vox--2020-04-16--Thousands of Michiganders took to the streets to protest the governor’s stay-at-home order

A political divide over the response to the coronavirus pandemic was on stark display Wednesday in Lansing , Michigan , where about 3,000 conservative demonstrators rallied against the Democratic governor ’ s policies .
“ Operation Gridlock ” wasn ’ t intended to go beyond people driving around and honking their horns in opposition to Gov .
Gretchen Whitmer ’ s executive stay-at-home order , organizers say , but some drivers got out of their cars and the event took on a flavor of a Trump rally , with some demonstrators , including members of militia groups , protesting close @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her up , ” referencing the governor .
Some attendees wore Make America Great Again hats and waved Confederate flags , and others carried AK-47s on the steps of the state capitol .
Whitmer ’ s handling of the coronavirus receives a favorable review from 71 percent of Michigan residents .
Nationally , Whitmer has received some attention as a potential vice presidential pick for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden .
The state has been one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic .
As of the morning of April 16 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the state , resulting in over 1,900 deaths — the third most in the country .
Last week , Whitmer responded by extending the state ’ s stay-at-home order through April 30 , but she has also joined a coalition of Midwestern governors working together to determine an end to stay-at-home restrictions .
But a vocal subset of conservatives and libertarians have started to rebel , led in part by the Michigan Conservative Coalition .
MCC spokesperson Matt Seely told Vox that the extension of the stay-at-home order made many Michiganders “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ jackasses ” who brought weapons to the event , said the movement isn ’ t about partisanship .
“ We would have protested this executive order if it was an independent governor or a Republican governor .
Party has nothing to do with this system , out of principle and our civil liberties.
” Still , surveys show that national attitudes about the government response to coronavirus are polarized around party ID and political attitudes .
Morning Consult found that most Americans were practicing some form of social distancing in March , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to say they were doing so .
And the symbiotic relationship between President Trump and Fox News has contributed to this difference in attitudes .
A recent study of Fox viewers found they reported being more skeptical of mainstream media reports about the virus and less likely to participate in social distancing .
Michigan is seeing the challenges of getting public buy-in for social distancing policies firsthand , and Trump ’ s messaging on Fox and in daily briefings mirror the divide .
He ’ s consistently downplayed the pandemic and attempted to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those of blue states ( including Whitmer ) .
And while those Vox spoke with in Michigan said that they understood how serious the coronavirus pandemic was , his message is clearly resonating with some conservatives and having a real-world effect on their attitudes and actions — potentially putting them and others at risk .
Conservatives in Michigan were already growing agitated with Whitmer ’ s aggressive response to the virus when she took another step that seemed nonsensical : Big-box hardware stores ( larger than 50,000 square feet ) were told they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supplies and lawn care until the end of April .
They can still sell other goods deemed essential .
“ If you ’ re not buying food or medicine or other essential items , you should not be going to the store , ” Whitmer said in a press conference earlier this month .
Some rally attendees complained to Fox News that Whitmer ’ s order seemed arbitrary .
They can ’ t buy lawn fertilizer from Home Depot , visit siblings , or get their hair done , but lottery tickets are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ open .
Seely told Vox , “ Do you want people to leave their homes and risk infecting themselves and other people to get a lottery ticket ?
But I can ’ t go to the hardware store and buy grass seed for my lawn , buy a gallon of paint so that I can find myself doing a home project so I don ’ t go absolutely insane being locked at home .
I mean , none of that makes any sense.
” MCC president Roseanne Ponkowski told Vox that on her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saw Michigan Department of Transportation workers planting trees and flowers along the highway and in the capitol .
“ And yet private businesses can ’ t do that .
...
So it ’ s like there doesn ’ t seem to be any rhyme or reason.
” She added , “ We have a lot of jobs that just by the nature of the work are social distancing .
The man cutting your grass on the riding lawnmower is social distancing .
Why can ’ t he be working ?
” Republicans in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more rural northwestern areas , share the frustration .
The Guardian explains : Part of the reason for the skepticism among conservatives is also about geography .
The metro Detroit area , which is overwhelmingly Democratic , has been hit much harder by the pandemic than the rest of the far-redder state .
For example , in Iron County , on the state ’ s upper peninsula , there have been zero confirmed cases of coronavirus thus far .
In Wayne County , which includes Detroit , there have been more than 12,500 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said that social distancing rules are important even if a region hasn ’ t seen very many cases .
Because the virus ’ s incubation period can be up to 14 days , there is a lag between when the virus starts spreading and when cases begin to emerge .
And members of the MCC were notably dubious about coronavirus just a few weeks ago — largely following rhetoric stemming from the White House .
Early in the pandemic , members of the MCC posted on Facebook that Democrats were “ cheerleaders ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arguing that the coronavirus threat was being overstated .
One MCC leader vowed to continue holding mass events as recently as a month ago .
If the goal of Wednesday ’ s demonstration was to persuade Whitmer to reconsider the stay-at-home order , it doesn ’ t appear to have succeeded .
Later Wednesday , the governor spoke to MSNBC and said “ the sad irony here is that the protest was that they don ’ t like being in this stay-at-home order , and they may have just created a need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re trying to avoid at all costs .
“ We know that this demonstration is going to come at a cost to people ’ s health , ” Whitmer added .
“ We know that when people gather that way without masks … that ’ s how Covid-19 spreads.
” What remains to be seen , however , is whether the demonstration will persuade the Republicans that control Michigan ’ s legislature to block Whitmer ’ s efforts to continue the states of emergency and disaster that will expire at the end @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by lawmakers .
Trump is pinning the disaster on governors — including Whitmer Whitmer , like other Democratic governors , has been critical of the federal government ’ s coronavirus response .
She ’ s become a particularly pronounced target of abuse from Trump , who has referred to her as “ the woman in Michigan ” and “ Failing Michigan Governor.
” Trump ’ s victory in 2016 hinged on winning in Michigan , where he edged out Hillary Clinton by a slim margin .
He picked up votes in areas of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experienced high rates of infection or deaths and where some are agitated by the social distancing rules .
New polling by the American Enterprise Institute found that even among Republicans , those living in rural areas were more likely to say that Trump had responded to the pandemic well and less likely to say that they were concerned about the outbreak .
At his daily press briefings , Trump has routinely deflected responsibility for his administration ’ s failures in responding to the virus , instead attempting to pin the blame on governors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their own stockpiles of ventilators and protective medical gear like masks and gloves rather than rely on the federal government ’ s .
At the same time , he ’ s urging states with areas that are less hard hit to get ready to reopen .
And his messaging is resonating with some Republicans across the country .
In Minnesota and Kentucky , for instance , some residents are also agitating for their Democratic governors to lift stay at home orders .
The installation of social distancing policies that seemed confusing to some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protesters in Michigan .
But weeks of denials from the White House of the pandemic ’ s true cost have done little to help .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

A political divide over the response to the coronavirus pandemic was on stark display Wednesday in Lansing, Michigan, where about 3,000 conservative demonstrators rallied against the Democratic governor’s policies.
“Operation Gridlock” wasn’t intended to go beyond people driving around and honking their horns in opposition to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive stay-at-home order, organizers say, but some drivers got out of their cars and the event took on a flavor of a Trump rally, with some demonstrators, including members of militia groups, protesting close together while chanting slogans like “lock her up,” referencing the governor. Some attendees wore Make America Great Again hats and waved Confederate flags, and others carried AK-47s on the steps of the state capitol.
Whitmer’s handling of the coronavirus receives a favorable review from 71 percent of Michigan residents. Nationally, Whitmer has received some attention as a potential vice presidential pick for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The state has been one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. As of the morning of April 16, there were more than 28,000 confirmed cases in the state, resulting in over 1,900 deaths — the third most in the country. Last week, Whitmer responded by extending the state’s stay-at-home order through April 30, but she has also joined a coalition of Midwestern governors working together to determine an end to stay-at-home restrictions.
But a vocal subset of conservatives and libertarians have started to rebel, led in part by the Michigan Conservative Coalition. MCC spokesperson Matt Seely told Vox that the extension of the stay-at-home order made many Michiganders “nuts.”
Seely, who denounced the “jackasses” who brought weapons to the event, said the movement isn’t about partisanship. “We would have protested this executive order if it was an independent governor or a Republican governor. Party has nothing to do with this system, out of principle and our civil liberties.”
Still, surveys show that national attitudes about the government response to coronavirus are polarized around party ID and political attitudes. Morning Consult found that most Americans were practicing some form of social distancing in March, with Republican men being the least likely to say they were doing so. And the symbiotic relationship between President Trump and Fox News has contributed to this difference in attitudes. A recent study of Fox viewers found they reported being more skeptical of mainstream media reports about the virus and less likely to participate in social distancing.
