse crisis .
Instead of police , these types of crisis calls will mostly be handled by new unarmed mobile teams comprised of paramedics , mental health professionals and peer support counselors starting next month .
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change the model , '' says San Francisco Fire Dept .
Capt .
Simon Pang , who is leading the fire department 's effort to build these new street crisis response teams .
Removing police from most nonviolent psychiatric and behavioral crisis calls is no small shift : they can account for a quarter or more of all police calls for service .
If you add in 911 calls for issues or complaints surrounding homelessness , the numbers shoot even higher , police data show .
Moreover , surveys show that nearly a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about `` disruptive behavior '' directly tied to a person 's mental illness and/or substance abuse disorder .
Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys show that 64 % of those in jail and more than half of all prison inmates have a mental health problem , many of them undiagnosed .
`` They 're ( police ) handling these calls the best they can , '' Pang says , `` but the fact remains that because of the traditional system , which is in place out of inertia , you have law enforcement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for service for people whose needs are largely social , behavioral or mental .
And that 's just not right , '' he says .
`` The time is now to rethink the entire process so that we can get personnel who are better suited to help people '' in those kinds of crises .
These mobile teams better suited will include a specially trained psychologist or social worker , a fire department paramedic and a peer support expert , ideally someone with lived experience in recovery from alcohol or drug abuse and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , unarmed , non-police teams are scheduled , at first , to take over the police calls for code 800 – a broad , catch-all category the police describe as a `` report of a mentally disturbed person . ''
The police here got nearly 17,000 of those code 800s last year , according to SFPD data , and nearly 22,000 overall from persons in mental or behavioral crisis .
The vast majority of them were non-violent .
Of those code 800 calls , the police data show , only 132 of them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a weapon . ''
Organizers of the new teams in the city 's fire and health departments aim to expand the array of nonviolent police calls they take over , including some of the nearly 30,000 `` check on well being '' 911 calls the police receive annually .
Details on which of those other police code calls the new teams will eventually respond to are still under discussion , officials involved say .
While Denver , and Portland , Ore. , have launched similar efforts they remain small pilot reform programs in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Francisco 's effort is set to be the largest urban effort of its kind to date .
The ambitious plan is one key effort to make good on a broader reform pledge this summer by the city 's Mayor London Breed , a Democrat , who has vowed to rethink public safety and equity in services following weeks of protests after the deaths of several black women and men at police hands including George Floyd in Minneapolis .
The mayor 's budget has also proposed re-directing more than $ 100 million dollars from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under-served communities of color .
San Francisco 's effort reflects a wider national trend as some cities struggle to find creative , scalable non-police interventions for public safety that work .
On a recent day Capt .
Pang and an EMS colleague slow-drive through areas of the city that long have dealt with societal challenges .
In San Francisco , as with other cities , a relatively small group of people use emergency services almost daily if not several times in a single day ; calls that can clog a system and tie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anecdotally , fire , police and city officials say the majority of the 911 `` high users '' as they 're called are people with dual mental and substance abuse problems .
Many of them endlessly cycle in and out of shelters and emergency rooms .
`` God bless them !
And God bless everybody ! ''
Steve shouts as he slouches in a broken chair he 's found on a street in the city 's Mission District .
Steve ( we 're only using his first name to protect his privacy as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ methadone and struggles with alcohol dependence ) is one of the city 's 911 high users .
He 's a semi-homeless man who on average uses the emergency system up to 20 times a month , SFFD data show .
Capt .
Pang has known him for more than five years .
After much negotiation , the captain offers to guide Steve back to his subsidized room in a supportive housing program .
`` And if you get there safely , I 'd like to buy you a sandwich , '' the paramedic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' `` And I said no ! ''
Steve says , slurring his words .
`` How about a cup of coffee ? ''
`` And I said no , '' Steve repeats .
`` So you wan na stay here tonight , '' Pang asks , `` Where do you want to go ? ''
Pang hopes the new teams free up police and better guide people to long-term supportive services , and to end the in-and-out emergency rooms and homeless shelter cycle .
`` It 's very , very difficult when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to help the problem .
And so if you pick someone up over and over again that is clearly in distress and miserable , it 's frustrating .
There 's no satisfaction in helping someone because you 're not helping anybody , '' Pang says .
Steve is holding precariously to his metal walker .
His tone changes .
`` You see these people are trying to help me out ! ''
Steve says .
`` Do you want help ? ''
I ask .
`` Yes , '' Steve says , emphatically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' On paper , anyway , the police here are supportive of replacing cops with unarmed medic teams for some of these kinds of calls .
But there is resistance and deep skepticism , especially among the rank and file as expressed by some caustic and derisive postings on social media .
The San Francisco police department declined NPR 's interview requests on the topic .
A spokesman emailed a statement attributed to police Chief William Scott saying , `` We recognize it will take sacrifice on our part to fulfill the promise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Shamann ) Walton have proposed , and we look forward to working cooperatively with them moving forward . ''
Pang acknowledges police concern .
`` They want to make sure that whatever takes their place is able to adequately do the job . ''
When these new fire and health department units take over those calls , Pang says , the hope is police will have more time to focus on fighting crime .
Still , if someone in mental or emotional distress is armed or threatening violence , the police will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( the police ) want to make sure that we do n't expect to be handling cases where someone might be violent or dangerous , '' he says .
The city 's teams will be built off of the experience of the city 's EMS-6 crews , which Pang leads .
These units are specially organized paramedic crews who already get extra training in dealing with issues surrounding mental illness , addiction and homelessness .
Some EMS-6 crews can also deploy with a social worker or homeless outreach worker in cooperation with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It 's exactly the kind of daily work that mixes social work with EMT training that Pang 's teams are used to and which makes them well-suited to build the new crisis response teams around .
The city 's new mobile teams are modeled loosely on a program in Eugene , Oregon that has successfully diverted these kinds of behavioral and mental crisis calls away from police for more than three decades .
`` It 's our experience that folks in crisis just are n't dangerous , '' says Timothy Black with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Streets or CAHOOTS .
`` It 's really a misnomer to say that the only response for people in crisis can be a response that involves , you know , the tools of force , like a badge , a gun , handcuffs . ''
Black says since the summer 's protests , he 's been flooded with calls from across the country from city officials and advocates looking to potentially replicate and scale this type of program .
Even some cities that already use what 's called the co-responder model — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police officer to some crisis calls — are now looking to try to take police out of those calls as much as possible .
Denver and Portland , Ore. , have launched small pilot programs modeled on CAHOOTS .
In both places , the programs are starting small with targeted sections of the city with a goal of expanding their reach over time .
In Los Angeles the City Council recently approved a plan to develop unarmed responses to some non-violent city calls .
That program , too , will start small : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get diverted to a crisis line run by a mental health nonprofit .
`` Our crisis counselors will then manage the call as any other hotline call and work to deescalate , '' says Sandri Kramer a manager with LA 's Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center .
`` Ultimately the county wants to move towards a Cahoots-style program , '' Kramer says .
In Eugene the numbers show that the CAHOOTS model is working to reduce the risk of violence and get people counseling and social services .
`` These crises have all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , '' Timothy Black says .
`` And the CAHOOTS response is really about meeting people where they 're at and identifying those needs and supporting somebody in accessing them . ''
So if a midsized city in central Oregon has successfully run non-police interventions for mental and behavioral health crisis calls for more than for thirty years , why have n't other , larger cities replicated and scaled it sooner ?
Big reasons , experts say , include institutional inertia , funding challenges and the fact that departments everywhere have embraced a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mental health crisis calls that has proved ineffectual .
As NPR recently reported , the training and deployment of widely-used police Crisis Intervention Teams or CITs , has proved woefully inadequate to reduce violence , get people into treatment or counseling or to change the broader , often volatile dynamic surrounding mental health and law enforcement .
Even some who support scaling up non-police crisis teams caution , however , that they 're no substitute for repairing America 's long broken community mental health care system .
`` This idea of waiting until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is just A , so inefficient and , B , just really does n't take account of all the harm that we could prevent if we just provided people appropriate mental health care , '' says Christy Lopez who directs the Innovative Policing Program at Georgetown Law .
San Francisco aims to get its first mobile street crisis response team up running seven days a week by the end of next month .
The aim is to quickly grow the program to six city-wide , 24/7 teams by next March .

