Most Recent Posts: 2014-10-26

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Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers Is No GOP Bench Warmer

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers is one of the most powerful politicians in America. She's the top-ranking woman in the House GOP, and her political ambitions and trajectory have been debated everywhere from Capitol Hill to the pages of Glamour magazine. But when she walks into locally owned businesses like Maid Naturally in Spokane, Wash., she's just Cathy.

In the final week before the election, she stopped by the Spokane-based cleaning business and sits down to chat with co-founders Ruthanne Eberly and Heather Brown. McMorris Rodgers puts them at ease quickly, and before long the three women are swapping stories about what it's like to balance family and work.

"Do you have some tips now as to how to keep employees longer?" McMorris Rodgers asks the pair, who launched their business together in 2006. Since then they've expanded, moving from working out of their homes to a larger space.

It's All Politics

What Can $3.7 Billion Buy? How About 2,969,370 Campaign Ads

Eberly and Brown agree that keeping their employees around, especially in a business where people tend to come and go, comes down to building strong relationships.

That's something McMorris Rodgers understands. She's built a career on it.

"I find myself reminding people that Congress is also built on relationships," she tells them. "It's about building relationships. It's like anything you do in life, and you have to make that a priority."

McMorris Rodgers has a few priorities: Representing Eastern Washington in the House — a job she's held for a decade — and heading up the House Republican Conference where she is one of just 19 women.

The 45-year-old also has three young children. Her 1-year-old daughter flew cross-country with her during her most recent trip back to Spokane.

"I was single when I was elected, then I got married," she tells Eberly and Brown. "So I kind of eased into it. Got used to the business up-front, then I got married, added the kids."

This is how McMorris Rodgers connects with the women she meets on the trail, the very people her party needs to attract. She's down-to-earth, folksy even, and she makes everything personal.

But she is also politically savvy.

McMorris Rodgers says she never dreamed she'd be in politics herself, but she was appointed to the Washington statehouse at the age of 25. She went on to beat two members of the leadership to become the state's first female minority leader. Then, she decided to run for Congress.

"I just decided I was going to muster up all the courage I had, be a risk-taker, go see what I could do," she says.

It's All Politics

McConnell Concedes GOP Senate Will Not Mean Obamacare Repeal

First elected to Congress in 2004, McMorris Rodgers is set to easily win re-election to a sixth term. But she's not taking that for granted. All in one day this week, she participated in a debate with Democrat Joe Pakootas, visited local businesses, chatted with eighth graders at a middle school and fired up a Republican women's group.

She often brings up her roles as a wife and mother while campaigning, saying the challenges she faces are just like any other working mom in America. But she bristles at the notion that she's "window dressing" for a party trying to refresh its brand.

"That's what the critics like to suggest," she says when asked about the public debate over whether her rise is simply because she's a woman. "Even when I was asked to give the response to the State of the Union this year, there were some that immediately started saying 'Well, it's only because she was a woman' versus that I was someone who could really connect with people or that I could deliver an effective message on behalf of the Republicans."

McMorris Rodgers says she wants to see more women run — and get elected — to Congress. That's why she's taken on a leadership role, raising money for female Republicans and mentoring them, too.

"So many women have never even considered running for office themselves. They think that's something someone else does," she says.

McMorris Rodgers says she knows what that's like. Before she decided to run for Congress, she'd been thinking about getting out of politics.

Now, a decade later, she says she doesn't want to be a "seat warmer." She wants to maximize her opportunities and her influence.

It's All Politics

Bear-Baiting And Big Races Drown Portland, Maine, In Campaign Ads

She chose not to enter the race to be House Republican whip after Eric Cantor, who was defeated in a primary, chose to leave his leadership post. She says she's excited for another year serving as GOP conference chair.

But there appears to be a path open for McMorris Rodgers. The question is: does she want it?

Asked point-blank what her next chapter looks like, she says "we'll see."

"One thing about serving in Congress, it kind of comes in these two-year chunks," she says. "For the next Congress, I'm seeking to continue to serve as conference chair. And we'll see what other opportunities come. So much of that is being the right person at the right time."

Maker Of 'Body Cams' Used By Police Reports Spike In Sales

Taser International is reporting a big jump in demand by police departments for "body cameras." The company, one of the biggest providers of body cams to police departments, says 2014 sales of its "Axon Body" model are up 300 percent over last year, and sales of its more expensive "Axon Flex" camera have doubled.

And what's interesting is that this spike started well before the August shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

"We were getting onesies, twosies, ten here and there in the first few years," says Steve Tuttle, Taser's vice president of communications. "And then in the last year, right before Ferguson hit, we hit this part where it was the fastest-growing market segment for the company. Then Ferguson hit!"

This may be a measure of the longer-term pressures that police departments have felt to adopt this technology. New Orleans bought cameras for all its patrol officers this spring, in an attempt to convince the Department of Justice that its police department has reformed itself enough to get out from under federal monitoring.

Albuquerque is another troubled police department that has embraced the cameras. And last year, a federal judge ordered the New York Police Department to set up a body camera pilot program, as a remedy for constitutional abuses committed by officers practicing "stop and frisk."

But the body cameras have not been a cure-all. In New Orelans, the independent police monitor has been repeatedly frustrated by the apparent non-existence of videos in incidents of alleged police brutality. Officers say they forgot to turn the cameras on, or they blame technical problems.

And even though body cameras have become a popular rallying cry, post-Ferguson, most departments are still taking a wait-and-see attitude. The cameras cost upwards of $400 per unit, and the real long-term costs come over time. It's not cheap or easy for departments to manage the thousands of hours of video generated by the devices, and a big new source of revenue for Taser International is "Evidence.com" — essentially a cloud storage service that promises police departments greater simplicity in the management of this new "content."

body cameras

Predictions Of 'Peak Oil' Production Prove Slippery

The dustiest portion of my home library includes the 1980s books — about how Japan's economy would dominate the world.

And then there are the 1990s books — about how the Y2K computer glitch would end the modern era.

Go up one more shelf for the late 2000s books — about oil "peaking." The authors claimed global oil production was reaching a peak and would soon decline, causing economic chaos.

The titles include Peak Oil and the Second Great Depression, Peak Oil Survival and When Oil Peaked.

When those books were written, worldwide oil drillers were producing about 85 million barrels a day. Now they are pumping about 93 million barrels.

NPR/U.S. Energy Information Adminstration

Despite growing violence in the Middle East, oil supplies just keep rising.

At the same time, the growth rate for demand has been shrinking. This week, the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for oil-demand growth for this year and next. Turns out, oil demand growth — not production — is what appears to have peaked.

Now prices are plunging, down around 25 percent since June.

What did the forecasters get so wrong? In large measure, their mistake was in failing to appreciate the impact of a relatively new technology, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Because of fracking, oil is being extracted from shale formations in Texas and North Dakota. Production has shot up so quickly in those areas that the United States is now the world's largest source of oil and natural gas liquids, overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia.

This new competition has shocked OPEC. Members say they want to maintain their current market share, so they are keeping up production and even boosting it.

Bottom line: The peak of production is nowhere on the horizon.

So are the authors of "peaking" books now slapping themselves in the head and admitting they had it all wrong?

Some are, at least a bit.

Energy analyst Chris Nelder wrote a book in 2008 titled Profit from the Peak. The cover's inside flap said: "There is no doubt that oil production will peak, if it hasn't already, and that all other fossil fuels will peak soon after."

In a phone discussion about his prediction, Nelder said "my expectation has not materialized."

The surge in oil production in Texas and North Dakota "has really surprised everyone," he said. "If you had told me five years ago we'd be producing more oil today, I would have said, 'No way.' I did not believe at all that this would happen."

But while he acknowledges that oil has not peaked yet, he says it might soon because "oil is trapped on a narrow ledge" where it must stand on stable prices. Holding the price of a barrel steady around $110 for years allows energy companies to invest in fracking operations.

Over the past three years, those are exactly the conditions drillers have enjoyed. Oil was sitting pretty on a stable plateau of roughly $110 a barrel. But now, as global growth slows, the price is plunging, down to around $83 per barrel.

Halloween-Thanksgiving-Hanukkah-Christmas-New-Year Buying Begins

At any big-box store, you can find the annual holiday mash-up now on garish display: Halloween costumes are stacked next to the decorative turkey napkins and pre-lit Christmas trees.

It's time to celebrate the Halloween-Thanksgiving-Hanukkah-Christmas-New-Year season!