Michigan is seeing the challenges of getting public buy-in for social distancing policies firsthand, and Trump’s messaging on Fox and in daily briefings mirror the divide. He’s consistently downplayed the pandemic and attempted to pin the blame on governors, particularly those of blue states (including Whitmer). And while those Vox spoke with in Michigan said that they understood how serious the coronavirus pandemic was, his message is clearly resonating with some conservatives and having a real-world effect on their attitudes and actions — potentially putting them and others at risk.
A confusing crackdown on home improvement supplies was a major factor
Conservatives in Michigan were already growing agitated with Whitmer’s aggressive response to the virus when she took another step that seemed nonsensical: Big-box hardware stores (larger than 50,000 square feet) were told they must close off aisles dedicated to paint supplies and lawn care until the end of April. They can still sell other goods deemed essential. “If you’re not buying food or medicine or other essential items, you should not be going to the store,” Whitmer said in a press conference earlier this month.
Some rally attendees complained to Fox News that Whitmer’s order seemed arbitrary. They can’t buy lawn fertilizer from Home Depot, visit siblings, or get their hair done, but lottery tickets are still for sale and liquor stores remain open. Seely told Vox, “Do you want people to leave their homes and risk infecting themselves and other people to get a lottery ticket? But I can’t go to the hardware store and buy grass seed for my lawn, buy a gallon of paint so that I can find myself doing a home project so I don’t go absolutely insane being locked at home. I mean, none of that makes any sense.”
Chants of “recall Whitmer,” “USA” and “lock her up” outside Michigan Capitol. #OperationGridlock pic.twitter.com/7Q7niiNFUF — Malachi Barrett (@PolarBarrett) April 15, 2020
MCC president Roseanne Ponkowski told Vox that on her way to Lansing, some rally attendees saw Michigan Department of Transportation workers planting trees and flowers along the highway and in the capitol. “And yet private businesses can’t do that. ... So it’s like there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason.” She added, “We have a lot of jobs that just by the nature of the work are social distancing. The man cutting your grass on the riding lawnmower is social distancing. Why can’t he be working?”
Republicans in the state, especially those in the more rural northwestern areas, share the frustration. The Guardian explains:
Four sheriffs in the north-western Lower Peninsula called Whitmer’s orders a “vague framework of emergency laws” that are frustrating citizens. The Leelanau county sheriff, Mike Borkovich, said people did not understand why they could not take a child fishing in a motorboat but they could use a kayak. “We’re trying to keep the peace with people ... The economy is coming apart in northern Michigan. People are upset,” Borkovich told the Associated Press. “People are frantic to get back to work. They have been very edgy.”
Part of the reason for the skepticism among conservatives is also about geography. The metro Detroit area, which is overwhelmingly Democratic, has been hit much harder by the pandemic than the rest of the far-redder state. For example, in Iron County, on the state’s upper peninsula, there have been zero confirmed cases of coronavirus thus far. In Wayne County, which includes Detroit, there have been more than 12,500 confirmed cases.
Public health officials have said that social distancing rules are important even if a region hasn’t seen very many cases. Because the virus’s incubation period can be up to 14 days, there is a lag between when the virus starts spreading and when cases begin to emerge.
And members of the MCC were notably dubious about coronavirus just a few weeks ago — largely following rhetoric stemming from the White House. Early in the pandemic, members of the MCC posted on Facebook that Democrats were “cheerleaders” for coronavirus and reshared a Breitbart article arguing that the coronavirus threat was being overstated. One MCC leader vowed to continue holding mass events as recently as a month ago.
Whitmer isn’t changing her policies
If the goal of Wednesday’s demonstration was to persuade Whitmer to reconsider the stay-at-home order, it doesn’t appear to have succeeded. Later Wednesday, the governor spoke to MSNBC and said “the sad irony here is that the protest was that they don’t like being in this stay-at-home order, and they may have just created a need to lengthen it, which is something we’re trying to avoid at all costs.
“We know that this demonstration is going to come at a cost to people’s health,” Whitmer added. “We know that when people gather that way without masks … that’s how Covid-19 spreads.”
Whitmer: I mean this was a political rally. It was a political rally that is going to endanger people’s lives because this is precisely how COVID-19 spreads... The cars were blocking one of our hospitals pic.twitter.com/YlyFTbrfia — Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) April 15, 2020
What remains to be seen, however, is whether the demonstration will persuade the Republicans that control Michigan’s legislature to block Whitmer’s efforts to continue the states of emergency and disaster that will expire at the end of the month unless they are extended by lawmakers.
Trump is pinning the disaster on governors — including Whitmer
Whitmer, like other Democratic governors, has been critical of the federal government’s coronavirus response. She’s become a particularly pronounced target of abuse from Trump, who has referred to her as “the woman in Michigan” and “Failing Michigan Governor.”
Failing Michigan Governor must work harder and be much more proactive. We are pushing her to get the job done. I stand with Michigan! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2020
Trump’s victory in 2016 hinged on winning in Michigan, where he edged out Hillary Clinton by a slim margin. He picked up votes in areas of the state that haven’t yet experienced high rates of infection or deaths and where some are agitated by the social distancing rules. New polling by the American Enterprise Institute found that even among Republicans, those living in rural areas were more likely to say that Trump had responded to the pandemic well and less likely to say that they were concerned about the outbreak.
At his daily press briefings, Trump has routinely deflected responsibility for his administration’s failures in responding to the virus, instead attempting to pin the blame on governors, arguing that they should have built their own stockpiles of ventilators and protective medical gear like masks and gloves rather than rely on the federal government’s.
At the same time, he’s urging states with areas that are less hard hit to get ready to reopen. And his messaging is resonating with some Republicans across the country. In Minnesota and Kentucky, for instance, some residents are also agitating for their Democratic governors to lift stay at home orders.
The installation of social distancing policies that seemed confusing to some may have been the tipping point for protesters in Michigan. But weeks of denials from the White House of the pandemic’s true cost have done little to help.


What day is it today?

Today is Friday , April 17 , 2020 , at least in the continental United States .
It is already Saturday , April 18 , in some parts of the world .
To some degree , time is an illusion .
We are bound by its forward passage , being the third-dimensional creatures we are , but the perceptions we have placed upon time have been invented .
Humans invented the year .
Humans invented the month .
Humans invented the day , the hour , the minute , the second .
These distinctions are not arbitrary — it really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Earth to orbit the sun — but their creation was not inevitable .
Our numerical system is likely base-10 because we have 10 fingers ; the way we understand time is almost entirely dependent on the fact that we evolved on this planet , circling this sun .
Time , at least as we understand it , is also a byproduct of capitalism .
In his seminal 1967 economic paper “ Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism , ” E. P. Thompson notes that in early human cultures , delineations of time were broad understandings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ went down , when the seasons changed .
But as industrialization became the norm , time became a mechanized system that no longer served those who ’ d invented it .
We increasingly served at the beck and call of time , for that is how those who possessed capital could best regulate those who performed the labor .
For we are now at a point where sociologists are discussing the “ problem ” of leisure .
And a part of the problem is : how did it come to be a problem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ convenience with industrial capitalism , was the agent which converted men to new valuations of time ; which taught children even in their infancy to improve each shining hour ; and which saturated men ’ s minds with the equation , time is money .
One recurrent form of revolt within Western industrial capitalism , whether bohemian or beatnik , has often taken the form of flouting the urgency of respectable timevalues .
And the interesting question arises : if Puritanism was a necessary part of the work-ethos which enabled the industrialized world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the past , will the Puritan valuation of time begin to decompose as the pressures of poverty relax ?
Is it decomposing already ?
Will men begin to lose that restless urgency , that desire to consume time purposively , which most people carry just as they carry a watch on their wrists ?
But it remains that on some base level , we will always understand time .
The sun comes up , the sun goes down .
Though we might be inside , where that process is more difficult to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does not obscure the day and night cycle .
What is lost , as each day blends into the next , in vaguely similar ways , is the mechanistic definition of time , the capitalist definition of time , the industrial definition of time .
We do not know what day it is , but we do know when there is a new day .
To live inside is to lose distinction .
There is a numbing effect that occurs when each day is the same , when our schedules are subsumed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ undifferentiated time .
And yet isn ’ t this how so many of the less privileged around the world , forced to work jobs involving menial labor , day after day after day , already live ?
Isn ’ t this why we invented the weekend ?
Has this quarantine simply shown to those of us with more economic privilege that our “ free time ” was always a mirage , which could disappear before our eyes , by giving us so much “ free ” time ?
I have a wall calendar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I need to orient myself in time , I look at it .
But even the usefulness of my calendar has started to fray around the edges .