Removing Cops From Behavioral Crisis Calls: 'We Need To Change The Model'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Eric Westervelt /NPR Eric Westervelt /NPR
In what will be among the largest and boldest urban police reform experiment in decades San Francisco is creating and preparing to deploy teams of professionals from the fire and health departments — not police — to respond to most calls for people in a psychiatric, behavioral or substance abuse crisis.
Instead of police, these types of crisis calls will mostly be handled by new unarmed mobile teams comprised of paramedics, mental health professionals and peer support counselors starting next month.
"It's glaringly obvious we need to change the model," says San Francisco Fire Dept. Capt. Simon Pang, who is leading the fire department's effort to build these new street crisis response teams.
Removing police from most nonviolent psychiatric and behavioral crisis calls is no small shift: they can account for a quarter or more of all police calls for service. If you add in 911 calls for issues or complaints surrounding homelessness, the numbers shoot even higher, police data show.
Moreover, surveys show that nearly a quarter of fatal police encounters followed calls about "disruptive behavior" directly tied to a person's mental illness and/or substance abuse disorder. Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys show that 64% of those in jail and more than half of all prison inmates have a mental health problem, many of them undiagnosed.
"They're (police) handling these calls the best they can," Pang says, "but the fact remains that because of the traditional system, which is in place out of inertia, you have law enforcement officers responding to nonviolent, noncriminal calls for service for people whose needs are largely social, behavioral or mental. And that's just not right," he says. "The time is now to rethink the entire process so that we can get personnel who are better suited to help people" in those kinds of crises.
These mobile teams better suited will include a specially trained psychologist or social worker, a fire department paramedic and a peer support expert, ideally someone with lived experience in recovery from alcohol or drug abuse and perhaps homelessness.
San Francisco's new, unarmed, non-police teams are scheduled, at first, to take over the police calls for code 800 – a broad, catch-all category the police describe as a "report of a mentally disturbed person." The police here got nearly 17,000 of those code 800s last year, according to SFPD data, and nearly 22,000 overall from persons in mental or behavioral crisis. The vast majority of them were non-violent. Of those code 800 calls, the police data show, only 132 of them reported "a potential for violence or a weapon."
Rethinking public safety and equity in services
Organizers of the new teams in the city's fire and health departments aim to expand the array of nonviolent police calls they take over, including some of the nearly 30,000 "check on well being" 911 calls the police receive annually. Details on which of those other police code calls the new teams will eventually respond to are still under discussion, officials involved say.
While Denver, and Portland, Ore., have launched similar efforts they remain small pilot reform programs in select sections of those cities. San Francisco's effort is set to be the largest urban effort of its kind to date.
The ambitious plan is one key effort to make good on a broader reform pledge this summer by the city's Mayor London Breed, a Democrat, who has vowed to rethink public safety and equity in services following weeks of protests after the deaths of several black women and men at police hands including George Floyd in Minneapolis. The mayor's budget has also proposed re-directing more than $100 million dollars from the police department to initiatives that support under-served communities of color.
San Francisco's effort reflects a wider national trend as some cities struggle to find creative, scalable non-police interventions for public safety that work.
Frequent 911 Users
On a recent day Capt. Pang and an EMS colleague slow-drive through areas of the city that long have dealt with societal challenges.
In San Francisco, as with other cities, a relatively small group of people use emergency services almost daily if not several times in a single day; calls that can clog a system and tie up police and fire fighters alike.
Anecdotally, fire, police and city officials say the majority of the 911 "high users" as they're called are people with dual mental and substance abuse problems. Many of them endlessly cycle in and out of shelters and emergency rooms.
They're people such as Steve.
"God bless them! And God bless everybody!" Steve shouts as he slouches in a broken chair he's found on a street in the city's Mission District.
Steve (we're only using his first name to protect his privacy as he recovers from addiction to heroin and methadone and struggles with alcohol dependence ) is one of the city's 911 high users. He's a semi-homeless man who on average uses the emergency system up to 20 times a month, SFFD data show.
Capt. Pang has known him for more than five years.
After much negotiation, the captain offers to guide Steve back to his subsidized room in a supportive housing program.
"And if you get there safely, I'd like to buy you a sandwich," the paramedic offers. "How 'bout that?"
"And I said no!" Steve says, slurring his words.
"How about a cup of coffee?"
"And I said no," Steve repeats.
"So you wanna stay here tonight," Pang asks, "Where do you want to go?"
Pang hopes the new teams free up police and better guide people to long-term supportive services, and to end the in-and-out emergency rooms and homeless shelter cycle.
"It's very, very difficult when you feel like you are doing nothing to help the problem. And so if you pick someone up over and over again that is clearly in distress and miserable, it's frustrating. There's no satisfaction in helping someone because you're not helping anybody," Pang says.
Steve is holding precariously to his metal walker. His tone changes.
"You see these people are trying to help me out!" Steve says.
"Do you want help?" I ask.
"Yes," Steve says, emphatically. "Yes, I do."
Change is slow, police wary
On paper, anyway, the police here are supportive of replacing cops with unarmed medic teams for some of these kinds of calls. But there is resistance and deep skepticism, especially among the rank and file as expressed by some caustic and derisive postings on social media.
The San Francisco police department declined NPR's interview requests on the topic. A spokesman emailed a statement attributed to police Chief William Scott saying, "We recognize it will take sacrifice on our part to fulfill the promise of the plan Mayor Breed and Supervisor (Shamann) Walton have proposed, and we look forward to working cooperatively with them moving forward."
Pang acknowledges police concern. "They want to make sure that whatever takes their place is able to adequately do the job."
When these new fire and health department units take over those calls, Pang says, the hope is police will have more time to focus on fighting crime. Still, if someone in mental or emotional distress is armed or threatening violence, the police will still be sent first.
"They (the police) want to make sure that we don't expect to be handling cases where someone might be violent or dangerous," he says.
The city's teams will be built off of the experience of the city's EMS-6 crews, which Pang leads. These units are specially organized paramedic crews who already get extra training in dealing with issues surrounding mental illness, addiction and homelessness.
Some EMS-6 crews can also deploy with a social worker or homeless outreach worker in cooperation with the city's Department of Public Health.
It's exactly the kind of daily work that mixes social work with EMT training that Pang's teams are used to and which makes them well-suited to build the new crisis response teams around.
Eugene, Ore., model
The city's new mobile teams are modeled loosely on a program in Eugene, Oregon that has successfully diverted these kinds of behavioral and mental crisis calls away from police for more than three decades.
"It's our experience that folks in crisis just aren't dangerous," says Timothy Black with the program called Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets or CAHOOTS. "It's really a misnomer to say that the only response for people in crisis can be a response that involves, you know, the tools of force, like a badge, a gun, handcuffs."
Black says since the summer's protests, he's been flooded with calls from across the country from city officials and advocates looking to potentially replicate and scale this type of program.
Even some cities that already use what's called the co-responder model — where a social worker rides alongside a police officer to some crisis calls — are now looking to try to take police out of those calls as much as possible.
Denver and Portland, Ore., have launched small pilot programs modeled on CAHOOTS. In both places, the programs are starting small with targeted sections of the city with a goal of expanding their reach over time.
In Los Angeles the City Council recently approved a plan to eventually develop unarmed responses to some non-violent 911 calls. And the city's Innovation and Performance Commission just approved a pilot project that will launch next year to divert a subset of suicide-related 911 calls to crisis line run by a mental health nonprofit. "Our crisis counselors will then manage the call as any other hotline call and work to deescalate," says Sandri Kramer a manager with LA's Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center. "Ultimately the county wants to move towards a CAHOOTS-style program," Kramer says.
In Eugene the numbers show that the CAHOOTS model is working to reduce the risk of violence and get people counseling and social services. "These crises have all emerged because a need has gone unmet," Timothy Black says. "And the CAHOOTS response is really about meeting people where they're at and identifying those needs and supporting somebody in accessing them."
So if a midsized city in central Oregon has successfully run non-police interventions for mental and behavioral health crisis calls for more than for thirty years, why haven't other, larger cities replicated and scaled it sooner?
Big reasons, experts say, include institutional inertia, funding challenges and the fact that departments everywhere have embraced a general training and program model for handling mental health crisis calls that has proved ineffectual. As NPR recently reported, the training and deployment of widely-used police Crisis Intervention Teams or CITs, has proved woefully inadequate to reduce violence, get people into treatment or counseling or to change the broader, often volatile dynamic surrounding mental health and law enforcement.
Even some who support scaling up non-police crisis teams caution, however, that they're no substitute for repairing America's long broken community mental health care system.
"This idea of waiting until these incidents become crises to deal with is just A, so inefficient and, B, just really doesn't take account of all the harm that we could prevent if we just provided people appropriate mental health care," says Christy Lopez who directs the Innovative Policing Program at Georgetown Law.
San Francisco aims to get its first mobile street crisis response team up running seven days a week by the end of next month. The aim is to quickly grow the program to six city-wide, 24/7 teams by next March.


