Abortion has passed inflation as the top election issue for women under 30, survey finds


Abortion-rights protesters cheer at a rally outside the state capitol in Lansing, Mich., June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

BY GEOFF MULVIHILL
 October 11, 2024

Abortion has passed inflation to become the top issue in the presidential election for women younger than 30 since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, according to results released Friday of a survey of female voters by KFF.

About 2 in 5 in the group of young voters said abortion was their top concern in the recent survey, compared with 1 in 5 who ranked it most important in the same survey in the spring.

In the earlier edition, inflation was the top concern for younger voters, as it was for women voters of all ages. Inflation remained the top concern for women in each age group over 30 and for women overall. Women overall ranked abortion as their No. 3 concern, after inflation and threats to democracy, but ahead of immigration.

KFF, a health policy research, polling and news organization, surveyed 678 female voters Sept. 12 through Oct. 1. Most of them were participants in an earlier wave of the same poll, conducted in May and June. The follow-up survey group was supplemented with 29 Black women to ensure an adequate sample size of that group. The sampling error was plus or minus 5 points, with larger ranges for subgroups of voters.

Abortion has long been a major issue, but the landscape shifted in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court, powered by three justices nominated by Harris’ current opponent, former President Donald Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door for states to impose abortion bans.

Most Republican-controlled states are now enforcing such bans, including 13 that bar abortions at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions, and four with bans that kick in after about the first six weeks of pregnancy — before women often realize they’re pregnant.

Harris has been making abortion access a centerpiece of her campaign.

Younger women who responded to the survey and spoke with The Associated Press on Friday have noticed.

Ally Zobel, 19, who describes herself as a left-leaning independent and lives in Woodbridge, Virginia, said that reproductive health is the most important issue for her as she prepares to vote for the first time — and that she appreciates Harris’ calls to restore abortion rights nationally.

She said that she’s concerned about stories of women having health emergencies because they can’t obtain an abortion — and that “pregnancy’s really hard” and that people should not be forced to continue if if they don’t want to.

“As a mom, I don’t want my kids growing up in a world where it’s like that,” she said.

Sydney Wright, a 29-year-old stay-at home mom in Effingham County, Illinois, said Roe v. Wade being overturned propelled the restoration of abortion rights to the top of her list of concerns. And while she’s not thrilled with everything about Harris, the Democrat’s abortion position is one of the main reasons Wright plans to vote for her.

“I’ve seen people have to travel out of state and come to Illinois for health care,” said Wright, who is not registered with a political party. “I’ve heard of cases where doctors were forced to leave patients to suffer until they were practically dead until they could give them medical care.”

In addition to the presidential race, a number of other elections this year could impact the abortion landscape, including in nine states where there are ballot measures that would protect the right to abortion in the state constitution.

Races for Congress — as well as state offices such as governor, legislators, state supreme court justices and attorneys general — could also help determine abortion policy moving ahead.

Overall, about two-thirds of women said the election will have a major impact on abortion access, up from just over half in the initial survey.

Most women said it is likely Trump would sign a federal law banning abortions after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy if Congress were to pass such a measure. Just as the survey period ended, Trump said he would veto an abortion ban if one reached his desk.

The majority said they believe Harris would sign a law protecting access to abortion nationwide if Congress were to pass that.


There’s a deep partisan split over which candidate would be better on abortion access. Most women said they preferred Harris, including 90% of Democrats and fewer than one-fifth of Republicans. The survey found similar dividing lines around which candidate would be better for birth control access and in vitro fertilization.

The survey found that Republican women are slightly less hopeful and enthusiastic, and more anxious and frustrated, about the presidential election than they were earlier this year. By contrast, Democratic women are far more hopeful and enthusiastic, though their anxiousness has also risen.


Like in the spring, a little over half of GOP women are satisfied with their presidential choices. But satisfaction among Democratic women shot up from just over one-third to three-quarters.

Ohio’s 50+ women emboldened by MAGA candidate's comments on abortion

REMOVE FOOT FROM MOUTH BEFORE SHOOTING IT

Susan Tebben, 

Ohio Capital Journal
October 14, 2024 

Bernie Moreno for U.S. Senate campaign

Ohio women 50 and older are headed to the polls having lived through the days before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, during the time when abortion was legal, and now, after the decision was overturned in 2022 and power given to each state to decide.

That has played a factor in many women’s decisions at the ballot box, though it’s only one factor of many, voters told the Capital Journal in interviews last week.

“I am not a single issue voter, by any means,” said Mansfield resident and registered Republican Linda Smith.

But abortion rights has come to the forefront, and in fact has galvanized older women voters in the weeks leading up to the November general election.

U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno made comments about abortion rights and the interests of suburban women, which have since been used in campaign ads against him.

Those comments have also renewed conversations about the topic with women who may not be experiencing pregnancy or the need for an abortion, but who remember times when reproductive health care was more risky, and are looking to the future for their daughters and granddaughters.