I began writing this story because I couldn ’ t quite believe it was a Thursday , even as I knew it had to be a Thursday .
But it might as well not be .
A cycle that bears the sun across our sky until it sets in the west is a reality ; “ Thursday ” is an invention .
Is it still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I will update this article daily until we don ’ t need it anymore .
I hope there is a time when we know it is Thursday or Tuesday or June 17 without having to look at a calendar or ask each other or Google .
I hope there is a time when going outside to see the sun doesn ’ t feel like exposing yourself to toxic levels of radiation .
( I know I should be taking walks ; every time , I feel like I ’ m risking everything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time in which all this “ free ” time no longer feels like a period we must exploit for maximum value .
I hope there is a time when I remember what it ’ s like to grab lunch with a friend , to watch dogs play in the surf , to breathe in the air and just be .
Until then , find a way to make time have meaning for you .
Read a long book .
Cook an elaborate meal .
Take up knitting .
Write an epic poem .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ always meant to get to .
Sleep .
Remember that time doesn ’ t own you , and that you own time .
This will be over someday , a part of the past .
It will someday be a memory .
Hang on to that .
I ’ ll see you outside again .
For now , it is Friday , April 17 , 2020 .
In some parts of the world , it is Saturday , April 18 , 2020 .
Are you a “ What day is it today ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ theme song .
It ’ s written by composer Laura Stratford , and it is wonderful .

Today is Wednesday, July 1, 2020, at least in the continental United States. It is already Thursday, July 2, 2020, in some parts of the world. Life isn’t resuming gracefully, but the herky jerky train wreck of America’s reopening certainly speaks to some desire to exit this quarantine period. And so “What Day Is It Today” will exit the stage, too. For now, at least.
To some degree, time is an illusion. We are bound by its forward passage, being the third-dimensional creatures we are, but the perceptions we have placed upon time have been invented. Humans invented the year. Humans invented the month. Humans invented the day, the hour, the minute, the second.
These distinctions are not arbitrary — it really does take about 365 days for the Earth to orbit the sun — but their creation was not inevitable. Our numerical system is likely base-10 because we have 10 fingers; the way we understand time is almost entirely dependent on the fact that we evolved on this planet, circling this sun.
Time, at least as we understand it, is also a byproduct of capitalism. In his seminal 1967 economic paper “Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism,” E. P. Thompson notes that in early human cultures, delineations of time were broad understandings of when the sun came up and went down, when the seasons changed. But as industrialization became the norm, time became a mechanized system that no longer served those who’d invented it. We increasingly served at the beck and call of time, for that is how those who possessed capital could best regulate those who performed the labor.
Thompson writes:
For we are now at a point where sociologists are discussing the “problem” of leisure. And a part of the problem is: how did it come to be a problem ? Puritanism, in its marriage of convenience with industrial capitalism, was the agent which converted men to new valuations of time; which taught children even in their infancy to improve each shining hour; and which saturated men’s minds with the equation, time is money. One recurrent form of revolt within Western industrial capitalism, whether bohemian or beatnik, has often taken the form of flouting the urgency of respectable timevalues. And the interesting question arises: if Puritanism was a necessary part of the work-ethos which enabled the industrialized world to break out of the poverty-stricken economies of the past, will the Puritan valuation of time begin to decompose as the pressures of poverty relax? Is it decomposing already? Will men begin to lose that restless urgency, that desire to consume time purposively, which most people carry just as they carry a watch on their wrists?
But it remains that on some base level, we will always understand time. The sun comes up, the sun goes down. Though we might be inside, where that process is more difficult to witness, the fact of our insideness does not obscure the day and night cycle. What is lost, as each day blends into the next, in vaguely similar ways, is the mechanistic definition of time, the capitalist definition of time, the industrial definition of time. We do not know what day it is, but we do know when there is a new day.
To live inside is to lose distinction. There is a numbing effect that occurs when each day is the same, when our schedules are subsumed by what feels like an endless gulf of undifferentiated time. And yet isn’t this how so many of the less privileged around the world, forced to work jobs involving menial labor, day after day after day, already live? Isn’t this why we invented the weekend? Has this quarantine simply shown to those of us with more economic privilege that our “free time” was always a mirage, which could disappear before our eyes, by giving us so much “free” time?
I have a wall calendar hanging above my desk, and when I need to orient myself in time, I look at it. But even the usefulness of my calendar has started to fray around the edges. I began writing this story because I couldn’t quite believe it was a Thursday, even as I knew it had to be a Thursday. But it might as well not be. A cycle that bears the sun across our sky until it sets in the west is a reality; “Thursday” is an invention. Is it still necessary? I don’t know.
What’s important to remember is that time doesn’t own you. You own time. This will be over someday, a part of the past. It will someday be a memory. Hang on to that. I’ll see you outside again.
This story was originally published Friday, March 27, 2020.
Are you a “What day is it today?” superfan? Check out our official theme song. It’s written by composer Laura Stratford, and it is wonderful.


vox--2020-04-17--The pandemic has exposed America’s clean water crisis

Day after day , Deanna Miller Berry watches the requests pile up in her inbox .
“ Please help me , ” a resident of Denmark , South Carolina , pleads .
“ I ’ m stuck in my house and don ’ t want to drink the water.
” A third request for water comes in from a family of two who live in an apartment in the center of town on a block flanked by Baptist churches and not too far from the Piggly Wiggly .
Miller Berry logs the responses to the dozen questions in an Excel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Water : Yes , someone in the home is directly impacted by Covid-19 .
Yes , someone has a disability .
Yes , someone is elderly .
No , neither one has access to their own transport .
Amid the coronavirus pandemic , Miller Berry ’ s document keeps growing longer .
As the founder of Denmark Citizens for Clean Water , she helps supply the community with clean water instead of the brown , smelly liquid that has been sloshing out of the taps in a number of homes for more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pays the monthly water costs — sometimes hundreds of dollars — for residents in the majority-black community .
The town ’ s battle with drinking water — laced with HaloSan , a pesticide meant to kill bacteria — long precedes the pandemic , though .
Residents told a local outlet 10 years ago , “ The smell is terrible.
” More recently , former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer mentioned the residents ’ concerns over their water system on the campaign trail .
Virginia Tech civil engineering professor Marc Edwards , who exposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michigan ’ s water and helped bring national attention to the issue , has also gone down to Denmark to test the town ’ s well at the request of the community .
In 2017 , he collected dozens of samples from homes , Miller Berry says , but when Edwards asked the town ’ s mayor if he could test a well for possible bacterial contamination after spotting a leaky sewage pipe , the mayor refused .
As for Flint , Mayor Sheldon Neely is still busy dealing with the community ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years after large amounts of lead were detected .
And now there is the pandemic .
When Vox spoke with Neely a few weeks ago , he had declared a state of emergency before the president of the United States even had , and had ordered water that was shut off by the previous administration reconnected .
Meanwhile , miles away in Detroit , lawyers and activists are also fighting to turn water back on for the city ’ s most vulnerable populations , after officials promised it would do so amid coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ access .
Having chemical- and lead-free water — or water at all — in the pandemic is vital : Hand-washing with soap is one of the most effective ways to fight off the virus .
But millions of Americans across the country lack clean water — from small , rural towns in Kentucky to New Jersey ’ s densely populated city of Newark .
And while clean water access isn ’ t only an issue for majority-black communities like Flint , Denmark , or Detroit , one study did find race to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ water .
It is a crisis that is further exacerbated by the coronavirus , compounding years-long injustices in water-poor communities .
“ It ’ s just a Catch-22 , ” Edwards tells Vox .
“ If [ these communities ] don ’ t engage in rigorous hygiene , they ’ re endangering themselves to coronavirus , and if they do , they ’ re fearful of the water.
” Communities without access to clean water are in a “ constant state of emergency ” Contaminated water isn ’ t confined to a few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In any given year from 1982 to 2015 , nearly 45 million Americans were accessing water that violated health standards , according to a 2018 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
While that may be true , the lack of water access impacts low-income communities like Denmark , Flint , and Martin County , Kentucky , more aggressively .
“ That is a reality for our poorest Americans , ” Edwards said , which “ translates into a lot of problems .
... Cities that have a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in fear of bathing and showering because of distrust in their water .
And so even the basic functional water and quantity for hygiene isn ’ t being delivered.
” In Martin County , Kentucky , BarbiAnn Maynard , who has seen brown , milky water in her shower and kitchen for nearly two decades — when she does have water — waves off the collective panic around coronavirus .
“ This is not anything unusual for us , ” Maynard , a member of the Martin County Water Warriors , tells Vox @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than our water ” before coronavirus .
