npr--2020-07-17--Multiracial Congregations May Not Bridge Racial Divide

Twenty years ago , a sociologist at Rice University , Michael Emerson , directed a study of efforts by white evangelical Christians to address racial inequality .
His provocative conclusion , summarized in his book Divided By Faith , co-authored with Christian Smith , was that evangelicals `` likely do more to perpetuate the racial divide than to tear it down , '' largely because they tended to worship in racially segregated congregations and viewed racial prejudice as an individual , not a societal , problem .
The book , published in 2000 , captured wide attention in evangelical circles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the magazine Christianity Today .
Emerson then proposed an answer to the problem he had highlighted : If Christians of different racial backgrounds began worshipping together , he suggested , racial reconciliation could follow .
In a 2004 book , United By Faith , a sequel to his earlier book , Emerson and a team of collaborators called for a new church movement .
`` The 21st century , '' they argued , `` must be the century of multiracial congregations . ''
Emerson , who is white , became personally committed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into a mostly African-American congregation .
He soon became a godfather of sorts for the multiracial church movement , consulting with congregations around the country on how to promote diversity in worship .
The key , Emerson argued , was to do it with deliberate purpose .
`` You put it into your mission statement , '' he said in a 2019 interview with NPR .
`` You think about who is up on the platform during worship and who is put into leadership and the ministry .
You think about the artwork @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the music you 're playing .
Does it reflect all people or only one culture ? ''
For many , the multiracial church movement appeared to be a good idea , attracting both whites and people of color .
In Columbus , Ohio , Korie Little Edwards , who was attending a Black church , was one of those intrigued by the promise of more diversity in her worship experience .
`` I bumped into someone who said , 'Hey , I go to this multiracial church , and it 's down here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you check it out ? '
'' Little Edwards told NPR .
`` And I thought , 'Yeah , well , why not ? '
'' Little Edwards teaches sociology at the Ohio State University , but at the time her interest in the church was personal .
`` I had this idea that , 'Yeah , this would be really great , ' '' she said .
`` I thought , 'This will be a place governed by Christian ideals , a place where people can come and connect with one another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was thinking that multiracial churches could be an answer to racial inequality . ''
In the years that followed , Little Edward 's interest in the multiracial church movement became professional .
As a sociologist of religion , she wanted to see whether diverse churches could help break down racism , and she began visiting congregations and interviewing members and church leaders with a team of research assistants , identifying the strategies they followed and the problems they encountered .
In Fort Worth , Texas , a white Southern Baptist pastor named Randal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ multiracial church movement and resolved to diversify his own nearly all white church , Meadowridge Baptist .
The obstacles were quickly apparent .
Lyle 's youth minister organized a basketball league for African American youth from the neighborhood .
When he learned some were devout Christians , he invited them to visit Meadowridge , Lyle says , only to be rebuffed .
`` A young man told him , ' I 'm not going there .
That 's a white church , ' '' Lyle says .
He and his staff took the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was probably like most , '' he told NPR .
`` We 'd say we would welcome anybody who wants to come here , but what we meant was , as long as they do things exactly how we do them . ''
After reviewing Michael Emerson 's books and videos on the subject , Lyle realized big changes at his church would be needed .
He changed the sign out front to say , `` All Races United In Christ . ''
The staff bought new toys for the children 's room @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They changed the artwork in the church , and Lyle organized a choir .
`` When I first came here , I said , 'We 're not going to do choir , ' '' Lyle said .
`` But then we began to think , 'This community is primarily African American and Anglo .
Choirs are huge in an African American church . '
So we realized we need to have a choir . ''
The effort proved largely successful .
The membership at Meadowridge Baptist is now about one-third African American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is growing .
`` I needed a different experience , '' says Myrtle Lee , 73 , who left the Black church she had been attending and joined Meadowridge with her two sisters .
`` I wanted to worship with everybody that I worked with .
I work with not just Black people .
I wanted to go to church with those same people . ''
One of her sisters , Cecilia Rhodes , says it took a while to get accustomed to worshiping in a predominantly white church .
`` Sometimes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` People looking at you kind of strangely .
And then I just made it my mission to hug .
So I started hugging people . ''
Curtis Hudson , who is African American , joined Meadowridge with his wife Andrea , who is white , shortly after they moved to the Fort Worth area .
`` We were looking for a church , and what we found were either all white or all Black , '' Hudson says .
`` And then Andrea did a Google search for 'mullticultural churches , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So we said , 'Let 's check it out . '
'' Meadowridge remains today one of the few intentionally multicultural churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area .
`` I 'd love to say it 's not rare , '' says Myrtle Lee .
`` I 'd love to say that .
But I think it is . ''
The number of multiracial churches has actually been growing in the United States .
A recently completed survey of congregations by Michael Emerson , now at the University of Illinois at Chicago , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the share of churches defined as `` multiracial , '' with at least one out of five members from a minority background , grew from six percent in 1998 to 16 percent in 2019 .
During that time , however , those multiracial churches did not themselves become significantly more diverse .
The African American membership share in these churches grew only slightly , from 16 to 21 percent and actually declined between 2012 and 2019 .
The white membership share in multiracial churches from 1998 to 2019 remained nearly unchanged at about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tough things , '' says Keith Moore , a Black pastor in Montgomery , Ala. , who works closely with local white pastors .
`` When you see both African Americans and Caucasian Americans [ in a church ] , it 's more than likely to have a Caucasian pastor , '' he says .
`` I think it 's sometimes more difficult for whites to look at a black pastor and see him as their authority .
That 's a tough call for many . ''
As a result , Moore says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a multiracial church are often forced to accept white leadership and a different worship style .
`` You have to abandon some of your ethnic culture and become more palatable to the majority white culture , '' Moore says , `` give up some of the old traditional African American experience to fit in .
So there is a sacrifice . ''
Moore 's impressions , in fact , are supported by the research of Emerson and Dougherty .
`` All the growth [ in multiracial churches ] has been people of color @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says .
`` We have seen zero change in the percentage of whites moving into churches of color . ''
Once a multi-racial church becomes less than 50 percent white , Emerson says , the whites leave .
Such findings have left Emerson discouraged .
`` For the leaders of color who were trying to create the multiracial church movement , '' Emerson says , `` they 're basically saying , 'It does n't work .
The white brothers and sisters just wo n't give up their privilege .
And so we 've @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ' '' In Columbus , Ohio , Korie Little Edwards found a similar pattern in her own research .
After her personal interest led her to join a multiracial church , her subsequent study left her skeptical that such churches were making the difference in promoting equality that she had hoped to see .
`` I came to a point where I realized that , you know , these multiracial churches , just because they 're multiracial , does n't mean they have somehow escaped white supremacy , '' she says .
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people are not going to still be in charge and run things . ''
In her book The Elusive Dream : The Power of Race in Interracial Churches , Little Edwards argued that people of color often lose out .
`` The pain people experience is not feeling like they 're accepted for who they are , '' she told NPR , `` not being able to be themselves , not being able to worship how they want to worship , feeling like you have to fall in line with what white people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their own churches , Little Edwards says , African Americans often dress formally and expect worship services to last about two hours on average .
When they join diverse churches , they generally find the white members insisting on shorter services and favoring more casual dress .
Beyond style differences , Little Edwards says , Black people in a multiracial congregation may be reluctant to push for a leadership role and feel pressure instead to settle for a visible or symbolic position , as a greeter or usher or musician .
`` What @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of whiteness , '' she says .
`` And what whiteness says is that people who are white are understood to be dominant and understood to be in charge . ''
Little Edwards herself continues to attend a multiracial church , but that feature is not what binds her to the congregation , and her view of the value of integrated churches has shifted somewhat .
`` I would argue that the goal should n't be diversity , '' she says .
`` Rather , all churches are called to be places of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is what the Christian faith is .
All churches , regardless of their racial and ethnic composition , should be like that .
And then you can move toward integration . ''