This year, most merchants are optimistic, predicting strong sales throughout the peak shopping period. Let's start with Halloween, with its sales of costumes, candy, cards and pumpkins. This year, the National Retail Federation predicts Halloween revenues will hit $7.4 billion, up from last year's $6.9 billion.

Decorations will drive much of that spending, up to $2 billion, the trade group says. A generation ago, Dad might carve a pumpkin into a jack-o'-lantern, and that was that. Today, front yards are filled with electronic bubbling cauldrons, animated jumping spiders and talking witches.

Another positive factor for retailers is that Oct. 31 falls on a Friday, which allows for more Halloween parties. And this is good news for party-throwers: Candy will cost, at most, just a few pennies more than last year.

"Halloween candy price inflation has slowed tremendously over the past couple of years, thanks to depressed raw sugar and refined sugar beet prices," IHS Global Insight U.S. economist Chris Christopher said in his analysis of the holiday.

Icing on your pumpkin cake: It will be cheaper to drive to those Halloween parties because gasoline prices have dropped dramatically in recent weeks to around $3 a gallon.

Boko Haram Says Kidnapped Girls Are Now Married

Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram says the more than 200 girls it kidnapped from a school in April are now married. The group made the claim as its leader denied stories that it has reached a cease fire deal.

"We have married them off. They are in their marital homes," Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said of the girls, in a video that was obtained by Agence France-Presse.

From Lagos, NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports:

"It's been two weeks since the Nigerian government announced a truce with Boko Haram, giving a glimmer of hope to the families of the missing Chibok schoolgirls.

"Nigeria has insisted agreement was reached with the insurgents about freedom for the girls. But in a new video, Shekau ruled this out, denying talk of a prisoner exchange for the release of the teens.

"Laughing, Shekau said the issue of the girls he'd earlier threatened to sell off as slaves was long forgotten.

"He says they've become Muslims and are now married to Boko Haram fighters. The news is a bitter blow for the families who were clinging to the possibility of some progress, though most Nigerians were deeply skeptical about the government's announcement."

The students who were kidnapped in April are among hundreds of boys and girls Boko Haram has abducted. Last week, reports emerged that the group had kidnapped another 25 women and girls.

Boko Haram

Nigeria

kidnapping

Africa

Tunisia's Secularists Victorious In Parliamentary Vote

Tunisia's main secularist party has won a decisive victory against Islamists in parliamentary elections, grabbing 85 seats, or just under 40 percent in the 217-seat assembly, according to official results.

The Nidda Tounes (Tunisia Calls) party bested the ruling Islamist Ennahda party, which secured just 69 seats. Ennahda swept to power in the first such elections after the 2011 'Arab Spring' uprising in the North African country.

The New York Times reports:

"Nidaa Tounes is a new party, formed in 2012 and led by the 87-year-old statesman Beji Caid Essebsi, who gathered businessmen, leftists, trade unionists and former members of the Ben Ali government to provide a counterweight to the Islamists.

"The party did not win enough seats in ... the assembly to form a government on its own, and it will be forced to seek coalition partners, a process that could mean lengthy negotiations with smaller parties. One new liberal democratic party, Afek Tounes, won 15 seats and is a likely partner. But several other smaller parties that might have been natural coalition partners fared badly in the elections."

As NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reported in January, despite the rivalry between secularists and Islamists, the two sides had agreed to sit down and hammer out the country's new constitution.

At the time, Eleanor noted simmering discontent with the ruling Islamists: "The inexperienced party was inept at governing. The economy got worse. And people say the trash doesn't even get picked up. And the Islamist-led government was accused of letting radical Salafi Muslims wreak havoc. Many in the secular camp were outraged last year when two secular politicians were gunned down in broad daylight, allegedly by Salafis."

islamists

Tunisia

Elections

After The Waves, Staten Island Homeowner Takes Sandy Buyout

Two years after Superstorm Sandy struck the Northeast, hundreds of Staten Islanders are deciding whether to sell their shorefront homes to New York state, which wants to knock them down and let the empty land act as a buffer to the ocean.

Stephen Drimalas was one Staten Islander faced with this tough decision. He lived in a bungalow not far from the beach in the working-class neighborhood of Ocean Breeze. He barely escaped Sandy's floodwaters with his life.

"I had to speed outta here," Drimalas said. "Another minute or two and I wasn't getting out. That's how fast it came in."

He was folding laundry before he fled. And when he came back the next day, the clothes were there on the top of his bed, but the bed was floating in water. He slept in his car on cold nights — before the FEMA check showed up — because he couldn't afford a motel room.

He fought with his insurance company, and when that money finally came through, he rebuilt his severely damaged home. A year after Sandy, it sounded like he'd be staying.

“ I had to speed outta here. Another minute or two and I wasn't getting out. That's how fast it came in.

- Stephen Drimalas

"This was a freaky thing that happened," he said. "It was a superstorm; it was a perfect storm. So I don't think we'll ever get another one again in my lifetime."

But about a third of his neighbors never came back. And when the city tore down several condemned homes, his block started looking gap-toothed and forlorn.

He wondered, "What if I wanted to move? Who'd pay money for a house in a flood zone?"

And Drimalas was still spooked from the night the storm rushed in.

"You know what happened, a couple of weeks ago, we had bad weather, and you hear the wind howling and everything like that," he said. "Then you start thinking, 'Uh oh, is the water coming again?' You know? It goes through your mind now 'cause, you know, it's in your head."

Then New York state offered to buy his home as part of program to get people out of dangerous areas likely to flood again. And after thinking it over, Drimalas took the deal. In the past two years, he's cycled through all the emotions of the victim of disaster: grief, fear, anger, defiance. But now there's a new one: contentment.

Cities Project

N.J. Braces For Future Disasters By Fleeing, And Fortifying, The Coast

"Everything's working out well," Drimalas said. "The state's giving me a nice price. I'm happy with it."

NPR News Investigations

Red Cross 'Diverted Assets' During Storms' Aftermath To Focus On Image

He wouldn't say exactly how much he's been offered, but it's enough to cover the mortgage on this 900-square-foot home and the mortgage on a condo he owns in Florida. About 500 of his Staten Island neighbors have joined Drimalas in the buyout pipeline.

Cities Project

Some On Staten Island Opt For Buyout Of 'Houses That Don't Belong'

"And little by little, they're moving out," Drimalas said. "You'll start seeing more and more U-Haul trucks here. People just want to go."

The state will spend about $200 million to purchase land in Ocean Breeze and two other Staten Island neighborhoods. That's about 550 acres of waterfront property in New York City that now faces an extremely unusual fate: permanent abandonment.

"We are going to demolish the homes," said Barbara Brancaccio, a spokeswoman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Office of Storm Recovery.

"Essentially, they go back to nature," she said. "We didn't bring this possibility to the community. The community came to us and said, 'We want to go.' "

But a handful of people are planning to stay. Brancaccio says that a year from now, those holdouts can expect their neighbors to be rabbits, raccoons and wild turkeys. Drimalas says it's happening already.

"You know what [I saw] in my yard the other day? A muskrat," he said.

Drimalas is preparing to relocate to his Florida condo. It's 2 miles inland and 30 feet above sea level. Right now he's selling or giving away his stuff, including a really big barbecue grill.

"My family's going to come take whatever they want first, whatever they need, and then I'll just sell the rest," he said.

For all he's been through, Drimalas is one of the lucky ones. Two of his neighbors, both in their 80s, drowned in Sandy's floodwaters. Drimalas may be saying goodbye to his home, but he gets to start again.

super storm

sandy

Hurricane Sandy

Chiquita Fruit Company Is Bought By Two Brazilian Firms

Chiquita Brands International, the banana and produce firm whose trademark blue stickers have been ubiquitous in American kitchens for decades, is being sold to two Brazilian companies in a deal valued at around $1.3 billion. The Charlotte-based company traces its roots to the 1870s, when American entrepreneurs brought bananas to U.S. consumers from the Caribbean.

The two Brazilian firms are produce and juice company Cutrale Group and the global investment conglomerate Safra Group. Chiquita's board voted to approve the deal days after its shareholders rejected a merger with a different company.

From the Charlotte Observer:

"The acquisition ends months of corporate wrangling. Chiquita had tried to fend off the Brazilians and instead merge with an Irish produce company, Fyffes. But shareholders voted down the Fyffes deal Friday, leaving Chiquita little choice but to agree to the rival takeover offer."