She has been afraid to wash her hands for a long time and the pandemic has changed almost nothing , she says .
When she takes a shower , she uses antibacterial hand-wash .
The Martin County Water District operates in a “ constant state of emergency , ” the state ’ s Public Service Commission noted .
A 2019 report from the Appalachian Citizens Law Center noted nearly half of the county ’ s residents couldn ’ t afford to buy water regularly .
( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s request for comment . )
Now in the pandemic , many of the grocery stores in the county are out of water , Maynard says .
Donors paying into a fund for residents to buy water are still making contributions , but the only grocery store allowing residents to buy water at market value limits it to two gallons per person per visit .
It takes an average of four gallons to get through the day , Maynard says .
Before the pandemic , residents could make a 45-minute drive to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now they ’ re not allowed to cross state lines .
To work around the grocery stores ’ rules , Maynard went directly to the bottle distribution center in Elkhorn City , Kentucky , more than an hour drive from her home , to buy cases in bulk .
But even before the coronavirus , Martin County needed more bottled and distilled water than other places in the US .
“ It ’ s just as bad inhaling it in the shower , so you have to get right back out , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , lead-infused , or chemical-laced water — and , in some cases , no water at all — is not only a rural concern .
Last year , more than 23,000 accounts had their water shut off in the city of Detroit , and 37 percent still hadn ’ t had service restored as of mid-January .
With the virus spreading , the city promised to restore water to residents , but as of March 31 had only done so for 1,050 of the 10,000 people who called with a water service problem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ qualify for the Coronavirus Water Restart Plan , according to a city report ) .
Kristi Pullen Fedinick , the director of science and data at the environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council , attributes the overlooked water crises across the country to governmental “ policies that have led to specific communities being disenfranchised and marginalized.
” These dozens of communities across the United States , she says , have been facing not only water crises but many other issues because they have been systematically ignored for decades by those in charge .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to face when they lack water : poor air quality , poor access to health care , and higher-than-average death rates .
“ The pandemic really exacerbated those issues that have been facing for a very , very , very long time.
” In Newark , New Jersey , for example , the state ’ s largest city , lead-contaminated water has impacted the health of its residents for years , with city officials denying there was a problem .
In 2018 , they abruptly changed course , however , and started handing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a new study confirmed that lead was indeed in the water at an alarmingly high rate , the New York Times reported .
In August , the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the mayor recommending the city advise residents “ to use bottled water for drinking and cooking , until we can be assured of the reliable efficacy of filtration devices.
” At the same time , the Newark Water Coalition provided hundreds of gallons of water and filters at its distribution sites pre-pandemic , to fill in the void of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But with the stay-at-home mandates in a hot spot like New Jersey , the coalition ’ s co-founder Sabre Bee says getting water out to those in need isn ’ t always possible when keeping social distancing in mind .
“ We were doing [ distribution ] at church , but of course , we can ’ t gather in groups of five or more , ” Bee says .
“ And so we haven ’ t been able to move distributions.
” Instead , she and other advocates for clean water deliver @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those who can not get around in the middle of a pandemic .
People are telling Bee they ’ re boiling water when they can ’ t get clean water , which she knows works with bacteria .
But with lead , she says , that only concentrates the amount in the water .
“ I know this is serious , ” Bee says about the pandemic , “ and I have to help my immune system during this time , but I ’ m drinking water that ’ s poisoned .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of nerves and feeling helpless and hopeless.
” Local water advocacy groups are stepping in to bring water to their communities In 2018 , the NRDC found that more than 30 million Americans , nearly 10 percent of the country ’ s population , drank from sources that violated the EPA ’ s federal regulations .
The issue , as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines on its website , is that even though the EPA puts out regulations — like setting legal limits on contaminants in drinking water and regularly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regulations .
There is no national standard that mandates states implement the EPA ’ s guidelines .
This leaves a gap in local and state governments carrying out these guidelines , because in many cases , they may not have the financial resources to improve their drinking water .
“ I ’ m just a ball of nerves and feeling helpless and hopeless ” As Edwards says , all the blame can not be placed on small , local governments : “ Many of our post-industrial cities and towns in America are losing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind can not afford to upgrade their infrastructure and maintain it to meet existing federal laws and standards .
And so [ those in charge ] end up cutting corners because they have no choice.
” This leaves those communities at risk to take it upon themselves to find — and many times buy — their own clean drinking water .
In Denmark , Miller Berry has taken on the burden of helping those in her community .
“ We ’ ve gotten zero help from the state of South Carolina .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ county , and we ’ ve gotten zero help from our city officials .
We are being ignored by all three , ” Miller Berry says .
( Multiple attempts by Vox to contact the mayor ’ s office went unanswered . )
She has paid more than 20 residents ’ water bills over the past few months , according to her calculations , and word is spreading .
These days , she gets more than 60 calls a day .
“ I ’ ve been reaching out to the National Guard today @ @ @ @ @ @ @ water buffalo [ tank ] .
But a [ tank ] can not be provided to us until our county emergency management manager declares Denmark an emergency , ” Miller Berry says .
This is a stark contrast to local governments that have stepped up in the pandemic .
In Newark , construction workers have replaced more than half of the nearly 19,000 lead-laden pipes since 2019 , according to Kareem Adeem , the city ’ s director of water and sewage .
Filters that should last the better part of a year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the residents who still have lead-contaminated water in their pipes , he said .
In Kentucky , Maynard can ’ t even finish her sentence when she talks about how people are supporting her community .
“ Getting donations right now is , oh , my gosh , ” she says over the phone with relief .
A state representative sent 60 gallons of distilled water for medical needs , while another Democratic state Senate candidate , Scott Sykes , sent 200 cases of water to residents , she said .
Even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health threat , coronavirus feels like a blip to communities struggling with water , Edwards says .
“ There [ are ] many dimensions to this problem and [ coronavirus ] is a minor dimension , but it ’ s symptomatic of a frustrating situation that you can ’ t even rely on to get water from your tap.
” Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Day after day, Deanna Miller Berry watches the requests pile up in her inbox.
“Please help me,” a resident of Denmark, South Carolina, pleads. “I’m stuck in my house and don’t want to drink the water.”
“Just water,” another resident writes in.
A third request for water comes in from a family of two who live in an apartment in the center of town on a block flanked by Baptist churches and not too far from the Piggly Wiggly. Miller Berry logs the responses to the dozen questions in an Excel sheet for the Denmark Citizens for Clean Water: Yes, someone in the home is directly impacted by Covid-19. Yes, someone has a disability. Yes, someone is elderly. No, neither one has access to their own transport.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Miller Berry’s document keeps growing longer. As the founder of Denmark Citizens for Clean Water, she helps supply the community with clean water instead of the brown, smelly liquid that has been sloshing out of the taps in a number of homes for more than a decade. She delivers tanks and pays the monthly water costs — sometimes hundreds of dollars — for residents in the majority-black community.
The town’s battle with drinking water — laced with HaloSan, a pesticide meant to kill bacteria — long precedes the pandemic, though. Residents told a local outlet 10 years ago, “The smell is terrible.” More recently, former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer mentioned the residents’ concerns over their water system on the campaign trail.
Virginia Tech civil engineering professor Marc Edwards, who exposed the unsafe lead levels in the water in Flint, Michigan, and helped bring national attention to the issue, has also gone down to Denmark to test the town’s well at the request of the community. In 2017, he collected dozens of samples from homes, Miller Berry says, but when Edwards asked the town’s mayor if he could test a well for possible bacterial contamination after spotting a leaky sewage pipe, the mayor refused.
As for Flint, Mayor Sheldon Neely is still busy dealing with the community’s access to clean drinking water six years after large amounts of lead were detected. And now there is the pandemic. When Vox spoke with Neely a few weeks ago, he had declared a state of emergency before the president of the United States had, and had ordered water that was shut off by the previous administration reconnected.
Meanwhile, miles away in Detroit, lawyers and activists are also fighting to turn water back on for the city’s most vulnerable populations, after officials promised it would do so amid coronavirus concerns — yet hundreds still remain without access.
Having chemical- and lead-free water — or water at all — in the pandemic is vital: Hand-washing with soap is one of the most effective ways to fight off the virus. But millions of Americans across the country lack clean water — from small, rural towns in Kentucky to New Jersey’s densely populated city of Newark. And while clean water access isn’t only an issue for majority-black communities like Flint, Denmark, or Detroit, one study did find race to be the strongest correlative to lack of clean water. It is a crisis that is further exacerbated by the coronavirus, compounding years-long injustices in water-poor communities.
“It’s just a Catch-22,” Edwards tells Vox. “If [these communities] don’t engage in rigorous hygiene, they’re endangering themselves to coronavirus, and if they do, they’re fearful of the water.”