npr--2020-10-19--Race For A (Ballot) Cure: The Scramble To Fix Absentee-Ballot Problems

Race For A ( Ballot ) Cure : The Scramble To Fix Absentee-Ballot Problems Hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots could be rejected this November because of mistakes , such as missing or mismatched signatures .
Voter advocacy groups , political parties and others are rushing to help voters fix — or `` cure '' — their ballots before it 's too late , so they can be counted .
Common Cause is one of many organizations actively calling voters in key battleground states , where even a small number of rejected ballots could make a big difference in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Abelson , who works with the nonpartisan group , spent hours last week calling voters in Florida whose ballots had been flagged because there was some problem with the signature .
Either it was missing or did n't match the one election officials had on record for the voter .
`` The good news is that you can fix it .
It 's super-easy and quick , '' Abelson told the voters , offering to walk them through the process online .
In Florida , voters can cure their ballots simply by filling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a copy of an ID , such as a drivers ' license .
`` OK , that sounds wonderful , '' she tells one voter who promises to do just that .
`` Thank you so much for being an early voter , and I hope your ballot gets fixed . ''
More than 11,500 Florida ballots so far need to be cured , and the number is expected to rise much higher as an avalanche of mail-in ballots arrives there and in election offices across the United States .
In the 2016 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rejected , largely because of signature problems and missed deadlines .
But many more voters are voting by mail this year because of the coronavirus pandemic , raising the possibility of many more rejections .
An NPR analysis this year found that more than half a million mail-in ballots were rejected in this year 's primaries .
`` We 're not leaving anything to chance , '' said Adin Lenchner , deputy national states director for NextGen America , a group that mobilizes young voters to elect Democrats and progressives .
The group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to reach voters who need to cure their ballots .
Lenchner said his group spent a lot of time and energy getting these young voters to register , request their ballots and send them in .
And it would be a shame if their votes did n't count simply because they made a mistake common among those who have never cast absentee ballots .
`` It 's confusing .
You have to sign it in such and such a place and mark it just right , '' said Lenchner .
`` The process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a first-time voter . ''
Michael Bitzer , a political scientist at Catawba College in North Carolina , has been tracking mail-in voting in his state .
He said that so far , about 61 % of the ballots that need to be fixed belong to Democrats , compared with 18 % for Republicans .
The rest are from unaffiliated voters .
Black voters also have a disproportionate share — about 40 % — of deficient ballots .
Bitzer noted that only 3 % of these Black voters cast mail-in ballots in 2016 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to many of them .
`` Typically , the voter forgot to sign the back of the return envelope , or they failed to have the witness fully complete the section of witness information , '' he said .
North Carolina is one of a handful of states that require absentee voters to have a witness sign their ballot .
But the state 's ballot-curing process has also been tangled up in legal challenges for weeks , leaving voters confused and with little time left to fix any problems .
`` We 're @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the middle of the game , '' said Bitzer .
Similar legal fights are being waged in other states — only half of which allow voters to cure their mail-in ballots .
If voters make mistakes in other states , they 're out of luck and might not find out that their ballot did n't count until after the election .
Abelson , of Common Cause , said most people she calls are happy to hear from her because they are eager to have their votes count .
Florida is one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to inform voters if their mail-in ballots have errors , but it can take a few days .
Voter Isabelle Campbell , from Duval County , said she was surprised when she got Abelson 's call : `` Because I reviewed the instructions on the mail-in ballot and I made sure to really slowly go through it and do what I needed to do to get the ballot counted .
So I 'm still not sure what the issue is , '' said Campbell .
Still , she was n't taking any chances @ @ @ @ @ @ @ affidavit to get her ballot cured .
`` It 's always important to vote , but I think this year is especially important to make our voices heard , '' said Campbell .
Abelson was n't able to help everyone .
One elderly woman said she was homebound and did n't have a computer .
Abelson encouraged her to call the local election office , but the following day the woman told NPR she had yet to do so and was still confused about what to do .