The deal values Chiquita's stock at $14.50 per share — a 33.8 percent premium on Chiquita's closing price when the Fyffes deal was first announced in March. The $1.3 billion value of the deal reflects nearly a 50-50 split of cash (about $680 billion) and assumed debt.

"We are pleased with the substantial value and significant all-cash premium we have delivered through this exciting agreement with the Cutrale Group and the Safra Group," Chiquita CEO Ed Lonergan said of the deal.

Chiquita's stock has risen sharply in value since the wrangling began. It's currently trading at around $14.35.

Chiquita says its annual revenues tally more than $3 billion. The company has approximately 20,000 workers, including several hundred in Charlotte. Today's announcement didn't mention any possible changes in the company's staffing or headquarters.

bananas

Economy

Keep On Drillin'? Santa Barbara Prepares To Vote On Oil Future

Think of California's Santa Barbara County and you might picture the area's famous beaches or resorts and wineries. But in the northern reaches of the vast county, oil production has been a major contributor to the economy for almost a century.

So it's no surprise that the oil industry there is feverishly organizing to fight a local ballot initiative — Measure P — that would ban controversial drilling methods such as hydraulic fracturing. What is turning heads, however, is the sheer volume of money flooding into this local race, mainly from large oil companies.

To date, firms such as Chevron and industry groups have chipped in more than $7 million to a campaign to defeat Measure P and a similar proposal farther up the California coast in San Benito County. That compares with just under $300,000 spent so far by the environmental groups that support the initiative and organized to get it on the local ballot.

Jim Byrne, spokesman for the "No on Measure P" campaign, is unapologetic about oil companies spending as much as they are.

"If I owned a business, I would want to do anything in my possibility to save that business," he says.

Byrne says Measure P would effectively shut down all new drilling operations in Santa Barbara County. There isn't even any "fracking" going on there right now — the industry says it doesn't work given the geology. But a process called steam injection is currently widely in use. That and other so-called "high intensity" drilling processes would be banned if the measure is approved by voters next month.

"They go after methods that have been utilized safely, responsibly and under the most stringent regulations for the last 50 years," Byrne says.

But supporters like to point out that there are provisions in the measure to protect existing drilling operations in the county. There are currently just over 1,100 active wells, mainly clustered in the northern part of the county.

Rancher Chris Wrather, a spokesman for the "Yes on Measure P" campaign, likens the proposal to an insurance policy.

"It will provide protection for the future, and that's what we really want," Wrather says.

After all, there's talk that California's Monterey Shale formation — which extends into Santa Barbara County — could be the site of the next North Dakota-type boom. Wrather's group is worried that a sharp rise in drilling could threaten the area's drought-stressed water supply.

Another worry, says Wrather, is the fact that supporters are being outspent 23 to 1.

"It really has the feel of trying to buy this election," he says.

In this post-Citizens United world, there's a lot more scrutiny on money in politics, especially when there are well-organized charges that it could be influencing small, local races like this one. But legal experts like professor Rick Hasen of the University of California, Irvine Law School caution against tying all the spending in the Measure P race to a broader national trend.

Hasen, for one, says he's not surprised about all the spending by the opposition.

"There's much more at stake in terms of the financial interest of those who would engage in oil drilling in this area than the amount that's being spent on the election," says Hasen, who also hosts a popular campaign finance blog.

Indeed, the stakes are high. If Measure P passes — or fails — it could set a precedent for other counties across California, and possibly even the country.

U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power Sees Signs Of Hope In West Africa

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, just returned from a four-day trip to all three of West Africa's Ebola-stricken countries. Speaking with Melissa Block of All Things Considered, she said she saw promising signs of recovery but had also gained a sense of just how much work must still be done.

In Liberia, Power was struck by the gratitude expressed to the United States for "rescuing these countries in their hour of greatest need."

A Liberian told her: "America is the only country that is treating us like we are Nina Pham [the Dallas nurse recently declared Ebola-free]. America is hugging us like President Obama hugged Nina Pham."

The U.S. has deployed 3,000 ground troops to help construct 17 Ebola treatment units in Liberia, and Power said the effect is already noticeable. She visited a medical laboratory six hours away from the capital, Monrovia, where the assistance of U.S. troops had helped cut the wait time for results of an Ebola test from a week to just a few hours. This means fewer people will become infected by spending days waiting with already diagnosed Ebola patients to find out their diagnosis. And more beds will be available for those who actually have the disease.

"The morale of everyone associated with the anti-Ebola effort is increasing, and the recruitment of local workers was increasing," Power said. "The knowledge that there are more beds has all these knock-on effects." People are more likely to "come forward and be a hygienist or a sanitation worker knowing there will be a place for [them] if protocol is breached" and they fall ill.

She also saw better safety precautions resulting from improved training efforts. And employees and volunteers are sticking with assignments longer.

But Power says these promising signs aren't reflected evenly across the infection zone. Efforts in Monrovia and Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, still need to be replicated outside these central cities, especially in rural areas where the disease continues to spread:

"It does show you what can be scaled, if you have the resources, if you have the international health workers, if you have the helicopters to get to the more distant areas."

Power, who didn't interact with patients or enter an Ebola treatment unit, was screened when she arrived back in the U.S., then allowed to leave the airport. She will be taking her temperature twice a day for 21 days and calling it in to state health workers.

She supports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggestions for returning health care workers: They should visit a doctor who can approve them to return to daily life as long as they continue to monitor their temperature. She also warned against measures that would discourage health care workers from working in the Ebola zone.

"The way we will keep the American people safe is we will contribute to ending Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and we will mobilize the world to do the same," she said. "Anything that deters or discourages or stigmatizes workers who are part of that solution ... is something we want to avoid."

And she paid respect to the foreign health care workers who have come to help: "We are going out of the way to remind everybody ... of the heroism being exhibited by doctors and nurses who have traveled to these countries."

Samantha Power

ebola

With Style And Silo, 'Modern Farmer' Melds Agrarian With Urban Hip

And then there's "Are You Cool Enough To Drink Switchel?" In this case, what really got our attention was the photo of a hipster with bedroom eyes, with a bottle of "Brooklyn's hottest beverage" pressed to his lips.

We'd laugh, then wonder whether Modern Farmer was a kind agricultural version of The Onion. But it has serious reporting, too. And the photos exude Manhattan style, even the portraits of pigs.

We had so many questions that he decided to call up the magazine's CEO and editor-in-chief, Ann Marie Gardner. We reached her in Hudson, New York, the town that's her home and the magazine's as well.

You can listen to the whole chat via the audio link above.

It turns out that our sense of Modern Farmer is exactly how Gardner conceived of this magazine. It's a cultural mashup, a melding of agrarianism and urban sophistication that's emerged from the millennial zeitgeist.

"If you look at the Brooklyn hipsters, they're dressing like farmers now, have you noticed?" says Gardner.

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Modern Farmer has a particular fondness for stories about anything having to do with goats. Courtesy of Modern Farmer hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Modern Farmer

Modern Farmer has a particular fondness for stories about anything having to do with goats.

Courtesy of Modern Farmer

The magazine's audience remains modest — 16,000 subscribers to the print magazine, and 60,000 followers on Facebook. But, Gardner says, "We can prove now that we have a very engaged demographic" that looks good to advertisers. "The revenues are lining up now, which is a relief."

Modern Farming takes farming seriously, for the most part. But it does not take itself very seriously. "We're making fun of ourselves, in a way, because we don't know anything about farming," says Gardner.

Nor will readers find much moral indignation about the current state of American agriculture. "There's enough moral indignation out there," Gardner says. "That doesn't work on me. It doesn't make me want to know more about something."

Ask her about some of her favorite headlines, though, and Gardner collapses into giggles. Modern Farmer has a particular fondness for stories about crime on the farm, as well as anything having to do with goats. "Goats are kind of the 'cats of Buzzfeed' for us," she says. "They're just always a winner."

The next issue of the magazine, though, could change all that, she says. "Goats could actually be replaced by something cuter. It's possible."

The secret will be revealed, she says, on Dec. 10.

Salt Chat

farmers

agriculture

пятница

Medical Journal To Governors: You're Wrong About Ebola Quarantine

"The way we are going to control this epidemic is with source control and that's going to happen in West Africa, we hope. In order to do that we need people on the ground in West Africa," says Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor-in-chief of the journal.

Speaking to Goats and Soda, he says it doesn't make any sense to "imprison" healthcare workers for three weeks after they've been treating Ebola patients.