“Women don’t make their health care choices and decisions lightly and they’re often complicated decisions.” Smith said. “They’re life-altering.”

Moreno’s comments were made at a town hall in Warren County and first made public by WCMH via a viewer-submitted video.

“You know, the left has a lot of single issue voters,” Moreno said. “Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ OK. It’s a little crazy by the way, but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’”

After a pause, he added, “Oh, thank God my wife didn’t hear that part.”

Moreno’s campaign did not respond to a request by the OCJ for comment, but in a previous statement to The Statehouse News Bureau, spokesperson Reagan McCarthy said Moreno was “clearly making a tongue-in-cheek joke about how Sherrod Brown and members of the leftwing media like to pretend that the only issue that matters to women voters is abortion.”

After Moreno’s comments, an open letter was released by Republican, independent and Democratic-voting women, saying Moreno “mocked many of us who are over the age of fifty” and criticizing him for trying to “play your comments off as a joke” after the fact.

“As Ohio women across the political spectrum, we don’t agree on everything,” the letter stated. “But there are some things bigger than party politics. What unites us is the firm belief that Ohio women should have the ability to make their own health care choices, free from the involvement of people like you.”

Smith was one of the Republican voters to sign on to the letter.

“It’s distressing to me to see that this (issue) has become a political pawn,” Smith told the Capital Journal.

The issue is coming up among other priorities for older Ohioans, such as inflation, the economy and Social Security.

An August survey commissioned by the AARP showed 16% of Ohio’s 50+ voters polled placed it as their first or second choice among important issues driving their votes in the general election. Nine percent of 50+ survey takers put it as their most important issue in the election, putting it above other single issues like Social Security, taxes, gun control, crime, general health care, foreign policy, Medicare and climate change.

The AARP poll also found that 94% of 50+ Ohio voters plan to vote in the upcoming election.

Overall, incumbent Ohio Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown held a narrow lead over Moreno, 46%-42%, but among 50+ voters specifically, the race was reportedly much closer, with Moreno holding a five-point edge in the August AARP numbers.

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Seville resident Mosie Welch is a registered Democrat in her 60s, and she readily admits reproductive rights tops the list of issues she is using to decide her votes. She connects reproductive health care to family issues, along with the economic health of the state and the concept of individual rights.

“Yes, this is one of the big issues driving my vote, especially at the national level, because I fear what will happen if women no longer have the right to make decisions about their own bodies as they don’t in some states today,” Welch said.

As a mother and grandmother, she wants to see future women have the “full range of health care necessary to ensure that they can live their life as fully as possible.”

“I’m not expecting to personally need this health care, but I would imagine there’s many families worried about this issue,” Welch said.

She also fears for the rights of physicians, who expressed concern about litigation and the potential loss of medical licenses, along with patient care delays, as the debate over abortion rights went on after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade.

“When that happens and a woman dies, or a woman loses their fertility, or is racking up huge medical bills, that doesn’t just affect one individual,” Welch said. “It affects everybody, it affects the community.”

Combining her decades of life experience and the rhetoric of the 2024 election has only served to motivate Welch and her fellow voters, like Susan Polakoff Shaw.

“I know a lot of women who are rage-filled, and it’s women around my age who know what it’s like, who have heard what it was like pre-Roe,” said Shaw, who did work for Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights during the 2023 election. “It’s about being able to control your life and have a say in your future and your destiny, and your health and your family.”

More than just reproductive rights as an issue for older women, Smith said her decisions in the upcoming election are informed by elected officials who “frequently disregard the will of the people,” including legislative attempts and comments that seek to undermine the reproductive rights amendment passed by a majority of state voters last year.

“You can disagree, but when 57% of the electorate votes for that, you need to respect that,” Smith said.

But Smith said she is optimistic for the future of Ohio and even the Republican Party, partly because of the discussion brought on by Moreno’s comments.

“People who rise above their differences to fight for common causes – like you are seeing now for women’s reproductive freedoms,” Smith said, “it’s that collective voice and vote that will make a difference.”

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and X.

Moreno’s abortion comment rattles debate in expensive Senate race in Republican-leaning Ohio


This combination photo shows Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Oct. 26, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington, left, and Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno, a Republican candidate for Senate, in Westlake, Ohio, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo)

Bernie Moreno speaking during the Republican National Convention, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, speaks with supporters at a campaign rally, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)


BY JULIE CARR SMYTH
October 13, 2024

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An off-the-cuff comment about reproductive rights by Republican Bernie Moreno in Ohio’s tight Senate race has put abortion at the center of debate in the most expensive Senate campaign this year. And that’s just where Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown wanted it.

Moreno insists he was joking after cellphone video surfaced of him criticizing women whose votes are driven by concerns about government involvement in abortion decisions.

“Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it,’” Moreno said at a town hall in Warren County on Sept. 20. ”‘If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ OK. It’s a little crazy, by the way, but — especially for women who are like past 50, I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’”

Brown and his allies pounced on the comment, which went to the heart of the Democrat’s bid for a fourth term representing the Republican-leaning state. A woman featured in one TV ad wondered why, if a 50-year-old woman doesn’t have standing to feel strongly about abortion, a 57-year-old man — that’s Moreno’s age — running for Senate would.

Even fellow Republican Nikki Haley, the former presidential candidate, criticized Moreno as #ToneDeaf. “Are you trying to lose the election? Asking for a friend,” she quipped on X


Brown has made access to abortion a priority, and Moreno’s comment meant the campaign was focused less on the economy and immigration, issues the Republican and his party would rather talk about.

Throughout the race, Brown has said he voted for and would honor an amendment that Ohioans supported by wide margins last year that enshrined into the state constitution people’s right to make their own reproductive choices. Presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Democrats on down the ballot are banking on the abortion issue to win votes in the first White House election since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“The people of Ohio think women should have the power to make their own health care decisions, Bernie Moreno thinks he should,” Brown said in a statement. “As a man over the age of 50, I care deeply about a woman’s right to make health care decisions for herself -– for my daughters, my granddaughters, and all Ohio women, regardless of their age.”

Unseating Brown is a Republican priority. With Democrats defending twice as many Senate seats as Republicans, a loss in Ohio would jeopardize Democrats’ narrow majority.
The most expensive Senate contest

Ad spending topped $400 million in early October, making the Senate race the most expensive in the country so far, according to data from AdImpact, which tracks campaign spending on advertising. That total includes a competitive Republican primary earlier this year.

In the general election, the data shows Republicans have outspent Democrats on Brown-Moreno race. As of Friday, Republicans had spent roughly $188.4 million on ads since the March 19 primary, compared with $159.7 million by Democrats. The parties and affiliated groups have an additional $68.5 million in ad spots reserved between now and Nov. 5.

Moreno, a wealthy Cleveland businessman endorsed by Donald Trump — was undeterred by the controversy that ensued after his abortion comments surfaced. His campaign said the comment was made tongue in cheek, and that Brown and Harris are the ones disrespecting women.

“Bernie’s view is that women voters care just as much about the economy, rising prices, crime, and our open southern border as male voters do, and it’s disgusting that Democrats and their friends in the left-wing media constantly treat all women as if they’re automatically single-issue voters on abortion who don’t have other concerns that they vote on,” spokesperson Reagan McCarthy said in a statement.
Republicans have reasons for optimism

Ohio Republicans have plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the race. The onetime bellwether state has shifted to the right and supported Trump twice by wide margins, and he’s once more atop the ticket.

Trump’s endorsement has carried weight in Ohio — from JD Vance, the first-term senator who is Trump’s running mate, to GOP state Rep. Derek Merrin, who prevailed in a messy primary to challenge Marcy Kaptur, a long-serving Democratic congresswoman. Trump’s backing boosted Moreno to victory in a hard-fought primary.

Republicans have hammered Brown on his record, claiming he voted to allow “biological men in women’s sports” and supported providing stimulus checks and federal benefits for immigrants who are in the United States illegally. Both claims stretch the truth: Brown didn’t vote to allow transgender people to play women’s sports but to prevent federal dollars from being stripped from schools that allowed it, and the immigrant-related vote in question involved a nuanced issue in legislation that already prevented stimulus checks going to immigrants without lawful status in the country.

Still, the attacks have been repeated often enough to register with voters.

“Bernie Moreno has rapidly closed the gap on Sherrod Brown even as Chuck Schumer and DC Democrats spend millions lobbing baseless smears and racist attacks at Moreno,” National Republian Senatorial Committee spokesperson Philip Letsou said in a statement. The reference was to pro-Brown ads questioning the business dealings of some family members of Moreno, who was born in Bogota, Colombia.

Senate Majority PAC, an independent group aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, reserved $65 million in advertising time in Ohio from Labor Day to the end of the campaign. The group’s president, JB Poersch, said Brown’s reputation, strong campaign and superior fundraising prowess will help put the veteran politician over the top.

“We have a pretty big communication advantage in that state,” he said.

More than 90% of Republican spending — all but $1.9 million of Moreno’s ad support — has come from outside groups, according to AdImpact data.

Brown has raised $51 million for his own campaign account, compared with Moreno’s $15.3 million, which includes $4.5 million Moreno loaned to his own campaign. The Republican has reported spending about $10 million of that so far, with his latest campaign finance report not yet filed.

The debate over immigration in Springfield

Republicans are expected to keep tying Brown to the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policy, a key vulnerability this year for Democrats.

When it came to the turmoil in Springfield, Ohio, Moreno tried to blame Brown and Harris, slamming the “Haitian invasion” as a failure of the federal government to prepare before expanding the number of Haitians able to apply for Temporary Protected Status in the United States.