Race For A (Ballot) Cure: The Scramble To Fix Absentee-Ballot Problems
Enlarge this image toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots could be rejected this November because of mistakes, such as missing or mismatched signatures. Voter advocacy groups, political parties and others are rushing to help voters fix — or "cure" — their ballots before it's too late, so they can be counted.
Common Cause is one of many organizations actively calling voters in key battleground states, where even a small number of rejected ballots could make a big difference in the outcome of a close election.
Dana Abelson, who works with the nonpartisan group, spent hours last week calling voters in Florida whose ballots had been flagged because there was some problem with the signature. Either it was missing or didn't match the one election officials had on record for the voter.
"The good news is that you can fix it. It's super-easy and quick," Abelson told the voters, offering to walk them through the process online. In Florida, voters can cure their ballots simply by filling out and returning an affidavit along with a copy of an ID, such as a drivers' license.
"OK, that sounds wonderful," she tells one voter who promises to do just that. "Thank you so much for being an early voter, and I hope your ballot gets fixed."
More than 11,500 Florida ballots so far need to be cured, and the number is expected to rise much higher as an avalanche of mail-in ballots arrives there and in election offices across the United States.
In the 2016 presidential election, 318,728 mail-in ballots were rejected, largely because of signature problems and missed deadlines. But many more voters are voting by mail this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, raising the possibility of many more rejections. An NPR analysis this year found that more than half a million mail-in ballots were rejected in this year's primaries.
"We're not leaving anything to chance," said Adin Lenchner, deputy national states director for NextGen America, a group that mobilizes young voters to elect Democrats and progressives. The group now has dozens of volunteers actively trying to reach voters who need to cure their ballots.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Pam Fessler/NPR Pam Fessler/NPR
Lenchner said his group spent a lot of time and energy getting these young voters to register, request their ballots and send them in. And it would be a shame if their votes didn't count simply because they made a mistake common among those who have never cast absentee ballots.
"It's confusing. You have to sign it in such and such a place and mark it just right," said Lenchner. "The process is confusing, especially if you're a first-time voter."
Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College in North Carolina, has been tracking mail-in voting in his state. He said that so far, about 61% of the ballots that need to be fixed belong to Democrats, compared with 18% for Republicans. The rest are from unaffiliated voters.
Black voters also have a disproportionate share — about 40% — of deficient ballots. Bitzer noted that only 3% of these Black voters cast mail-in ballots in 2016, which means the process is new to many of them.
"Typically, the voter forgot to sign the back of the return envelope, or they failed to have the witness fully complete the section of witness information," he said.
North Carolina is one of a handful of states that require absentee voters to have a witness sign their ballot. But the state's ballot-curing process has also been tangled up in legal challenges for weeks, leaving voters confused and with little time left to fix any problems.
The state announced Monday that a legal dispute over the ballot-curing process – which had been on hold since Oct. 4 – has been resolved and county boards can start informing voters whose ballot need to be cured and how to go about doing that. Voters will either have to submit a new ballot or an affidavit, depending on the problem with their original ballot. The state estimates that about 10,000 voters will be affected.
"We're basically changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game," said Bitzer.
Similar legal fights are being waged in other states — only half of which allow voters to cure their mail-in ballots. If voters make mistakes in other states, they're out of luck and might not find out that their ballot didn't count until after the election.
Abelson, of Common Cause, said most people she calls are happy to hear from her because they are eager to have their votes count.
Florida is one of 18 states where election officials are required to inform voters if their mail-in ballots have errors, but it can take a few days.
Voter Isabelle Campbell, from Duval County, said she was surprised when she got Abelson's call: "Because I reviewed the instructions on the mail-in ballot and I made sure to really slowly go through it and do what I needed to do to get the ballot counted. So I'm still not sure what the issue is," said Campbell.
Still, she wasn't taking any chances. She had already filled out her affidavit to get her ballot cured.
"It's always important to vote, but I think this year is especially important to make our voices heard," said Campbell.
Abelson wasn't able to help everyone. One elderly woman said she was homebound and didn't have a computer. Abelson encouraged her to call the local election office, but the following day the woman told NPR she had yet to do so and was still confused about what to do.


npr--2020-10-19--China's Economy Bounces Back As Pandemic Is Brought Under Control