The editorial explains his rationale, arguing that healthcare workers who monitor their own temperatures daily would be able to detect the onset of Ebola before they become contagious and thus before they pose any public health threat to their home communities:

"The sensitive blood polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) test for Ebola is often negative on the day when fever or other symptoms begin and only becomes reliably positive 2 to 3 days after symptom onset. This point is supported by the fact that of the nurses caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the man who died from Ebola virus disease in Texas in October, only those who cared for him at the end of his life, when the number of virions he was shedding was likely to be very high, became infected. Notably, Duncan's family members who were living in the same household for days as he was at the start of his illness did not become infected."

Federal guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for healthcare workers to be quarantined only if they have a known direct exposure to the virus as a result of a needle stick or a breach in their protective suits. Several states, however, are going further and imposing quarantines on any healthcare worker who treated Ebola patients in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone.

The Two-Way

Nurse Criticizes Quarantine After Negative Ebola Test, Hires Lawyer

New Jersey health officials held Kaci Hickox, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders, all weekend in an isolation tent adjacent to the Newark University Hospital. She'd just returned from Sierra Leone where she'd been treating people with Ebola.

The Two-Way

N.J. Says Quarantined Nurse Will Be Discharged, Allowed To Leave

Despite testing negative for Ebola and having no known direct exposure (as described by the CDC), she was detained by New Jersey officials. She's now being sent back to her home state of Maine. Officials there say she'll be under a mandatory home quarantine for 21 days after her last possible exposure to the virus. Twenty-one days is the outer limit of the incubation period of Ebola.

Meanwhile, New Jersey governor Chris Christie stands by his state's quarantine policy and the treatment of Hickox.

kaci hickox

quarantine

ebola

Chris Christie

Andrew Cuomo

Ford Brothers Lose Toronto Mayor Race, Hold On To Council Seat

Unofficial results Monday night showed the next mayor of Toronto would be John Tory, who topped fellow Progressive Conservative Doug Ford in a race that was upended earlier this year when Ford's scandal-ridden brother, incumbent mayor Rob Ford, left the race after being diagnosed with cancer.

News

Disgust Or Pity For Crack-Smoking Toronto Mayor?

It's All Politics

How Would Your City Handle A Mayor Like Rob Ford?

The Two-Way

Doctor Says Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Has 'Rare ... Difficult' Cancer

After that announcement, Doug Ford stepped up to run for mayor in his brother's place, while Rob Ford ran for his brother's council seat. He kept that council seat on Monday night, winning 59 percent of the vote for the position his family has held since the ward was created in 2000.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports:

"I am humbled and honoured by the trust that has been put into me," Mr. Tory told supporters after his opponents had conceded.

"As your new mayor, I will move Toronto not right, not left, but forward ... Torontonians want to see an end to the division that has paralyzed city hall the past few years."

Rob Ford's four years as Toronto's mayor were tumultuous, marked by confrontational politics and increasingly erratic public and private behavior that culminated in his admission that he had smoked crack cocaine. After several more embarrassing public moments, the city council voted to strip him of most of his mayoral powers.

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Mayor Rob Ford, left, kisses his wife, Renata, as his children Doug and Stephanie watch the municipal election results Monday in Toronto. Ford dropped his reelection bid after being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. He appears to have lost hair since then, but on Monday night won the city council seat that his brother Doug vacated to fill Rob Ford's slot in the mayoral race. Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov hide caption

itoggle caption Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov

Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov

From NPR's Eyder Peralta:

"After a chaotic session that saw Mayor Rob Ford lash out at the public and topple a colleague, the Toronto City Council voted to strip Ford of most of his duties and slashed his budget to 40 percent of what it used to be.

"As the council discussed the legality of the motion on Monday, the body erupted into chaos. At one point, Ford and his brother Doug Ford, a council member, started screaming at the public....

"All of this comes, of course, after Ford admitted to smoking crack and then faced an unrelenting set of allegations, including that he drove drunk, sexually harassed one of his staff members and that he was seen doing lines of cocaine at a bar. As Saturday Night Live made clear in its sketch about the mayor, Ford has not helped his own cause, holding one outrageous news conference after another."

Despite his demotion from mayor to city councilman, Ford suggested his political career would recover, the Globe and Mail reports:

" 'If you know anything about the Ford family, we never, ever, ever give up,' he told his cheering supporters. 'I guarantee, in four more years, you're going to see another example of the Ford family never, ever, ever giving up.'

"Asked after his speech if he planned to run for mayor in 2018, Rob Ford said it was too soon to say."

Toronto mayor

Rob Ford

Toronto

Canada

The Red Cross Is Using Text Messaging To Take Down Ebola

"If someone you know is sick with sudden fever, diarrhea or vomiting, you should call 117 for advice."

"Healthcare workers who take care of Ebola patients have to wear protective clothes do not be afraid of them."

"People with Ebola who go to the health centre early have a better chance of survival."

In Sierra Leone, cellphone users are as likely to get a text about hand washing as about a social gathering. In an effort to contain Ebola, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has teamed up with local cellphone provider Airtel and the Sierra Leonean government to send health reminders via text message.

Since the Ebola outbreak began last April, the Trilogy Emergency Relief Application (TERA) system has sent out about 2 million text messages a month in Sierra Leone, reminding people to seek treatment early, avoid physical contact with others and not resist the efforts of community health care workers. TERA, a system created by Bolivian software company Salamanca Solutions and set up by the IFRC, can send a text to every phone turned on in a specific region. The texts are delivered free, so there's no financial burden to the recipient.

Texting isn't the only technology being used to combat Ebola. In West Africa, Twitter was abuzz with health tips and reassurance. Social media analytics firm Crimson Hexagon determined that since July, there have been 1.3 million tweets about Ebola coming out of Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the majority of them discussing treatment. For comparison, since September, 41 percent of tweets coming from the U.S. about Ebola discussed fear.

In countries where Internet access is not ubiquitous, cellphones play a vital role in communicating messages directly to a mass audience during health and other crises. Sixty-nine percent of Sierra Leoneans have a cellphone connection, but only 9 percent have a 3G or cellular Internet plan.

"Every mobile phone can do text messaging," says Ken Banks, mobile technologist and founder of kiwanja.net, a project that unites cellular technology with social change. "It doesn't matter if it's the cheapest model or the most expensive."

This isn't the first time TERA has tackled an emergency. The system was piloted in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and was first used in Sierra Leone during a 2013 cholera outbreak.

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Almost 70 percent of Sierra Leoneans have cellphones, where they can receive text messages. This message, used in Haiti, recommends protecting important documents during floods. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies hide caption

itoggle caption International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Almost 70 percent of Sierra Leoneans have cellphones, where they can receive text messages. This message, used in Haiti, recommends protecting important documents during floods.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The interactivity is appealing. Recipients can text back with basic questions about Ebola and get an automated response with information about treatment options, cleaning tips and medical help. And since the texts are sent to specific areas of the country, the messages, which are drafted by the IFRC and the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health, can be personalized with regional advice.

Even though the country has low literacy rates — 43 percent for adults — text-based services are effective ways to disseminate information. "In villages where there is low literacy, there might only be a few people with cellphones who can read these messages," says Christine Tokar, West Africa programs manager for the British Red Cross. Tokar says those who can read share the information with the town crier, who would distribute it through town meetings.

The texts are intended to reinforce similar messages delivered via posters, radio and television ads. But a text can be preserved on the phone, shown to a friend and referenced later — say, when Ebola comes to a previously unaffected area.

The Red Cross is hoping to have TERA up and running in 40 countries across the globe in the next five years.

"The challenge is getting countries to put the system in place when there isn't an immediate need," says Robin Burton, mobile operator relations officer for the IFRC.

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The TERA software shows the operator where cellphone towers are, not the individual numbers being messaged. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies hide caption

itoggle caption International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The TERA software shows the operator where cellphone towers are, not the individual numbers being messaged.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Using the Ebola outbreak as a catalyst, the Red Cross is hoping to expand the program to seven West African countries in the next few months: Benin, Togo, Ghana, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Gambia and Burkina Faso. This will require buy-in from the countries as well as from a phone company, which may be hesitant. While these texts are seen as useful during a health crisis, users might grow weary of regular "preparedness" messages.

The system has been built to appeal to both consumers and cell providers. TERA can only send text messages to phones that are turned on, so networks are not clogged with undelivered messages. In Sierra Leone, the text messages are sent at less busy times for the cell network so the company doesn't need to expand its capacity.

