npr--2020-08-24--Postmaster General Defends His Actions In Acrimonious Marathon House Hearing

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy defended his management of the U.S .
Postal Service to the House on Monday amid concerns that his cost-cutting measures have jeopardized the agency 's ability to serve Americans .
Mail service has slowed across the country , according to internal documents obtained by the House Oversight Committee , but DeJoy denies the slowdowns are part of any attempt to reduce voting by mail this year .
In fact , he said in his prepared opening statement , DeJoy expects the Postal Service to be able to accommodate all the mailed ballots that Americans send .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballots early and return them early but said he is confident that the Postal Service can handle any surge in ballot traffic , which in the most extreme case would amount to less than one day 's worth of the current volume .
DeJoy also said as much Friday when he testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee .
Those were his first public remarks since agreeing to postpone a number of controversial changes at the agency , such as reducing employee overtime hours and eliminating hundreds of postal-sorting machines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the initiatives but said many of them had been long in the works or were routine .
In most cases , they were steps by lower-level managers without his involvement , he said .
DeJoy said he expects the Postal Service to work out the kinks and get through the backlogs and dips in service it has experienced .
`` Transitions do n't always go smoothly ; you need a recovery process .
... Our recovery process should have been resolved in a few days , '' he said .
`` There are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our service .
... We should have cleared it up quicker .
We have to focus on it now , and we 'll recover quite rapidly . ''
The internal changes to the Postal Service have proved contentious to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle , but Democrats on Monday waged a multiprong attack on DeJoy , an ally of President Trump 's and a major Republican donor .
Lawmakers pressed him about his commitment to handling this year 's expected surge in election mail ; about the effects disrupted mail is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Postal Service for their medications and other essential deliveries ; and about DeJoy 's financial position and partisan background as a Republican fundraiser .
The postmaster general stood his ground and acknowledged his background as a Republican and Trump supporter .
He also said that anecdotal accounts about mailboxes being removed or sorting machines being withdrawn were part of normal operations at an agency that has spent years acclimating to the steady decline in mail volumes .
DeJoy 's main initiative , he said , was instructing that mail trucks operate on schedule @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leave depots without a full load of mail — or , reportedly , in some cases , any mail at all .
That resulted in a disruption in service as the balance of the mail system acclimates to that change in its operations .
Critics called it unacceptable ; DeJoy said he believes the Postal Service will work through the disruptions and ultimately improve its performance .
Democrats charged that DeJoy has damaged a legendary and widely popular institution in American life .
Critics repeated anecdotes about medicines not being delivered or businesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` You have ended a once-proud tradition , '' said Rep. Stephen Lynch , D-Mass .
Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney , D-N.Y. , also complained about what she called a lack of responsiveness from the Postal Service following questions about DeJoy 's changes and their effect on the mail .
Some Republicans have also criticized the changes , which they say hurt constituents in rural areas who rely on the Postal Service .
Rep. Virginia Foxx , R-N.C. , said she and her husband have personally `` endured some very poor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Service . ''
But Republicans ' core political position on Monday was to scoff at the notion that DeJoy is some kind of factotum for Trump who is hurting mail service in support of the president 's years-long and unfounded claims about fraud in elections .
`` This is a political stunt , '' said ranking member Rep. James Comer , R-Ky. `` I am disappointed by the hysterical frenzy whipped up by our colleagues and their friends in the media . ''
He and other Republicans pointed to legislation passed Saturday in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billion into the Postal Service .
The bill also would block the Postal Service from making any service or operations changes through at least January and would require the agency to prioritize delivery of all election-related mail .
DeJoy says ballots already are a priority .
Though 26 House Republicans sided with Democrats to approve the legislation , the White House has threatened a veto , and the bill is not expected to advance through the Republican-controlled Senate .
Moreover , as Comer observed , action on the bill took place before the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , and the majority had acted ahead of their own ostensible fact-finding process for the sake of headlines , he said , as opposed to truly wishing to govern .
`` Meaningful reform is going to take bipartisanship — something we have seen precious little of in the past few days , '' Comer said .
The chairwoman rejected the idea that now is the time for a wholesale restructuring of the Postal Service .
That can only come after the ongoing emergency , she argued .
`` After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other statements and work can go forward — but let 's not dismantle these services to the American people ; veterans and seniors deserve to get their mail in a timely way , '' Maloney said .
The facts on the ground within the postal system also govern its practical capacity , DeJoy said .
He discussed the removal of sorting machines with several members of Congress , including those who asked whether he might restore them now as part of his pledge to suspend his operational changes until Election Day .
No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were idle anyway , which is why they were removed .
Republicans ' and Democrats ' acid partisan commentary intensified over the course of the hearing .
Rep. Jim Cooper , D-Tenn. , asked DeJoy whether he was expecting a pardon from Trump .
Rep. Clay Higgins , R-La.
, apologized to DeJoy for the tone of the questioning over the course of the day and told the postmaster general he should n't appear at future hearings unless he gets a formal subpoena .
Rep. Katie Porter , D-Calif. , quizzed DeJoy about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rates .
The postmaster general told her that he knew a first-class stamp costs 55 cents , but he said he did n't know the cost to send a postcard .
Democrats ' suspicions about DeJoy originate in years ' worth of remarks by Trump , who has complained about plans to boost mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic .
That follows earlier assertions by the president , which are meritless , about what he calls widespread fraud in U.S. elections .
DeJoy also repeated he plans to vote by mail , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` put word around to different people '' that Trump 's attacks on the Postal Service and on voting by mail are not `` helpful . ''
The postmaster general said he had `` spoken to friends of mine who are associated with the campaign '' working for Trump .
The appeals evidently were not directly to Trump .
DeJoy said he has spoken to Trump and other administration officials but he said not about his duties at the Postal Service .
Meanwhile , Republicans , including Rep. Jim Jordan , R-Ohio , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ' groundless fears about the Postal Service to other political attacks over the Ukraine affair and the Russia imbroglio — hoaxes , as Jordan called them , intended to hurt a president whom Democrats believe they can not dislodge through an honest election .

Postmaster General Defends His Actions In Acrimonious Marathon House Hearing
Enlarge this image toggle caption Alex Wong/Getty Images Alex Wong/Getty Images
Updated at 4:18 p.m. ET
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy defended his management of the U.S. Postal Service to the House on Monday amid concerns that his cost-cutting measures have jeopardized the agency's ability to serve Americans.
Mail service has slowed across the country, according to internal documents obtained by the House Oversight Committee, but DeJoy denies the slowdowns are part of any attempt to reduce voting by mail this year.
In fact, he said in his prepared opening statement, DeJoy expects the Postal Service to be able to accommodate all the mailed ballots that Americans send.
The postmaster general encouraged voters to request ballots early and return them early but said he is confident that the Postal Service can handle any surge in ballot traffic, which in the most extreme case would amount to less than one day's worth of the current volume.
DeJoy also said as much Friday when he testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Those were his first public remarks since agreeing to postpone a number of controversial changes at the agency, such as reducing employee overtime hours and eliminating hundreds of postal-sorting machines.
DeJoy acknowledged the problems caused by the initiatives but said many of them had been long in the works or were routine. In most cases, they were steps by lower-level managers without his involvement, he said.
DeJoy said he expects the Postal Service to work out the kinks and get through the backlogs and dips in service it has experienced.
"Transitions don't always go smoothly; you need a recovery process. ... Our recovery process should have been resolved in a few days," he said. "There are a lot of things that are impacting our service. ... We should have cleared it up quicker. We have to focus on it now, and we'll recover quite rapidly."
Political flap
The internal changes to the Postal Service have proved contentious to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, but Democrats on Monday waged a multiprong attack on DeJoy, an ally of President Trump's and a major Republican donor.
Lawmakers pressed him about his commitment to handling this year's expected surge in election mail; about the effects disrupted mail is having on people who rely on the Postal Service for their medications and other essential deliveries; and about DeJoy's financial position and partisan background as a Republican fundraiser.
The postmaster general stood his ground and acknowledged his background as a Republican and Trump supporter. He also said that anecdotal accounts about mailboxes being removed or sorting machines being withdrawn were part of normal operations at an agency that has spent years acclimating to the steady decline in mail volumes.
DeJoy's main initiative, he said, was instructing that mail trucks operate on schedule, which in some cases mean they leave depots without a full load of mail — or, reportedly, in some cases, any mail at all.
That resulted in a disruption in service as the balance of the mail system acclimates to that change in its operations. Critics called it unacceptable; DeJoy said he believes the Postal Service will work through the disruptions and ultimately improve its performance.
Democrats charged that DeJoy has damaged a legendary and widely popular institution in American life. Critics repeated anecdotes about medicines not being delivered or businesses being caught short by interruptions in service.
"You have ended a once-proud tradition," said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass.
Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., also complained about what she called a lack of responsiveness from the Postal Service following questions about DeJoy's changes and their effect on the mail.
Some Republicans have also criticized the changes, which they say hurt constituents in rural areas who rely on the Postal Service. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said she and her husband have personally "endured some very poor performance on the part of the Postal Service."
GOP claims "political stunt"
But Republicans' core political position on Monday was to scoff at the notion that DeJoy is some kind of factotum for Trump who is hurting mail service in support of the president's years-long and unfounded claims about fraud in elections.
"This is a political stunt," said ranking member Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. "I am disappointed by the hysterical frenzy whipped up by our colleagues and their friends in the media."
He and other Republicans pointed to legislation passed Saturday in the House that would infuse $25 billion into the Postal Service.
The bill also would block the Postal Service from making any service or operations changes through at least January and would require the agency to prioritize delivery of all election-related mail. DeJoy says ballots already are a priority.
Though 26 House Republicans sided with Democrats to approve the legislation, the White House has threatened a veto, and the bill is not expected to advance through the Republican-controlled Senate.
Moreover, as Comer observed, action on the bill took place before the hearing convened on Monday — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the majority had acted ahead of their own ostensible fact-finding process for the sake of headlines, he said, as opposed to truly wishing to govern.
"Meaningful reform is going to take bipartisanship — something we have seen precious little of in the past few days," Comer said.
The chairwoman rejected the idea that now is the time for a wholesale restructuring of the Postal Service. That can only come after the ongoing emergency, she argued.
"After the pandemic we can revisit and have other statements and work can go forward — but let's not dismantle these services to the American people; veterans and seniors deserve to get their mail in a timely way," Maloney said.
The facts on the ground within the postal system also govern its practical capacity, DeJoy said. He discussed the removal of sorting machines with several members of Congress, including those who asked whether he might restore them now as part of his pledge to suspend his operational changes until Election Day.
No, DeJoy said — but the machines were idle anyway, which is why they were removed.
Partisan acrimony
Republicans' and Democrats' acid partisan commentary intensified over the course of the hearing.
Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., asked DeJoy whether he was expecting a pardon from Trump. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., apologized to DeJoy for the tone of the questioning over the course of the day and told the postmaster general he shouldn't appear at future hearings unless he gets a formal subpoena.
Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., quizzed DeJoy about the cost of stamps and other postal rates. The postmaster general told her that he knew a first-class stamp costs 55 cents, but he said he didn't know the cost to send a postcard.
Democrats' suspicions about DeJoy originate in years' worth of remarks by Trump, who has complained about plans to boost mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic. That follows earlier assertions by the president, which are meritless, about what he calls widespread fraud in U.S. elections.
Trump cast a mail ballot in Florida last week.
DeJoy also repeated he plans to vote by mail, and he said that he has sought to "put word around to different people" that Trump's attacks on the Postal Service and on voting by mail are not "helpful."
The postmaster general said he had "spoken to friends of mine who are associated with the campaign" working for Trump. The appeals evidently were not directly to Trump. DeJoy said he has spoken to Trump and other administration officials but he said not about his duties at the Postal Service.
Meanwhile, Republicans, including Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Monday linked what they called Democrats' groundless fears about the Postal Service to other political attacks over the Ukraine affair and the Russia imbroglio — hoaxes, as Jordan called them, intended to hurt a president whom Democrats believe they cannot dislodge through an honest election.