Communities without access to clean water are in a “constant state of emergency”
Contaminated water isn’t confined to a few communities or states, experts say. In any given year from 1982 to 2015, nearly 45 million Americans were accessing water that violated health standards, according to a 2018 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
While that may be true, the lack of water access impacts low-income communities like Denmark, Flint, and Martin County, Kentucky, more aggressively.
“That is a reality for our poorest Americans,” Edwards said, which “translates into a lot of problems. ... Cities that have a lot of water shutoffs. Others are living in fear of bathing and showering because of distrust in their water. And so even the basic functional water and quantity for hygiene isn’t being delivered.”
In Martin County, Kentucky, BarbiAnn Maynard, who has seen brown, milky water in her shower and kitchen for nearly two decades — when she does have water — waves off the collective panic around coronavirus.
“This is not anything unusual for us,” Maynard, a member of the Martin County Water Warriors, tells Vox. “I used hand sanitizer rather than our water” before coronavirus. She has been afraid to wash her hands for a long time, and the pandemic has changed almost nothing, she says. When she takes a shower, she uses antibacterial hand-wash.
The Martin County Water District operates in a “constant state of emergency,” the state’s Public Service Commission noted. A 2019 report from the Appalachian Citizens Law Center noted nearly half of the county’s residents couldn’t afford to buy water regularly. (The water department did not return Vox’s request for comment.)
Now in the pandemic, many of the grocery stores in the county are out of water, Maynard says. Donors paying into a fund for residents to buy water are still making contributions, but the only grocery store allowing residents to buy water at market value limits it to two gallons per person per visit. It takes an average of four gallons to get through the day, Maynard says. Before the pandemic, residents could make a 45-minute drive to a spring in West Virginia, but now they’re not allowed to cross state lines.
To work around the grocery stores’ rules, Maynard went directly to the bottle distribution center in Elkhorn City, Kentucky, more than an hour drive from her home, to buy cases in bulk.
But even before the coronavirus, Martin County needed more bottled and distilled water than other places in the US. “It’s just as bad inhaling it in the shower, so you have to get right back out,” Maynard says.
The threat of dirty, lead-infused, or chemical-laced water — and, in some cases, no water at all — is not only a rural concern. Last year, more than 23,000 accounts had their water shut off in the city of Detroit, and 37 percent still hadn’t had service restored as of mid-January. With the virus spreading, the city promised to restore water to residents, but as of March 31 had only done so for 1,050 of the 10,000 people who called with a water service problem (8,000 of those callers did not qualify for the Coronavirus Water Restart Plan, according to a city report).
Kristi Pullen Fedinick, the director of science and data at the environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, attributes the overlooked water crises across the country to governmental “policies that have led to specific communities being disenfranchised and marginalized.”
These dozens of communities across the United States, she says, have been facing not only water crises but many other issues because they have been systematically ignored for decades by those in charge. She ticks off the problems communities tend to face when they lack water: poor air quality, poor access to health care, and higher-than-average death rates. “The pandemic really exacerbated those issues they have been facing for a very, very, very long time.”
In Newark, New Jersey, for example, the state’s largest city, lead-contaminated water has impacted the health of its residents for years, with city officials denying there was a problem. In 2018, they abruptly changed course, however, and started handing out water filters to some residents after a new study confirmed that lead was indeed in the water at an alarmingly high rate, the New York Times reported. In August, the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the mayor recommending the city advise residents “to use bottled water for drinking and cooking, until we can be assured of the reliable efficacy of filtration devices.” At the same time, the Newark Water Coalition provided hundreds of gallons of water and filters at its distribution sites pre-pandemic, to fill in the void of just how much water residents need.
But with the stay-at-home mandates in a hot spot like New Jersey, the coalition’s co-founder Sabre Bee says getting water out to those in need isn’t always possible when keeping social distancing in mind.
“We were doing [distribution] at church, but of course, we can’t gather in groups of five or more,” Bee says. “And so we haven’t been able to move distributions.” Instead, she and other advocates for clean water deliver water to older and ill people, those who cannot get around in the middle of a pandemic.
People are telling Bee they’re boiling water when they can’t get clean water, which she knows works with bacteria. But with lead, she says, that only concentrates the amount in the water.
“I know this is serious,” Bee says about the pandemic, “and I have to help my immune system during this time, but I’m drinking water that’s poisoned. So now I’m just a ball of nerves and feeling helpless and hopeless.”
Local water advocacy groups are stepping in to bring water to their communities
In 2018, the NRDC found that more than 30 million Americans, nearly 10 percent of the country’s population, drank from sources that violated the EPA’s federal regulations. The issue, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines on its website, is that even though the EPA puts out regulations — like setting legal limits on contaminants in drinking water and regularly updating water standards — they are just regulations. There is no national standard that mandates states implement the EPA’s guidelines. This leaves a gap in local and state governments carrying out these guidelines, because in many cases, they may not have the financial resources to improve their drinking water.
“I’m just a ball of nerves and feeling helpless and hopeless”
As Edwards says, all the blame cannot be placed on small, local governments: “Many of our post-industrial cities and towns in America are losing population, and those who are left behind cannot afford to upgrade their infrastructure and maintain it to meet existing federal laws and standards. And so [those in charge] end up cutting corners because they have no choice.”
This leaves those communities at risk to take it upon themselves to find — and many times buy — their own clean drinking water.
In Denmark, Miller Berry has taken on the burden of helping those in her community. “We’ve gotten zero help from the state of South Carolina. We’ve gotten zero help from our county, and we’ve gotten zero help from our city officials. We are being ignored by all three,” Miller Berry says. (Multiple attempts by Vox to contact the mayor’s office went unanswered.)
She has paid more than 20 residents’ water bills over the past few months, according to her calculations, and word is spreading. These days, she gets more than 60 calls a day.
“I’ve been reaching out to the National Guard today to see if they could provide a water buffalo [tank]. But a [tank] cannot be provided to us until our county emergency management manager declares Denmark an emergency,” Miller Berry says.
This is a stark contrast to local governments that have stepped up in the pandemic. In Newark, construction workers have replaced more than half of the nearly 19,000 lead-laden pipes since 2019, according to Kareem Adeem, the city’s director of water and sewage. Filters that should last the better part of a year were passed out before the coronavirus outbreak to the residents who still have lead-contaminated water in their pipes, he said.
In Kentucky, Maynard can’t even finish her sentence when she talks about how people are supporting her community. “Getting donations right now is, oh, my gosh,” she says over the phone with relief. A state representative sent 60 gallons of distilled water for medical needs, while another Democratic state Senate candidate, Scott Sykes, sent 200 cases of water to residents, she said.
Even though it’s a massive public health threat, coronavirus feels like a blip to communities struggling with water, Edwards says. “There [are] many dimensions to this problem and [coronavirus] is a minor dimension, but it’s symptomatic of a frustrating situation that you can’t even rely on to get water from your tap.”


vox--2020-04-17--A Texas court battle could decide if millions are disenfranchised during the pandemic

On Tuesday , Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ’ s ( R ) office released a letter arguing that a Texas law governing who may obtain an absentee ballot must be read very narrowly — so narrowly that it could potentially disenfranchise millions of voters during the coronavirus pandemic .
The letter went even further than that , threatening criminal prosecutions against activists who encourage many younger voters to vote absentee .
The next day , a state trial judge in Austin rejected Paxton ’ s reading of this absentee ballot law , holding that Texas voters should have broad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But it is far from clear that Judge Tim Sulak ’ s order will survive contact with higher Texas courts .
All nine justices on the Texas Supreme Court are Republicans , so there is a very high likelihood that Paxton ’ s narrow reading of the law will prevail if Texas Democratic Party reaches the state supreme court .
Paxton is widely expected to appeal Judge Sulak ’ s decision .
Texas is one of a minority of states that does not permit voters to obtain an absentee ballot for any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voters over the age of 65 may obtain such a ballot merely by requesting one , but younger voters may only obtain an absentee ballot under a limited set of circumstances .
The law does permit voters under the age of 65 to obtain an absentee ballot if they have a “ sickness or physical condition , ” but Paxton ’ s office claims that voters under the age of 65 have to actually be ill in order to obtain a ballot .
As they read the law , it ’ s not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home in order to avoid becoming infected .
Because older voters tend to favor Republican candidates , Texas ’ s odd legal regime , where older voters may have an easy time voting from home while younger voters could struggle to obtain a ballot , could provide a significant unfair advantage to Republicans if the coronavirus pandemic still requires most Texans to remain at home on Election Day .
Moreover , the Texas law can plausibly be read in one of two ways — meaning that the Republican-controlled state supreme court could easily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the GOP .