For consumers, there is no violation of privacy. No actual phone numbers are seen by TERA operators. And there's an opt-out feature. That's what some Haitians did when they tired of getting messages to wash their hands regularly.

Long after Ebola has subsided in West Africa, the TERA system will remain in place for times of conflict or natural disasters. It's currently being used in Nepal for earthquake preparedness.

"We hope this will empower people to help themselves," says Burton. "They could send a message back to us saying, 'Thanks for the rice, but we have no way to cook it,' or, 'We don't eat pork here.' We call it beneficial communications because it helps everyone do better."

Red Cross

Sierra Leone

ebola

texting

Cell phones

Pro-Western Parties Sweep Ukraine's Parliamentary Elections

Elections in Ukraine are pointing to a new parliament that will be dominated by pro-Western parties, a result that President Petro Poroshenko is hailing as a "course toward Europe" but one that is likely to further anger Russia.

NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Kiev that exit polls show the bloc supporting Porsohenko is projected to win about 23 percent of the vote, followed closely by an allied party, the People's Front, with around 21 percent.

"If all the pro-Western parties join a coalition, they would have enough votes to change Ukraine's constitution and bring about reforms," Corey says.

Poroshenko hailed the vote as a mandate to end a rebellion in the country's east and to steer the country further away from Russian influence.

"More than three-quarters of voters who took part in the election powerfully and irreversibly supported Ukraine's course toward Europe," he said in an address.

"The majority of voters were in favor of the political forces that support the president's peace plan and seek a political solution to the situation" in eastern Ukraine, Poroshenko said.

(One region not voting is Crimea, which was annexed by Russia earlier this year. NPR's David Greene has a report that aired on Morning Edition here.)

As Corey explains: "Ukraine's new parliament will have to face nearly insurmountable challenges—a war with Russian-backed separatists, a financial crisis, and a dispute with Russia over natural gas."

Reuters notes: "Russia's President Vladimir Putin can still influence events, not least as the main backer of the rebels in the east and through Moscow's role as natural gas supplier to Ukraine and the EU."

Poroshenko was expected to begin coalition talks on Monday.

Updated at 11:30 a.m. ET. White House Reaction:

In a statement attributed to President Obama, he called on Russia to allow voting in parts of Ukraine's east that are held by Moscow-backed separatists.

"Yesterday's parliamentary vote represents another important milestone in Ukraine's democratic development," he said in the statement. "We look forward to the convening of the new parliament and the quick formation of a strong, inclusive government."

"The United States stands ready to support the choices of the Ukrainian people and Ukraine's new government as it enacts and implements the reforms necessary to promote further democratic development, strengthen the rule of law, and foster economic stability and growth in Ukraine," Obama said.

Petro Poroshenko

Ukraine

Elections

Russia

U.N. Ambassador In Sierra Leone For Closer Look At Ebola Crisis

Updated at 1:15 p.m. ET

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations has arrived in Sierra Leone on her multi-nation swing through Ebola-stricken West Africa

Wheels down in Freetown. Sierra Leone has been devastated by virus - Ebola cases doubled last month - and is struggling to keep up.

— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) October 27, 2014

Samantha Power, who arrived in the capital Freetown after visiting neighboring Guinea, has said Washington wants to help the region fight the deadly virus.

"We are in this with you for the long haul," she said Sunday after meeting with religious leaders in Guinea, where the epidemic has killed nearly 5,000 people. "We have got to overcome the fear and the stigma that are associated with Ebola."

Power's arrival in Sierra Leone, where 4,000 people have died from Ebola, comes as the Pentagon said that U.S. troops working to set up clinics and hospitals in neighboring Liberia are being isolated and monitored in Italy for symptoms of the disease. The Pentagon said the "controlled monitoring" of troops includes Major Gen. Darryl Williams, who is heading up the operation in Liberia, is also undergoing the mandatory monitoring.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the described the de facto quarantine as not a policy by the Department of Defense, but instead the decision of "one commanding officer."

The Associated Press says:

"On her Twitter account, Power expressed confidence that the epidemic would be defeated but quoted one worker at a non-government organization as saying that aid workers are "running behind a train & the train is going faster than us." She also described a "heartbreaking change" in Guinea: No one hugs or even touches, for fear of catching the disease.

"Health authorities are meant to rigorously track down everyone who has had contact with the sick and monitor or even isolate them during the disease's incubation period, which can last up to 21 days. However, the disease spread for so long before it was identified in West Africa that tracing contacts has been difficult, if not impossible, in the worst-hit countries."

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern about travel restrictions put in place by several countries for travel from Ebola-affected areas of West Africa, a spokesman says.

"He believes that these restrictions have put particular pressure on health care workers and those who have been on the frontline of the Ebola response," the spokesman said of Ban in a statement put out Monday.

"Returning health workers are exceptional people who are giving of themselves for humanity. They should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science. Those who develop infections should be supported, not stigmatized," the spokesman said.

West Africa

Sierra Leone

ebola

The Red Cross Is Using Text Messaging To Take Down Ebola

"If someone you know is sick with sudden fever, diarrhea or vomiting, you should call 117 for advice."

"Healthcare workers who take care of Ebola patients have to wear protective clothes do not be afraid of them."

"People with Ebola who go to the health centre early have a better chance of survival."

This isn't the first time TERA has tackled an emergency. The system was piloted in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and was first used in Sierra Leone during a 2013 cholera outbreak.

i i

itoggle caption International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Almost 70 percent of Sierra Leoneans have cellphones, where they can receive text messages. This message, used in Haiti, recommends protecting important documents during floods.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The Red Cross is hoping to have TERA up and running in 40 countries across the globe in the next five years.

"The challenge is getting countries to put the system in place when there isn't an immediate need," says Robin Burton, mobile operator relations officer for the IFRC.

i i

The TERA software shows the operator where cellphone towers are, not the individual numbers being messaged. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies hide caption

itoggle caption International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The TERA software shows the operator where cellphone towers are, not the individual numbers being messaged.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Long after Ebola has subsided in West Africa, the TERA system will remain in place for times of conflict or natural disasters. It's currently being used in Nepal for earthquake preparedness.

Red Cross

Sierra Leone

ebola

texting

Cell phones

With Marines Gone, Can The Afghan Army Hold Off The Taliban?

The desert sun beat down on the U.S., British and Afghan troops gathered at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. The Marines rolled up their flag as it came down, along with the NATO and British banners.

With the ceremony on Sunday, the Afghan army is now in command of Camp Leatherneck and neighboring Camp Bastion, the former British base.

As the U.S. military presence winds down in Afghanistan, this was by far the biggest transfer yet, and it marked the end of a Marine mission here that began in 2009. At the time, British forces were in charge of Helmand province, but they weren't able to subdue the Taliban. So the U.S. sent in the Marines, and at the peak, 20,000 of them were battling the Taliban in this part of the country.

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All the Marines are departing from southern Afghanistan, but around 20,000 U.S. military personnel remain in the country. Sean Carberry/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Sean Carberry/NPR

All the Marines are departing from southern Afghanistan, but around 20,000 U.S. military personnel remain in the country.

Sean Carberry/NPR

The Taliban haven't been defeated in Helmand, and the departure of the Marines raises questions about whether the Afghan army will be able to fend off the Taliban.

"This transfer is a sign of progress," said Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo, the last commander of Regional Command Southwest, which is now effectively dissolved. Closing out this mission is a personal bookend for him. He was a Marine lieutenant colonel in the force that stormed into southern Afghanistan in 2001.

Between then and now, more than 350 Marines died in Helmand province. In addition, more than 450 British troops were killed fighting here.

"And they will always be in our thoughts and hearts," said Yoo.

The U.S. still has around some 20,000 military personnel in Afghanistan, including a small Army base in Helmand province that is expected to remain for a few more months.

However, the American combat mission throughout Afghanistan is set to conclude by the year's end after more than 13 years of war. The U.S. and Afghanistan recently signed a security agreement that calls for the U.S. to keep nearly 10,000 troops in Afghanistan over the next two years to help the Afghan forces and conduct counterterrorism operations.

After Sunday's ceremony, some of the Marines headed straight to the airfield, others went to finish packing, and a few manned the guard towers for their last watch.

Lance Cpl. Javonte James, with 3rd Platoon of Alpha Company of the 1-2 Marines out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., said it was a great honor to be part of the last Marine unit in Helmand.