npr--2020-08-24--Coronavirus World Map: Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak

Coronavirus World Map : Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak Since the new coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan , China , in December , the infectious respiratory disease COVID-19 has spread rapidly within China and to neighboring countries and beyond .
The first confirmed coronavirus cases outside China occurred on Jan. 20 , in Japan , Thailand and South Korea .
On Jan. 21 , the first case in the U.S. was identified in Washington state .
On Jan. 24 , the first two European cases were confirmed in France .
By Feb. 1 , eight European nations had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ month later that count had risen to 24 countries with at least 2,200 cases , most of them in Italy .
On March 11 , Italy eclipsed 10,000 cases and the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic — the first since H1N1 in 2009 .
That 's also when China , the original epicenter , began seeing drops in daily counts of new cases .
March also saw exponential spread of the virus throughout the U.S. , with all 50 states reporting cases by March 17 .
This particular virus , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the third strain of coronavirus known to frequently cause severe symptoms in humans .
The other two strains cause Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome .
Click here to see the state-by-state breakdown of cases in the United States .
This story was originally published on March 30 , 2020 .

Coronavirus world map: We've now passed the 600 million mark for infections
Editor's note: This page is no longer being updated. The last update was Sept. 5, 2022. For current data about COVID-19 cases and deaths around the world, Johns Hopkins University and Our World in Data are useful resources.
In late January 2020 only a few dozen COVID-19 infections had been identified outside of China. A year later, the world tallied its first 100 million cases. It took the globe just 7 more months to pass the 200 million mark— then another 5 months to hit 300 million, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Now the virus has spread to every corner of the globe and has been blamed for more than 6 million deaths.
The United States, India and Brazil in that order have had the most COVID cases and the three nations collectively account for almost half of all recorded infections so far in the pandemic.
Explore the chart below to find a country-by-country breakdown of new and total cases since January 2020.
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Explore how the number of coronavirus cases have shifted in different parts of the world over time. The first chart compares each continent to each other, while the next charts highlight the number of cases in select countries by region.
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This story was originally published on March 30, 2020.


npr--2020-08-25--Coronavirus World Map: Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak


npr--2020-08-25--Coronavirus Maps: How Severe Is Your State's Outbreak?

Coronavirus Maps : How Severe Is Your State 's Outbreak ?
More than 5 million people in the U.S. have tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 175,000 have died .
Tens of thousands of new cases are confirmed daily .
State by state , the picture is varied .
In the graphics below , explore the trends in your state .
View the data via a heat map ( immediately below ) , curve charts , a table of state-by-state trends over four weeks , or a map of total cases and deaths .
The map above shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ based on new daily cases per capita .
These color-coded risk levels were developed by a consortium of researchers and public health experts .
The group advises states in the red category to issue stay-home orders .
Orange states may need to consider stay-home orders , along with increased testing and contact tracing .
Yellow states need to keep up social distancing and mask usage , and both yellow and green states should continue testing and contact tracing .
To compare state outbreaks , the chart above graphs trend lines for average new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's totals to date .
This type of visualization highlights a state 's daily growth or decline relative to the overall size of its outbreak .
When both new and total case and death counts grow quickly , the curves bend upward .
As new cases and deaths slow , the curves level or bend down .
In New York , the curve rose sharply before reaching over 170,000 total cases in April .
Since then , new cases have fallen from about 10,000 per day in mid-April to under 600 per day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ above to see totals and per capita figures around the country for both new confirmed cases and reported deaths from COVID-19 .
New York was the original epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. As of mid August , California , Florida and Texas have surpassed New York for total cases to date , though New York still has the highest death total .
Click here to see a global map of confirmed cases and deaths .
To show trends state by state , the table below shows the change in average new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week over week for the last 28 days .
States marked in shades of red are showing growth , those in shades of green , are showing declines .
The graphics on this page pull from data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University from several sources , including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ; the World Health Organization ; national , state and local government health departments ; 1point3acres ; and local media reports .
The JHU team automates its data uploads and regularly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ result in occasional data discrepancies on this page as the JHU team resolves anomalies and updates its feeds .
State-by-state recovery data are unavailable at this time .
There may be discrepancies between what you see here and what you see on your local health department 's website .
Figures shown do not include cases on cruise ships .
In early June , Michigan health authorities started including probable cases in its totals .
This resulted in a brief spike in the state 's daily numbers until the JHU team was able to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 25 , New Jersey included 1,854 previously-unreported probable deaths in its totals , resulting in a spike in the state 's daily death numbers .
This story was originally published on March 16 , 2020 .
Elena Renken was a co-author on that version .
Sean McMinn contributed to and Carmel Wroth edited this story .

Tracking the coronavirus around the U.S.: See how your state is doing
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Note: This page was last updated on Feb. 1, 2023. It will no longer be updated. For current data on COVID cases and deaths, demographics, and hospitalizations, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Feb. 1, there have been more than 101 million confirmed coronavirus infections in the U.S. and more than 1 million people have died of COVID-19. In the graphics below, explore the trends in your state.
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The above charts show average new cases per 100,000 people for each state over the last 12 months.
Note: Actual cases may be substantially higher, since many who test positive with at-home tests don't report their cases.
For additional data about COVID-19 in the U.S, including cases and deaths, demographics, and hospitalizations, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
To show trends, the table below shows the change in average new cases per day in each state, week over week for the last 28 days. States marked in shades of red have growing outbreaks; those in shades of green, are declining.
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Methodology
The graphics on this page pull from data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University from several sources, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the World Health Organization; national, state and local government health departments; 1point3acres; and local media reports.
The JHU team automates its data uploads and regularly checks them for anomalies. This may result in occasional data discrepancies on this page as the JHU team resolves anomalies and updates its feeds. There may be discrepancies between what you see here and what you see on your local health department's website. Figures shown do not include cases on cruise ships.
Fluctuations in the numbers may happen as health authorities review old cases, process testing backlogs or update their methodologies. The JHU team maintains a list of such changes.
This story was originally published on March 16, 2020. Elena Renken was a co-author on that version. Sean McMinn and Audrey Carlsen contributed to this story. Carmel Wroth edited this story.


npr--2020-08-25--Scapegoats And Allies: How Trump Changed His Tune On States' Coronavirus Response