Multiracial Congregations May Not Bridge Racial Divide
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tom Gjelten/NPR Tom Gjelten/NPR
Twenty years ago, a sociologist at Rice University directed a study of efforts by white evangelical Christians to address racial inequality. Michael Emerson's provocative conclusion, summarized in his book Divided By Faith and co-authored with Christian Smith, was that evangelicals "likely do more to perpetuate the racial divide than to tear it down," largely because they tended to worship in racially segregated congregations and viewed racial prejudice as an individual, not a societal, problem.
The book, published in 2000, captured wide attention in evangelical circles and was featured on the cover of the magazine Christianity Today.
Emerson then proposed an answer to the problem he had highlighted: If Christians of different racial backgrounds began worshipping together, he suggested, racial reconciliation could follow. In a 2004 book, United By Faith, a sequel to his earlier book, Emerson and a team of collaborators called for a new church movement.
"The 21st century," they argued, "must be the century of multiracial congregations."
Emerson, who is white, became personally committed to the cause, moving his own family into a mostly African American congregation. He soon became a godfather of sorts for the multiracial church movement, consulting with congregations around the country on how to promote diversity in worship. The key, Emerson argued, was to do it with deliberate purpose.
"You put it into your mission statement," he said in a 2019 interview with NPR. "You think about who is up on the platform during worship and who is put into leadership and the ministry. You think about the artwork and the books you're using and the music you're playing. Does it reflect all people or only one culture?"
For many, the multiracial church movement appeared to be a good idea, attracting both whites and people of color.
In Columbus, Ohio, Korie Little Edwards, who was attending a Black church, was one of those intrigued by the promise of more diversity in her worship experience.
"I bumped into someone who said, 'Hey, I go to this multiracial church, and it's down here in the city. Why don't you check it out?'" Little Edwards told NPR. "And I thought, 'Yeah, well, why not?'"
Little Edwards teaches sociology at the Ohio State University, but at the time her interest in the church was personal.
"I had this idea that, 'Yeah, this would be really great,'" she said. "I thought, 'This will be a place governed by Christian ideals, a place where people can come and connect with one another and support one another.' I was thinking that multiracial churches could be an answer to racial inequality."
In the years that followed, Little Edward's interest in the multiracial church movement became professional. As a sociologist of religion, she wanted to see whether diverse churches could help break down racism, and she began visiting congregations and interviewing members and church leaders with a team of research assistants, identifying the strategies they followed and the problems they encountered.
toggle caption Tom Gjelten/NPR
A church transformed
In Fort Worth, Texas, a white Southern Baptist pastor named Randal Lyle heard about Michael Emerson and his multiracial church movement and resolved to diversify his own nearly all-white church, Meadowridge Baptist. The obstacles were quickly apparent.
Lyle's youth minister organized a basketball league for African American youth from the neighborhood. When he learned some were devout Christians, he invited them to visit Meadowridge, Lyle says, only to be rebuffed.
"A young man told him, 'I'm not going there. That's a white church,'" Lyle says. He and his staff took the comment to heart.
"Our church was probably like most," he told NPR. "We'd say we would welcome anybody who wants to come here, but what we meant was, as long as they do things exactly how we do them."
After reviewing Michael Emerson's books and videos on the subject, Lyle realized big changes at his church would be needed. He changed the sign out front to say, "All Races United In Christ." The staff bought new toys for the children's room, making sure they reflected racial diversity. They changed the artwork in the church, and Lyle organized a choir.
"When I first came here, I said, 'We're not going to do choir,'" Lyle said. "But then we began to think, 'This community is primarily African American and Anglo. Choirs are huge in an African American church.' So we realized we need to have a choir."
The effort proved largely successful. The membership at Meadowridge Baptist is now about one-third African American, and the number of Latino members is growing.
"I needed a different experience," says Myrtle Lee, 73, who left the Black church she had been attending and joined Meadowridge with her two sisters. "I wanted to worship with everybody that I worked with. I work with not just Black people. I wanted to go to church with those same people."
One of her sisters, Cecilia Rhodes, says it took a while to get accustomed to worshipping in a predominantly white church.
"Sometimes, there was stares," she says. "People looking at you kind of strangely. And then I just made it my mission to hug. So I started hugging people."
Curtis Hudson, who is African American, joined Meadowridge with his wife, Andrea, who is white, shortly after they moved to the Fort Worth area.
"We were looking for a church, and what we found were either all white or all Black," Hudson says. "And then Andrea did a Google search for 'multicultural churches,' and this church came up. So we said, 'Let's check it out.'"
Meadowridge remains today one of the few intentionally multicultural churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
"I'd love to say it's not rare," says Myrtle Lee. "I'd love to say that. But I think it is."
A one-way movement
The number of multiracial churches has actually been growing in the United States. A recently completed survey of congregations by Mark Chaves of Duke University and analyzed by Chaves, Michael Emerson, now at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Kevin Dougherty of Baylor University found that the share of churches defined as "multiracial," with at least one out of five members from a minority background, grew from 6% in 1998 to 16% in 2019.
During that time, however, those multiracial churches did not themselves become significantly more diverse. The African American membership share in these churches grew only slightly, from 16% to 21%, and actually declined between 2012 and 2019. The white membership share in multiracial churches from 1998 to 2019 remained nearly unchanged at about 50%.
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"Integrated churches are tough things," says Keith Moore, a Black pastor in Montgomery, Ala., who works closely with local white pastors. "When you see both African Americans and Caucasian Americans [in a church], it's more than likely to have a Caucasian pastor," he says. "I think it's sometimes more difficult for whites to look at a Black pastor and see him as their authority. That's a tough call for many."
As a result, Moore says, African Americans ready to worship in a multiracial church are often forced to accept white leadership and a different worship style.
"You have to abandon some of your ethnic culture and become more palatable to the majority white culture," Moore says, "give up some of the old traditional African American experience to fit in. So there is a sacrifice."
Moore's impressions, in fact, are supported by the research of Emerson and Dougherty.
"All the growth [in multiracial churches] has been people of color moving into white churches," Emerson says. "We have seen zero change in the percentage of whites moving into churches of color." Once a multiracial church becomes less than 50% white, Emerson says, the white members leave. Such findings have left Emerson discouraged.
"For the leaders of color who were trying to create the multiracial church movement," Emerson says, "they're basically saying, 'It doesn't work. The white brothers and sisters just won't give up their privilege. And so we've been defeated, in a sense.'"
The continuing power of race
In Columbus, Ohio, Korie Little Edwards found a similar pattern in her own research. After her personal interest led her to join a multiracial church, her subsequent study left her skeptical that such churches were making the difference in promoting equality that she had hoped to see.
"I came to a point where I realized that, you know, these multiracial churches, just because they're multiracial, doesn't mean they have somehow escaped white supremacy," she says. "Being diverse doesn't mean that white people are not going to still be in charge and run things."
In her book The Elusive Dream: The Power of Race in Interracial Churches, Little Edwards argued that people of color often lose out.
"The pain people experience is not feeling like they're accepted for who they are," she told NPR, "not being able to be themselves, not being able to worship how they want to worship, feeling like you have to fall in line with what white people expect you to do."
In their own churches, Little Edwards says, African Americans often dress formally and expect worship services to last about two hours on average. When they join diverse churches, they generally find the white members insisting on shorter services and favoring more casual dress.
Beyond style differences, Little Edwards says, Black people in a multiracial congregation may be reluctant to push for a leadership role and feel pressure instead to settle for a visible or symbolic position, as a greeter or usher or musician.
"What's at work here is the power of whiteness," she says. "And what whiteness says is that people who are white are understood to be dominant and understood to be in charge."
Little Edwards herself continues to attend a multiracial church, but that feature is not what binds her to the congregation, and her view of the value of integrated churches has shifted somewhat.
"I would argue that the goal shouldn't be diversity," she says. "Rather, all churches are called to be places of justice, uplifting the oppressed. That is what the Christian faith is. All churches, regardless of their racial and ethnic composition, should be like that. And then you can move toward integration."


npr--2020-07-17--Trump Redirects Foreign Aid Agency To Work On Pandemic. Congress Has Questions

Trump Redirects Foreign Aid Agency To Work On Pandemic .
Congress Has Questions The renewed surge in coronavirus cases has left some states once again scrambling to find supplies of masks , gowns , gloves and other medical supplies .
The shortages have drawn attention to President Trump 's plan to help rebuild the national stockpile of these supplies — a plan that involves a little-known foreign aid agency .
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation ( DFC ) is just getting started on its new pandemic assignment .
But the fact that it is involved at all is being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who have called for an independent review of the agency 's activities .
They want to know why this new foreign aid agency — which has been up and running for less than a year — needs to be working on this daunting domestic issue .
The agency 's mission is to give loans to overseas projects as an alternative to the massive infrastructure investments made by China in its 'Belt and Road Initiative . '
`` You have one job already .
We want you to do that job well .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic congressional aide told NPR , explaining the challenges of standing up a new agency .
`` And now the president has an idea and does n't check with anybody . ''
Some members of Congress and other Washington insiders were stunned to hear the president tell a group of Pennsylvania factory workers in May that he was giving the DFC a new job .
`` This federal agency normally invests in economic development projects in other countries .
I said , 'How about investing in our country ? '
`` Trump said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ empower the agency to operate like a bank , providing loans for projects that help supply the national medical stockpile .
That could include loaning money to a company seeking to convert a factory to manufacture items like masks , gloves or gowns .
The money will come from a Defense Production Act fund at the Treasury Department .
Congress appropriated $ 1 billion to that fund as part of the March 27 CARES Act responding to the pandemic .
The new focus raises several red flags , said George Ingram , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Clinton administration .
`` The Congress was very clear in rewriting the legislation , in writing the Build Act , in giving the DFC a very strong development mandate that fits in with U.S. foreign policy , '' Ingram said .
`` It did not have a domestic mandate . ''
Adam Boehler , chief executive of the DFC , said Trump did n't change the mandate .
He just added a domestic element — a temporary one — to help fix a critical problem .
`` My view on this is — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told NPR .
`` Hopefully it 's once in a lifetime .
And I think everybody , for the most part , understood why we would look to invest domestically . ''
Boehler said he hopes to announce the agency 's first coronavirus-related investment within a couple weeks .
`` Highly likely it 'll be in the pharmaceutical manufacturing space , '' Boehler told NPR .
Senate and House aides told NPR they agree that hospitals and medical professionals need federal help to address the pandemic .
But they question why an agency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ground is being given such a big job outside its mandate .
Last week , lawmakers in the House of Representatives asked the Government Accountability Office — a nonpartisan watchdog agency — to review the change .
`` As the federal government responds to the coronavirus pandemic , it 's important that its work is being done efficiently and without impacting other critical functions , '' said Nita Lowey , chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee , in a statement to NPR .
`` The reports we are mandating in our State @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ensure that the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is able to focus on its core mission of offering an alternative to authoritarian governments that seek to gain influence through state-directed investments and lending .
I look forward to seeing what recommendations the GAO puts forward to ensure that this important function is not jeopardized , '' Lowey said in the statement .
Republicans attributed some of the concerns to politics .
Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida , who sponsored the bill that created the DFC , said he thinks it 's wise for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supplies .
`` Is it an overreach of what they originally intended for ? ''
Yoho said .
`` People will argue that , but I think it 's a smart investment from an American business standpoint to shore up our national security . ''
Daniel Runde was a top official at the U.S. Agency for International Development during the Bush administration , and helped advise on the legislation that created the new DFC .
He , too , attributed some of the concerns about the agency 's new role to politics — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that working on loans for domestic companies will divert attention , people and resources from the agency 's long-term objective to respond to China 's overseas investments .
Boehler said he has spoken to members of Congress and understands their concerns .
But he insisted the domestic work will be kept separate from the foreign role — and said a bigger threat to the agency 's core mission is securing enough funding from Congress for its foreign projects .
He said the agency would n't drop the ball , noting only about 16 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be focused on the domestic projects .
`` It is an extremely manageable portion of my business , '' Boehler said .