Brown did not name Trump and Vance, who intensified the spotlight on the city with unsubstantiated claims about Haitians eating pets, but he faulted “people playing politics” for making things worse. At one point, state and local government offices and schools in Springfield closed due to dozens of bomb threats.


Moreno, meanwhile, has faced other challenges, including an Associated Press report about a profile created with Moreno’s email account on an adult website. Moreno’s lawyer said the profile was created by a former intern as a prank.

The candidate retained support from Trump after the report and was given a coveted speaking spot at the Republican National Convention in July.

JULIE CARR SMYTH
Smyth has covered government and politics from Columbus, Ohio, for The Associated Press since 2006.

Migrant deaths in New Mexico have increased tenfold


A surveillance helicopter traces a line in the sky above the Southwest border with Mexico at Sunland Park, N.M., Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File)

Forensic anthropologist Heather Edgar with the Office of the Medical Investigator poses for a portrait outside her office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

This Oct. 3, 2024 image shows the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where experts work to identify scores of presumed migrants whose remains have been found along the border in southern New Mexico. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

BY ANITA SNOW, CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER AND MORGAN LEE
Updated 10:03 PM MDT, October 14, 2024Share


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Ten times as many migrants died in New Mexico near the U.S.-Mexico border in each of the last two years compared with just five years ago as smuggling gangs steer them — exhausted, dehydrated and malnourished — mostly into the hot desert, canyons or mountains west of El Paso, Texas.

During the first eight months of 2024, the bodies of 108 presumed migrants mostly from Mexico and Central America were found near the border in New Mexico and often less than 10 miles (6 kilometers) from El Paso, according to the most recent data. The remains of 113 presumed migrants were found in New Mexico in 2023, compared with nine in 2020 and 10 in 2019.

It’s not clear exactly why more migrants are being found dead in that area, but many experts say smugglers are treating migrants more harshly and bringing them on paths that could be more dangerous in extreme summer temperatures.

The influx has taxed the University of New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator, which identifies the dead and conducts autopsies that almost always show the cause as heat-related.

“Our reaction was sadness, horror and surprise because it had been very consistently low for as long as anyone can remember,” said Heather Edgar, a forensic anthropologist with the office.

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Serving the entire state, the office over two years has added deputy medical investigators to handle the extra deaths on top of the usual 2,500 forensic cases.

“We’d always had three deputies down in that area, and I think we have nine or 10 now,” Edgar said of New Mexico’s eastern migration corridor.

Immigration and border security are among voters’ top concerns heading into the Nov. 5 presidential contest, but the candidates have focused on keeping migrants out of the U.S. and deporting those already here.

The increase in deaths is a humanitarian concern for advocates as smugglers guide migrants into New Mexico through fencing gaps at the border city of Sunland Park and over low-lying barriers west of the nearby Santa Teresa Port of Entry.

“People are dying close to urban areas, in some cases just 1,000 feet from roads,” noted Adam Isacson, an analyst for the nongovernmental Washington Office on Latin America. He said water stations, improved telecommunications and more rescue efforts could help.

New Mexico officials are targeting human-smuggling networks, recently arresting 16 people and rescuing 91 trafficking victims. U.S. Customs and Border Protection added a surveillance blimp to monitor the migration corridor near its office in Santa Teresa, in New Mexico’s Doña Ana County. Movable 33-foot (10-meter) towers use radar to scan the area.

U.S. officials in recent years have added 30 more push-button beacons that summon emergency medical workers along remote stretches of the border at New Mexico and western Texas. They have also set up more than 500 placards with location coordinates and instructions to call 911 for help.

This summer, the Border Patrol expanded search and rescue efforts, dispatching more patrols with medical specialists and surveillance equipment. The agency moved some beacons closer to the border, where more migrants have been found dead or in distress.
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Border Patrol says it rescued nearly 1,000 migrants near the U.S. border in New Mexico and western Texas over the past 12 months — up from about 600 the previous 12 months.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of the faith-based Hope Border Institute in El Paso, said 10-member church teams recently started dropping water bottles for migrants in the deadly New Mexico corridor alongside fluttering blue flags.

“Part of the problem is that organized crime has become very systematic in the area,” Corbett said of the increased deaths. He also blamed heightened border enforcement in Texas and new U.S. asylum restrictions that President Joe Biden introduced in June and tightened last month.

New Mexico’s rising deaths come as human-caused climate change increases the likelihood of heat waves. This year, the El Paso area had its hottest June ever, with an average temperature of 89.4 degrees Fahrenheit (31.8 Celsius). June 12 and 13 saw daily record highs of 109 F (42.7 C).
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Those high temperatures can be deadly for people who have been on strenuous journeys. Some smugglers lead migrants on longer routes into gullies or by the towering Mount Cristo Rey statue of Jesus Christ that casts a shadow over neighboring Mexico.