Scapegoats And Allies : How Trump Changed His Tune On States ' Coronavirus Response On the first day of the Republican convention in Charlotte , more than five months after the coronavirus began spreading around the country , President Trump characterized the White House 's response as `` the exact right thing . ''
But , following a blueprint he 's used for months , he also shifted responsibility for the pandemic response to the states .
He blamed many governors for having been `` ill prepared '' for the pandemic , while praising others for doing a `` fine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ applauded Republican governors in Florida , Georgia , Texas , and Arizona for reopening quickly and having low case numbers .
At the same time , he criticized states that remained closed , sparring with Democratic governors in New York and California , and pressuring leaders of swing states like Michigan , North Carolina , and Pennsylvania to lift restrictions .
In June , Trump held large campaign events that eschewed social distancing requirements and said he planned to hold more rallies in states that were reopening .
He fixated on North Carolina @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic governor , mostly canceling Republican National Convention events there .
But as summer continued , many of the same states that the president commended saw spikes in coronavirus cases .
States he had criticized saw cases decline .
So he was forced to change course .
After rates of COVID-19 increased in many Republican-run states , Trump highlighted eventual , small drops in infections , often ignoring the state 's summer spike .
He eased up on criticisms of Democratic-led states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina — states that avoided significant rises @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the lead-up to the Republican National Convention , the president took some renewed swings at these leaders .
Nationally , 37 % of Americans think Trump would do a better job handling the coronavirus than his Democratic opponent Joe Biden , according to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll , while 53 % favor Biden .
Trump maintains that he still has deep support , but polls have shown Joe Biden with a continuous lead spanning months .
Though polls will change , NPR 's most recent electoral map ratings favor the former vice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michigan , and Florida as Democratic-leaning races ; Georgia , North Carolina , and Arizona as toss-ups ; and Texas as Republican-leaning .
Here 's a look at what Trump has said about the pandemic response in seven key battleground states : Trump won Florida by just over a percentage point in 2016 and winning the state again may be key for his reelection .
DeSantis has remained a top ally to Trump , with the president singing his praises throughout the pandemic .
In April and May , Trump spoke often of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — a message that was solidified in early June , when he moved the majority of the Republican convention to Florida .
But when the state 's infection rate spiked in July , Trump stopped emphasizing its early successes and largely refrained from addressing the surge .
Trump formally canceled the convention events in Jacksonville on July 23 .
As its case numbers have declined from peaks , he has since shifted to praising the state .
While state polling averages indicated that Biden and Trump were virtually tied in March , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and established a widening lead .
Biden 's biggest polling lead against Trump lasted from mid-June through July while the state experienced its highest case counts .
Biden has steadily led in Arizona 's polls since mid-March , but Trump has been no stranger to the state , making multiple visits since the start of the pandemic .
Trump held his second rally in Phoenix during June , despite rising cases .
Just four days after that event , his messaging began to change .
Vice President Mike Pence postponed campaign visits to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of an abundance of caution , '' according to the Trump campaign .
By late July — Trump pivoted again , like he did with Florida , and has continued to back Ducey .
With a competitive Senate race underway on top of the presidential election , Arizona may end up being a tough state for Republicans to hold on to this fall .
In late April , Georgia became the first state to begin reopening .
Trump initially voiced his opposition to Kemp 's decision with the caveat that Kemp should `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgians .
By mid-May , the President was promoting the state 's low case numbers .
Trump continued to praise the reopening measures in Georgia throughout July despite COVID cases rising since the end of June .
On July 15 , during a presidential visit to the state , Trump told a local Atlanta TV station that Georgia is , `` getting close to having 100 % open , '' adding that the state has `` really kept the virus to level down . ''
In August he began acknowledging an increase .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ six presidential elections , but polling between Trump and Biden has remained close throughout the months of the pandemic , with the two candidates virtually tied since May .
Similar to Arizona , Georgia is also home to a slew of competitive congressional races this fall .
Like many southern states , Texas saw a later rise in cases .
The state is also traditionally Republican but notably , since mid-summer , Biden 's polling in the Lone Star state has also gotten closer to Trump 's .
According to state polling averages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president in a state that has n't swung blue in a presidential year since 1976 .
Trump promoted Texas at first .
When cases started rising , he shifted , attributing the rise to specific groups within the state 's population , and touting the White House response .
On June 15 , he highlighted the rise in cases within prisons as a reason for increased case counts .
On July 27 , Trump spoke about `` focusing aggressively on the Texas border , '' citing high infection rates in Latin America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decreasing cases in the state to lower numbers in counties on the southern border with Mexico .
Trump made no secret of his disapproval of North Carolina 's Democratic governor , Roy Cooper , and his more cautious reopening strategy .
In a pre-pandemic world , Charlotte was set to host a full Republican convention .
But Trump and the RNC sparred with state officials about measures needed to avoid spreading the virus .
Throughout the back-and-forth over where to hold the convention — first in Charlotte and then Jacksonville — to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Charlotte , the president 's rhetoric has centered around empowering voters while blaming Cooper .
While visiting North Carolina days after canceling the Jacksonville convention , Trump was asked if Cooper had `` made the right choice '' in scaling down the convention , to which he replied , `` We could 've done it many different ways , but I think we did the right thing . ''
Since mid-May , according to an average of state polls , Biden has held a slim lead over Trump after first surpassing him in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michigan caused an upset for Democrats and the state remains in play for both parties going into November .
What 's more , Biden has consistently led in the state polls for months .
Throughout the pandemic , Trump attacked Gov .
Gretchen Whitmer 's lockdown measures and voiced support for protests against the rules in place .
Whitmer was one of the first governors to bear the brunt of Trump 's opposition during the pandemic but since May , Michigan 's coronavirus case numbers have decreased significantly and the state has entered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At a `` tele-rally '' for Michigan in mid-July , the President seemed to acknowledge the need to work with Whitmer , while still maintaining his opposition .
`` We disagree with many of the things she 's doing , but we will continue to work with her , '' Trump said , `` We 're also working quite honestly around her and we have to do that because what she wants to do is not going to be good for the state . ''
Pennsylvania voted for Trump by less than one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the first time in over two decades .
Currently , the state is trending Democrat as Biden has led in an average of polls since March , hitting 50 % or higher towards the end of the summer .
Unlike other battleground and swing states in play this November , Biden has been able to visit Pennsylvania during the pandemic .
Trump has directed criticism toward Pennsylvania 's Democratic governor , Tom Wolf .
On a visit to the state in May , Trump spoke directly to the crowd saying , `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pennsylvania to start opening up a little bit . ''
The state has seen lower case numbers since April .
Though Trump has made fewer mentions of Gov .
Wolf in recent months , he took aim at the governor on a recent trip to Old Forge , Pa. , close to where Biden was born .
And Trump directed a similar message to Biden , alleging that Democrats are imposing lock-down measures for political gain .
`` Everything that we 've gained over the last number of months , [ Biden ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump said .
`` These places have to be opened up .
But November 4th , they 'll open .
Do n't worry . ''
he added .