China 's Economy Bounces Back As Pandemic Is Brought Under Control China posted 4.9 % economic growth in its third quarter as compared to the same period last year , keeping it on track to be the only major global economy to record an economic expansion this year in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic .
Economists estimate China 's yearly GDP growth could be north of 2.5 % this year — even as the rest of the world economy is expected to shrink by at least 4 % .
That differential will give Chinese companies in sectors ranging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ share and greater economic influence .
`` What you 're seeing now is basically China 's stability premium kicking back in , in the sense that companies now are dealing with a global pandemic , and many of the places that they would move production to are n't looking so rosy right now , '' says Michael Hirson , China and Northeast Asia practice head at the consultancy Eurasia Group .
Just about half-a-year ago , China appeared to be in dire economic straits as the pandemic , which began in its port @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lockdown of staggering scale .
In May , Beijing abandoned its annual economic growth targets for the first time ever after its economy shrank 6.8 % — the worst contraction in three decades .
`` It was like a war .
Our director told us , 'In these critical times , if you can not hold up your end , I 'll just find someone else to replace you , ' `` recounts Xue Yue , vice president at Thinova Magnet Co. , Ltd. , which makes rare earth magnets and sensors for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The pressure to keep supplying Thinova 's multinational clients was huge .
Xue Yue was able to resume production at Thinova back in February by negotiating with dozens of villages to allow some 200 workers out of strict lockdown so they could return to work .
But since then , China has staged a dramatic economic recovery due to extensive , mandatory testing and quarantine policies .
Daily new cases of the coronavirus have dropped to single digits .
Subsequent outbreaks were contained by strict , city-by-city lockdowns that have allowed the national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regions were temporarily sealed off .
So factories , including Thinova 's , are humming again .
Automobile sales have been growing at their fastest pace in two years .
Real estate investment has climbed at double-digit rates for months , trickling down to related sectors like steel and construction .
While China 's economic statistics have been dogged by long-running suspicions of their veracity , economists say growth figures - despite not being perfectly accurate - are reliable as a general gauge of activity .
`` Consumer demand is down , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might be a second wave [ of the virus ] , our clients in North America have been stocking up on our components , '' says Xue .
By getting back to work earlier than other countries , China will gain an even larger slice of market share in key export industries in the manufacturing and commodities sectors .
`` Global steel production dropped , so China 's share of production can only rise .
I estimate this year China will be at 60 % of global steel production , '' says Li @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Industry Planning and Research Institute , a state consultancy and industry body .
`` In June and July we were importing steel , there was no [ global ] market for steel , '' Li says .
`` It was only China which wanted to buy , because our automobile and construction sector quickly recovered . ''
Because China 's economy has recovered earlier and faster than that of other nations , including the U.S. , its trade surplus this year will only widen .
That could exacerbate tensions with the U.S. , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pumping up its trade surplus at the expense of American manufacturers .
The Trump administration made reducing the disparity in goods traded between the two countries a key demand in a trade war last year .
`` The fact that China is back up and running smoothly , and in fact some evidence suggests that China is actually grabbing market share in export industries , will be a cause of concern for U.S. policy makers in particular , '' says Hirson .
Last year , the trade war and a difficult operating environment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some of their supply chain out of China .
Popular alternatives include Southeast Asia , where labor costs have remained lower than those in mainland China .
But this year , the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai 's latest survey found more than 78 % of respondents will not move their operations , a more than 5 % increase from last year .
China 's economic recovery does have its weaknesses .
Much of the pick-up in economic activity has come from investment in new manufacturing facilities and infrastructure .
That has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ making more stuff than people want or are able to buy .
Retail sales have lagged behind last year , but picked up for the first time in August .
`` The next key economic data we should watch out for is the inventory growth , '' or the amount of goods manufacturers have stockpiled , explains Bo Zhuang , head China economist at research firm TS Lombard .
Exports of home goods and electronics have climbed , driven by a captive market of consumers abroad eager to undertake home improvement projects while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work-from-home items , such as computers or massage chairs .
But Bo says such export growth is limited , because many of the goods are one-time purchases .
`` We should be worried about the Chinese export growth , because for most of the households in Europe or the U.S. , once you have got one laptop , you are not going to buy the additional one in the coming months , '' Bo says .
The lowest earners on China 's socioeconomic ladder are struggling to bounce back to pre-coronavirus levels .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 9 % of the adult work force in China remains unemployed after being laid-off during the height of the pandemic .
Many of the newly unemployed are itinerant migrant workers , who have struggled to find new , temporary work assignments and do n't qualify for China 's thinly-resourced unemployment insurance programs .
`` Overall , it 's still an investment-driven story and what 's lagging behind is mainly the consumption , especially for lower-income people related consumption , '' says He Wei , a China economist at the Beijing research firm Gavekal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. — China has not given cash payments to lower-income workers , many of whom have not been able to find work after the pandemic , further throwing supply and demand out of synch .
`` Inequality will widen again , and this will weigh down the consumption growth , '' says Gavekal 's He .

China's Economy Bounces Back As Pandemic Is Brought Under Control
Enlarge this image toggle caption Emily Feng/NPR Emily Feng/NPR
China posted 4.9% economic growth in its third quarter compared to the same period last year, keeping it on track to be the only major global economy to record an economic expansion this year in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Economists estimate China's yearly GDP growth could be north of 2.5% this year — even as the rest of the world economy is expected to shrink by at least 4%. That differential will give Chinese companies in sectors ranging from electronics to steel more global market share and greater economic influence.
"What you're seeing now is basically China's stability premium kicking back in, in the sense that companies now are dealing with a global pandemic, and many of the places that they would move production to aren't looking so rosy right now," says Michael Hirson, China and Northeast Asia practice head at the consultancy Eurasia Group.
Just about half a year ago, China appeared to be in dire economic straits as the pandemic, which began in its port city of Wuhan, caused a national lockdown of staggering scale. In May, Beijing abandoned its annual economic growth targets for the first time ever after its economy shrank 6.8% — the worst contraction in three decades.
"It was like a war. Our director told us, 'In these critical times, if you cannot hold up your end, I'll just find someone else to replace you,' " recounts Xue Yue, vice president at Thinova Magnet Co. Ltd., which makes rare earth magnets and sensors for automobiles and electronics such as smartphones.
The pressure to keep supplying Thinova's multinational clients was huge. Xue was able to resume production at Thinova in February by negotiating with dozens of villages to allow some 200 workers out of strict lockdown so they could return to work.
But since then, China has staged a dramatic economic recovery due to extensive, mandatory testing and quarantine policies. Daily new cases of the coronavirus have dropped to single digits. Subsequent outbreaks were contained by strict, city-by-city lockdowns that have allowed the national economy to continue operating even as some regions were temporarily sealed off.
So factories, including Thinova's, are humming again. Automobile sales have been growing at their fastest pace in two years. Real estate investment has climbed at double-digit rates for months, trickling down to related sectors such as steel and construction.
While China's economic statistics have been dogged by long-running suspicions of their veracity, economists say growth figures — despite not being perfectly accurate — are reliable as a general gauge of activity.
"Consumer demand is down, but because of the uncertainty about whether there might be a second wave [of the virus], our clients in North America have been stocking up on our components," says Xue.
A global advantage
By getting back to work earlier than other countries, China will gain an even larger slice of market share in key export industries in the manufacturing and commodities sectors.
"Global steel production dropped, so China's share of production can only rise. I estimate this year China will be at 60% of global steel production," says Li Xinchuang, president of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, a state consultancy and industry body.
"In June and July we were importing steel, there was no [global] market for steel," Li says. "It was only China which wanted to buy, because our automobile and construction sector quickly recovered."
Because China's economy has recovered earlier and faster than that of other nations, including the U.S., its trade surplus this year will only widen.
That could exacerbate tensions with the U.S., which has long accused China of artificially pumping up its trade surplus at the expense of American manufacturers. The Trump administration made reducing the disparity in goods traded between the two countries a key demand in a trade war last year.
"The fact that China is back up and running smoothly, and in fact some evidence suggests that China is actually grabbing market share in export industries, will be a cause of concern for U.S. policymakers in particular," says Hirson.
Last year, the trade war and a difficult operating environment led some American businesses to consider moving some of their supply chain out of China. Popular alternatives include Southeast Asia, where labor costs have remained lower than those in mainland China.
But this year, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai's latest survey found more than 78% of respondents will not move their operations, a more than 5% increase from last year.
Continued softness in consumer spending
China's economic recovery does have its weaknesses.
Much of the pickup in economic activity has come from investment in new manufacturing facilities and infrastructure.
That has outpaced consumption, meaning China is still making more stuff than people want or are able to buy. Retail sales have lagged behind last year, but picked up for the first time in August.
"The next key economic data we should watch out for is the inventory growth," or the amount of goods manufacturers have stockpiled, explains Bo Zhuang, head China economist at research firm TS Lombard.
Exports of home goods and electronics have climbed, driven by a captive market of consumers abroad eager to undertake home improvement projects while in lockdown or willing to splurge on work-from-home items such as computers or massage chairs.
But Bo says such export growth is limited, because many of the goods are one-time purchases.
"We should be worried about the Chinese export growth because for most of the households in Europe or the U.S., once you have got one laptop, you are not going to buy the additional one in the coming months," Bo says.
The lowest earners on China's socioeconomic ladder are struggling to bounce back to pre-coronavirus levels.
A Peking University study from July estimated 9% of the adult work force in China remains unemployed after being laid off during the height of the pandemic. Many of the newly unemployed are itinerant migrant workers who have struggled to find new, temporary work assignments and don't qualify for China's thinly synchresourced unemployment insurance programs.
"Overall, it's still an investment-driven story and what's lagging behind is mainly the consumption, especially for lower-income people related consumption," says He Wei, a China economist at the Beijing research firm Gavekal Dragonomics.
Unlike many countries — including the U.S. — China has not given cash payments to lower-income workers, many of whom have not been able to find work after the pandemic, further throwing supply and demand out of sync.
"Inequality will widen again, and this will weigh down the consumption growth," says Gavekal's He.