Deputy Chief Border Patrol Agent Juan Bernal of the El Paso Sector said migrants are weak when they arrive at the border after weeks or months without adequate food and water in houses smugglers keep in Mexico.

“They’re expected to walk, sometimes for hours or days, to get to their destination where they’re going to be picked up,” he said.

The deaths have continued even as migration has fallen along the entire border following Biden’s major asylum restrictions.

New Mexico’s migrant death numbers now rival those in Arizona’s even hotter Sonoran desert, where the remains of 114 presumed border crossers were discovered during the first eight months of 2024, according to a mapping project by the nonprofit Humane Borders and the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office in Tucson.

Nearly half of those who died in New Mexico this year were women. Women ages 20 to 29 made up the largest segment of these deaths.

“We are awaiting for you at home,” a family in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas implored in early June in a missing person post for a 25-year-old female relative who was found dead days later. “Please come back.”

After a 24-year-old Guatemalan woman’s remains were discovered that same month, a mortuary in her hometown posted a death notice with a photo of her smiling in a blue dress and holding a floral bouquet.


“It should not be a death sentence to come to the United States,” Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Maj. Jon Day told a recent community gathering. “And when we push them into the desert areas here, they’re coming across and they’re dying.”
___

Snow reported from Phoenix. Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER
Keller works with reporters and editors to find stories in data and documents and contributes context to spot and breaking news stories for The Associated Press.

Voters in California and Nevada consider ban on forced labor aimed at protecting prisoners


Steven Abujen, a California prison inmate with the Prison Industry Authority, cleans one of the newly installed headstones at the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery, near Folsom, Calif., on Oct. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

 An inmate selects the letters and numbers to be used to make a specialty license plate by Prison Industries at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

Assemblyman Howard Watts speaks during the sixth day of the 31st Special Session of the Nevada Legislature in Carson City, Nev., 

(David Calvert/The Nevada Independent via AP, Pool, File)

BY SOPHIE AUSTIN AND RIO YAMAT
October 15, 2024

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California and Nevada voters will decide in November whether to ban forced prison labor by removing language from their state constitutions rooted in the legacy of chattel slavery.

The measures aim to protect incarcerated people from being forced to work under the threat of punishment in the states, where it is not uncommon for prisoners to be paid less than $1 an hour to fight fires, clean prison cells, make license plates or do yard work at cemeteries.

Nevada incarcerates about 10,000 people. All prisoners in the state are required to work or be in vocational training for 40 hours each week, unless they have a medical exemption. Some of them make as little as 35 cents hourly.

Voters will weigh the proposals during one of the most historic elections in modern history, said Jamilia Land, an advocate with the Abolish Slavery National Network who has spent years trying to get the California measure passed.

“California, as well as Nevada, has an opportunity to end legalized, constitutional slavery within our states, in its entirety, while at the same time we have the first Black woman running for president,” she said of Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic bid as the first Black and Asian American woman to earn a major party’s nomination for the nation’s highest office.

Several other states such as Colorado, Alabama and Tennessee have in recent years done away with exceptions for slavery and involuntary servitude, though the changes were not immediate. In Colorado — the first state to get rid of an exception for slavery from its constitution in 2018 — incarcerated people alleged in a lawsuit filed in 2022 against the corrections department that they had still been forced to work.

“What it did do — it created a constitutional right for a whole class of people that didn’t previously exist,” said Kamau Allen, a co-founder of the Abolish Slavery National Network who advocated for the Colorado measure.

Nevada’s proposal aims to abolish from the constitution both slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. Californias constitution was changed in the 1970s to remove an exemption for slavery, but the involuntary servitude exception remains on the books.

Wildland firefighting is among the most sought-after prison work programs in Nevada. Those eligible for the program are paid around $24 per day.

“There are a lot of people who are incarcerated that want to do meaningful work. Now are they treated fairly? No,” said Chris Peterson, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which supports the measure. “They’re getting paid pennies on the hour, where other people get paid dollars, to do incredibly dangerous work.”

Peterson pointed to a state law that created a modified workers’ compensation program for incarcerated people who are injured on the job. Under that program, the amount awarded is based on the person’s average monthly wage when the injury occurred.

In 2016, Darrell White, an injured prison firefighter who filed a claim under the modified program, learned he would receive a monthly disability payment of “$22.30 for a daily rate of $0.50.” By then, White already had been freed from prison, but he was left unable to work for months while he recovered from surgery to repair his fractured finger, which required physical therapy

White sued the state prison system and Division of Forestry, saying his disability payments should have been calculated based on the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 at the time. The case went all the way up to the Nevada Supreme Court, which rejected his appeal, saying it remained an “open question” whether Nevada prisoners were constitutionally entitled to minimum wage compensation.