Scapegoats And Allies: How Trump Changed His Tune On States' Coronavirus Response
Enlarge this image toggle caption Andrew Harnik/AP Andrew Harnik/AP
On the first day of the Republican convention in Charlotte, N.C., more than five months after the coronavirus began spreading across the country, President Trump characterized the White House's response as "the exact right thing."
But, following a blueprint he has used for months, he also shifted responsibility for the pandemic response to the states. He accused many governors of having been "ill-prepared" for the pandemic, while praising others for doing a "fine job."
In May, Trump applauded Republican governors in Florida, Georgia, Texas and Arizona for reopening quickly and having low case numbers. At the same time, he criticized states that remained closed, sparring with Democratic governors in New York and California, and pressuring leaders of swing states like Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania to lift restrictions.
In June, Trump held large campaign events that eschewed social distancing requirements and said he planned to hold more rallies in states that were reopening. He fixated on North Carolina and the lockdown measures imposed by its Democratic governor, mostly canceling Republican National Convention events there.
But as summer continued, many of the same states that the president commended saw spikes in coronavirus cases. States he had criticized saw cases decline. So he was forced to change course.
After rates of COVID-19 increased in many Republican-run states, Trump highlighted eventual, small drops in infections, often ignoring the state's summer spike. He eased up on criticisms of Democratic-led states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina — states that avoided significant rises in infections this summer. But in the lead-up to the Republican National Convention, the president took some renewed swings at these leaders.
Nationally, 37% of Americans think Trump would do a better job handling the coronavirus than his Democratic opponent Joe Biden, according to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, while 53% favor Biden.
Trump maintains that he still has deep support, but polls have shown Biden with a continuous lead spanning months. Though polls will change, NPR's most recent electoral map ratings favor the former vice president. NPR has classified Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida as Democratic-leaning races; Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona as toss-ups; and Texas as Republican-leaning.
Here's a look at what Trump has said about the pandemic response in seven key battleground states:
Florida
NPR electoral map rating: Leaning Democratic
Governor: Ron DeSantis, Republican
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Trump won Florida by just over a percentage point in 2016 and winning the state again may be key for his reelection. DeSantis has remained a top ally to Trump, with the president singing his praises throughout the pandemic.
In April and May, Trump spoke often of Florida's successful fight with the coronavirus — a message that was solidified in early June, when he moved the majority of the Republican convention to Florida. But when the state's infection rate spiked in July, Trump stopped emphasizing its early successes and largely refrained from addressing the surge.
Trump formally canceled the convention events in Jacksonville on July 23. As the state's case numbers have declined from peaks, he has since shifted to praising the state.
While state polling averages indicated that Biden and Trump were virtually tied in March, the former vice president has since shot ahead and established a widening lead. Biden's biggest polling lead against Trump lasted from mid-June through July when the state experienced its highest case counts.
Arizona
NPR electoral map rating: Toss-up
Governor: Doug Ducey, Republican
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Biden has steadily led in Arizona's polls since mid-March, but Trump has been no stranger to the state, making multiple visits since the start of the pandemic. Trump held his second June rally in Phoenix, despite rising cases. Just four days after that event, his messaging began to change. Vice President Pence postponed campaign visits to both Florida and Arizona "out of an abundance of caution," according to the Trump campaign. By late July — Trump pivoted again, like he did with Florida, and has continued to back Ducey.
With a competitive Senate race underway on top of the presidential election, Arizona may end up being a tough state for Republicans to hold on to this fall.
Georgia
NPR electoral map rating: Toss-up
Governor: Brian Kemp, Republican
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In late April, Georgia became the first state to begin reopening. Trump initially voiced his opposition to Kemp's decision with the caveat that Kemp should "do what is right," for Georgians. By mid-May, the president was promoting the state's low case numbers. Trump continued to praise the reopening measures in Georgia throughout July despite COVID-19 cases rising since the end of June. On July 15, during a presidential visit to the state, Trump told a local Atlanta TV station that Georgia is "getting close to having 100% open," adding that the state has "really kept the virus to level down." In August, he began acknowledging an increase.
Georgia has gone red for the last six presidential elections, but polling between Trump and Biden has remained close throughout the months of the pandemic, with the two candidates virtually tied since May. Similar to Arizona, Georgia is also home to a slew of competitive congressional races this fall.
Texas
NPR electoral map rating: Leaning Republican
Governor: Greg Abbott, Republican
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Like many Southern states, Texas saw a later rise in cases. The state is also traditionally Republican, but notably, since midsummer, Biden's polling in the Lone Star State has also gotten closer to Trump's. According to state polling averages, Biden is within single digits of the president in a state that hasn't swung blue in a presidential year since 1976.
Trump promoted Texas at first. When cases started rising, he shifted, attributing the rise to specific groups within the state's population and touting the White House response. On June 15, he highlighted the rise in cases within prisons as a reason for increased case counts. On July 27, Trump spoke about "focusing aggressively on the Texas border," citing high infection rates in Latin America. In early August, he linked decreasing cases in the state to lower numbers in counties on the Southwestern border with Mexico.
North Carolina
NPR electoral map rating: Toss-up
Governor: Roy Cooper, Democrat
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Trump made no secret of his disapproval of North Carolina's Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, and his more cautious reopening strategy. In a pre-pandemic world, Charlotte was set to host a full Republican convention. But Trump and the RNC sparred with state officials about measures needed to avoid spreading the virus.
Throughout the back-and-forth over where to hold the convention — first in Charlotte and then Jacksonville — to the eventual acceptance of a scaled-down convention in Charlotte, the president's rhetoric has centered on empowering voters while blaming Cooper.
While visiting North Carolina days after canceling the Jacksonville convention, Trump was asked whether Cooper had "made the right choice" in scaling down the convention, to which he replied, "We could've done it many different ways, but I think we did the right thing."
Since mid-May, according to an average of state polls, Biden has held a slim lead over Trump, first surpassing him in mid-April.
Michigan
NPR electoral map rating: Leaning Democratic
Governor: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Democrat
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Trump's 2016 win in Michigan caused an upset for Democrats, and the state remains in play for both parties going into November. What's more, Biden has consistently led in the state polls for months.
Throughout the pandemic, Trump attacked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's lockdown measures and voiced support for protests against the rules in place. Whitmer was one of the first governors to bear the brunt of Trump's opposition during the pandemic. But since May, Michigan's coronavirus case numbers have decreased significantly and the state has entered Phase 4 of its reopening plan.
At a "tele-rally" for Michigan in mid-July, the president seemed to acknowledge the need to work with Whitmer, while still maintaining his opposition. "We disagree with many of the things she's doing, but we will continue to work with her," Trump said. "We're also working quite honestly around her and we have to do that because what she wants to do is not going to be good for the state."
Pennsylvania
NPR electoral map rating: Leaning Democratic
Governor: Tom Wolf, Democrat
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Pennsylvania voted for Trump by less than one 1 percentage point, turning the state red for the first time in over two decades. Currently, the state is trending Democrat as Biden has led in an average of polls since March, hitting 50% or higher toward the end of the summer. Unlike other battleground and swing states in play this November, Biden has been able to visit Pennsylvania during the pandemic.
Trump has directed criticism toward Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Tom Wolf. On a visit to the state in May, Trump spoke directly to the crowd saying, "We have to get your governor of Pennsylvania to start opening up a little bit." The state has seen lower case numbers since April.
Though Trump has made fewer mentions of Wolf in recent months, he took aim at the governor on a recent trip to Old Forge, Pa., close to where Biden was born.
And Trump directed a similar message to Biden, alleging that Democrats are imposing lockdown measures for political gain.
"Everything that we've gained over the last number of months, [Biden] wants to lock it down," Trump said. "These places have to be opened up. But Nov. 4, they'll open. Don't worry." he added.


npr--2020-08-25--'Make Farmers Black Again': African Americans Fight Discrimination To Own Farmland

'Make Farmers Black Again ' : African Americans Fight Discrimination To Own Farmland At the start of the 20th century , one in seven farmers in the United States was Black .
In the decades that followed , however , Black Americans were dispossessed of an estimated 13 million acres of land .
Many descendants of Black farmers moved north to seek jobs in other industries , removed from familial agricultural backgrounds .
Now , nearly 100 years later , people of color are leading a resurgence of interest in farming in the Northeast , and yet for these farmers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high .
Between lending discrimination and rising costs , many obstacles stand in the way of Black Americans looking to own farmland .
The family behind Triple J Farm , a chicken farm in Windsor , N.Y. , knows this .
That 's why they are farming with a message of # MakeFarmersBlackAgain .
James Minton , 85 , owns the farm .
It 's small , at just 20 acres and nearly 300 egg-laying chickens .
There is a patch of maple trees from which Minton makes syrup each winter , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pond stocked full of fish , where his youngest great-granddaughters like to play .
In all , Minton has seven children , 28 grandchildren , 40 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild .
He bought this land for them .
`` It 'll be someplace for them to come at any time , '' Minton said .
`` Something bad happens to them in the city and they need someplace to stay ?
Whether I 'm alive or dead , this place will still be here .
That 's what I wanted . ''
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York City , a few hours away from the farmstead in upstate New York .
It 's not often they get to be around chickens that lay blue eggs .
Minton bought the land a decade ago when he retired from his job and wanted a place of his own .
He and his wife of more than 60 years , Wilhelmina Minton , packed up the Harlem apartment where they lived for 40 years and moved upstate .
Now , he is growing the farm business with several of his grandchildren @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enthusiastic to help out .
'Try to build our own wealth' Last summer , his grandson , Daryl Minton , 45 , moved upstate to help manage the farm .
In the months since , Triple J Farm went from selling 30 dozen eggs every couple of months to selling close to 200 dozen each week .
Before he started living with his grandparents , Daryl worked 60 hours a week for a big grocery chain in New York City .
There , he was building wealth for someone else .
`` At @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did n't make any sense , '' Daryl said .
`` Why could n't me and my family use the things that we know and try to build our own wealth , or build the wealth to help my grandfather out ? ''
Daryl lived on a farm for part of his childhood and studied permaculture after retiring from the military .
He got involved in urban agriculture through the New York Restoration Project and grew his skills from there .
While urban farming movements like the one Minton joined are growing in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remain underrepresented in agriculture .
Black Americans own just 1 % of rural land nationwide .
While 13.4 % of the country 's population is Black or African American , Black farmers make up 1.34 % of all farm producers .
In New York , where there are nearly 58,000 farmers , the 2017 U.S. Department of Agriculture ( USDA ) Census counted only 139 Black farmers in the entire state .
There is a growing movement of young farmers led by people of color in the Northeast , but barriers to accessing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have historically faced race-based lending discrimination when applying for loans from the United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA ) , which often denied loan applications from Black farmers , delayed the loan process or allotted them insufficient funds .
This systemic discrimination was the subject of the 1999 class-action lawsuit Pigford v. Glickman , which resulted in a $ 1.25 billion settlement to Black farmers .
According to Olivia Watkins of the Black Farmer Fund , this discrimination is ongoing .
`` Lenders tend to be less hesitant to lend certain amounts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ preexisting financial conditions , which are determined by what opportunities and privileges people have had in the past to get to the point where they can purchase that land , '' Watkins said .
Farmland is expensive , and farm real estate prices have been on the rise since 1969 .
Watkins said young Black farmers with student debt or low credit scores face more challenges accessing the credit needed to put a down payment on viable land for farming .
The Black Farmer Fund seeks to provide Black farmers in New York @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capital , young farmers wo n't be able to buy or maintain farmland .
While Minton is still paying off his mortgage , he saved enough over decades of working to cover the initial costs of the land .
Unlike many other Black farmers in New York , he bought his farm later in life with money in stocks and a 401K .
`` That was the most important thing , the initial payment , '' Minton said .
There are other costs , too , that go into making a farm profitable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them is often challenging for Black farmers .
Even once a farmer has viable land to plant on , Watkins said purchasing the equipment needed to operate a small farm can cost $ 50,000 to $ 100,000 .
Between expenses like these and a wide racial income disparity between Black and white farmers , starting a farm can be cost-prohibitive for many new farmers .
And agriculture works off of an economy of scale , so smaller farms may be less profitable than their larger competitors .
That also means they can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maintain .
The Minton farm is just a tenth of the size of the average farm by acreage in New York State .
Watkins said most of the Black farmers Black Farmer Fund works with have farms under 100 acres .
`` There are systemic structures that have created the situation that we see today , '' Watkins said .
The Minton family knows they sit on a rare chance , one many of their neighbors in New York City wo n't get .
It 's one of the reasons they are stamping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ # MakeFarmersBlackAgain and # GenerationalWealth .
`` That 's the message that we 're trying to promote : Give us our land back .
Give us our acres back .
Give us our opportunity , so we can give to our children and so we can teach our children , '' said Jarrad Nwameme , 32 , another one of Minton 's grandsons who coordinates logistics for Triple J Farm , delivering eggs to customers in New York City and running social media .
Black Americans were promised `` 40 acres and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never came to pass .
Daryl Minton said he believes land reparations can give other Black people a chance to make something of their own ... but this time , give them 40 acres and a tractor .
`` It would n't make it right , but it would just definitely even the playing field , '' Daryl said .
`` Give people a hand up , it 's not like you 're giving them tools to destroy the country .
You 're actually giving them tools to help build the country .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In the last few weeks they purchased 20 new chicks for broiler production and 56 for laying eggs and have nearly 100 chicks that will lay dark brown eggs arriving this week .
Daryl said they hope to start raising goats , at the request of their Caribbean customers , and even cows in the coming months .
According to Daryl , the farm will be financially prosperous once they can manage to sell 1,000 dozen eggs each week .
To him and his grandfather , however , success also means building @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members can learn to care for the animals and the land .
Shawndell James Ginyard , 18 , has been visiting his great-grandparents on the farm since he was a kid .
When he 's there , he picks up tasks , whether it 's chopping firewood or transferring the eggs .
`` It 's just the little things , '' Ginyard said .
`` We help my great-grandfather because he 's getting to that age . ''
For James Minton , seeing members of each generation come together to keep the farm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day 's work .
`` Just to see everybody together , it 's like seeing you 've accomplished something , '' Minton said .
Passing down the land through generations is a task the family is proud to carry on .