Trump Redirects Foreign Aid Agency To Work On Pandemic. Congress Has Questions
Enlarge this image toggle caption Evan Vucci/AP Evan Vucci/AP
Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET
The renewed surge in coronavirus cases has left some states once again scrambling to find supplies of masks, gowns, gloves and other medical supplies. The shortages have drawn attention to President Trump's plan to help rebuild the national stockpile of these supplies — a plan that involves a little-known foreign investment agency.
The U.S. International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) is just getting started on its new pandemic assignment. But the fact that it is involved at all is being questioned by some Democratic members of Congress who have called for an independent review of the agency's activities.
They want to know why this new foreign investment agency, which has been up and running for less than a year, needs to be working on this daunting domestic issue.
The agency's mission is to give loans to overseas projects as an alternative to the massive infrastructure investments made by China around the world through its Belt and Road Initiative.
"You have one job already. We want you to do that job well. It's a big job," a Democratic congressional aide told NPR, explaining the challenges of standing up a new agency. "And now the president has an idea and doesn't check with anybody."
Some members of Congress and other Washington insiders were stunned to hear the president tell a group of Pennsylvania factory workers in May that he was giving the Development Finance Corp. a new job.
"This federal agency normally invests in economic development projects in other countries. I said, 'How about investing in our country?' " Trump said.
Trump signed an executive order to empower the agency to operate like a bank, providing loans for projects that help supply the national medical stockpile. That could include loaning money to a company seeking to convert a factory to manufacture items like masks, gloves or gowns.
The money will come from a Defense Production Act fund at the Treasury Department. Congress appropriated $1 billion to that fund as part of the March 27 CARES Act responding to the pandemic. The DFC is working with the Department of Defense on the stockpile issue.
The new focus for the DFC raises several red flags, said George Ingram, who worked on U.S. overseas aid during the Clinton administration.
"The Congress was very clear in rewriting the legislation, in writing the Build Act, in giving the DFC a very strong development mandate that fits in with U.S. foreign policy," Ingram said. "It did not have a domestic mandate."
The DFC absorbed the former Overseas Private Investment Corp and part of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Adam Boehler, chief executive of the DFC, said Trump didn't change the mandate. He just added a domestic element — a temporary one — to help fix a critical problem.
"My view on this is — these are extraordinary times," Boehler told NPR. "Hopefully it's once in a lifetime. And I think everybody, for the most part, understood why we would look to invest domestically."
Boehler brings experience from the private sector, where he started a home health care company before joining the Trump administration as a top official at Health and Human Services. Boehler is a close friend of Jared Kushner, Trump's adviser and son-in-law, and helped the White House coronavirus task force boost ventilator supplies during the early months of the pandemic crisis, when there were fears that hospitals would run short.
Boehler said he hopes to announce the agency's first coronavirus-related investment within a couple of weeks. "Highly likely it'll be in the pharmaceutical manufacturing space," Boehler told NPR.
Senate and House aides told NPR they agree that hospitals and medical professionals need federal help to address the pandemic. But they question why an agency that's just trying to get off the ground is being given such a big job outside its mandate.
Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives asked the Government Accountability Office — a nonpartisan watchdog agency — to review the change.
"As the federal government responds to the coronavirus pandemic, it's important that its work is being done efficiently and without impacting other critical functions," said Nita Lowey, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, in a statement to NPR.
"The reports we are mandating in our State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill will help ensure that the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation is able to focus on its core mission of offering an alternative to authoritarian governments that seek to gain influence through state-directed investments and lending. I look forward to seeing what recommendations the GAO puts forward to ensure that this important function is not jeopardized," Lowey said in the statement.
Republicans attributed some of the concerns to politics. Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida, who sponsored the bill that created the DFC, said he thinks it's wise for the agency to help secure vital medical supplies.
"Is it an overreach of what they originally intended for?" Yoho said. "People will argue that, but I think it's a smart investment from an American business standpoint to shore up our national security."
Daniel Runde was a top official at the U.S. Agency for International Development during the Bush administration and helped advise on the legislation that created the new DFC. He, too, attributed some of the concerns about the agency's new role to politics — but also said there are real concerns that working on loans for domestic companies will divert attention, people and resources from the agency's long-term objective to respond to China's overseas investments.
Boehler said he has spoken to members of Congress and understands their concerns. But he insisted the domestic work will be kept separate from the foreign role — and said a bigger threat to the agency's core mission is securing enough funding from Congress for its foreign projects.
He said the agency wouldn't drop the ball, noting only about 16 people on the agency's 450-member workforce will be focused on the domestic projects. "It is an extremely manageable portion of my business," Boehler said.


npr--2020-07-17--Lawmakers Leverage Defense Bill To Address Police Reform, Racial Injustice

Maryland Democratic Rep. Anthony Brown is African American , and as an Army combat veteran he knows first hand about the military 's tributes to the Confederacy .
Brown served at four of the 10 Army installations named for Confederate officers .
`` I went to flight school at Fort Rucker .
I learned to jump out of airplanes at Fort Benning .
I deployed to Iraq from Fort Bragg , '' the House Democrat says , respectively , of the bases in Alabama , Georgia and North Carolina .
He also spent time at Fort Hood in Texas .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the House to rename those installations .
This month , a House panel adopted his bipartisan measure , which also looks to remove other Confederate tributes from the military , in the defense bill .
`` I grew up not knowing about the savagery of slavery , '' Brown , a member of the House Armed Services Committee , said while introducing his amendment .
`` But I know today , and America knows today , that these installations are named after officers that upheld that peculiar institution that inflicted so much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America . ''
The Confederate symbols are embedded throughout the military .
For example , Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney , D-N.Y. , wants to see such honors gone from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in his district , which includes building and street names and paintings for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee .
`` You will see the House , with bipartisan support , pass a defense bill that includes the long overdue requirement to stop honoring traitors to United States Constitution , '' Maloney predicts .
It 's part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ larger focus for the traditionally bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act , or NDAA , which is entering its 60th year .
Both the full House and Senate are slated to debate the annual legislation next week , including a slew of proposals on use of force , discrimination and diversity in the ranks .
It comes after Congress failed to reach a consensus last month on a police reform bill triggered by national outcry following the death of George Floyd , who was killed in Minneapolis police custody in May .
Now , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a chance to revive that debate .
One of those lawmakers , Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego , is betting that President Trump 's struggling poll numbers will give Republicans the boost they need to join forces .
`` I believe that by putting these into the NDAA , and the closer we actually get to the election , especially once senators ... see Trump 's numbers are bad , that maybe they 'll actually end up siding with us and and pass these reforms , '' Gallego said .
For years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working to limit what military weapons get passed on to police departments .
Now , he has more company : California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris and Republican Sens .
Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are joining Schatz to try to add the proposal to the defense bill .
It will get a debate next week on the Senate floor .
`` It only recently became a mainstream issue as we see tear gas being used on peaceful protesters and police departments being armed with things like armor- piercing bullets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from his home state .
`` There 's a recognition that we are increasingly militarizing our police force and it does n't make anyone safer .
It does n't make our police , women and men safer , and it certainly does n't make communities safer . ''
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine says since the upper chamber did n't get to take up a police reform bill , this will be the first opportunity for some of his colleagues to take a position on this issue .
Last month , Democrats blocked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bringing his proposal to the floor , saying the measure fell short .
The Senate GOP , in turn , declined to take up a House Democratic plan .
`` I think we 'll get into it on the floor and have meaningful votes on on racial justice topics that the nation needs to see the Senate addressing , '' Kaine said .
Already , Kaine , a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee , got his bipartisan provision into the defense bill to prohibit the use of troops for peaceful protests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a threat by Trump during demonstrations to invoke the so-called Insurrection Act .
On the House side , Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar tried to take a different approach than Kaine 's to addressing the Insurrection Act threat .
Her measure would require Congressional approval before the president can deploy troops in such cases .
The measure failed in committee , so now she 's tweaking it to gain new supporters for full House floor debate next week .
`` President Trump threatened to , in my view , abuse his authority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , communities where there was tremendous pain , '' Escobar said .
`` It 's never a bad thing to create added transparency and to ensure that Congress , as a co-equal branch of government , is at least playing somewhat of a role in major decisions like sending the military into an American community . ''
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the first to gain traction for her plan to rename military bases named for Confederates by including the provision in the defense bill .
`` The tens of thousands of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ men and women are calling upon us , on all of us , not just to say the words 'Black lives matter ' but to take a tangible step toward making it true , '' Warren recently said on the Senate floor .
But recently , President Trump attacked Warren and threatened to veto the legislation if her provision remains intact .
Before the veto threat , some GOP members had already expressed support .
`` I can only speak for myself on this issue .
If it 's appropriate to take another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personally okay with that and I 'm a descendant of a Confederate veteran myself , '' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky. , told reporters last month .
And some Republican senators have since reiterated their support for the Warren amendment , such as Utah Sen. Mitt Romney , or urged passage despite it , including North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer .
They are buoyed in part by Trump 's own military leaders , who are seeking their own related reforms .
`` There is no place in our Armed Forces for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discrimination , '' Gen. Mark Milley , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , told the House Armed Services Committee this month .
This , as House Republican co-sponsors have signed onto Brown 's amendment to rename the bases — which would give the Defense Department one year to make the changes versus three years under the Senate version .
One of those co-sponsors , Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon , voted for the amendment a day after Trump 's veto threat .
Ahead of the vote , the Air Force veteran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to appease governments of the South during the Jim Crow era .
`` I think it 's disrespectful to have names of bases of folks who violated their oath , led a civil war that led to 600,000 people being killed , and for the cause of slavery , '' Bacon said .
`` I think we could do better . ''
There 's plenty at stake : the defense bill includes new funding for military hardware and priorities for a national defense strategy , an annual pay raise for servicemembers and boosts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an additional wave of provisions to address racial injustice concerns .
California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier , is pushing a measure to make violent extremism a military crime and another to create a special inspector general focused on discrimination .
Brown is also leading a provision to establish a `` Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council , '' which would include a Chief Diversity Officer .
Other efforts would require a Pentagon study of minority representation at military academies and boost diversity for selection boards that decide promotions .
Maloney says Republicans will face @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legislation and whether they 'll follow Trump 's lead .
The defense bill has often been approved by super majorities in both chambers , and that margin could especially be key this year .
Two-thirds of the House and Senate would be needed to override a potential veto .
`` If we do n't have a defense bill this year , it will be because the president feels so strongly about honoring the leaders of a rebellion against the United States on behalf of racism and slavery , '' Maloney said .
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my Republican colleagues want to follow him down that dark alley is up to them . ''