“It should be obvious that it is patently unfair to pay Mr. White $0.50 per day,” his lawyer, Travis Barrick, wrote in the appeal, adding that White’s needs while incarcerated were minimal compared to his needs after his release, including housing and utilities, food and transportation. “It is inconceivable that he could meet these needs on $0.50 per day.”

The California state Senate rejected a previous version of the proposal in 2022 after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration cited concerns about the cost if the state had to start paying all prisoners the minimum wage.

Newsom signed a law earlier this year that would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to create a voluntary work program. The agency would set wages for people incarcerated in state prisons under the law. But the law would only take effect if voters approve the forced labor ban.

The law and accompanying measure will give incarcerated people more of an opportunity for rehabilitation through therapy or education instead of being forced to work, said California Assembly member Lori Wilson, a Democrat representing Solano County who authored this year’s proposal.

Wilson suffered from trauma growing up in a household with dysfunction and abuse, she said. She was able to work through her trauma by going to therapy. But her brother, who did not get the same help, instead ended up in prison, she said.

“It’s just a tale of two stories of what happens when someone who has been traumatized, has anger issues and gets the rehabilitative work that they need to — what they could do with their life,” Wilson said.

Yannick Ortega, a formerly incarcerated woman who now works at an addiction recovery center in Fresno, California, was forced to work various jobs during the first half of her time serving 20 years in prison for a murder conviction, she said.

“When you are sentenced to prison, that is the punishment,” said Ortega, who later became a certified paralegal and substance abuse counselor by pursuing her education while working in prison. “You’re away from having the freedom to do anything on your own accord.”
___


Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @ sophieadanna

SOPHIE AUSTIN
Sophie reports on California government and politics.
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RIO YAMAT
Yamat covers Nevada and the U.S. Southwest for The Associated Press. She is based in Las Vegas.
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REST IN POWER

Lilly Ledbetter, equal wages activist who inspired Fair Pay Act, dies at 86


 Lilly Ledbetter, women's equality leader and namesake of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, speaks at the Democratic National Convention at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 4, 2012. Ledbetter died Saturday at the age of 86. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Lilly Ledbetter, who championed women's rights and equal pay, has died at the age of 86.

Ledbetter, who was the inspiration for the Fair Pay Act of 2009, died Saturday night of respiratory failure in Alabama, her family announced Sunday in a statement.
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"Lilly Ledbetter passed away peacefully last night at the age of 86. She was surrounded by her family and loved ones. Our mother lived an extraordinary life," according to the statement.

Ledbetter, a 19-year employee of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., sued the tire giant in 1999 for gender-based pay discrimination after she discovered substantial pay disparities between her salary and that of her male counterparts who performed the same work.

"I took a job that had normally been considered a man's job. I don't agree with that term," Ledbetter told Forbes in an interview in 2019. "It's a job. Whether it's a man, African American, Latino, heavy, skinny, whatever. If they're the best qualified for that job, they should get it and they should get the money to go with it."
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Ledbetter initially won her case and was awarded $3.8 million in backpay and damages in 2003, before the decision was overturned upon Goodyear's appeal.

The case eventually reached the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 against Ledbetter, stating she failed to file her complaint within the 180 days of the pay decision by Goodyear.

Legislation in her name was introduced in Congress during George W. Bush's presidency in 2008. That bill was defeated, but was reintroduced in January 2009 after Barack Obama became president. The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate.

The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was the first bill Obama signed into law after becoming president, modified the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to give employees more time to challenge pay discrimination. The law allows for the 180-day statute of limitations for filing equal-pay lawsuits to reset with each new paycheck.

On Monday, Obama praised Ledbetter's legacy.

"Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work. But this grandmother from Alabama kept on fighting until the day I signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law -- my first as president," Obama wrote in a post on X.

"Lilly did what so many Americans before her have done: setting her sights high for herself and even higher for her children and grandchildren."

Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work. But this grandmother from Alabama kept on fighting until the day I signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law - my first as president.... pic.twitter.com/Z4ZxsDbIU5— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 14, 2024

President Joe Biden called Ledbetter a "fearless leader" in her fight for equal pay and sent his "condolences to Lilly's family and all of the women she empowered."

"Her fight began on the factory floor and reached the Supreme Court and Congress, and she never stopped fighting for all Americans to be paid what they deserve," Biden wrote Monday in a statement released by the White House.

"Because of Lilly's tireless efforts, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- a critical step forward in the fight to close the gender and racial wage gaps -- became the first bill signed in the Obama-Biden administration," Biden said. "It was an honor to stand with Lilly as the bill that bears her name was made law."

Citing murder of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, Biden says 'no place for hate in America'


Oct. 14, 2024 

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President Joe Biden marked one year since the killing of six-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi in Illinois on Monday, by calling for "steps that honor Wadee's memory and reaffirm that there is no place for hate in America, including hatred of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims."

 Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo


Oct. 14 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden marked one year since the killing of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi in Illinois on Monday by highlighting ongoing work to "fight hatred and violence against Muslim and Arab communities."

"On October 14th, one year ago today, 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, a bright and cheerful American Muslim boy of Palestinian descent, was brutally killed in his family's home in Plainfield, Ill.," Biden said in a statement. "The attacker also repeatedly stabbed and seriously wounded Wadee's mother, Hanan Shaheen, resulting in murder, attempted murder and hate crime charges in Illinois."

"On this day, let us all take steps that honor Wadee's memory and reaffirm together that there is no place for hate in America, including hatred of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims," Biden added.

On Monday, the White House highlighted the Biden administration's "forthcoming National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Hatred Against Arabs in the United States," as well as its ongoing efforts to fight hate.

Since 2021, the Department of Justice has awarded more than $100 million in grants to law enforcement and civil rights groups to address hate crimes, while also working to transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System to improve how reported crime is measured, according to the White House.

"In May 2021, I signed into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which includes the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer NO HATE Act, to enhance hate crime data collection and provide community-centered solutions to assist hate crime victims and their communities," Biden added.

The DOJ has also created a website to raise awareness about resources to deal with threats against Muslim, Arab, Palestinian and Jewish communities in the United States.

The Department of Labor sent a letter to American Job Centers, reminding them of the legal requirements to ban discrimination based on religion or ethnicity. Also, schools and campuses have received fact sheets on fighting harassment from the Justice Department and the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also elevated hate crimes and criminal civil rights violations to its highest-level national threat priority, which has increased the resources for hate crimes a focus for all of the Bureau's field offices," Biden added, as he promised, "My administration will continue to spare no effort in countering hate in all its forms."

Amnesty International calls for Biden to free Leonard Peltier

POLITICAL PRISONER OF THE 70'S INDIAN WARS

Renewed calls for Peltier's freedom arrived on Indigenous Peoples' Day.


Amnesty International's call arrived on Indigenous Peoples' Day with the global human rights watchdog again urging the outgoing Democratic president to affix his name granting clemency to the decades-long jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier (seen in FBI's 1976 Ten Most Wanted poster), who turned 80 last month. 

File photo courtesy of FBI/UPI

Oct. 14, 2024 

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Amnesty International on Monday renewed calls for President Joe Biden to grant clemency to jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who many say is America's longest-serving political prisoner.

The call by Amnesty arrived on Indigenous Peoples' Day with the international human rights watchdog once more urging the outgoing Democratic president to commute the sentence of the decades-long jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who turned 80 last month on Sept. 12, and release him.



Peltier, who was a member of the indigenous American Indian Movement, had been convicted in 1975 of allegedly murdering two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a territory of the Oglala Sioux tribe in South Dakota, in a trial many say was riddled with fraud. Peltier has since maintained his innocence.

Peltier has been jailed for nearly 50 years despite legitimate and ongoing concern over the fairness of his trial decades ago, Amnesty and many others have long since argued.

Joining with Amnesty in its plea for Biden to show mercy has been American tribal nations and its leaders, members of both chambers of Congress including the Senate's Indian Affairs Committee chairman, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, ex-FBI agents, noted Nobel Peace Prize winners and former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, the very same federal prosecutor who handled Peltier's conviction and later appeals.

In early July, Peltier was denied his most recent parole request after a previous rejection in 2009.

But on Saturday in an open letter to Biden, liberal activist Michael Moore wrote that among 13 actions he feels Biden should take in the few remaining months of his "lame duck" presidency through Jan. 20 is to give Peltier his freedom.

"Mr. President, Leonard Peltier is two years younger than you," Moore opened his letter.

Moore's letter went on to state how Peltier was allegedly "pursued and surveilled by the FBI because of his political engagement. The evidence at his trial included conveniently altered details and a key witness who was coerced into testifying," Moore says. And many agree with his sentiments.

Currently housed in a Florida maximum security prison in regular lockdown, Peltier reportedly requires a walker to move and is blind in one eye from a previous stroke.

But Moore's is only one in a long line of other influential names, which he pointed out included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, members of Congress such as Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as well as actor Robert Redford, the Dali Lama and the late leaders Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela.

Amnesty International has long been part of the Peltier case. Officials observers to Peltier's 1977 trial were sent by Amnesty and, "along with its millions of members and supporters around the globe," has been campaigning on Peltier's behalf for his release.

Peltier in 2004 asked a judge to release certain files that he believed would grant a new trial, contending that he was framed by the U.S. government and would be exonerated if those documents could be publicly released.

In September, an official with Amnesty's U.S. arm went so far as to say the possible grant of presidential clemency for Peltier "could be one step to help mend the fractured relationship" and deep-seated generational mistrust the Native American population has for the U.S. government and "would forever be part of Biden's legacy," among other historical achievements.