'Make Farmers Black Again': African Americans Fight Discrimination To Own Farmland
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth for NPR Heather Ainsworth for NPR
At the start of the 20th century, one in seven farmers in the United States was Black. In the decades that followed, however, Black Americans were dispossessed of an estimated 13 million acres of land. Many descendants of Black farmers moved north to seek jobs in other industries, removed from familial agricultural backgrounds.
Now, nearly 100 years later, people of color are leading a resurgence of interest in farming in the Northeast, and yet for these farmers the barriers to starting a farm remain high. Between lending discrimination and rising costs, many obstacles stand in the way of Black Americans looking to own farmland.
The family behind Triple J Farm, a chicken farm in Windsor, N.Y., knows this. That's why they are farming with a message of #MakeFarmersBlackAgain.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth for NPR Heather Ainsworth for NPR
James Minton, 85, owns the farm. It's small, at just 20 acres and nearly 300 egg-laying chickens. There is a patch of maple trees from which Minton makes syrup each winter, a barn to hold the cow, and a pond stocked full of fish, where his youngest great-granddaughters like to play.
In all, Minton has seven children, 28 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. He bought this land for them.
"It'll be someplace for them to come at any time," Minton said. "Something bad happens to them in the city and they need someplace to stay? Whether I'm alive or dead, this place will still be here. That's what I wanted."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth for NPR Heather Ainsworth for NPR
Most of Minton's family lives in New York City, a few hours away from the farmstead in upstate New York. It's not often they get to be around chickens that lay blue eggs.
Minton bought the land a decade ago when he retired from his job and wanted a place of his own. He and his wife of more than 60 years, Wilhelmina Minton, packed up the Harlem apartment where they lived for 40 years and moved upstate. Now, he is growing the farm business with several of his grandchildren and a revolving door of family members enthusiastic to help out.
'Try to build our own wealth'
Last summer, his grandson, Daryl Minton, 45, moved upstate to help manage the farm. In the months since, Triple J Farm went from selling 30 dozen eggs every couple of months to selling close to 200 dozen each week.
Before he started living with his grandparents, Daryl worked 60 hours a week for a big grocery chain in New York City. There, he was building wealth for someone else.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth Heather Ainsworth
"At the end of the day, that didn't make any sense," Daryl said. "Why couldn't me and my family use the things that we know and try to build our own wealth, or build the wealth to help my grandfather out?"
Daryl lived on a farm for part of his childhood and studied permaculture after retiring from the military. He got involved in urban agriculture through the New York Restoration Project and grew his skills from there.
While urban farming movements like the one Minton joined are growing in cities across the country, Black people remain underrepresented in agriculture. Black Americans own just 1% of rural land nationwide. While 13.4% of the country's population is Black or African American, Black farmers make up 1.34% of all farm producers. In New York, where there are nearly 58,000 farmers, the 2017 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census counted only 139 Black farmers in the entire state.
Barriers to accessing funding and land persist
There is a growing movement of young farmers led by people of color in the Northeast, but barriers to accessing funding and land persist. Black farmers have historically faced race-based lending discrimination when applying for loans from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which often denied loan applications from Black farmers, delayed the loan process or allotted them insufficient funds. This systemic discrimination was the subject of the 1999 class-action lawsuit Pigford v. Glickman, which resulted in a $1.25 billion settlement to Black farmers.
According to Olivia Watkins of the Black Farmer Fund, this discrimination is ongoing.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth for NPR Heather Ainsworth for NPR
"Lenders tend to be less hesitant to lend certain amounts of money to people based on their preexisting financial conditions, which are determined by what opportunities and privileges people have had in the past to get to the point where they can purchase that land," Watkins said.
Farmland is expensive, and farm real estate prices have been on the rise since 1969. Watkins said young Black farmers with student debt or low credit scores face more challenges accessing the credit needed to put a down payment on viable land for farming. The Black Farmer Fund seeks to provide Black farmers in New York with alternative funding because without access to capital, young farmers won't be able to buy or maintain farmland.
While Minton is still paying off his mortgage, he saved enough over decades of working to cover the initial costs of the land. Unlike many other Black farmers in New York, he bought his farm later in life with money in stocks and a 401K.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth for NPR Heather Ainsworth for NPR
"That was the most important thing, the initial payment," Minton said.
There are other costs, too, that go into making a farm profitable, but accessing unrestricted assistance to cover them is often challenging for Black farmers. Even once a farmer has viable land to plant on, Watkins said purchasing the equipment needed to operate a small farm can cost $50,000 to $100,000. Between expenses like these and a wide racial income disparity between Black and white farmers, starting a farm can be cost-prohibitive for many new farmers.
Systemic structures created the situation
And agriculture works off of an economy of scale, so smaller farms may be less profitable than their larger competitors. That also means they can be more expensive for the farm owner to maintain. The Minton farm is just a tenth of the size of the average farm by acreage in New York State. Watkins said most of the Black farmers Black Farmer Fund works with have farms under 100 acres.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth Heather Ainsworth
"There are systemic structures that have created the situation that we see today," Watkins said.
The Minton family knows they sit on a rare chance, one many of their neighbors in New York City won't get. It's one of the reasons they are stamping their egg cartons with #BuyLand, #MakeFarmersBlackAgain and #GenerationalWealth.
"That's the message that we're trying to promote: Give us our land back. Give us our acres back. Give us our opportunity, so we can give to our children and so we can teach our children," said Jarrad Nwameme, 32, another one of Minton's grandsons who coordinates logistics for Triple J Farm, delivering eggs to customers in New York City and running social media.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth for NPR Heather Ainsworth for NPR
Black Americans were promised "40 acres and a mule" after emancipation, but that never came to pass. Daryl Minton said he believes land reparations can give other Black people a chance to make something of their own ... but this time, give them 40 acres and a tractor.
"It wouldn't make it right, but it would just definitely even the playing field," Daryl said. "Give people a hand up, it's not like you're giving them tools to destroy the country. You're actually giving them tools to help build the country."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth for NPR Heather Ainsworth for NPR
Triple J Farm is rapidly expanding. In the last few weeks they purchased 20 new chicks for broiler production and 56 for laying eggs and have nearly 100 chicks that will lay dark brown eggs arriving this week. Daryl said they hope to start raising goats, at the request of their Caribbean customers, and even cows in the coming months.
According to Daryl, the farm will be financially prosperous once they can manage to sell 1,000 dozen eggs each week. To him and his grandfather, however, success also means building a place where the family's youngest members can learn to care for the animals and the land.
Shawndell James Ginyard, 18, has been visiting his great-grandparents on the farm since he was a kid. When he's there, he picks up tasks, whether it's chopping firewood or transferring the eggs.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Heather Ainsworth for NPR Heather Ainsworth for NPR
"It's just the little things," Ginyard said. "We help my great-grandfather because he's getting to that age."
For James Minton, seeing members of each generation come together to keep the farm business going means he's done his day's work.
"Just to see everybody together, it's like seeing you've accomplished something," Minton said.
Passing down the land through generations is a task the family is proud to carry on.