Lawmakers Leverage Defense Bill To Address Police Reform, Racial Injustice
Enlarge this image toggle caption John Bazemore/AP John Bazemore/AP
Maryland Democratic Rep. Anthony Brown is African American, and as an Army combat veteran he knows first hand about the military's tributes to the Confederacy.
Brown served at four of the 10 Army installations named for Confederate officers.
"I went to flight school at Fort Rucker. I learned to jump out of airplanes at Fort Benning. I deployed to Iraq from Fort Bragg," the House Democrat says, respectively, of the bases in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. He also spent time at Fort Hood in Texas.
Now, Brown is leading the charge in the House to rename those installations. This month, a House panel adopted his bipartisan measure, which also looks to remove other Confederate tributes from the military, in the defense bill.
"I grew up not knowing about the savagery of slavery," Brown, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said while introducing his amendment. "But I know today, and America knows today, that these installations are named after officers that upheld that peculiar institution that inflicted so much pain and suffering on Black people in America."
The Confederate symbols are embedded throughout the military. For example, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., wants to see such honors gone from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in his district, which includes building and street names and paintings for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
"You will see the House, with bipartisan support, pass a defense bill that includes the long overdue requirement to stop honoring traitors to United States Constitution," Maloney predicts.
It's part of a larger theme that will play into larger focus for the traditionally bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which is entering its 60th year. Both the full House and Senate are slated to debate the annual legislation next week, including a slew of proposals on use of force, discrimination and diversity in the ranks.
It comes after Congress failed to reach a consensus last month on a police reform bill triggered by national outcry following the death of George Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis police custody in May. Now, some are eyeing the defense bill as a chance to revive that debate.
One of those lawmakers, Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, is betting that President Trump's struggling poll numbers will give Republicans the boost they need to join forces.
"I believe that by putting these into the NDAA, and the closer we actually get to the election, especially once senators... see Trump's numbers are bad, that maybe they'll actually end up siding with us and and pass these reforms," Gallego said.
Defense bill could enact police, racial injustice reforms
For years, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz has been working to limit what military weapons get passed on to police departments.
Now, he has more company: California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris and Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are joining Schatz to try to add the proposal to the defense bill. It will get a debate next week on the Senate floor.
"It only recently became a mainstream issue as we see tear gas being used on peaceful protesters and police departments being armed with things like armor- piercing bullets and bayonets," Schatz told NPR from his home state. "There's a recognition that we are increasingly militarizing our police force and it doesn't make anyone safer. It doesn't make our police, women and men safer, and it certainly doesn't make communities safer."
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine says since the upper chamber didn't get to take up a police reform bill, this will be the first opportunity for some of his colleagues to take a position on this issue.
Last month, Democrats blocked Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott from bringing his proposal to the floor, saying the measure fell short. The Senate GOP, in turn, declined to take up a House Democratic plan.
"I think we'll get into it on the floor and have meaningful votes on on racial justice topics that the nation needs to see the Senate addressing," Kaine said.
Already, Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, got his bipartisan provision into the defense bill to prohibit the use of troops for peaceful protests. It's an effort to respond to a threat by Trump during demonstrations to invoke the so-called Insurrection Act.
On the House side, Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar tried to take a different approach than Kaine's to addressing the Insurrection Act threat. Her measure would require Congressional approval before the president can deploy troops in such cases.
The measure failed in committee, so now she's tweaking it to gain new supporters for full House floor debate next week.
"President Trump threatened to, in my view, abuse his authority and send the military into American communities, communities where there was tremendous pain," Escobar said. "It's never a bad thing to create added transparency and to ensure that Congress, as a co-equal branch of government, is at least playing somewhat of a role in major decisions like sending the military into an American community."
A presidential veto threat hangs over bill
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the first to gain traction for her plan to rename military bases named for Confederates by including the provision in the defense bill.
"The tens of thousands of Americans protesting the appalling killings of Black men and women are calling upon us, on all of us, not just to say the words 'Black lives matter' but to take a tangible step toward making it true," Warren recently said on the Senate floor.
But recently, President Trump attacked Warren and threatened to veto the legislation if her provision remains intact. Before the veto threat, some GOP members had already expressed support.
"I can only speak for myself on this issue. If it's appropriate to take another look at these names, I'm personally okay with that and I'm a descendant of a Confederate veteran myself," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters last month.
And some Republican senators have since reiterated their support for the Warren amendment, such as Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, or urged passage despite it, including North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer.
They are buoyed in part by Trump's own military leaders, who are seeking their own related reforms.
"There is no place in our Armed Forces for manifestations or symbols of racism bias or discrimination," Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee this month.
This, as House Republican co-sponsors have signed onto Brown's amendment to rename the bases — which would give the Defense Department one year to make the changes versus three years under the Senate version.
One of those co-sponsors, Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon, voted for the amendment a day after Trump's veto threat. Ahead of the vote, the Air Force veteran noted the bases were named for Confederates to appease governments of the South during the Jim Crow era.
"I think it's disrespectful to have names of bases of folks who violated their oath, led a civil war that led to 600,000 people being killed, and for the cause of slavery," Bacon said. "I think we could do better."
There's plenty at stake: the defense bill includes new funding for military hardware and priorities for a national defense strategy, an annual pay raise for servicemembers and boosts in troop levels. And there's an additional wave of provisions to address racial injustice concerns.
California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier, is pushing a measure to make violent extremism a military crime and another to create a special inspector general focused on discrimination.
Brown is also leading a provision to establish a "Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council," which would include a Chief Diversity Officer. Other efforts would require a Pentagon study of minority representation at military academies and boost diversity for selection boards that decide promotions.
Maloney says Republicans will face a big test for this year's legislation and whether they'll follow Trump's lead.
The defense bill has often been approved by super majorities in both chambers, and that margin could especially be key this year. Two-thirds of the House and Senate would be needed to override a potential veto.
"If we don't have a defense bill this year, it will be because the president feels so strongly about honoring the leaders of a rebellion against the United States on behalf of racism and slavery," Maloney said. "That's up to him. Whether my Republican colleagues want to follow him down that dark alley is up to them."