npr--2020-10-19--Debate Commission To Mute Candidates' Mics At Start Of Each Segment

Debate Commission To Mute Candidates ' Mics At Start Of Each Segment The Commission on Presidential Debates announced changes to the debate rules ahead of Thursday 's final presidential debate .
Under the new rules , each candidate will have two minutes of uninterrupted time to speak at the beginning of each 15-minute segment of the debate .
`` The only candidate whose microphone will be open during these two-minute periods is the candidate who has the floor under the rules , '' the commission announced .
After that , there will be time for discussion with both candidates ' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaigns have agreed to the 2-minute , uninterrupted rule .
It 's an effort to allow rivals President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden more equitable time to answer questions in the final presidential debate .
The decision comes after a chaotic first presidential debate that saw significant interruptions from President Trump , the Republican nominee , and Joe Biden , the Democratic nominee .
That debate , moderated by Fox News ' Chris Wallace , was widely criticized for its off-the-rails nature and lack of structure .
The final debate comes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Nov. 3 general election , in which Trump and Biden will compete for the Oval Office , and hundreds of congressional seats as well as nearly a dozen governors ' mansion are up for grabs .
In a statement , the Trump campaign said it was `` committed to debating '' Biden `` regardless of last minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favored candidate . ''
`` This was supposed to be the foreign policy debate , so the President still looks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number one relevant question of whether he 's been compromised by the Communist Party of China , '' the campaign continued .
Earlier in the day , the campaign released a request that the debate focus on foreign policy , as opposed to the topics chosen by NBC News moderator Kristen Welker .
The topics include : race , national security , leadership , America 's families , COVID-19 , and climate change .
`` We understand that Joe Biden is desperate to avoid conversations on his own foreign policy record , especially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agreements among Israel , the United Arab Emirates , and Bahrain , '' the campaign said .

Debate Commission To Mute Candidates' Mics At Start Of Each Segment
Enlarge this image toggle caption Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images
Updated at 9:50 p.m. ET
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced changes to the debate rules ahead of Thursday's final presidential debate.
Under the new rules, President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will each have two minutes of uninterrupted time to speak at the beginning of every 15-minute segment of the debate.
"The only candidate whose microphone will be open during these two-minute periods is the candidate who has the floor under the rules," the commission announced. After that, there will be time for discussion with both candidates' microphones open.
The commission says both campaigns have agreed to the two-minute, uninterrupted rule.
It's an effort to allow Trump and former Vice President Biden more equitable time to answer questions in the final presidential debate.
The decision comes after a chaotic first presidential debate that saw significant interruptions from both major party candidates, primarily from Trump.
The Sept. 29 debate, moderated by Fox News' Chris Wallace, was widely criticized for its off-the-rails nature and lack of structure.
Trump and Biden had been scheduled for a debate last week, but that was canceled because of a dispute over safety protocols (Trump had been hospitalized days after the first debate with COVID-19 and was opposed to a virtual event). The presidential rivals separately held competing town halls last week instead.
Thursday's debate comes just a week and a half before the Nov. 3 Election Day, in which Trump and Biden will compete for the Oval Office, and hundreds of congressional seats as well as nearly a dozen governors' mansion are up for grabs.
In a statement, the Trump campaign said it was "committed to debating" Biden "regardless of last minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favored candidate."
"This was supposed to be the foreign policy debate, so the President still looks forward to forcing Biden to answer the number one relevant question of whether he's been compromised by the Communist Party of China," the campaign continued.
Earlier in the day, the campaign released a request that the debate focus on foreign policy, as opposed to the topics chosen by NBC News moderator Kristen Welker. The topics include: race, national security, leadership, America's families, COVID-19 and climate change.
"We understand that Joe Biden is desperate to avoid conversations on his own foreign policy record, especially since President Trump has secured historic peace agreements among Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain," the campaign said.


npr--2020-10-19--Supreme Court Rules Pennsylvania Can Count Ballots Received After Election Day