npr--2020-08-25--Sex Offender Registries Often Fail Those They Are Designed To Protect

Sex Offender Registries Often Fail Those They Are Designed To Protect Inside the sprawling two-story tan and coral stucco building on New York Avenue in Northeast Washington , D.C. , is a men 's homeless shelter that once served as a halfway house run by the government .
It 's a place that some 20 registered sex offenders call home — according to the city 's sex offender registry .
But at least one-third of them do n't really live there , and D.C. authorities have no idea where they are .
The men are among the more than 25,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. who have absconded , their whereabouts unknown to law enforcement or the victims — often children — whom they sexually assaulted or abused , an NPR investigation has found .
Tens of thousands of others are out of compliance with sex offender registry laws .
`` Law enforcement are losing people , '' says Kelly Socia , an associate professor of criminology and justice studies at the University of Massachusetts , Lowell .
Like so much else in American life , enforcement of sex offender registries across the country has been upended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Many states with in-person monitoring and registration have had to search for alternatives .
Some states have seemingly stopped enforcement altogether .
But most of the shortcomings predate the pandemic .
NPR reviewed sex offender registry databases and records from all 50 states and the District of Columbia and found that a system intended to keep track of sex offenders often fails the very people it was designed to protect .
Many state registries are rife with errors , such as wrong addresses or names of offenders who died as long as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ names of hundreds of offenders who have failed to verify their whereabouts in more than a decade .
The registries also list absconders whom law enforcement say they ca n't find but often are hiding in plain sight .
Like a Colorado man — one of that state 's 100 most wanted sex offender fugitives — on the run since 2016 .
NPR found him in Washington state , where he has never registered as a sex offender , according to public records .
Some sex offenders commit additional sex crimes after failing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Missouri , for instance , a man who pleaded guilty in 1991 to sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl was convicted in 1998 and in 2017 of sex crimes against other minors , after moving between states without registering .
`` The registry really does n't work , '' Socia says .
`` It 's a bloated , inefficient system that is incredibly expensive to maintain .
I do n't think it really protects anybody . ''
A federal law passed in 1994 known as the Jacob Wetterling Act requires states to establish registration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or crimes against children .
The law was named for a Minnesota boy abducted by a man as the 11-year-old rode his bicycle home from the store in 1989 .
That law also requires states to verify addresses of convicted sex offenders every year for at least 10 years .
Since then , the laws relating to sex offenders have been amended to include such things as making the registries publicly accessible , placing certain juveniles on the registry and requiring law enforcement to notify the public when sex offenders move into the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and counted tens of thousands of offenders who are considered absconders or whose locations are unknown .
Among them were men whom NPR found easily using public records .
Lang , 61 , was convicted in 1994 of raping an ex-girlfriend in her Washington , D.C. , home .
He says that he was high on PCP when the woman came home , that he raped her and that she tried to run away .
`` I was out of my mind , '' Lang recalls .
`` But we did have rough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from me and I put my hands on her , yeah . ''
Lang , who served a decade in prison for the rape , was required to register as a sex offender and update that registration every three months for life .
But it has been five years since he registered , according to D.C. 's sex offender registry .
NPR found Lang after checking court documents in Maryland and discovering a traffic citation from May 2019 for driving with an expired license .
The court record listed an address in Northwest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ address he listed on D.C. 's public sex offender registry .
Authorities have n't gone after him for failing to register , despite stopping him for several traffic violations , including the 2019 incident .
`` That 's the system , '' Lang says .
`` I ca n't help it if I slipped through the system , the cracks , you know ?
That 's on them . ''
The agency that registers and monitors sex offenders in the nation 's capital is called the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to report noncompliance to the Metropolitan Police Department , which acts as an enforcer .
`` When we 're notified of a violation , we do everything we can to bring the offender into compliance , '' says D.C. Police Commander Leslie Parsons , who oversees the sex offender registry .
That 's how Jimmy Ferguson came to the department 's attention .
He is required to register as a sex offender every 90 days because of a conviction for assault with intent to commit rape .
But he stopped registering several years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it sent a violation notice about Ferguson to police in March 2017 , and again two years later , and police told NPR they tried to find him .
Ferguson said no one came looking for him in the most obvious place — the address on his sex offender registration form .
While Ferguson admitted he was n't complying with the registration law at the time , he has been living in the same modest second-floor apartment in Southeast D.C. for years , records show .
`` I 've been living right here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told NPR .
`` If you can find me , why the law ca n't find me ? ''
`` This is ridiculous , man .
I 'm not hiding , '' he added .
Alissa Ackerman , an assistant professor of criminal justice at California State University , Fullerton and a sex crimes expert , said she understands why offenders do n't register .
`` The burdens that come with it are tremendous , '' Ackerman says .
`` The shame that it brings upon you is tremendous . ''
When offenders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country acknowledge , finding them can be tough .
And that difficulty is made worse because law enforcement agencies often do n't place a high priority on going after them , even though authorities know the sex offenders have broken the law .
In Illinois , 12.5 % of the state 's 32,249 sex offenders are missing or have failed to comply with reverification laws .
Police there often catch absconders during routine traffic stops or while responding to domestic calls , according to Tracie Newton , the program administrator for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` Many times , that 's how they 're found , '' she says , adding that it is the job of local police or sheriff 's departments to track offenders so that they do n't abscond .
In Nevada , where 7.5 % of the 29,271 offenders are missing or have failed to comply , authorities rarely check to ensure that sex offenders live where they say they do , says Mindy McKay , who oversees the records , communications and compliance division of the Nevada Department of Public Safety .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ someone ... we ca n't keep track of people like that , '' she says .
`` If they abscond , they abscond .
There 's nothing we can do about it . ''
Chelsea Ross , who oversees Nevada 's sex offender registry , says the number of absconders or those who are not up to date with their registration is likely to increase because of the coronavirus .
That state and others shut down in-person registration offices when the pandemic hit , forcing sex offenders to register online , by phone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enforcement efforts to do in-person verification checks .
`` We did n't do an announcement to tell the public or to tell the offenders we were n't doing in person , '' Ross says .
`` We thought that would open a door for people not to check in .
We did n't want offenders to say , 'Hey , nobody 's going to be checking on us . '
`` Derek Carmon , a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau in Oregon , says his agency has also halted residence verifications .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of sex offenders , but since the pandemic ... no checks are being completed by patrol , '' Carmon says .
NPR also found at least a dozen states where some of the longest-missing offenders actually had died – something the states could have verified with their own records .
In Arkansas , for instance , authorities say Leroy Hair has been missing for nearly two decades — 7,153 days .
Hair received a 40-year sentence for a 1979 rape and registered as a sex offender for life on the eve of his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ registered , then disappeared , '' says Paula Stitz , manager of that state 's sex offender registry .
A danger to the community again Mistakes in the registries can have dire consequences .
NPR found examples of unregistered offenders moving undetected — sometimes from one state to another — and committing additional sex crimes .
Austin Kelly , 26 , was released from prison in March 2019 after serving 10 years for attempted rape of a child in Tennessee .
Officials there placed him on community supervision for life , and he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offender .
Within six weeks of leaving prison , Kelly absconded , records show .
He landed a job 600 miles away in Owasso , Okla. , at the Sonic Drive-In and found a place to live .
He filled out a sex offender registration form , but when the Tulsa County Sheriff 's Office mailed the address verification form to him , he did n't send it back as required by law , police said .
That made him an absconder in Oklahoma , too .
Late last year , police said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ across the street from his job and followed a 3-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother into the men 's bathroom .
He was arrested 13 days later and charged with sexual abuse of the girl , along with aggravated possession of child pornography .
He was convicted in December and sentenced to 35 years in prison .
Sexual abuse survivor Kristen Trogler says she believes the system created to track sex offenders is broken .
She has gone to the Missouri sex offender registry over the years looking for one man in particular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jail for sexually abusing her when she was in kindergarten .
That 's because once Maurer was released from prison for assaulting her , he failed to register at least twice — in Missouri and in Florida , records show .
Authorities had no idea of his whereabouts for months at a time .
`` The system does n't work , '' says Trogler , who lives in St. Louis .
`` What 's their punishment for not registering ?
A little bit of time in jail ?
It 's not enough .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and his daughter sat next to each other in kindergarten at the Oak Hill School in St. Louis and quickly became best friends .
When the class took a field trip , Trogler 's mother and Maurer chaperoned .
Soon after , she allowed Maurer to babysit while she worked .
That 's when the inappropriate touching began .
`` It started off slowly , '' Trogler recalls .
`` I remember thinking it was not right . ''
Five years after his release for that crime , police arrested Maurer for molesting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in his home over a two-year period .
Maurer pled guilty in 1998 to child molestation and statutory sodomy , and received a 10-year sentence .
After being released in December 2007 , Maurer moved to Florida and ignored the requirement to register .
He was charged with failure to register and got a six-year prison sentence .
Maurer was released in August 2013 and returned to Missouri without reporting his new address within three days , as required by law .
While an absconder , Maurer sexually abused another 12-year-old girl @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Authorities charged him with statutory sodomy and failure to register as a sex offender .
A jury convicted Maurer of a lesser charge of attempted statutory sodomy and failure to register in 2017 , and a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole .
Trogler testified at his trial , calling him a real-life `` boogeyman . ''
`` He is what nightmares are made of , '' she told the court .
Thirty years have passed since Trogler 's abuse , but she relives it daily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and alcohol as a teen .
`` I was in pain , '' she told NPR .
`` I wanted to not be in this black hole that I 'm still in every single day . ''
Now , at 36 , she 's divorced with three children .
She lives in a small rented house in St. Louis and makes ends meet with a county tax-collecting job .
Trogler 's dining room table is filled with prescription bottles : pills for anxiety , depression and bipolar disorder .
She sees a therapist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ago .
`` He 's a monster , '' she says about Maurer .
`` He stole everything from me .
I hate him . ''
Trogler says law enforcement fail people like her and others by not keeping track of offenders who do n't register and abscond .
`` The system is broken , '' Trogler says .
`` I do n't know if there is a way to fix it . ''