npr--2020-07-17--Navigating Pregnancy Risks In The COVID-19 Era

Carissa Helmer and her husband had been trying to get pregnant for five or six months by early April , when COVID-19 started to spike in the Washington , D.C. , area where they live .
Maybe , they mused , they should stop trying to conceive for a few months .
But then a pregnancy test came back positive .
`` We were , like , 'Oh well — I guess it 's too late for that ! '
`` Helmer says , laughing .
In some ways , she says , there are a few convenient aspects to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ able to work from home .
Before the pandemic , she and her husband both commuted 90 minutes each way to their jobs in the city — driving to the subway , then taking the train downtown .
Because she 's now working from home in her job in the subscriptions department at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts , Helmer is able to get more sleep — and has been able to combat morning sickness with ginger ale and crackers .
`` On the Metro , you 're not allowed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she says .
But other aspects of the pregnancy have been tougher than she expected .
For one thing , she 's had to go to all of her doctor 's appointments by herself .
`` It 's completely understandable , '' Helmer says , `` but I think that that 's something ... we had n't anticipated in a first pregnancy — that my husband would n't be able to be in the room . ''
Then there 's the delicacy required in making rules about visits from relatives .
`` We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with them , '' Helmer says , advising extended family : `` 'You know , it 's really important that you 're quarantining for 14 days before you come and visit us . '
I think that 's been a little hard to explain to some folks , just to tell them that I 'm more at risk , and it 's not anything against them . ''
Though she sounds relaxed , Helmer tells me that she 's worried about getting the coronavirus .
`` I 'm terrified , '' she says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the grocery store , and that 's pretty much the only place that he goes .
And the only place that I go is the doctor 's office . ''
Digging into the data about COVID-19 and pregnancy How worried should expecting parents be about any extra risks the coronavirus might pose to the mom or developing fetus ?
The answer and advice may continue to change , public health officials say , as the evidence rolls in .
In June , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to develop a severe case of COVID-19 than other women their age when they become infected with the virus .
And just this week , physicians in France published a case study that strongly suggests a newborn caught the coronavirus before birth from his mother via the placenta .
`` Where you can , you need to decrease your exposures .
But that has to be practical , '' says Dr. Laura Riley , an OB-GYN at New York-Presbyterian Hospital who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guidelines for practitioners and patients on behalf of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists .
Because this coronavirus is relatively new to humans , the evidence about the added risks it imposes on a pregnancy is scant .
The June CDC analysis was partly reassuring , suggesting that women who get COVID-19 when pregnant are at no greater risk of dying from the virus than nonpregnant women their age , though they do seem to be at somewhat greater risk of developing a severe case of the illness .
The study reviewed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ age who had a lab-confirmed coronavirus infection ; of those , roughly 8,200 were pregnant at the time .
Compared with other women of reproductive age who tested positive for the virus , pregnant women more often went into the intensive care unit and were more likely to need mechanical ventilation .
The data also showed that pregnant women who are Hispanic or Black may be at higher risk of infection than white pregnant women .
( Black and Hispanic people in the U.S. have been found to be at greater risk of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of death from COVID-19 . )
But there were limits to the CDC study that are worth noting , Riley says — limits that may have made the added COVID-19 risk to pregnant women look bigger than it is .
First , pregnancy status was only known for 28 % of the women of reproductive age who tested positive in the study .
That means some infected women who went on to deliver perfectly healthy babies were likely not counted .
And for those whose pregnancy status was known , data on race @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and outcomes were missing for a large proportion of cases .
That , too , may have skewed their findings , the researchers who did the analysis say .
Then there 's the matter of hospitalization rates for pregnant women .
Many hospitals have implemented universal coronavirus screening for anyone admitted to a hospital 's labor and delivery unit .
What the evidence analyzed by the CDC does n't reveal , Riley points out , is whether a pregnant woman was being hospitalized because of symptoms of COVID-19 , or because she was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't tell from this data who came in because they were sick with COVID , and who came in because they were just going to deliver and were oh , by the way , COVID-positive , '' Riley says .
Plus , she says , it 's hard to tell from the CDC data whether a pregnant woman was admitted to the ICU because her case of COVID-19 was severe , or because that particular hospital was only equipped to handle a pregnancy involving COVID-19 in an ICU .
There was one finding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out to Riley as potentially worrisome : `` It seemed pregnant women were more likely to need the mechanical ventilation , which suggests more severe disease . ''
Still , even there , she says , the number of coronavirus-positive pregnant women in the study who were sick enough to need a ventilator was quite small : 42 women out of 8,207 — that 's half of 1 % .
Riley says her own OB-GYN practice includes many high-risk pregnancies — including some older women , some who are pregnant with twins or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health conditions such as chronic hypertension or diabetes .
So does this new data change what she tells her patients about pregnancy in the age of COVID-19 ?
Not really , she says .
`` What it underscores , and what I tell my patients , '' Riley says , `` is you just need to remain diligent in terms of all those things that we know work [ to prevent infection with the virus ] .
We know social distancing works .
We know that wearing a mask works .
We know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' Guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also advise `` limiting contact with other individuals as much as practicable '' and urge patients to `` maintain an adequate supply of preparedness resources including medications . ''
Where it can get harder for her patients , she says , is that , to keep the mother-to-be protected , partners and other members of the household need to take those same precautions .
`` That may not be so easy , '' Riley says , `` but it 's absolutely critical .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of COVID-19 or have been exposed to the coronavirus , they need to let their doctors know so they can be tested and receive appropriate care , Riley advises .
''Am I just going to be housebound the whole of pregnancy ? ''
Taking every precaution can mean staying close to home .
Kate Bernard lives in Austin , Texas , where she works at a music nonprofit and sings with her band KP and the Boom Boom .
Originally from Yorkshire , England , she met her husband 10 years ago on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ married 2 1/2 months later .
Their world changed suddenly in mid-March : `` The coronavirus lockdowns were just being announced that week that we got pregnant , '' she says .
The pandemic led to canceling the gigs the band had scheduled , and Bernard says she 's not sure how she would have fared if she 'd had to perform , considering her pregnancy-induced nausea and the Texas heat .
These days , Bernard says , just 20 minutes outside in the heat makes her queasy , `` and some of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 're playing for an hour , two hours . ''
To try to steer clear of the coronavirus , she 's doing her nonprofit job from home .
Bernard says she 's grateful that 's an option — she has been able to work in bed whenever the sciatic pain in her back flares .
`` I just ca n't imagine having to get dressed and get myself together '' to go to the office , she says — she figures she would have felt compelled to keep her pregnancy under wraps at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trimester .
Not that concealing it would have been easy in her small , open-plan office .
`` We 've just got one bathroom , and they 'd have heard the puking , '' she says , laughing .
`` They 'd have known . ''
Bernard says her life has been a roller coaster since March , and the current surge of coronavirus cases in Texas only adds to her concern .
`` We do n't know when this is going to end , and it does n't give you hope when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state that you live in , '' she says .
`` Am I just going to be housebound the whole of the pregnancy ? ''
Before the new CDC data came out last month , Bernard had been encouraging her husband to go places such as a downtown park or swimming at Austin 's aquifer-fed Barton Springs Pool .
And she had been hoping to swim in the pool at their apartment complex and engage in other activities that bring her joy .
But now she feels like they 'll both need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have closed in light of the pandemic .
In addition to being pregnant , Bernard has asthma — another risk factor that can make COVID-19 more severe .
`` I like to make my own mind up about things , '' she says , adding that she and her husband both `` try and think outside the box and live our life alternatively .
But I just think it 's just better to be safe than sorry at the moment . ''
So , do pregnant women really need to be housebound for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York OB-GYN , says that would not be realistic .
For one thing , they need prenatal care .
`` Yes , we can do some prenatal care by telehealth , but we ca n't do it all that way .
We ca n't assess your baby with you at home . ''
Plus , there are many other reasons to get out and move your body , she says : `` Your mental well-being is not to be ignored . ''
The need for fresh air or to take a walk are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to work may be necessary financially , Riley says .
Dr. Carroll Medeiros is a professor at Brown University 's Alpert Medical School and an OB-GYN at Southern New England Women 's Health .
She says many of her patients in Providence , R.I. , do n't have the luxury of working from home during the pandemic .
Many are also Hispanic or African American .
Classified as essential workers , a number of her patients are still going in to do their jobs — often at hospitals or nursing homes , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ essential worker , and that , too , increases their risk of exposure to the virus .
Some of Medeiros ' patients work in a factory where roughly 70 employees became infected with COVID-19 .
`` These people are mostly Black and brown , '' Medeiros says , `` and it just shows the inequality .
You have less of a chance of having a really good job in this country if you are Black and brown . ''
Many of her pregnant patients are worried about catching the virus , Medeiros says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them to take off time when they feel like they are most at risk .
You take off time — you might lose your job . ''
Despite all the anxieties and the unknowns , Medeiros says she has n't seen indications in her practice that people are avoiding pregnancy out of fear of the pandemic .
`` They are very few and far between — people who have told me , 'Oh , you know , we 've changed our mind .
We 're not going to do it right now , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have come to have their intrauterine devices removed and to start trying .
I do n't think it 's deterred anybody .
But they have a lot of concerns about it . ''
''That hopefulness of having a child '' In Austin , Bernard anticipates that when her baby is due in December , the U.S. will still be grappling with the risks and effects of COVID-19 .
And the current unrest over racial injustice and policing has added extra stress , Bernard says .
`` I 've just got to have hope @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says , `` that bringing a baby in , we 're going to teach it right from wrong .
I think that 's what I 'll be holding on to — that hopefulness of having a child .
And rather than it being doom and gloom in the current times , having hope that the next generations will do a better job . ''