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that election officials in Pennsylvania can count absentee ballots received as late as the Friday after Election Day so long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3 .
The court declined without comment to take up one of the highest-profile election law cases in the final stretch before Election Day .
Pennsylvania Republicans had sought to block the counting of late-arriving ballots , which the state 's Supreme Court had approved last month .
Republicans sought the emergency stay , arguing that it is up to the state 's legislature — not the court @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are conducted .
They also said the court 's ruling could allow ballots cast after Election Day to be counted .
The court 's most conservative justices , Samuel Alito , Neil Gorsuch , Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas said they would have agreed to the stay request .
But Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court 's three most liberal members to reject the request .
Many more voters are expected to cast votes by mail this year because of the coronavirus pandemic , and the issue of the cutoff date for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hands of election officials has become a legal flashpoint between Democrats and Republicans .
The decision comes in a state that is central to the presidential campaigns of both major-party candidates .
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are the only two swing states where officials can begin processing and counting the millions of absentee ballots only on Election Day , likely delaying complete results for several days .
In a third crucial swing state , Michigan , clerks can begin processing ballots only the day before Election Day .
In its ruling , the Pennsylvania @ @ @ @ @ @ @ counted if they were received by 5 p.m. Nov. 6 , as long as they were mailed by Election Day , Nov. 3 .
It also said that ballots without a postmark would `` be presumed to have been mailed by Election Day '' unless there was strong evidence to the contrary .
Before this year , the state required absentee ballots to be received by Election Day .
But Democrats pushed for the extension because of concerns that postal delays would disenfranchise some of the millions of Pennsylvania voters who are expected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year because of the pandemic .
The decision is especially important because Donald Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by just over 44,000 votes , a narrow margin in a state where more than 6 million ballots were cast .
An NPR analysis this year found that tens of thousands of primary ballots — including almost 16,000 in Pennsylvania — were rejected because they arrived too late to be counted .
The question of when mail-in ballots need to be received in order to count has been the subject of litigation in others states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal appeals court recently handed Republicans a victory by blocking a state plan to allow ballots to count if they were received up to six days after Election Day , as long as they were postmarked by Election Day .
Democrats have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that decision .
Last Friday , a federal appeals court ruled that mail-in ballots in Michigan have to be received by Election Day .
The state had wanted to extend the deadline by 14 days , arguing that postal delays could cause some ballots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a state appeals court in North Carolina said the state can count ballots that arrive as late as Nov. 12 , as long as they are postmarked by Election Day .

Supreme Court Rules Pennsylvania Can Count Ballots Received After Election Day
Enlarge this image toggle caption Mark Makela/Getty Images Mark Makela/Getty Images
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that election officials in Pennsylvania can count absentee ballots received as late as the Friday after Election Day so long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3.
The court declined without comment to take up one of the highest-profile election law cases in the final stretch before Election Day. Pennsylvania Republicans had sought to block the counting of late-arriving ballots, which the state's Supreme Court had approved last month.
Republicans sought the emergency stay, arguing that it is up to the state's legislature — not the court — to set rules for how elections are conducted. They also said the court's ruling could allow ballots cast after Election Day to be counted.
The court's most conservative justices — Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas — said they would have agreed to the stay request. But Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's three most liberal members to reject the request.
Many more voters are expected to cast votes by mail this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the issue of the cutoff date for when those ballots must be in the hands of election officials has become a legal flashpoint between Democrats and Republicans.
The decision comes in a state that is central to the presidential campaigns of both major-party candidates. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are the only two swing states where officials can begin processing and counting the millions of absentee ballots only on Election Day, likely delaying complete results for several days. (In a third crucial swing state, Michigan, clerks can begin processing ballots only the day before Election Day.)
In its ruling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that ballots could be counted if they were received by 5 p.m. Nov. 6, as long as they were mailed by Election Day, Nov. 3. It also said that ballots without a postmark would "be presumed to have been mailed by Election Day" unless there was strong evidence to the contrary.
Before this year, the state required absentee ballots to be received by Election Day. But Democrats pushed for the extension because of concerns that postal delays would disenfranchise some of the millions of Pennsylvania voters who are expected to cast their ballots by mail this year because of the pandemic.
The decision is especially important because Donald Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by just over 44,000 votes — a narrow margin in a state where more than 6 million ballots were cast. An NPR analysis this year found that tens of thousands of primary ballots — including almost 16,000 in Pennsylvania — were rejected because they arrived too late to be counted.
The question of when mail-in ballots need to be received in order to count has been the subject of litigation in others states as well. In Wisconsin, a federal appeals court recently handed Republicans a victory by blocking a state plan to allow ballots to count if they were received up to six days after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. Democrats have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that decision.
Last Friday, a federal appeals court ruled that mail-in ballots in Michigan have to be received by Election Day. The state had wanted to extend the deadline by 14 days, arguing that postal delays could cause some ballots to be rejected.
And on Monday, a state appeals court in North Carolina said the state can count ballots that arrive as late as Nov. 12, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.


npr--2020-10-19--Air Travel High: TSA Screens 1 Million For First Time Since March

Air Travel High : TSA Screens 1 Million For First Time Since March How 's this for an October surprise ?
Despite a significant rise in COVID-19 cases in many parts of the country , it appears that more people are flying on commercial jetliners than at any time over the last seven months .
More than one million people were screened by the Transportation Security Administration at airport security checkpoints Sunday .
It 's the first time the TSA 's daily traveler count has topped the one million mark since March 16 .
And this was n't just a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ TSA 's daily throughput figure has topped 900,000 eight times already this month , and the TSA reports that the 6.1 million people passing through U.S. airport checkpoints between Oct. 12 and Oct. 18 was the greatest weekly traveler volume measured since the start of the pandemic .
But experts say there is a lot of pent-up demand for air travel and it 's important to note that despite the modest increase , the number of people flying is still down more than 60 % from the 2.6 million who flew on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it 's a bit of good news at a time the nation 's airlines are burning through tens of millions of dollars a day and reporting huge financial losses due to the coronavirus pandemic .
Delta and United both reported last week that they lost billions in the third quarter , as fewer people than expected dared to get onto airplanes in July , August and September .
American and Southwest report their third-quarter results later this week , but are also expected to show billions in losses after many would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their destinations instead of flying .
The industry group Airlines for America says airlines are in desperate need for additional federal coronavirus relief , as they are collectively losing $ 5 billion a month .
Last year and into January and February of this year , airlines were setting passenger volume records .
The TSA reported screening between 2.5 and 2.7 million people on the busiest travel days , which are usually Fridays and Sundays .
But as the coronavirus outbreak spiked last March , companies halted business travel and millions canceled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the number of travelers passing through security checkpoints plummeted to under 100,000 , a decline of 96 % .
Other than the days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 , 2001 , the group Airlines for America says there had n't been that few people flying since the dawn of the jet airplane age in the 1950s .
There were short-lived upticks in air travel demand in early summer , especially around the Memorial Day and Fourth of July holiday weekends .
But the number of COVID-19 cases spiked after each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country that rushed to reopen bars , restaurants and other gathering places .
Lingering concerns about spreading the viral illness dampened demand for air travel during the later summer months .
As welcome as this month 's surprising rise in air travel is , there is still a lot of uncertainty over whether the trend will continue , especially heading into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season , which is usually a busy air travel period .
Most airlines have significantly reduced their schedules as demand remains weak , and some have suspended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ September , bookings for travel in November were just a fraction of last year 's level , according to the airline data firm OAG .
And with what appears to be a new wave of COVID-19 cases surging , especially in the Midwest , several states are setting records for the daily number of infections being reported .
Public health officials in many states are urging residents to stay home to celebrate the holidays in small family groups .
`` COVID-19 has changed the way we work , live , and play , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to celebrate the holidays , '' said Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike , who added that `` the safest way to celebrate is with members of your household and connecting with others virtually . ''