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Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony Espinoza wipes the sweat out of his eyes at the end of a daylong patrol out of the Sangin District in southern Afghanistan in May 2011. David Gilkey/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption David Gilkey/NPR

Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony Espinoza wipes the sweat out of his eyes at the end of a daylong patrol out of the Sangin District in southern Afghanistan in May 2011.

David Gilkey/NPR

"We're worn out. But at the same time, the war is over, it's time to go home," he said.

He said he had faith in the Afghan army, which is facing a tough fight in Helmand. The Taliban have inflicted heavy casualties this year on Afghan forces, who have lost nearly as many troops in 2014 as NATO has lost in the province since 2001.

Looking out the tower, James says he's shocked how quickly the base was torn down.

"One minute you see a building, and the next it's gone," he said.

This base once housed more than 40,000 personnel. It was a small city. The last time I was here in 2013 the base was still bustling with thousands of troops and contractors.

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Marines wage a firefight in Mian Poshteh in July 2009. David Gilkey/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption David Gilkey/NPR

Marines wage a firefight in Mian Poshteh in July 2009.

David Gilkey/NPR

Now, it looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic zombie movie. There is an eerie stillness. The only sounds are generators humming in the distance and the sound of fighter jets circling overhead. They are providing security, now that the base's surveillance hardware has been dismantled.

As far as you can see, there are empty buildings and razor wire fences surrounding vast expanses of nothingness.

As the Marines prepared to depart, a convoy pulled out of the adjoining Afghan base. The Afghans followed Alpha Company along the base perimeter. At each tower, two Afghans got out and replaced the Marines on duty.

They quickly shook hands, the Marines wished their replacements well, and then they headed to the flight line.

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Marines patrol with Afghan forces through a harvested poppy field in Helmand province. David Gilkey/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption David Gilkey/NPR

Marines patrol with Afghan forces through a harvested poppy field in Helmand province.

David Gilkey/NPR

Over the next few hours, Marines squeezed themselves into a variety of helicopters and C-130 cargo planes.

There are no seats in the planes. The troops sat on their backpacks in the cargo bay for the flight to Kandahar. One looming question: What would come next for the Marines?

Capt. Joseph Wiese served in Iraq in 2009 and helped the Marines transition from that war to Afghanistan.

"What the heck's going on in Syria?" he asks. "What's going on in the rest of the world? Before, we were [preparing] to go to Afghanistan, and now the world's not any safer, so job security looks good."

Afghanistan

Ranting And Throwing Papers: An Angry Candidate Runs For Congress

The anger of Illinois Republican state Rep. Mike Bost is spontaneous and raw.

In 2013, for example, he raged against a floor amendment to a concealed carry gun bill.

"Once again, your side of the aisle is trying to make ploys instead of dealing with the real issue!" a YouTube video shows him bellowing. "Keep playing games," he says. "Keep playing games."

YouTube

Now, Bost is running for a seat in Congress against first-term Rep. Bill Enyart, a retired general and Democrat, and Bost's anger has become a campaign issue.

Voters in the 12th Congressional District in southern Illinois are hearing a lot of another Bost rant, a furious harangue from 2012 about language inserted into a pension reform bill on the final day of the House session.

YouTube

"Enough! I feel like somebody trying to be released from Egypt! Let my people go!" he hollers. "These damn bills that come out of here all the damn time come out here at the last second and I've got to try figure out how to vote for my people!"

The video of those remarks went viral that year. In it, Bost is seen throwing the bill into the air. He whiffs at the pages as they fall, then picks up the papers and throws them again.

YouTube

Enyart is running ads that point to Bost's rant as proof that he doesn't belong in Congress. Using footage of the lawmaker's outbursts, the announcer says, "Mike Bost. Twenty years yelling. Twenty years being the problem."

YouTube

Bost has represented small towns in rural, conservative southern Illinois for nearly two decades. Many voters here see his fury as well-placed.

"I think this was appropriate," says Bost supporter Jill Bunyan of Bost's pension rant. "You can get angry, and that's OK. And I think at that time, for that few moments, that was an appropriate response."

Bunyan lives in the tiny town of Cobden, in southernmost Illinois, population 1,100. People in Bunyan's part of the district, which hugs the Mississippi River, are frustrated with the state's fiscal troubles and weak local economy.

But head north to some of the district's larger cities, like Belleville, population 44,000, and Bost's anger is embraced less and criticized more. Interviewed on Main Street, Richard Rockwell thinks "the rant" is all political theater.

"I'm hoping that's the reason, and not that he's acting the fool in a deliberative chamber," Rockwell says. "That would be rather disconcerting to me."

Bost, in his own ad, refers to a video of the rant and embraces it. He half smiles and explains in folksy fashion that he's angry about the direction his opponents are taking the country.

"What the Chicago politicians and Gov. Quinn have done really made me mad," Bost says. "And what Bill Enyart and President Obama are doing to our country upsets me as well."

YouTube

After Sunday Service, Georgia Churches Get Souls To The Polls

At The Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church in Atlanta, about 700 congregants jam the pews every Sunday morning at 10:30. The church is near the edge of DeKalb County, and it's helping lead a "Souls to the Polls" drive.

Georgia Democrat Michelle Nunn is running an extremely tight race for Senate against Republican David Perdue, and the difference between victory and defeat could ride on the African-American vote. The push is on to get voters to turn out early — especially at black churches.

This year, for the first time in Georgia's history, some polling places are open on Sundays. Pastor William Flippin Sr. urged his congregation to head straight to the polls right after the service this past Sunday.

"I don't know if you have voted already, but please know that it is your civic responsibility," Flippin said. "People died for us to have the right to vote."

Democrats are trying feverishly to avoid what happened in 2010. That year, there was abysmally low turnout among black voters, which happens often in midterm years. Core supporters for Democrats — like minorities, single women or young people — tend to drop off during the midterms.

In Georgia, more than a million African-Americans voted in the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012, but only 700,000 hit the polls in 2010. Democrats aren't taking their chances this year.

The Piney Grove church is in an area that is 55 percent African-American and therefore one part of Georgia that could help Nunn win the Senate seat this November. That's if people turn out to vote.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter joined the congregation yesterday to help rally churchgoers to the polls and work to "help make Martin Luther King's dream become a reality in our state."

"We can do it, if we all work together, if we all go to vote, if we can be sure that all of our friends and relatives and neighbors go to vote, and vote early," Carter said.

Sunday voting caused some controversy in Georgia. Republicans grumbled about it giving Democrats a boost. But Flippin says it's only fair that black voters get a chance on Sundays to mobilize.

"Many of our people still do not have professional jobs that they can take off or go into work late. You know, most corporations — they allow you to come late or come early on Election Day. Well, if you're working in a factory or job like that, they can't take off," says Flippin.

Piney Grove worshippers loaded up on two church buses and, with a caravan of cars following, drove to the voter registration and elections office in Decatur to vote.

On the bus, Evelyn Jackson of nearby Ellenwood said she's voting this midterm because something has to be done about the rampant joblessness. Georgia has the highest unemployment rate in the country, and Jackson says you can't trust a Republican to fix that.

"Republicans ... they care about money, and they care about people in their echelon. And they don't care about people who are lower middle class or poor," said Jackson. "I know people, there's one of the ministers, who's been out of work for, like, three years."

When the buses arrived at the polling place, a stream of other worshippers from other black churches converged with Piney Grove.

Thirty percent of all registered voters in the state are African-American. Allen Davis, a nurse, wishes more black Georgians actually knew that.

"I think if they know how powerful their vote is, they'll come out and vote," Davis said.

One potential stumbling block to getting more African-Americans out to vote is that most Democrats have spent this fall distancing themselves from a president so many black voters admire. But Darryl Yarber says he understands the practicality of that strategy.

"African-Americans are a little bit more savvy than that. They know what's going on. They know the reasons for the distancing. That's a reason we have such a crowd right now," said Yarber. "They understand the game."

And Yarber says electing a Democrat who will barely acknowledge President Obama is still better than letting the other side win.

Ranting And Throwing Papers: An Angry Candidate Runs For Congress

The anger of Illinois Republican state Rep. Mike Bost is spontaneous and raw.

In 2013, for example, he raged against a floor amendment to a concealed carry gun bill.

"Once again, your side of the aisle is trying to make ploys instead of dealing with the real issue!" a YouTube video shows him bellowing. "Keep playing games," he says. "Keep playing games."

YouTube

Now, Bost is running for a seat in Congress against first-term Rep. Bill Enyart, a retired general and Democrat, and Bost's anger has become a campaign issue.