Safe Pregnancy As COVID-19 Surges: What's Best For Mom And Baby?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Leo Patrizi/Getty Images Leo Patrizi/Getty Images
Carissa Helmer and her husband had been trying to get pregnant for five or six months by early April, when COVID-19 started to spike in the Washington, D.C., area where they live. Maybe, they mused, they should stop trying to conceive for a few months.
But then a pregnancy test came back positive.
"We were, like, 'Oh well — I guess it's too late for that!' " Helmer says, laughing.
In some ways, she says, there are a few convenient aspects to being pregnant now – starting with being able to work from home. Before the pandemic, she and her husband both commuted 90 minutes each way to their jobs in the city — driving to the subway, then taking the train downtown. Because she's now working from home in her job in the subscriptions department at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Helmer is able to get more sleep — and has been able to combat morning sickness with ginger ale and crackers. "On the Metro, you're not allowed to eat or drink at all," she says.
But other aspects of the pregnancy have been tougher than she expected. For one thing, she's had to go to all of her doctor's appointments by herself.
"It's completely understandable," Helmer says, "but I think that that's something ... we hadn't anticipated in a first pregnancy — that my husband wouldn't be able to be in the room."
toggle caption Deborah Helmer
Then there's the delicacy required in making rules about visits from relatives.
"We've been trying to be really strict with them," Helmer says, advising extended family: " 'You know, it's really important that you're quarantining for 14 days before you come and visit us.' I think that's been a little hard to explain to some folks, just to tell them that I'm more at risk, and it's not anything against them."
Though she sounds relaxed, Helmer tells me that she's worried about getting the coronavirus.
"I'm terrified," she says. "My husband's still going to the grocery store, and that's pretty much the only place that he goes. And the only place that I go is the doctor's office."
Digging into the data about COVID-19 and pregnancy
How worried should expecting parents be about any extra risks the coronavirus might pose to the mom or developing fetus?
The answer and advice may continue to change, public health officials say, as the evidence rolls in. In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study showing pregnant women may be more likely to develop a severe case of COVID-19 than other women their age when they become infected with the virus. And just this week, physicians in France published a case study that strongly suggests a newborn caught the coronavirus before birth from his mother via the placenta.
"Where you can, you need to decrease your exposures. But that has to be practical," says Dr. Laura Riley, an OB-GYN at New York-Presbyterian Hospital who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and has been involved in devising pandemic guidelines for practitioners and patients on behalf of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Because this coronavirus is relatively new to humans, the evidence about the added risks it imposes on a pregnancy is scant. The June CDC analysis was partly reassuring, suggesting that women who get COVID-19 when pregnant are at no greater risk of dying from the virus than nonpregnant women their age, though they do seem to be at somewhat greater risk of developing a severe case of the illness.
The study reviewed more than 91,000 U.S. women of reproductive age who had a lab-confirmed coronavirus infection; of those, roughly 8,200 were pregnant at the time. Compared with other women of reproductive age who tested positive for the virus, pregnant women more often went into the intensive care unit and were more likely to need mechanical ventilation.
The data also showed that pregnant women who are Hispanic or Black may be at higher risk of infection than white pregnant women. (Black and Hispanic people in the U.S. have been found to be at greater risk of contracting the coronavirus and at higher risk of death from COVID-19.)
But there were limits to the CDC study that are worth noting, Riley says — limits that may have made the added COVID-19 risk to pregnant women look bigger than it is.
First, pregnancy status was only known for 28% of the women of reproductive age who tested positive in the study. That means some infected women who went on to deliver perfectly healthy babies were likely not counted. And for those whose pregnancy status was known, data on race and ethnicity, symptoms, underlying conditions and outcomes were missing for a large proportion of cases. That, too, may have skewed their findings, the researchers who did the analysis say.
Then there's the matter of hospitalization rates for pregnant women. Many hospitals have implemented universal coronavirus screening for anyone admitted to a hospital's labor and delivery unit. What the evidence analyzed by the CDC doesn't reveal, Riley points out, is whether a pregnant woman was being hospitalized because of symptoms of COVID-19, or because she was going into labor.
"You can't tell from this data who came in because they were sick with COVID, and who came in because they were just going to deliver and were oh, by the way, COVID-positive," Riley says.
Plus, she says, it's hard to tell from the CDC data whether a pregnant woman was admitted to the ICU because her case of COVID-19 was severe, or because that particular hospital was only equipped to handle a pregnancy involving COVID-19 in an ICU.
There was one finding in the CDC data that does stand out to Riley as potentially worrisome: "It seemed pregnant women were more likely to need the mechanical ventilation, which suggests more severe disease."
Still, even there, she says, the number of coronavirus-positive pregnant women in the study who were sick enough to need a ventilator was quite small: 42 women out of 8,207 — that's half of 1%.
Riley says her own OB-GYN practice includes many high-risk pregnancies — including some older women, some who are pregnant with twins or triplets, and some who have underlying health conditions such as chronic hypertension or diabetes. So does this new data change what she tells her patients about pregnancy in the age of COVID-19?
Not really, she says.
"What it underscores, and what I tell my patients," Riley says, "is you just need to remain diligent in terms of all those things that we know work [to prevent infection with the virus]. We know social distancing works. We know that wearing a mask works. We know that washing your hands frequently works." Guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also advise "limiting contact with other individuals as much as practicable" and urge patients to "maintain an adequate supply of preparedness resources including medications."
Where it can get harder for her patients, she says, is that, to keep the mother-to-be protected, partners and other members of the household need to take those same precautions. "That may not be so easy," Riley says, "but it's absolutely critical."
If pregnant women do have symptoms of COVID-19 or have been exposed to the coronavirus, they need to let their doctors know so they can be tested and receive appropriate care, Riley advises.
''Am I just going to be housebound the whole of pregnancy?''
Taking every precaution can mean staying close to home.
Kate Bernard lives in Austin, Texas, where she works at a music nonprofit and sings with her band KP and the Boom Boom. Originally from Yorkshire, England, she met her husband 10 years ago on a trip to Austin, and they married 2 1/2 months later.
toggle caption Kate Bernard
Their world changed suddenly in mid-March: "The coronavirus lockdowns were just being announced that week that we got pregnant," she says.
The pandemic led to canceling the gigs the band had scheduled, and Bernard says she's not sure how she would have fared if she'd had to perform, considering her pregnancy-induced nausea and the Texas heat. These days, Bernard says, just 20 minutes outside in the heat makes her queasy, "and some of those gigs were outdoor gigs where you're playing for an hour, two hours."
toggle caption Robert Hein/@lowkeythelowlife
To try to steer clear of the coronavirus, she's doing her nonprofit job from home. Bernard says she's grateful that's an option — she has been able to work in bed whenever the sciatic pain in her back flares.
"I just can't imagine having to get dressed and get myself together" to go to the office, she says — she figures she would have felt compelled to keep her pregnancy under wraps at work until the end of the first trimester.
Not that concealing it would have been easy in her small, open-plan office. "We've just got one bathroom, and they'd have heard the puking," she says, laughing. "They'd have known."
Bernard says her life has been a roller coaster since March, and the current surge of coronavirus cases in Texas only adds to her concern.
"We don't know when this is going to end, and it doesn't give you hope when the numbers are going up in the state that you live in," she says. "Am I just going to be housebound the whole of the pregnancy?"
Before the new CDC data came out last month, Bernard had been encouraging her husband to go places such as a downtown park or swimming at Austin's aquifer-fed Barton Springs Pool. And she had been hoping to swim in the pool at their apartment complex and engage in other activities that bring her joy. But now she feels like they'll both need to be more cautious, and the pools have closed in light of the pandemic. In addition to being pregnant, Bernard has asthma — another risk factor that can make COVID-19 more severe.
"I like to make my own mind up about things," she says, adding that she and her husband both "try and think outside the box and live our life alternatively. But I just think it's just better to be safe than sorry at the moment."
Undeterred by COVID-19
So, do pregnant women really need to be housebound for nine months? Riley, the New York OB-GYN, says that would not be realistic.
For one thing, they need prenatal care. "Yes, we can do some prenatal care by telehealth, but we can't do it all that way. We can't assess your baby with you at home."
Plus, there are many other reasons to get out and move your body, she says: "Your mental well-being is not to be ignored." The need for fresh air or to take a walk are part of staying healthy, and going to work may be necessary financially, Riley says.
Dr. Carroll Medeiros is a professor at Brown University's Alpert Medical School and an OB-GYN at Southern New England Women's Health. She says many of her patients in Providence, R.I., don't have the luxury of working from home during the pandemic. Many are also Hispanic or African American.
Classified as essential workers, a number of her patients are still going in to do their jobs — often at hospitals or nursing homes, she says — or they live with an essential worker, and that, too, increases their risk of exposure to the virus.
Some of Medeiros' patients work in a factory where roughly 70 employees became infected with COVID-19.
"These people are mostly Black and brown," Medeiros says, "and it just shows the inequality. You have less of a chance of having a really good job in this country if you are Black and brown."
Many of her pregnant patients are worried about catching the virus, Medeiros says, but "it's hard for them to take off time when they feel like they are most at risk. You take off time — you might lose your job."
Despite all the anxieties and the unknowns, Medeiros says she hasn't seen indications in her practice that people are avoiding pregnancy out of fear of the pandemic.
"They are very few and far between — people who have told me, 'Oh, you know, we've changed our mind. We're not going to do it right now,' " Medeiros says. "People have come to have their intrauterine devices removed and to start trying. I don't think it's deterred anybody. But they have a lot of concerns about it."
''That hopefulness of having a child''
In Austin, Bernard anticipates that when her baby is due in December, the U.S. will still be grappling with the risks and effects of COVID-19.
And the current unrest over racial injustice and policing has added extra stress, Bernard says.
"I've just got to have hope for the new life," she says, "that bringing a baby in, we're going to teach it right from wrong. I think that's what I'll be holding on to — that hopefulness of having a child. And rather than it being doom and gloom in the current times, having hope that the next generations will do a better job."


npr--2020-07-17--Australian State Orders 'No Dancing, No Singing, No Mingling' To Halt COVID-19