The specific law at issue in the Texas Democratic Party case provides that “ a qualified voter is eligible for early voting by mail if the voter has a sickness or physical condition that prevents the voter from appearing at the polling place on Election Day without a likelihood of needing personal assistance or of injuring the voter ’ s health.
” The case turns on the proper reading of the words “ physical condition.
” A team of civil rights lawyers led by the ACLU proposed reading this law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Texas Democratic Party case .
They argue that the words “ physical condition ” include the physical condition of being susceptible to the coronavirus .
Thus , during a pandemic that requires massive social distancing to control infections , everyone has a “ physical condition ” that should enable them to obtain an absentee ballot .
Paxton ’ s office , meanwhile , argues in a letter signed by Deputy Attorney General Ryan Vassar , that “ a reasonable fear of contracting the virus ” is not a legitimate reason to receive an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s fear of contracting COVID-19 ” is merely a “ mental ” condition — not a “ physical ” one .
Vassar ’ s argument rests on a false distinction , and it is not an especially plausible way of reading the state law : The same person can simultaneously have the physical condition of being susceptible to the coronavirus and the mental condition of being afraid of contracting the coronavirus .
That said , there is a more plausible way to read the statute narrowly .
Because the words “ physical condition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ sickness , ” and because the statute states elsewhere that this provision deals with cases of “ disability , ” a judge could rule that the words “ physical condition ” are meant to refer to a disabling condition that is not shared by the public at large .
Often , when a law uses a general term in the context of other , more specific terms , courts will assume that the general term should be given a narrow reading — one similar to the specific terms .
Given that this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of two ways , there ’ s a very good reason for courts to choose the more expansive reading .
The right to vote , the US Supreme Court recognized more than a century ago , “ is regarded as a fundamental political right ” because it is “ preservative of all rights.
” Often , when there are two plausible ways to read a statute and one of those readings undermines a fundamental constitutional right , courts will choose the reading that leaves that right intact .
But it is far from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with its entirely Republican membership , will choose to uphold voting rights here .
Paxton is determined to attack the right to vote Texas ’ s attorney general , meanwhile , appears determined to fight for a narrow reading of the state ’ s absentee voting law .
In a statement released shortly after Judge Sulak ’ s decision , Paxton claimed that “ this unlawful expansion of mail-in voting will only serve to undermine the security and integrity of our elections and to facilitate fraud.
” In reality , however , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obtain an absentee ballot without having to justify that request .
Only seven states — Texas , Louisiana , Mississippi , Tennessee , Kentucky , Indiana , and South Carolina — have laws restricting access to absentee ballots for people under a certain age , according to the advocacy group Vote at Home .
So Paxton is effectively arguing that the legal regime that exists in the vast majority of states is a threat to election security and an invitation to fraud .
And Paxton isn ’ t simply relying on phantom fears @ @ @ @ @ @ @ letter — the one offering the attorney general ’ s office ’ s idiosyncratic reading of the state law — also claims that “ to the extent third parties advise voters to apply for a mail-in ballot based solely on fear of contracting COVID-19 , such activity could subject those third parties to criminal sanctions.
” The attorney general ’ s office , in other words , appears to be threatening criminal prosecutions against any organization that encourages healthy voters to seek an absentee ballot .
In the likely event that Paxton prevails @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , moreover , the stakes are simply enormous .
If voters remain on lockdown this November , millions of Texans could be disenfranchised if they can not obtain absentee ballots .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) office released a letter arguing that a Texas law governing who may obtain an absentee ballot must be read very narrowly — so narrowly that it could potentially disenfranchise millions of voters during the coronavirus pandemic.
The letter went even further than that, threatening criminal prosecutions against activists who encourage many younger voters to vote absentee.
The next day, a state trial judge in Austin rejected Paxton’s reading of this absentee ballot law, holding that Texas voters should have broad access to absentee ballots during the pandemic. But it is far from clear that Judge Tim Sulak’s order will survive contact with higher Texas courts.
That case is called Texas Democratic Party v. Debeauvoir.
All nine justices on the Texas Supreme Court are Republicans, so there is a very high likelihood that Paxton’s narrow reading of the law will prevail if Texas Democratic Party reaches the state supreme court. Paxton is widely expected to appeal Judge Sulak’s decision.
Texas is one of a minority of states that does not permit voters to obtain an absentee ballot for any reason they choose. In Texas, voters over the age of 65 may obtain such a ballot merely by requesting one, but younger voters may only obtain an absentee ballot under a limited set of circumstances.
The law does permit voters under the age of 65 to obtain an absentee ballot if they have a “sickness or physical condition,” but Paxton’s office claims that voters under the age of 65 have to actually be ill in order to obtain a ballot. As they read the law, it’s not enough if a voter is stuck at home in order to avoid becoming infected.
Because older voters tend to favor Republican candidates, Texas’s odd legal regime, where older voters may have an easy time voting from home while younger voters could struggle to obtain a ballot, could provide a significant unfair advantage to Republicans if the coronavirus pandemic still requires most Texans to remain at home on Election Day.
Moreover, the Texas law can plausibly be read in one of two ways — meaning that the Republican-controlled state supreme court could easily choose the reading that is best for the GOP.
Texas’s law is ambiguous
The specific law at issue in the Texas Democratic Party case provides that “a qualified voter is eligible for early voting by mail if the voter has a sickness or physical condition that prevents the voter from appearing at the polling place on Election Day without a likelihood of needing personal assistance or of injuring the voter’s health.” The case turns on the proper reading of the words “physical condition.”
A team of civil rights lawyers led by the ACLU proposed reading this law broadly in a brief filed in the Texas Democratic Party case. They argue that the words “physical condition” include the physical condition of being susceptible to the coronavirus. Thus, during a pandemic that requires massive social distancing to control infections, everyone has a “physical condition” that should enable them to obtain an absentee ballot.
Paxton’s office, meanwhile, argues in a letter signed by Deputy Attorney General Ryan Vassar, that “a reasonable fear of contracting the virus” is not a legitimate reason to receive an absentee ballot because “an individual’s fear of contracting COVID-19” is merely a “mental” condition — not a “physical” one.
Vassar’s argument rests on a false distinction, and it is not an especially plausible way of reading the state law: The same person can simultaneously have the physical condition of being susceptible to the coronavirus and the mental condition of being afraid of contracting the coronavirus.
That said, there is a more plausible way to read the statute narrowly. Because the words “physical condition” appear in conjunction with the word “sickness,” and because the statute states elsewhere that this provision deals with cases of “disability,” a judge could rule that the words “physical condition” are meant to refer to a disabling condition that is not shared by the public at large. Often, when a law uses a general term in the context of other, more specific terms, courts will assume that the general term should be given a narrow reading — one similar to the specific terms.
Given that this statute could fairly be interpreted in one of two ways, there’s a very good reason for courts to choose the more expansive reading. The right to vote, the US Supreme Court recognized more than a century ago, “is regarded as a fundamental political right” because it is “preservative of all rights.” Often, when there are two plausible ways to read a statute and one of those readings undermines a fundamental constitutional right, courts will choose the reading that leaves that right intact.
But it is far from clear that the Texas Supreme Court, with its entirely Republican membership, will choose to uphold voting rights here.
Paxton is determined to attack the right to vote
Texas’s attorney general, meanwhile, appears determined to fight for a narrow reading of the state’s absentee voting law. In a statement released shortly after Judge Sulak’s decision, Paxton claimed that “this unlawful expansion of mail-in voting will only serve to undermine the security and integrity of our elections and to facilitate fraud.”
In reality, however, the overwhelming majority of states permit voters to obtain an absentee ballot without having to justify that request. Only seven states — Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and South Carolina — have laws restricting access to absentee ballots for people under a certain age, according to the advocacy group Vote at Home.
So Paxton is effectively arguing that the legal regime that exists in the vast majority of states is a threat to election security and an invitation to fraud.
And Paxton isn’t simply relying on phantom fears of voter fraud. Vassar’s letter — the one offering the attorney general’s office’s idiosyncratic reading of the state law — also claims that “to the extent third parties advise voters to apply for a mail-in ballot based solely on fear of contracting COVID-19, such activity could subject those third parties to criminal sanctions.” The attorney general’s office, in other words, appears to be threatening criminal prosecutions against any organization that encourages healthy voters to seek an absentee ballot.
In the likely event that Paxton prevails before Texas’s Republican Supreme Court, moreover, the stakes are simply enormous. If voters remain on lockdown this November, millions of Texans could be disenfranchised if they cannot obtain absentee ballots.


vox--2020-04-17--Selah and the Spades is a high school movie crossed with a mob drama, inspired by Rihanna

Warring factions .