Sex Offender Registries Often Fail Those They Are Designed To Protect
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ben de la Cruz/NPR Ben de la Cruz/NPR
Updated on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020, at 10:52 am ET:
Since this story's publication, Curtis Lang Sr., 62, a convicted rapist who repeatedly failed to register as a sex offender, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C. He was charged with one count of failing to register as a sex offender, according to federal officials. Lang was arraigned Oct. 20 in D.C. Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty and was released, according to court records. He is due back in court in March 2021.
Inside the sprawling two-story tan and coral stucco building on New York Avenue in Northeast Washington, D.C., is a men's homeless shelter that once served as a halfway house run by the government.
It's a place that some 20 registered sex offenders call home — according to the city's sex offender registry. But at least one-third of them don't really live there, and D.C. authorities have no idea where they are.
The men are among the more than 25,000 convicted sex offenders and predators across the U.S. who have absconded, their whereabouts unknown to law enforcement or the victims — often children — whom they sexually assaulted or abused, an NPR investigation has found. Tens of thousands of others are out of compliance with sex offender registry laws.
"Law enforcement are losing people," says Kelly Socia, an associate professor of criminology and justice studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
Like so much else in American life, enforcement of sex offender registries across the country has been upended by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Many states with in-person monitoring and registration have had to search for alternatives. Some states have seemingly stopped enforcement altogether.
Listen to part two of the investigation Listen · 6:58 6:58
But most of the shortcomings predate the pandemic. NPR reviewed sex offender registry databases and records from all 50 states and the District of Columbia and found that a system intended to keep track of sex offenders often fails the very people it was designed to protect.
Many state registries are rife with errors, such as wrong addresses or names of offenders who died as long as 20 years ago. Others include the names of hundreds of offenders who have failed to verify their whereabouts in more than a decade.
The registries also list absconders whom law enforcement say they can't find but often are hiding in plain sight. Like a Colorado man — one of that state's 100 most wanted sex offender fugitives — on the run since 2016. NPR found him in Washington state, where he has never registered as a sex offender, according to public records.
Some sex offenders commit additional sex crimes after failing to tell police their whereabouts. In Missouri, for instance, a man who pleaded guilty in 1991 to sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl was convicted in 1998 and in 2017 of sex crimes against other minors, after moving between states without registering.
"The registry really doesn't work," Socia says. "It's a bloated, inefficient system that is incredibly expensive to maintain. I don't think it really protects anybody."
A federal law passed in 1994 known as the Jacob Wetterling Act requires states to establish registration programs for people convicted of sex crimes or crimes against children. The law was named for a Minnesota boy abducted by a man as the 11-year-old rode his bicycle home from the store in 1989. That law also requires states to verify addresses of convicted sex offenders every year for at least 10 years.
Since then, the laws relating to sex offenders have been amended to include such things as making the registries publicly accessible, placing certain juveniles on the registry and requiring law enforcement to notify the public when sex offenders move into the community.
Slipping through the system
NPR combed through those registries and counted tens of thousands of offenders who are considered absconders or whose locations are unknown. Among them were men whom NPR found easily using public records.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ben de la Cruz/NPR Ben de la Cruz/NPR
Like Curtis Lang Sr.
Lang, 61, was convicted in 1994 of raping an ex-girlfriend in her Washington, D.C., home. He says that he was high on PCP when the woman came home, that he raped her and that she tried to run away.
"I was out of my mind," Lang recalls. "But we did have rough sex and she tried to get away from me and I put my hands on her, yeah."
Lang, who served a decade in prison for the rape, was required to register as a sex offender and update that registration every three months for life. But it has been five years since he registered, according to D.C.'s sex offender registry.
NPR found Lang after checking court documents in Maryland and discovering a traffic citation from May 2019 for driving with an expired license. The court record listed an address in Northwest D.C., about 9 miles from the address he listed on D.C.'s public sex offender registry.
Authorities haven't gone after him for failing to register, despite stopping him for several traffic violations, including the 2019 incident.
"That's the system," Lang says. "I can't help it if I slipped through the system, the cracks, you know? That's on them."
The agency that registers and monitors sex offenders in the nation's capital is called the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, or CSOSA. Authorities there are supposed to report noncompliance to the Metropolitan Police Department, which acts as an enforcer.
"When we're notified of a violation, we do everything we can to bring the offender into compliance," says D.C. Police Commander Leslie Parsons, who oversees the sex offender registry.
That's how Jimmy Ferguson came to the department's attention. He is required to register as a sex offender every 90 days because of a conviction for assault with intent to commit rape. But he stopped registering several years ago, records show.
CSOSA said it sent a violation notice about Ferguson to police in March 2017, and again two years later, and police told NPR they tried to find him.
toggle caption District of Columbia Sex Offender Registry
Ferguson said no one came looking for him in the most obvious place — the address on his sex offender registration form. While Ferguson admitted he wasn't complying with the registration law at the time, he has been living in the same modest second-floor apartment across the street from a school in Southeast D.C. for years, records show.
"I've been living right here going on four years," he told NPR. "If you can find me, why the law can't find me?"
"This is ridiculous, man. I'm not hiding," he added.
Ferguson registered six weeks later, records show.
Alissa Ackerman, an assistant professor of criminal justice at California State University, Fullerton and a sex crimes expert, said she understands why offenders don't register.
"The burdens that come with it are tremendous," Ackerman says. "The shame that it brings upon you is tremendous."
Missing but not a priority
When offenders don't register, state officials throughout the country acknowledge, finding them can be tough. And that difficulty is made worse because law enforcement agencies often don't place a high priority on going after them, even though authorities know the sex offenders have broken the law.
In Illinois, 12.5% of the state's 32,249 sex offenders are missing or have failed to comply with reverification laws. Police there often catch absconders during routine traffic stops or while responding to domestic calls, according to Tracie Newton, the program administrator for the state's sex offender and murder registries.
"Many times, that's how they're found," she says, adding that it is the job of local police or sheriff's departments to track offenders so that they don't abscond.
In Nevada, where 7.5% of the 29,271 offenders are missing or have failed to comply, authorities rarely check to ensure that sex offenders live where they say they do, says Mindy McKay, who oversees the records, communications and compliance division of the Nevada Department of Public Safety.
"Short of implanting a chip in someone ... we can't keep track of people like that," she says. "If they abscond, they abscond. There's nothing we can do about it."
Chelsea Ross, who oversees Nevada's sex offender registry, says the number of absconders or those who are not up to date with their registration is likely to increase because of the coronavirus. That state and others shut down in-person registration offices when the pandemic hit, forcing sex offenders to register online, by phone or by mail, and halting law enforcement efforts to do in-person verification checks.
"We didn't do an announcement to tell the public or to tell the offenders we weren't doing in person," Ross says. "We thought that would open a door for people not to check in. We didn't want offenders to say, 'Hey, nobody's going to be checking on us.' "
Derek Carmon, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau in Oregon, says his agency has also halted residence verifications.
"Patrol officers were helping check residences of sex offenders, but since the pandemic ... no checks are being completed by patrol," Carmon says.
NPR also found at least a dozen states where some of the longest-missing offenders actually had died – something the states could have verified with their own records.
In Arkansas, for instance, authorities say Leroy Hair has been missing for nearly two decades — 7,153 days. Hair received a 40-year sentence for a 1979 rape and registered as a sex offender for life on the eve of his release in November 2000.
"He registered, then disappeared," says Paula Stitz, manager of that state's sex offender registry.
Public records show that Hair died in 2001.
A danger to the community again
toggle caption Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Sex Offender Registry
Mistakes in the registries can have dire consequences. NPR found examples of unregistered offenders moving undetected — sometimes from one state to another — and committing additional sex crimes.
Austin Kelly, 26, was released from prison in March 2019 after serving 10 years for attempted rape of a child in Tennessee. Officials there placed him on community supervision for life, and he was forced to register as a sex offender.
Within six weeks of leaving prison, Kelly absconded, records show. He landed a job 600 miles away in Owasso, Okla., at the Sonic Drive-In and found a place to live. He filled out a sex offender registration form, but when the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office mailed the address verification form to him, he didn't send it back as required by law, police said. That made him an absconder in Oklahoma, too.
Late last year, police said that Kelly walked into a McDonald's across the street from his job and followed a 3-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother into the men's bathroom. He was arrested 13 days later and charged with sexual abuse of the girl, along with aggravated possession of child pornography. He was convicted in December and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Sexual abuse survivor Kristen Trogler says she believes the system created to track sex offenders is broken.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ben de la Cruz/NPR Ben de la Cruz/NPR
She has gone to the Missouri sex offender registry over the years looking for one man in particular: Robert Maurer. He went to jail for sexually abusing her when she was in kindergarten.
She didn't find him.
That's because once Maurer was released from prison for assaulting her, he failed to register at least twice — in Missouri and in Florida, records show. Authorities had no idea of his whereabouts for months at a time.
"The system doesn't work," says Trogler, who lives in St. Louis. "What's their punishment for not registering? A little bit of time in jail? It's not enough."
toggle caption Florida Department of Corrections
Trogler first met Maurer when she and his daughter sat next to each other in kindergarten at the Oak Hill School in St. Louis and quickly became best friends. When the class took a field trip, Trogler's mother and Maurer chaperoned. Soon after, she allowed Maurer to babysit while she worked.
That's when the inappropriate touching began.
"It started off slowly," Trogler recalls. "I remember thinking it was not right."
Five years after his release for that crime, police arrested Maurer for molesting two girls, ages 12 and 13, in his home over a two-year period. Maurer pled guilty in 1998 to child molestation and statutory sodomy, and received a 10-year sentence.
After being released in December 2007, Maurer moved to Florida and ignored the requirement to register. He was charged with failure to register and got a six-year prison sentence.
Maurer was released in August 2013 and returned to Missouri without reporting his new address within three days, as required by law. While an absconder, Maurer sexually abused another 12-year-old girl — a relative with whom he lived. Authorities charged him with statutory sodomy and failure to register as a sex offender.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ben de la Cruz/NPR Ben de la Cruz/NPR
A jury convicted Maurer of a lesser charge of attempted statutory sodomy and failure to register in 2017, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Trogler testified at his trial, calling him a real-life "boogeyman."
"He is what nightmares are made of," she told the court.
Thirty years have passed since Trogler's abuse, but she relives it daily. She says she turned to drugs and alcohol as a teen.
"I was in pain," she told NPR. "I wanted to not be in this black hole that I'm still in every single day."
Now, at 36, she's divorced with three children. She lives in a small rented house in St. Louis and makes ends meet with a county tax-collecting job.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ben de la Cruz/NPR Ben de la Cruz/NPR
Trogler's dining room table is filled with prescription bottles: pills for anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. She sees a therapist, a decision she made three years ago.
"He's a monster," she says about Maurer. "He stole everything from me. I hate him."
Trogler says law enforcement fail people like her and others by not keeping track of offenders who don't register and abscond.
"The system is broken," Trogler says. "I don't know if there is a way to fix it."
Researcher Barbara Van Woerkom contributed to this report.