Australian State Orders 'No Dancing , No Singing , No Mingling ' To Halt COVID-19 Australia 's New South Wales state is implementing restrictions on `` high-risk activities '' such as singing in choirs and dancing at nightclubs and bars amid concern of a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 that has spilled over from a neighboring state .
The latest prohibitions , which also limit bookings at restaurants , cafes and bars to no more than 10 people , go into effect from midnight on July 24 ( 10 a.m. July 23 ET ) , New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everybody seated when they are in a venue .
No dancing , no singing , no mingling , '' she said .
Berejiklian said weddings and corporate events would be limited to 150 people , while funerals and religious services would be restricted to 100 .
The latest restrictions in the state that is home to Sydney come as yet another record for daily infections was posted in neighboring Victoria , where 428 new cases were reported .
Friday marked the 12th consecutive day the state has recorded a triple-digit increase in coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was 317 and was set only a day before .
Most of the cases in Victoria were in Melbourne , the country 's second-largest city , which has been on lockdown since last week .
State health officials said 57 of the latest cases have been linked to known outbreaks , while one is a case of a traveler in hotel quarantine and 370 are under investigation .
Victoria 's Premier Daniel Andrews said there had been three new COVID-19 deaths — a man in his 70s and two others , a man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 80s .
`` I can offer no further information about those three tragedies , but we send our best wishes and our thoughts , '' he said .
Andrews said the government was increasing the number of testing sites outside Melbourne .
Earlier this week , Victoria Health Minister Jenny Mikakos announced that all Category 3 elective surgeries , defined as patient conditions that are unlikely to deteriorate quickly or become an emergency , would be paused at Melbourne 's public hospitals to conserve bed space .
In New South Wales , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been linked to a visitor from Melbourne who infected others in a Sydney pub , eight new cases were recorded on Friday , officials said .

Australian State Orders 'No Dancing, No Singing, No Mingling' To Halt COVID-19
Enlarge this image toggle caption Brook Mitchell/Getty Images Brook Mitchell/Getty Images
Australia's New South Wales state is implementing restrictions on "high-risk activities" such as singing in choirs and dancing at nightclubs and bars amid concern of a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 that has spilled over from a neighboring state.
The latest prohibitions, which also limit bookings at restaurants, cafes and bars to no more than 10 people, go into effect from midnight on July 24 (10 a.m. July 23 ET), New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced Friday.
"We absolutely need everybody seated when they are in a venue. No dancing, no singing, no mingling," she said.
Berejiklian said weddings and corporate events would be limited to 150 people, while funerals and religious services would be restricted to 100.
The latest restrictions in the state that is home to Sydney come as yet another record for daily infections was posted in neighboring Victoria, where 428 new cases were reported.
Friday marked the 12th consecutive day the state has recorded a triple-digit increase in coronavirus cases. The previous highest single-day count was 317 and was set only a day before.
Most of the cases in Victoria were in Melbourne, the country's second-largest city, which has been on lockdown since last week.
State health officials said 57 of the latest cases have been linked to known outbreaks, while one is a case of a traveler in hotel quarantine and 370 are under investigation.
Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews said there had been three new COVID-19 deaths — a man in his 70s and two others, a man and a woman, both in their 80s.
"I can offer no further information about those three tragedies, but we send our best wishes and our thoughts," he said.
Andrews said the government was increasing the number of testing sites outside Melbourne.
Earlier this week, Victoria Health Minister Jenny Mikakos announced that all Category 3 elective surgeries, defined as patient conditions that are unlikely to deteriorate quickly or become an emergency, would be paused at Melbourne's public hospitals to conserve bed space.
In New South Wales, where the state's largest coronavirus cluster has been linked to a visitor from Melbourne who infected others in a Sydney pub, eight new cases were recorded on Friday, officials said.


npr--2020-07-17--NASA Pushes Back Launch Date On Webb Space Telescope, Citing COVID-19

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope , the long-awaited — and long-delayed — successor to the Hubble Space Telescope , has been pushed back yet another seven months , NASA said Thursday citing , in part , delays from the COVID-19 pandemic .
The nearly $ 10 billion project , which scientists hope will see back to the time when the first galaxies were formed following the Big Bang , had been scheduled to launch next March from French Guiana atop an Ariane 5 rocket , but the space agency said it is now aiming for an Oct. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` Webb is the world 's most complex space observatory , and our top science priority , and we 've worked hard to keep progress moving during the pandemic , '' Thomas Zurbuchen , associate administrator for NASA 's Science Mission Directorate at the agency 's headquarters in Washington , D.C. , said in a statement .
`` The team continues to be focused on reaching milestones and arriving at the technical solutions that will see us through to this new launch date next year . ''
NASA said disruption to work shifts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ technical challenges had combined to push back the scheduled launch .
The telescope has experienced numerous delays and cost overruns since the project first went into development in 1996 .
Initial estimates were that it would cost between $ 1 billion and $ 3.5 billion with a possible launch in 2007 .
In January , after years of setbacks and ballooning costs , a Government Accountability Office report concluded that the project 's estimated cost was $ 9.7 billion , an increase of 95 % .
At the time , the GAO gave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then-March 2021 launch date .
Despite the latest delay , NASA 's Webb program director , Gregory Robinson , said it would be able to stay within its development cost cap .
`` Based on current projections , the program expects to complete the remaining work within the new schedule without requiring additional funds , '' Robinson said .
`` Although efficiency has been affected and there are challenges ahead , we have retired significant risk through the achievements and good schedule performance over the past year . ''
Built by Northrup Grumman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after the NASA administrator who was instrumental in overseeing the agency 's Apollo moon program — boasts a 6.5-meter ( 21-foot ) segmented mirror , considerably larger and more sensitive than Hubble 's 2.4 meter ( 7.9-foot ) primary mirror .
Unlike Hubble , which was placed in low-Earth orbit , the Webb Space Telescope will be parked at a position known as Lagrange Point 2 ( L2 ) , keeping the Earth between it and the sun .
Along with a built-in heat shield , Webb 's position in space is meant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for detecting infrared light from the intense heat of the sun .
Also unlike Hubble , which was launched in 1990 with faulty optics that were later fixed in a space shuttle servicing mission and was routinely upgraded by NASA astronauts , the Webb Space Telescope , at about 1 million miles from Earth , will be on its own if anything goes wrong .
Webb will be launched in a folded-up configuration .
About 30 minutes into its flight , the spacecraft will begin a complex , weeks-long unfolding process to extend @ @ @ @ @ @

NASA Pushes Back Launch Date On Webb Space Telescope, Citing COVID-19
Enlarge this image toggle caption NASA/AP NASA/AP
The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the long-awaited — and long-delayed — successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, has been pushed back yet another seven months, NASA said Thursday citing, in part, delays from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nearly $10 billion project, which scientists hope will see back to the time when the first galaxies were formed following the Big Bang, had been scheduled to launch next March from French Guiana atop an Ariane 5 rocket, but the space agency said it is now aiming for an Oct. 31, 2021, launch date.
"Webb is the world's most complex space observatory, and our top science priority, and we've worked hard to keep progress moving during the pandemic," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "The team continues to be focused on reaching milestones and arriving at the technical solutions that will see us through to this new launch date next year."
NASA said disruption to work shifts caused by COVID-19 work-from-home orders and other technical challenges had combined to push back the scheduled launch.
The telescope has experienced numerous delays and cost overruns since the project first went into development in 1996. Initial estimates were that it would cost between $1 billion and $3.5 billion with a possible launch in 2007.
In January, after years of setbacks and ballooning costs, a Government Accountability Office report concluded that the project's estimated cost was $9.7 billion, an increase of 95%. At the time, the GAO gave NASA a low probability of meeting its then-March 2021 launch date.
Despite the latest delay, NASA's Webb program director, Gregory Robinson, said it would be able to stay within its development cost cap.
"Based on current projections, the program expects to complete the remaining work within the new schedule without requiring additional funds," Robinson said. "Although efficiency has been affected and there are challenges ahead, we have retired significant risk through the achievements and good schedule performance over the past year."
Built by Northrup Grumman and Ball Aerospace, Webb — named after the NASA administrator who was instrumental in overseeing the agency's Apollo moon program — boasts a 6.5-meter (21-foot) segmented mirror, considerably larger and more sensitive than Hubble's 2.4 meter (7.9-foot) primary mirror.
Unlike Hubble, which was placed in low-Earth orbit, the Webb Space Telescope will be parked at a position known as Lagrange Point 2 (L2), keeping the Earth between it and the sun. Along with a built-in heat shield, Webb's position in space is meant to help protect the spacecraft's instruments for detecting infrared light from the intense heat of the sun.
Also unlike Hubble, which was launched in 1990 with faulty optics that were later fixed in a space shuttle servicing mission and was routinely upgraded by NASA astronauts, the Webb Space Telescope, at about 1 million miles from Earth, will be on its own if anything goes wrong.
NASA Goddard YouTube
Webb will be launched in a folded-up configuration. About 30 minutes into its flight, the spacecraft will begin a complex, weeks-long unfolding process to extend its sun shield and mirror.