YouTube

The video of those remarks went viral that year. In it, Bost is seen throwing the bill into the air. He whiffs at the pages as they fall, then picks up the papers and throws them again.

YouTube

Bost has represented small towns in rural, conservative southern Illinois for nearly two decades. Many voters here see his fury as well-placed.

"I'm hoping that's the reason, and not that he's acting the fool in a deliberative chamber," Rockwell says. "That would be rather disconcerting to me."

Bost, in his own ad, refers to a video of the rant and embraces it. He half smiles and explains in folksy fashion that he's angry about the direction his opponents are taking the country.

"What the Chicago politicians and Gov. Quinn have done really made me mad," Bost says. "And what Bill Enyart and President Obama are doing to our country upsets me as well."

YouTube

Alabama's Darius Foster Wants To Bring Back 'Fight For The People' GOP

Republicans are trying to make inroads with African-Americans in the Deep South, who have voted overwhelmingly Democrat since the civil rights era. In Alabama, the GOP is fielding more black candidates this cycle than ever before. One of them is Darius Foster, who gained national attention with this viral video challenging racial and political expectations:

YouTube

In the video, a diverse group of men and women mouth the candidate's introduction: "Did you know while growing up we went half the winter without heat, or that I think best while listening to Frank Sinatra? The last concert I attended was Lil Wayne. Yes, Lil Wayne." It ends, "Do I really fit in a box? See you on the campaign trail."

Foster says he needs no reminder that he stands out. "With me, unfortunately, everything is black Republican. Not Darius did this, but the black Republican did that. So, you know."

With the bulky frame of a former linebacker and a warm, hearty laugh, Foster fashions himself as a Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt Republican.

"The fight-for-the-people Republican. That's what they were. I'm not sure where the Democratic Party was able to hijack that narrative from us. But they did. And they have it. I'm trying to bring it back," he says.

Foster is a 33-year-old business consultant. He's been active in the GOP since he founded a lonely chapter of College Republicans at the historically black Miles College in Birmingham. He's been tapped by the Republican National Committee as a future leader.

Foster was raised by his grandmother, who forced him to vote a straight Democratic ticket the first time she took him to the polls. He says he went home and looked up political parties in the family's Encyclopaedia Britannica.

"I read through and went through all of them, I got to the Republican Party and I was just reading through the principles. My grandmother hates taxes. She doesn't do gay marriage," he says. "She's always taking about defending yourself and strong defense. And I said, 'Mom — you may be a Republican.' And she looked at me and walked off."

She's still a Democrat but has endorsed her grandson in his race for a state House seat representing part of suburban Birmingham. It includes the predominantly black city of Bessemer, where Foster spends a lot of time going door to door introducing himself.

Democrats have long represented this Alabama House district, which is about two-thirds African-American, giving his opponent, Louise Alexander, the advantage.

Foster knows he's up against some strong notions about the Republican Party. "I think they hear Republican they think of white men. And people who don't care about them and ... who don't understand them," he says.

What he calls "TV Republicans" — conservative pundits — are a thorn in his side, Foster says. And some of his fellow Alabamians haven't helped. Like the Republican state senator who referred to blacks as aborigines, or the congressman who declared that there was a war on whites.

Foster says he doesn't have to defend Republican principles — only Republicans. Especially those who are hostile to President Obama, who got 95 percent of the black vote in Alabama two years ago.

"And it's not saying that I agree with President Obama. I'm just saying that I can show somebody and talk to them about what it means to be a Republican and not mention President Obama's name at all. This is what being a Republican is. This is what being a conservative is," he says.

Over breakfast at their neighborhood IHOP, his wife, 28-year-old Setara Foster, a lawyer, talks about growing up black in Houston where her parents were union members and loyal Democrats.

She now identifies more closely with the GOP. But she says she tends to split her ticket.

"I think that when we as a group identify with one party, for one thing, all the time, that party never has to earn our vote. Ever. And so I think that by having a diversity of political ideology within ethnic, racial, gender, age groups, we force politicians to work," she says.

On the campaign trail, you won't hear Foster talk about Republicans or Democrats. Instead, he talks about how he's invested some of his campaign funds in community initiatives — technology for schools, shoes for a basketball team, hosting a local job fair.

The strategy has won some converts like Juanita Graham. "When this gentleman came along, I was a die-hard Democrat," she says. Graham owns a firm that offers inner-city students enhanced engineering and math courses. She first met Foster while she was working for his Democratic opponent.

"There were some preconceived notions; I will not lie. Because when you say Republican African-American, the first thing pops in most African-American minds is Uncle Tom, butt-kisser. I'm honest. That is the mindset," she says.

But when Foster helped her with startup funds, and talked about tackling Bessemer's low high school graduation rate, he earned her vote.

Graham says she's still a Democrat, though. And that's the real challenge for Foster and Republican leaders who hope to position the party for the future.

Ranting And Throwing Papers: An Angry Candidate Runs For Congress

The anger of Illinois Republican state Rep. Mike Bost is spontaneous and raw.

In 2013, for example, he raged against a floor amendment to a concealed carry gun bill.

"Once again, your side of the aisle is trying to make ploys instead of dealing with the real issue!" a YouTube video shows him bellowing. "Keep playing games," he says. "Keep playing games."

YouTube

Now, Bost is running for a seat in Congress against first-term Rep. Bill Enyart, a retired general and Democrat, and Bost's anger has become a campaign issue.

YouTube

The video of those remarks went viral that year. In it, Bost is seen throwing the bill into the air. He whiffs at the pages as they fall, then picks up the papers and throws them again.

YouTube

Bost has represented small towns in rural, conservative southern Illinois for nearly two decades. Many voters here see his fury as well-placed.

"I'm hoping that's the reason, and not that he's acting the fool in a deliberative chamber," Rockwell says. "That would be rather disconcerting to me."

Bost, in his own ad, refers to a video of the rant and embraces it. He half smiles and explains in folksy fashion that he's angry about the direction his opponents are taking the country.

"What the Chicago politicians and Gov. Quinn have done really made me mad," Bost says. "And what Bill Enyart and President Obama are doing to our country upsets me as well."

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A Congolese Mother Of Six Is Honored For Her Death-Defying Journalism

"Journalism is my calling, the print media is my struggle and independence is my motto," says 42-year-old Solange Lusiku Nsimire, a Congolese editor and mother of six.

And it's hard to imagine a more difficult place to be a journalist than the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). At least a dozen journalists have been killed since 1992 and there were 90 attacks on journalists in 2012 alone.

It's also a dangerous place to be a woman: rape, domestic violence and senseless killings are part of the daily norm in many parts of the country. Despite significant mineral resources, the DRC is one of the least developed countries in the world, held back by decades of conflict that have resulted in the deaths of an estimated 5.4 million people since 1988.

Lusiku Nsimire, who last week won a Courage in Journalism award from the International Women's Media Foundation, has defied death threats and attacks on her family to publish articles about government corruption, injustices against women and international aid abuses. Since becoming editor-in-chief of Le Souverain, an independent newspaper based in Bukavu in Eastern Congo, in 2007, Lusiku Nsimire's coverage has sent her in and out of hiding. In 2008, armed men showed up at her house in the middle of the night, tied up her husband and children and stole the family's savings. But nothing has stopped her from what she calls her mission to be "a journalist who is a fighter."

Goats and Soda spoke with Lusiku Nsimire about the IWMF award, her experiences as a journalist and her hopes for the future of her country.

Author Interviews

A Novice Reporter Begins His Journey In The Congo

You've faced threats, armed robbery and near-death experiences. Other journalists in your country have been killed for continuing to publish. With all of these challenges, what makes you continue working as a journalist?

Asking me to stop being a journalist because I received threats would be like asking me to give up being myself. I am moved by this strong desire to inform people and provide information that is true, verified and credible. I am conducting a fight that will be useful for future generations. I am writing, every day, the story of Eastern Congo, the story of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I am contributing toward building our collective memory. Our challenge is to create a written testimony so that future generations, when they want to figure out what happened in the past, can find this based on true, valid information. They can reconstruct the collective memory that made us.

Why is journalism so dangerous in the DRC?

In my country, democracy is still young and we have just left behind the years of dictatorship. Journalists must be able to express ourselves freely and if we don't do that, then ordinary non-journalists will never do it. However, our leaders are not used to this yet. It's not part of the way they were trained, and this is true of the people in power and the opposition. They are not ready and have not been exposed to [free press] before. So now we as journalists are the true voice of the multitudes, the ones that promote democracy, that educate people on respecting freedoms. This is new and scary to the leaders.