Truces and sworn enemies .
A fierce leader and her faithful followers .
A newcomer who threatens her hold .
That ’ s the basis for the new film Selah and the Spades , which debuts on April 17 on Amazon Prime Video .
But there ’ s a twist : It all takes place in a preppy high school .
Both deliciously wicked and perceptive about the battle of just getting through the day when you ’ re a teen , the drama follows Paloma ( Celeste O ’ Connor ) , who is the new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boarding school .
When she arrives , she ’ s taken under the wing of Selah ( Lovie Simone ) , a sophisticated upperclassmen and the leader of the most powerful of Haldwell ’ s “ factions , ” the Spades .
Each faction operates a bit like a gang , with specialties of their own .
The Spades ’ is to sell drugs to the other students .
Selah and the Spades mixes the classic tropes of mobster movies with the cliques and concerns of high school films , but with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s .
It ’ s the multitalented director ’ s first feature film , and it signals a strong voice and vision for filmmaking — one that doesn ’ t take itself too seriously .
I recently spoke to Poe by phone about the film ’ s visual style , her influences , the reason she centered her story on an antihero like Selah , and more .
Selah and the Spades feels very stylized — it ’ s obviously a movie made by someone who had a strong idea of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the start .
Totally .
I feel like it ’ s really obvious when you watch the movie that Wes Anderson is a huge inspiration of mine .
When I was in high school and college , seeing Wes Anderson movies was the first time that I had seen something that felt like a storybook in a movie that was made for adults .
I was addicted to that feeling of a storybook .
Anytime I ask myself , “ Why do I make movies ?
” it always comes back to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feeling of the pages opening and entering into this world .
Also , that movie Romeo + Juliet by Baz Luhrmann , do you remember that ?
That ’ s one of my favorites .
It has that same worldbuilding quality .
Like , that ’ s just fuckin ’ Venice , California , and it feels so otherworldly .
Definitely that as well .
Baz Luhrmann and Wes Anderson .
And it ’ s not like we haven ’ t seen a movie set in a prep school or a high school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different .
Sometimes it feels like a Martin Scorsese movie or something , with all of these warring gangs .
Totally .
I grew up watching The Godfather .
My parents freaking love that trilogy , as do I. I feel like The Godfather , specifically the first one — obviously , it ’ s a classic , so a lot of us have it in our DNA as filmmakers and as writers .
But every time I watch it , it feels like returning home .
So I feel like there ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Selah and the Spades .
But even more than that , there ’ s this movie called Brick by Rian Johnson , who ’ s one of my favorite filmmakers .
I ’ ve loved that movie since I first saw it .
Right after I saw it , I made one of my first short films , and it was just a complete rip-off of Brick because I loved it so much .
The reason I love Brick is it does what I ’ m trying to do in Selah and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this mood and this atmosphere that is decidedly adult and serious and weighted and heavy , and places it in this world that ’ s typically seen as unserious — a teenaged world .
Because of this movie , I ’ ve been spending time with teenagers for years now , and they are serious human beings .
They ’ re all just figuring out life , and that ’ s not that much different from being an adult .
I ’ m really drawn to the complexity of being a teenager ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re experiencing for the first time .
I like the way that when teenagers are heartbroken , they feel like they might die , and it ’ s because they don ’ t really know if they ’ re gon na die or not .
That weightiness that teenagers feel about themselves and their own life fits in nicely and naturally with the language and atmosphere of a classic mob film .
At the heart of this movie , you have a great antihero : Selah , who is obviously not someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ admire her .
How did she come to you ?
Selah is just ... she ’ s a teenage girl .
[ Laughs . ]
She ’ s a teenage girl who has a little bit more power than most teenage girls do .
But I think that she is crafted after the teenage girls that I knew when I was a teenager , and the one I saw myself as , as well .
What was really important to me with Selah as a character were her decisions .
Those decisions that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , because we ’ re not in her situation — those decisions always make logical sense to her .
I wanted to make sure the character was always logical , even if we disagreed with her logic .
I feel like that ’ s a trait that all the great antihero characters share , like Walter White in Breaking Bad and Tony Soprano in The Sopranos .
They do terrible , messed-up shit , but they always know how to explain it .
Their explanation always makes just the right amount of sense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and admit that it ’ s just ego that got them there .
I like that Selah ’ s ego fits in with this weird sense of logic that she has .
So you have these compelling characters , but you set them down in a visual environment that ’ s very striking , too .
How do you design that world so it ’ s visually interesting and grabs people ’ s attention ?
What ’ s your process like , especially with your background as a photographer ?
A lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ influences my storytelling .
I ’ ve been doing photography since high school , since I ’ ve been making movies .
Once I picked up a camera , I started doing both .
Do you know this movie by Chris Marker , La Jetée ?
It ’ s like a half-hour long .
They showed it to us when I was in high school in Intro to Film , and I was just blown away by the fact that this movie could be a bunch of photographs with some voiceover and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like , five seconds of moving image , and that could constitute a movie .
So , once I saw that , I was like , okay , maybe a movie is not — this idea isn ’ t totally formed , but it ’ s something I keep thinking about every time I start a project — maybe a movie isn ’ t what we think it is .
I keep asking myself , “ What makes a film ?
What makes a movie ?
” Not just the physical medium , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
So , when Jomo [ Fray ] — the cinematographer [ for Selah and the Spades ] , a great friend and a genius , truly — and I got into making the shot listing for the film , we just dug in .
We really dipped into our love of photography , and our love of images that can in their own right tell an entire story , so that whatever we ’ re adding is telling a new story or a new version of that story .
I think what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Selah is the predator , and in her eyes , everyone else is prey .
Then how do we capture that as we ’ re moving throughout this school , and how do we capture Paloma ?
What it boiled down to was this idea that we called savage formalism , which , believe it or not , is borne out of our love for Rihanna and her album Anti .
She has this one line on “ Needed Me ” where she goes , “ Didn ’ t they tell you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She ’ s presumably saying to this man , “ I can ’ t believe you ’ re sitting here crying in front of me about how wrong I did you .
Didn ’ t they warn you about me ?
” She is just so unapologetically savage .
So part of what we wanted to do [ with Selah ] was [ incorporate ] that sort of savagery , that impossibly cool projection of self that Rihanna has .
The formalism comes from talking about brutalist architecture and what happens to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the world of Haldwell School , the system of the factions in the school .
Everything is a little bit tense because no one has been running things for so long , and power is constantly shifting .
So what happens to their world , this beautiful world of this boarding school with all these hip , cool young kids ?
What does this beauty look like through the eyes of a person , Selah , who ’ s been through this war of high school ?
That ’ s how we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way to look at high school .
It was fun .
It ’ s fun to watch , too .
As Selah and the Spades has played at film festivals , people have seen it , and you ’ ve been around to hear their reactions .
Have you heard anything in particular from teenagers who ’ ve seen it ?
What are they saying ?
What do they say to you ?
Yeah .
We actually got to play it at TIFF ’ s Next Wave , which was just one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ Note : The Next Wave program at the Toronto International Film Festival features films selected by a committee of film enthusiasts aged 15 to 18 . ]
Shout-out to all those kids because they ’ re brilliant and so smart .
They ’ re a bunch of high schoolers , and they ask the best questions , and it was really refreshing to talk to them about it because it ’ s really a story for them .
I think people who are post-college , people who are my age — millennials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re all old — we can look back at high school and say , “ Oh , yeah , maybe I shouldn ’ t have done those things , but everybody ’ s okay now.
” Or you look back at high school and say , “ Oh , maybe it wasn ’ t the best time , but it was , like , mostly pretty cool.
” It ’ s all hindsight .
But I think for teenagers , it ’ s happening right now , so they ’ re feeling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re going through this tumultuous time period of figuring out college or dealing with their parents and dealing with their friends or handling all their stuff right now .
So I think their reaction was much more visceral than I was even expecting .
I think a lot of them felt very seen .
They hadn ’ t seen somebody who looked like them on screen do these things before .
I don ’ t know if audiences who are white realize or recognize what it feels like to not see yourself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see yourself , and when you do see yourself , you ’ re being shot by a cop or you ’ re going to jail .
It ’ s a traumatic experience .
It ’ s incredibly refreshing to sit and watch a movie , at least for me — not necessarily Selah , but just any movie that stars black people — and not be afraid that the thing that will destroy this character is racism , or white supremacy , or things that are out of their control .
So I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who saw Selah and the Spades were just reacting to this relief of seeing themselves make it , seeing themselves have fun , and seeing themselves question authority and still survive — more than survive , thrive .
Selah and the Spades is available on Amazon Prime Video .
This conversation has been edited and condensed .