npr--2020-07-16--Target, CVS Shoppers Will Be Required To Wear Masks

Target , CVS Shoppers Will Be Required To Wear Masks Target and CVS are the latest national retail chains requiring customers to wear masks as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to skyrocket .
The companies announced the new policies on Thursday following similar moves by a growing number of retailers acting to fill a void left by local , state and federal agencies that have so far refused to set mandatory face coverings policies .
As of Thursday , only about half of the country 's states require masks in public places .
CVS Chief Operating Officer Jon Roberts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` encouraging '' customers to cover up .
But he said the recent surge in cases demands more extreme measures .
`` With the recent spike in COVID-19 infections , we 're joining others in taking the next step and requiring all customers to wear face coverings when entering any of our stores throughout the country effective Monday , July 20 , '' Roberts wrote in a statement .
`` To be clear , we 're not asking our store employees to play the role of enforcer .
What we are asking is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around them by listening to the experts and heeding the call to wear a face covering , '' he said .
On Wednesday , Walmart , Kohl 's and Kroger 's grocery store chain said they will be implementing similar policies .
`` Currently about 65 percent of our more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is some form of government mandate on face coverings , '' Walmart explained in a statement .
Officials added the new requirement , which will go into effect on Monday will `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ''

Target, CVS Shoppers Will Be Required To Wear Masks
Enlarge this image toggle caption David J. Phillip/AP David J. Phillip/AP
Target and CVS are the latest national retail chains requiring customers to wear masks as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to skyrocket.
The companies announced the new policies on Thursday following similar moves by a growing number of retailers acting to fill a void left by local, state and federal agencies that have so far refused to set mandatory face coverings policies.
As of Thursday, only about half of the country's states require masks in public places.
CVS Chief Operating Officer Jon Roberts explained the new shopping rules come after "encouraging" customers to cover up.
But he said the recent surge in cases demands more extreme measures.
"With the recent spike in COVID-19 infections, we're joining others in taking the next step and requiring all customers to wear face coverings when entering any of our stores throughout the country effective Monday, July 20," Roberts wrote in a statement.
"To be clear, we're not asking our store employees to play the role of enforcer. What we are asking is that customers help protect themselves and those around them by listening to the experts and heeding the call to wear a face covering," he said.
On Wednesday, Walmart, Kohl's and Kroger's grocery store chain said they will be implementing similar policies.
"Currently about 65 percent of our more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is some form of government mandate on face coverings," Walmart explained in a statement.
Officials added the new requirement, which will go into effect on Monday will "help bring consistency across stores and clubs."


npr--2020-07-17--White Men Accused Of Alleged Lynching Of Black Man Face Felony Charges In Indiana

White Men Accused Of Alleged Lynching Of Black Man Face Felony Charges In Indiana Two white men who were filmed in an alleged lynching attempt of a Black man on Independence Day at a state park have been charged by Indiana officials .
The Monroe County Prosecutor 's office announced the charges Friday , after a two-day review of an investigation report by the state 's Department of Natural Resources as well as other digital evidence provided by witnesses .
Sean Purdy and Jerry Cox are accused of criminal confinement , battery and intimidation for their alleged roles in an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` This is not a happy moment .
It 's a necessary moment , '' Booker said in a Zoom news conference Friday afternoon .
`` We have a legal system and what I want now is our neighbors to decide the fate of these individuals , '' he added .
Booker , 36 , is an activist and member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission .
In an interview with NPR he said the men beat him , spit at him , pinned him to a tree , shouted racial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ someone to `` get a noose . ''
His attorney , Katharine Liell , explained Booker can not hold any in-person media events because he 's been diagnosed with COVID-19 , which she suggested he may have contracted from Purdy and Cox who were not wearing face coverings at the time of the assault .
`` We are pleased that these are felony charges ... because this is such serious misconduct , '' Liell said .
The Fourth of July altercation began as Booker and his friends tried to make their way to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ watch the lunar eclipse .
Along the way , Booker said , they were stopped by a white man who claimed the group was trespassing on private land .
According to Booker , his group apologized and moved on .
Later , Booker says , he learned that the man did not actually own the nearby property Booker 's group had used to access the park .
The discovery was followed by a second , much scarier encounter , he recalled .
Only part of that confrontation was captured on video , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Booker can be seen on his knees as a white man later identified as Sean Purdy holds his head down , pinning him to a tree .
Several people can be heard urging Purdy to release Booker , while Purdy refuses .
Meanwhile , Cox appears to threaten the bystanders who are filming the violence .
Purdy 's attorney did not respond to NPR 's request for comment .
However , he has previously stated that his client did not initiate the violence , but rather , Booker `` was the instigator and @ @ @ @

White Men Accused Of Attack On Black Man Face Felony Charges In Indiana
Enlarge this image toggle caption Brennan Golightly/AP Brennan Golightly/AP
Two white men who were filmed in an attack on a Black man on Independence Day at a state park have been charged by Indiana officials.
The Monroe County Prosecutor's office announced the charges Friday, after a two-day review of an investigation report by the state's Department of Natural Resources as well as other digital evidence provided by witnesses.
Sean Purdy and Jerry Cox are accused of criminal confinement, battery and intimidation for their alleged roles in an attack on Vauhxx Booker near Lake Monroe.
"This is not a happy moment. It's a necessary moment," Booker said in a Zoom news conference Friday afternoon.
"We have a legal system and what I want now is our neighbors to decide the fate of these individuals," he added.
Booker, 36, is an activist and member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission. In an interview with NPR he said the men beat him, spit at him, pinned him to a tree, shouted racial slurs at him, then called for someone to "get a noose."
His attorney, Katharine Liell, explained Booker can not hold any in-person media events because he's been diagnosed with COVID-19, which she suggested he may have contracted from Purdy and Cox who were not wearing face coverings at the time of the assault.
"We are pleased that these are felony charges ... because this is such serious misconduct," Liell said.
The Fourth of July altercation began as Booker and his friends tried to make their way to a spot within the state park to watch the lunar eclipse. Along the way, Booker said, they were stopped by a white man who claimed the group was trespassing on private land. According to Booker, his group apologized and moved on.
Later, Booker says, he learned that the man did not actually own the nearby property Booker's group had used to access the park. The discovery was followed by a second, much scarier encounter, he recalled.
Only part of that confrontation was captured on video, but in most versions available on social media Booker can be seen on his knees as a white man later identified as Sean Purdy holds his head down, pinning him to a tree. Several people can be heard urging Purdy to release Booker, while Purdy refuses.
Meanwhile, Cox appears to threaten the bystanders who are filming the violence.
Purdy's attorney did not respond to NPR's request for comment. However, he has previously stated that his client did not initiate the violence, but rather, Booker "was the instigator and the agitator."
He called Booker's version of events a "false narrative."


npr--2020-07-17--Most California Schools Unlikely To Open In Fall Under New State Rules

Most California Schools Unlikely To Open In Fall Under New State Rules Most California schools may remain closed when the academic year begins in the fall , according to new state directives , with a majority of campuses likely having to shift to distance-learning instead .
Gov .
Gavin Newsom announced the new rules Friday , days after ordering bars and restaurant dining rooms closed amid a surge of coronavirus cases .
The new requirements stipulate how and when schools may reopen for in-person learning when the academic school year begin .
These rules mandate social distancing and health screenings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and students in grades 3-12 would be required to wear masks , with younger students being encouraged to do so .
Under the new rules , a county must also not be on a list of counties being monitored for rising coronavirus infections .
Thirty-two of the states 58 counties currently do n't hit that benchmark .
To open schools for in-person instruction , those counties would have to be off that list for 14 consecutive days , according to the directives .
Newsom said schools that could n't reopen would have shift @ @ @ @ @ @ @ non-negotiable , '' said Newsom in a statement .
`` Students , staff , and parents all prefer in-classroom instruction , but only if it can be done safely . ''
Schools and districts that reopened would also have to shut down if infections breached a certain threshold over a 14-day period – 5 % for schools , 25 % for districts .
The directives are on the heels of announcements that some of the state 's largest districts had already decided to enter the academic year with no in-person classes .
Los @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all recently said they planned online-only learning when students returned .
To accommodate the shift to online learning the state has earmarked $ 5.3 billion to `` support learning , and set requirements to ensure schools provide rigorous and grade-appropriate instruction . ''
New state laws also require districts to provide devices and connectivity for students and support for English learners and students with special education needs .

Most California Schools Unlikely To Open In Fall Under New State Rules
Enlarge this image toggle caption Richard Vogel/AP Richard Vogel/AP
Most California schools may remain closed when the academic year begins in the fall, according to new state directives, with a majority of campuses likely having to shift to distance-learning instead.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the new rules Friday, days after ordering bars and restaurant dining rooms closed amid a surge of coronavirus cases.
The new requirements stipulate how and when schools may reopen for in-person learning when the academic school year begin. These rules mandate social distancing and health screenings for anyone entering a school. Staff and students in grades 3-12 would be required to wear masks, with younger students being encouraged to do so.
Under the new rules, a county must also not be on a list of counties being monitored for rising coronavirus infections. Thirty-two of the states 58 counties currently don't hit that benchmark. To open schools for in-person instruction, those counties would have to be off that list for 14 consecutive days, according to the directives.
Newsom said schools that couldn't reopen would have shift to distance-learning programs.
"Learning is non-negotiable," said Newsom in a statement. "Students, staff, and parents all prefer in-classroom instruction, but only if it can be done safely."
Schools and districts that reopened would also have to shut down if infections breached a certain threshold over a 14-day period – 5% for schools, 25% for districts.
The directives are on the heels of announcements that some of the state's largest districts had already decided to enter the academic year with no in-person classes. Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco all recently said they planned online-only learning when students returned.
To accommodate the shift to online learning the state has earmarked $5.3 billion to "support learning, and set requirements to ensure schools provide rigorous and grade-appropriate instruction."
New state laws also require districts to provide devices and connectivity for students and support for English learners and students with special education needs.