What are the challenges of being a female journalist in the DRC?

When a woman like me starts something that is considered very daring, like being a journalist, that's considered the act of a rebel. People tend to put banana skins in front of you so that you can fall and you can make mistakes. I enter into a man's world and I throw myself into the race. If men run twice as fast, well, I have to run four times as fast. I have to be twice as good as them. When I, as a woman, decide I want to assert my freedom of speech and express myself independently in my editorials, everyone is shocked. In a world like ours in which weapons circulate freely, journalists have been killed before, so everyone is afraid of telling the truth. People like me who refuse any kind of censorship, any kind of self-censorship, create a lot of enemies.

You're married and the mother of six. How do you balance the safety of your family with your work?

My husband respects my choice, or as I call it, my mission, my vocation, because that's what gives me satisfaction in life. The problem is that my work causes danger and poses a threat to my kids and my husband and everyone is traumatized. I took this job because this is what I am meant to do, because I feel that through my job I am building my country. It's one more stone in the building of a free, democratic Congo. But this should not have all these negative implications for the rest of my family. I am trying right now to put my children in a safer situation. I want to find shelter for my children, who are very much at risk. But as long as democracy is not established and human rights are not respected, I feel that I need to continue reporting. I cannot stop.

What made you want to pursue journalism?

The Two-Way

Congolese Doctor Denis Mukwege Receives Sakharov Prize

Ever since I was a little girl, I was disgusted and touched by the injustice around me, particularly where women are concerned. I saw women who were victims of all kinds of injustices and still, in spite of that, were fighters. They were still the true support for their families. That's what gave me the will to be a journalist, and not just any journalist, but a journalist who is a fighter, who expresses herself freely, who keeps her head up high.

You once gave a speech in Belgium where you said that in the DRC, a journalist's "life expectancy is 24 hours, renewable." How do you live with that understanding, and how does it affect the work you do?

The 24-hour life expectancy is not just for journalists of the Congo, it's for any Congolese person, particularly in Eastern Congo. At any time, armed people can come to your house and just kill you. Since most of these murders and killings happen at night, every morning that we wake up, we thank God that we are still alive that day. If in other countries, life expectancy is 90 years, but we have 24 hours, we must work hard so that we can accomplish in those 24 hours what other people have 90 years to accomplish.

Africa

In Eastern Congo, Complex Conflicts And High-Stakes Diplomacy

What's the story of the DRC that the international press is missing?

The sheer number of casualties in my country is revolting, and the role of the international community is truly shocking. [Millions] have died in my country. On top of that, we have 50,000 women that were raped, and that number is only the number that got medical help. Those women have been killed. They've been killed psychologically, they have been killed on the slow burner, as I call it. For just 800,000 in our neighboring country [Rwanda], the entire world was shocked and ran to their help. Why don't those people now come and help us? When our country has been a battlefield, when the body of women has become a battlefield, what did Congo do to the international community to be treated this way? In the Western world, when someone dies, there is a tradition of honoring a minute of silence. If we had to respect a minute of silence for each person that died in the Congo, how many years would that be, if you add all that time up? Just because we are poor in Congo, we still deserve that you stop and think about us, because we are not less human than others. We are fully fleshed and fully respectable human beings with dignity.

Do you think there is a hope for a peaceful future for the DRC?

It's possible if all the Congolese people become aware that they have to play their own roles. If our leaders become aware that they have a responsibility and that they have to stand up to the challenge, and if society as a whole takes responsibility, we will get there. But that also depends on the so-called "big deciders" in the world. When people want to come exploit mineral resources, they can do so by going through the door, and not by trying to sneak in through the window. They can go through the formal way and take advantage of our gold and all the other mineral resources in our country in a way that improves the lives of the population.

What do you hope people will understand about the DRC and the work you do?

Through this award, I want for the entire world to understand that women in Congo are accomplished. Women in Congo are heroines and they are survivors. They have survived rape, insecurity, injustice that the world has brought to them. Women in Congo fight night and day to create a new world, a new order where rights are encouraged for all and there is equality. I want the rest of the world to stop looking at the Congo from the point of view of violence. We no longer want to be victimized, especially as women. We want the world to see us as strong and determined, because we are.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Africa

journalism

Ford Brothers Lose Toronto Mayor Race, Hold On To Council Seat

News

Disgust Or Pity For Crack-Smoking Toronto Mayor?

It's All Politics

How Would Your City Handle A Mayor Like Rob Ford?

The Two-Way

Doctor Says Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Has 'Rare ... Difficult' Cancer

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports:

"I am humbled and honoured by the trust that has been put into me," Mr. Tory told supporters after his opponents had conceded.

"As your new mayor, I will move Toronto not right, not left, but forward ... Torontonians want to see an end to the division that has paralyzed city hall the past few years."

i i

itoggle caption Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov

Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov

From NPR's Eyder Peralta:

"As the council discussed the legality of the motion on Monday, the body erupted into chaos. At one point, Ford and his brother Doug Ford, a council member, started screaming at the public....

Despite his demotion from mayor to city councilman, Ford suggested his political career would recover, the Globe and Mail reports:

"Asked after his speech if he planned to run for mayor in 2018, Rob Ford said it was too soon to say."

Toronto mayor

Rob Ford

Toronto

Canada

Courting Republicans, Georgia Democrat Tries To Keep His Seat

For Republicans, Democrats in red states seem ripe for the picking in midterm election years, when the GOP usually has an advantage in voter turnout. One of their targets this year is Rep. John Barrow of Georgia, who faces one of the tightest races in the nation.

Barrow, often described as the "last white Democrat in Congress from the Deep South," is trying to hold onto his seat.

At First African Baptist Church in Dublin, Ga., a bronze plaque beside the front door reminds visitors that this is where a 14-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. gave his first public speech.

Pastor Keith Anderson stands behind the pulpit and welcomes Barrow to the service, while making a dig at Washington gridlock.

"I'm glad, Congressman Barrow, that I don't have to sit in the Senate or in the Congress and the only way my business gets done is if I get the majority to support [it]," Anderson says.

Even if Congress seems ineffective, Anderson assures his congregation, there is power in prayer to get things done.

Barrow tells the audience of about 60 people that even in Washington, he gets things done; he ticks off efforts to bring jobs to Georgia by promoting nuclear energy and expanding the Port of Savannah.

Barrow is comfortable here, among traditionally Democratic African-American voters. He describes himself as a Democrat in the tradition of his father, a judge known for helping to keep public schools open after desegregation. Barrow needs African-Americans to turn out on Election Day — they make up more than a third of his district. But they're not enough to put him over the top.

University of Georgia political scientist Chuck Bullock says that's why Barrow spends a lot of time trying to convince white Republicans in his district that he represents them.

"They see John Barrow and they go, 'Oh, wait a minute, yeah I'm a Republican but this guy Barrow, yeah he's pretty good,' " Bullock says. " 'He's been to our festival, I've met him. He came to our high school graduation. I'm going to make an exception.' "

At the Huddle House diner in tiny East Dublin, Barrow stops for a bite to eat in between church services. He chats with Jack and Dianne Conley, a white couple in their 60s. They say they normally vote Republican, but they tell Barrow — who's endorsed by the NRA — that they like his conservative positions on issues like gun rights.

"Thank you," Barrow says. "I take my Constitution neat; I don't water it down."

Barrow isn't just running against his Republican challenger, Rick Allen. In this conservative district, he has to distance himself from the national Democratic Party and the president. In this TV ad, he refers to an old political joke that says if you want a friend in Washington, D.C., you should get a dog.

YouTube

"Well, I wouldn't wish Washington on a dog," Barrow says, tossing a ball to a yellow lab.

Along with his homespun language and folksy demeanor, Barrow repeatedly portrays himself as an independent voice who has opposed President Obama on issues including health reform. Another ad touts his voting record, saying he has sided with House Republicans more than half the time.

But Barrow is up against a well-funded Republican effort to replace him with one of their own. The conservative American Future Fund, an outside group backed by the Koch brothers, has put nearly $1 million behind Barrow's Republican challenger. In ads and on the stump, Allen tries to paint Barrow as "two-faced" and a rubber stamp for Obama administration policies.

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But Democrats are hitting back with big money of their own — including more than $130,000 on a new ad this week. They're trying to keep Barrow in place, and dash Republican hopes that this will be the year Georgia's 12th Congressional district turns from blue to red.

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