Air Travel High: TSA Screens 1 Million For 1st Time Since March
Enlarge this image toggle caption Scott Olson/Getty Images Scott Olson/Getty Images
How's this for an October surprise? Despite a significant rise in COVID-19 cases in many parts of the country, it appears that more people are flying on commercial jetliners than at any time over the last seven months.
More than one million people were screened by the Transportation Security Administration at airport security checkpoints Sunday. It's the first time the TSA's daily traveler count has topped the one million mark since March 16.
And this wasn't just a one-day surge in air travel. The TSA's daily throughput figure has topped 900,000 eight times already this month, and the TSA reports that the 6.1 million people passing through U.S. airport checkpoints between Oct. 12 and Oct. 18 was the greatest weekly traveler volume measured since the start of the pandemic.
But experts say despite there being a lot of pent-up demand for air travel, it's important to note that even with this modest increase, the number of people flying is still down more than 60% from the 2.6 million who flew on the same October Sunday last year.
Still, it's a bit of good news at a time the nation's airlines are burning through tens of millions of dollars a day and reporting huge financial losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. Delta and United both reported last week that they lost billions in the third quarter, as fewer people than expected dared to get onto airplanes in July, August and September. American and Southwest report their third-quarter results later this week, but are also expected to show billions in losses after many would be passengers canceled summer travel plans or drove to their destinations instead of flying.
The industry group Airlines for America says airlines are in desperate need for additional federal coronavirus relief, as they are collectively losing $5 billion a month.
Last year and into January and February of this year, airlines were setting passenger volume records. The TSA reported screening between 2.5 and 2.7 million people on the busiest travel days, which are usually Fridays and Sundays. But as the coronavirus outbreak spiked last March, companies halted business travel and millions canceled vacations and weekend getaways.
By mid-April, the number of travelers passing through security checkpoints plummeted to under 100,000, a decline of 96%. Other than the days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the group Airlines for America says there hadn't been that few people flying since the dawn of the jet airplane age in the 1950s.
There were short-lived upticks in air travel demand in early summer, especially around the Memorial Day and Fourth of July holiday weekends. But the number of COVID-19 cases spiked after each holiday, especially in parts of the country that rushed to reopen bars, restaurants and other gathering places. Lingering concerns about spreading the viral illness dampened demand for air travel during the later summer months.
As welcome as this month's surprising rise in air travel is, there is still a lot of uncertainty over whether the trend will continue, especially heading into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, which is usually a busy air travel period.
Most airlines have significantly reduced their schedules as demand remains weak, and some have suspended service to smaller cities. In late September, bookings for travel in November were just a fraction of last year's level, according to the airline data firm OAG.
And with what appears to be a new wave of COVID-19 cases surging, especially in the Midwest, several states are setting records for the daily number of infections being reported. Public health officials in many states are urging residents to stay home to celebrate the holidays in small family groups.
"COVID-19 has changed the way we work, live, and play, and will now change how we plan to celebrate the holidays," said Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who added that "the safest way to celebrate is with members of your household and connecting with others virtually."


npr--2020-10-19--Channing Dungey Named Chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group

One of the top African American executives in Hollywood , Channing Dungey , was named chairman of the Warner Bros. Television Group on Monday .
She will replace Peter Roth who is stepping down early next year after running the television group for more than two decades .
Dungey previously served in executive roles at ABC and most recently Netflix where she was the streaming giant 's Vice President Original Content and Head of Drama .
She left her role at Netflix on Oct. 9 .
While at ABC , she was named President of ABC Entertainment , making her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entertainment programming division at a major network .
One of her more controversial decisions while at ABC was greenlighting the reboot of Roseanne even after some critics noted the star , Rosanne Barr , had several racist social media posts .
After a successful return to prime time in 2018 , the network quickly ordered 13 more episodes just days after its March 27 premiere .
But two months later , ABC abruptly cancelled the show after incendiary tweets from Barr about former Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarret in which she said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the apes had a baby=vj . ''
`` Roseanne 's Twitter statement is abhorrent , repugnant and inconsistent with our values , and we have decided to cancel her show , '' she said .
The tweet was later deleted and Barr apologized `` for making a bad joke . ''
She also said the sedative Ambien played a role in her tweet .
Most of the cast returned without Barr and The Connors is still featured in ABC 's prime time programming .
Dungey also oversaw the network 's relaunch of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Fox ) and created new series that included A Million Little Things , The Rookie and The Good Doctor .

Channing Dungey Named Chairman Of Warner Bros. Television Group
Enlarge this image toggle caption Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Fortune Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Fortune
One of the top African American executives in Hollywood, Channing Dungey, was named chairman of the Warner Bros. Television Group on Monday.
She will replace Peter Roth, who is stepping down early next year after running the television group for more than two decades.
Dungey previously served in executive roles at ABC and most recently Netflix where she was the streaming giant's Vice President Original Content and Head of Drama.
She left her role at Netflix on Oct. 9.
While at ABC, she was named President of ABC Entertainment, making her the first Black executive to run an entertainment programming division at a major network.
One of her more controversial decisions while at ABC was greenlighting the reboot of Roseanne even after some critics noted the star, Rosanne Barr, had several racist social media posts.
After a successful return to prime time in 2018, the network quickly ordered 13 more episodes just days after its March 27 premiere.
But two months later, ABC abruptly canceled the show after incendiary tweets from Barr about former Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarret in which she said, if "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj."
Dungey issued a one-sentence statement on the matter.
"Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," she said.
The tweet was later deleted and Barr apologized "for making a bad joke." She also said the sedative Ambien played a role in her tweet.
Most of the cast returned without Barr and The Connors is still featured in ABC's prime-time programming.
Dungey also oversaw the network's relaunch of American Idol (which had previously aired on Fox) and created new series that included A Million Little Things, The Rookie and The Good Doctor.
NPR TV Critic Eric Deggans contributed to this report.