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Warring factions. Truces and sworn enemies. A fierce leader and her faithful followers. A newcomer who threatens her hold.
That’s the basis for the new film Selah and the Spades, which debuts on April 17 on Amazon Prime Video. But there’s a twist: It all takes place in a preppy high school. Both deliciously wicked and perceptive about the battle of just getting through the day when you’re a teen, the drama follows Paloma (Celeste O’Connor), who is the new girl at Haldwell School, a prestigious boarding school. When she arrives, she’s taken under the wing of Selah (Lovie Simone), a sophisticated upperclassmen and the leader of the most powerful of Haldwell’s “factions,” the Spades. Each faction operates a bit like a gang, with specialties of their own. The Spades’ is to sell drugs to the other students.
Selah and the Spades mixes the classic tropes of mobster movies with the cliques and concerns of high school films, but with a twist that’s all Tayarisha Poe’s. It’s the multitalented director’s first feature film, and it signals a strong voice and vision for filmmaking — one that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
I recently spoke to Poe by phone about the film’s visual style, her influences, the reason she centered her story on an antihero like Selah, and more.
Alissa Wilkinson
Selah and the Spades feels very stylized — it’s obviously a movie made by someone who had a strong idea of the tone and visual style they wanted right from the start.
Tayarisha Poe
Totally. I feel like it’s really obvious when you watch the movie that Wes Anderson is a huge inspiration of mine. When I was in high school and college, seeing Wes Anderson movies was the first time that I had seen something that felt like a storybook in a movie that was made for adults. I was addicted to that feeling of a storybook. Anytime I ask myself, “Why do I make movies?” it always comes back to this love of storytelling, and that feeling of the pages opening and entering into this world.
Also, that movie Romeo + Juliet by Baz Luhrmann, do you remember that? That’s one of my favorites. It has that same worldbuilding quality. Like, that’s just fuckin’ Venice, California, and it feels so otherworldly. Definitely that as well. Baz Luhrmann and Wes Anderson.
Alissa Wilkinson
And it’s not like we haven’t seen a movie set in a prep school or a high school before, but this one feels distinctly different. Sometimes it feels like a Martin Scorsese movie or something, with all of these warring gangs.
Tayarisha Poe
Totally. I grew up watching The Godfather. My parents freaking love that trilogy, as do I. I feel like The Godfather, specifically the first one — obviously, it’s a classic, so a lot of us have it in our DNA as filmmakers and as writers. But every time I watch it, it feels like returning home. So I feel like there’s a lot of Godfather influence in Selah and the Spades.
But even more than that, there’s this movie called Brick by Rian Johnson, who’s one of my favorite filmmakers. I’ve loved that movie since I first saw it. Right after I saw it, I made one of my first short films, and it was just a complete rip-off of Brick because I loved it so much.
The reason I love Brick is it does what I’m trying to do in Selah and the Spades: It takes this language and this mood and this atmosphere that is decidedly adult and serious and weighted and heavy, and places it in this world that’s typically seen as unserious — a teenaged world.
Because of this movie, I’ve been spending time with teenagers for years now, and they are serious human beings. They’re all just figuring out life, and that’s not that much different from being an adult. I’m really drawn to the complexity of being a teenager; there’s so much that you’re experiencing for the first time. I like the way that when teenagers are heartbroken, they feel like they might die, and it’s because they don’t really know if they’re gonna die or not. That weightiness that teenagers feel about themselves and their own life fits in nicely and naturally with the language and atmosphere of a classic mob film.
Alissa Wilkinson
At the heart of this movie, you have a great antihero: Selah, who is obviously not someone we should emulate, but we might admire her. How did she come to you?
Tayarisha Poe
Selah is just ... she’s a teenage girl. [Laughs.] She’s a teenage girl who has a little bit more power than most teenage girls do. But I think that she is crafted after the teenage girls that I knew when I was a teenager, and the one I saw myself as, as well.
What was really important to me with Selah as a character were her decisions. Those decisions that we may not agree with her making, because we’re not in her situation — those decisions always make logical sense to her. I wanted to make sure the character was always logical, even if we disagreed with her logic. I feel like that’s a trait that all the great antihero characters share, like Walter White in Breaking Bad and Tony Soprano in The Sopranos. They do terrible, messed-up shit, but they always know how to explain it. Their explanation always makes just the right amount of sense right before they have to stop themselves and admit that it’s just ego that got them there. I like that Selah’s ego fits in with this weird sense of logic that she has.
Alissa Wilkinson
So you have these compelling characters, but you set them down in a visual environment that’s very striking, too. How do you design that world so it’s visually interesting and grabs people’s attention? What’s your process like, especially with your background as a photographer?
Tayarisha Poe
A lot of it does come from how much photography influences my storytelling. I’ve been doing photography since high school, since I’ve been making movies. Once I picked up a camera, I started doing both.
Do you know this movie by Chris Marker, La Jetée? It’s like a half-hour long. They showed it to us when I was in high school in Intro to Film, and I was just blown away by the fact that this movie could be a bunch of photographs with some voiceover and a little bit of atmospheric sound and, like, five seconds of moving image, and that could constitute a movie.
So, once I saw that, I was like, okay, maybe a movie is not — this idea isn’t totally formed, but it’s something I keep thinking about every time I start a project — maybe a movie isn’t what we think it is. I keep asking myself, “What makes a film? What makes a movie?” Not just the physical medium, but conceptually, what makes a movie?
So, when Jomo [Fray] — the cinematographer [for Selah and the Spades], a great friend and a genius, truly — and I got into making the shot listing for the film, we just dug in. We really dipped into our love of photography, and our love of images that can in their own right tell an entire story, so that whatever we’re adding is telling a new story or a new version of that story. I think what cemented it for us was this idea that Selah is the predator, and in her eyes, everyone else is prey. Then how do we capture that as we’re moving throughout this school, and how do we capture Paloma?
What it boiled down to was this idea that we called savage formalism, which, believe it or not, is borne out of our love for Rihanna and her album Anti. She has this one line on “Needed Me” where she goes, “Didn’t they tell you that I was a savage?” She’s presumably saying to this man, “I can’t believe you’re sitting here crying in front of me about how wrong I did you. Didn’t they warn you about me?” She is just so unapologetically savage. So part of what we wanted to do [with Selah] was [incorporate] that sort of savagery, that impossibly cool projection of self that Rihanna has.
The formalism comes from talking about brutalist architecture and what happens to a society after a war. We thought about the world of Haldwell School, the system of the factions in the school. Everything is a little bit tense because no one has been running things for so long, and power is constantly shifting. So what happens to their world, this beautiful world of this boarding school with all these hip, cool young kids? What does this beauty look like through the eyes of a person, Selah, who’s been through this war of high school? That’s how we came up with this very non-high school way to look at high school. It was fun.
Alissa Wilkinson
It’s fun to watch, too. As Selah and the Spades has played at film festivals, people have seen it, and you’ve been around to hear their reactions. Have you heard anything in particular from teenagers who’ve seen it? What are they saying? What do they say to you?
Tayarisha Poe
Yeah. We actually got to play it at TIFF’s Next Wave, which was just one of the greatest experiences of my life. [Note: The Next Wave program at the Toronto International Film Festival features films selected by a committee of film enthusiasts aged 15 to 18.] Shout-out to all those kids because they’re brilliant and so smart. They’re a bunch of high schoolers, and they ask the best questions, and it was really refreshing to talk to them about it because it’s really a story for them.
I think people who are post-college, people who are my age — millennials, I guess, because now we’re all old — we can look back at high school and say, “Oh, yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have done those things, but everybody’s okay now.” Or you look back at high school and say, “Oh, maybe it wasn’t the best time, but it was, like, mostly pretty cool.” It’s all hindsight. But I think for teenagers, it’s happening right now, so they’re feeling these emotions right now, and they’re going through this tumultuous time period of figuring out college or dealing with their parents and dealing with their friends or handling all their stuff right now. So I think their reaction was much more visceral than I was even expecting.
I think a lot of them felt very seen. They hadn’t seen somebody who looked like them on screen do these things before. I don’t know if audiences who are white realize or recognize what it feels like to not see yourself all the time, just constantly not see yourself, and when you do see yourself, you’re being shot by a cop or you’re going to jail. It’s a traumatic experience. It’s incredibly refreshing to sit and watch a movie, at least for me — not necessarily Selah, but just any movie that stars black people — and not be afraid that the thing that will destroy this character is racism, or white supremacy, or things that are out of their control.
So I think that a lot of the kids who saw Selah and the Spades were just reacting to this relief of seeing themselves make it, seeing themselves have fun, and seeing themselves question authority and still survive — more than survive, thrive.
Selah and the Spades is available on Amazon Prime Video.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.