npr--2020-08-25--Despite Widespread Pain, Economy Remains Strong Selling Point For Trump

Almost 30 million people are now collecting unemployment benefits .
Yet President Trump still gets relatively high marks for his handling of the economy .
As Republicans focus on `` opportunity '' at their convention Tuesday , the economy remains one of the president 's strongest selling points .
`` You see the kind of numbers that we 're putting up .
They 're unbelievable , '' Trump told supporters in Minnesota last week .
`` More jobs in the last three months than ever before . ''
In boasting about the big job gains in May , June and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job losses in March and April .
So far , the U.S. has recovered less than half of the jobs that disappeared this spring .
Ordinarily , a double-digit unemployment rate would be crippling for a president seeking reelection .
Consider the price that George H.W .
Bush paid in 1992 for what was , in hindsight , a relatively mild recession .
Despite his popularity after winning the first Gulf War , Bush 's economic approval rating plummeted to 18 % .
Although the unemployment rate that year never reached 8 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election characterized by James Carville 's famous phrase , `` It 's the economy , stupid . ''
Although the current recession is much deeper , Trump 's economic approval rating continues to hover near 50 % .
`` What 's going on is the memory of the economy before the pandemic , '' says Republican pollster Whit Ayres .
He believes many Americans are still judging Trump by the economy as it was six months ago , before the coronavirus took hold here .
`` It was rolling , '' Ayres recalls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The economy was in great shape before the pandemic killed it . ''
Presidential approval ratings in general do n't swing up and down as much as they used to .
Americans have increasingly sorted themselves into highly polarized camps , reluctant to abandon their own standard-bearer or show even grudging approval for the other side .
Trump may also be getting a pass on the economy because Americans are more concerned with other problems , including race relations and especially the pandemic itself .
`` People see COVID as the problem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' says Lydia Saad , director of U.S. social research for Gallup .
`` They 're viewing [ the economic downturn ] sort of like a hurricane .
Something that 's happened .
It 's come in .
It 's created all sorts of havoc .
But it 's going to go away and things are going to get back to normal . ''
That 's how Mark Schneider sees it .
He retired from the Navy after 20 years on nuclear submarines and now runs an advocacy group for nuclear power .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ P 500 stock index was heading for a record high , Schneider tweeted that the Trump economy is `` unstoppable . ''
He thinks the recession will soon pass .
`` It just feels temporary , '' Schneider says .
`` We just kind of paused the economy , as opposed to something mucking the system . ''
As he drives around his home of Chesapeake in southeastern Virginia , Schneider is confident that a lot of people feel the same way .
`` I have yet to see a single Biden sign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't seen a bumper sticker .
I have n't seen anything Biden .
But there 's Trump flags flying everywhere , '' Schneider says .
`` My forecast is that Trump 's going to take this thing in a landslide . ''
Ayres , the GOP pollster , is not so certain .
Despite Trump 's solid grade on the economy , it may not be enough to save the president , come November .
`` The coronavirus has driven out everything else , '' Ayres says .
Trump 's overall approval rating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , weighed down in part by his handling of the pandemic .
And until there 's a solution for the coronavirus , Ayres says it 's going to be difficult for the economy to come roaring back .

Despite Widespread Pain, Economy Remains Strong Selling Point For Trump
Enlarge this image toggle caption Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Almost 30 million people are now collecting unemployment benefits. Yet President Trump still gets relatively high marks for his handling of the economy.
As Republicans focus on "opportunity" at their convention Tuesday, the economy remains one of the president's strongest selling points.
"You see the kind of numbers that we're putting up. They're unbelievable," Trump told supporters in Minnesota last week. "More jobs in the last three months than ever before."
In boasting about the big job gains in May, June and July, Trump conveniently omits the historic job losses in March and April. So far, the U.S. has recovered less than half of the jobs that disappeared this spring.
Ordinarily, a double-digit unemployment rate would be crippling for a president seeking reelection. Consider the price that George H.W. Bush paid in 1992 for what was, in hindsight, a relatively mild recession.
Despite his popularity after winning the first Gulf War, Bush's economic approval rating plummeted to 18%. Although the unemployment rate that year never reached 8%, Bush was sent packing in an election characterized by James Carville's famous phrase, "It's the economy, stupid."
Loading...
Although the current recession is much deeper, Trump's economic approval rating continues to hover near 50%.
"What's going on is the memory of the economy before the pandemic," says Republican pollster Whit Ayres.
He believes many Americans are still judging Trump by the economy as it was six months ago, before the coronavirus took hold here.
"It was rolling," Ayres recalls. "Unemployment was at historic lows. The economy was in great shape before the pandemic killed it."
Presidential approval ratings in general don't swing up and down as much as they used to. Americans have increasingly sorted themselves into highly polarized camps, reluctant to abandon their own standard-bearer or show even grudging approval for the other side.
Trump may also be getting a pass on the economy because Americans are more concerned with other problems, including race relations and especially the pandemic itself.
"People see COVID as the problem and the economy as a symptom," says Lydia Saad, director of U.S. social research for Gallup. "They're viewing [the economic downturn] sort of like a hurricane. Something that's happened. It's come in. It's created all sorts of havoc. But it's going to go away and things are going to get back to normal."
That's how Mark Schneider sees it. He retired from the Navy after 20 years on nuclear submarines and now runs an advocacy group for nuclear power. Last week, as the S&P 500 stock index was heading for a record high, Schneider tweeted that the Trump economy is "unstoppable." He thinks the recession will soon pass.
"It just feels temporary," Schneider says. "We just kind of paused the economy, as opposed to something mucking the system."
As he drives around his home of Chesapeake in southeastern Virginia, Schneider is confident that a lot of people feel the same way.
"I have yet to see a single Biden sign in my entire city. I haven't seen a bumper sticker. I haven't seen anything Biden. But there's Trump flags flying everywhere," Schneider says. "My forecast is that Trump's going to take this thing in a landslide."
Ayres, the GOP pollster, is not so certain. Despite Trump's solid grade on the economy, it may not be enough to save the president, come November.
"The coronavirus has driven out everything else," Ayres says.
Trump's overall approval rating is considerably lower than his economic marks, weighed down in part by his handling of the pandemic. And until there's a solution for the coronavirus, Ayres says it's going to be difficult for the economy to come roaring back.