"No one should be imprisoned after a trial riddled with uncertainty about its fairness," Justin Mazzola, a researcher with Amnesty International USA, said last month.

"Keeping an 80-year-old man with various health issues locked behind bars for the rest of his life doesn't serve justice," Mazzola wrote. "We hope that President Biden finds it in his heart to release Leonard Peltier as a matter of humanity, mercy, and human rights."

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee's Resolutions Committee in 2022 had unanimously approved a resolution imploring Biden to consider clemency for Peltier.

According to Amnesty, following a review of requests by the White House Counsel's Office and the U.S. Department of Justice, the president had committed to grant clemency and commutation of sentences on a rolling basis rather than do so at the end of Biden's term in January as historically had been the case by prior Oval Office occupants.

But pushback to Biden on that may come from within. The FBI Agents Association "strongly opposed" Peltier's release as Peltier has since maintained his innocence.

In July when Peltier was last denied parole, FBI Director Christopher Wray appeared to write-off any suggestion that Peltier should be granted his freedom despite widespread calls to do so and evidence suggesting alleged FBI impropriety.

Peltier "has been afforded his rights and due process time and again, and repeatedly, the weight of the evidence has supported his conviction and his life sentence," Wray said at the time praising the Parole Commission's decision to deny Peltier's freedom.

Because of Peltier's age and the next parole hearing not until 2039, July's recent parole denial means its likely Peltier will remain incarcerated until his death unless Biden acts before his White House exit following November's presidential election.

SPACE/COSMOS

NASA launches Europa Clipper mission to reach Jupiter moon by 2030

Oct. 14, 2024 / 

NASA's SpaceX Europa mission lifts off from Launch Complex 39A, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Monday.

 Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- NASA's $5 billion Europa Clipper spacecraft successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center on top of a SpaceX Super Heavy rocket Monday morning, beginning a six-year trek to Jupiter's icy moon.

After a one-day delay, the rocket took off shortly in the afternoon with no problems. The rocket's second-stage booster then performed a final burn in space to jettison the Europa Clipper to its trajectory.

"Leaving our water world, to explore another," NASA said on Monday, commenting on the spacecraft's 1.8-billion-mile ride" to explore the mysteries of Europa, Jupiter's ocean moon."

The Kennedy Space Center said the exploration will better help scientists understand how life started on Earth as well as if the moon is hospitable for life itself.

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The probe took off at 12:06 p.m., EDT from Pad 39A near Cape Canaveral on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and is expected to reach the moon, Europa, in April 2030.

Researchers believe Europa has one of the highest probabilities for life because of what they believe is water under miles of thick ice. In past missions, scientists have seen water plumes break through the surface.

New instruments on the Europa Clipper will help scientists better understand if Europa is habitable.

The mission was originally set to blast off on Sunday, but the impact of Hurricane Milton led NASA and SpaceX to delay the launch until Monday. The extra day gave the space agency and SpaceX to give the rocket one good once-over after the hurricane passed.

"One of the things we have done, working really closely with our NASA Launch Services Program team, is looking at what hardware on the vehicle was set, was suspect, was needed to be evaluated as part of this issue and make sure that it had its necessary checks and validation as needed," said Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA Science Missions for SpaceX, according to SpaceFlightNow.com.

Texas poised to execute autistic man for 'shaken baby' death

There have been 19 executions in the United States this year

Washington (AFP) – Barring a successful last-minute appeal, the US state of Texas will execute an autistic man this week whose murder conviction was based on what his lawyers say was a misdiagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome."

Issued on: 15/10/2024 
Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed in Texas on October 17, 2024 © Ilana Panich-Linsman / Innocence Project/AFP/File
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Robert Roberson, 57, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on Thursday for the February 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki.

Roberson's case has drawn the attention of the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions, best-selling American novelist John Grisham, Texas lawmakers and medical experts.

Also among those seeking to halt Roberson's execution is the man who put him behind bars -- Brian Wharton, the former chief detective in the town of Palestine.

"Knowing everything that I know now, I am firmly convinced that Robert is an innocent man," Wharton said at a recent press conference organized by Roberson's supporters. "The system failed Robert."

Grisham, author of the legal thrillers "The Firm" and "A Time to Kill," also appeared at the event and said cases such as Roberson's "keep me awake at night."

"When you get into wrongful convictions, you realize how many innocent people are in prison," said Grisham, a former attorney.

"What's amazing about Robert's case is that there was no crime," added Grisham, a member of the board of the Innocence Project, which has helped free more than 250 innocent people from US prisons since it was founded in 1992.

Roberson's lawyers say the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, made at the hospital where his chronically ill daughter died, was erroneous and the cause of death was in fact pneumonia, aggravated when doctors prescribed a wrong medication.

Wharton, the former detective who is now a Methodist minister, said the conclusion by a hospital doctor that the toddler had died after being violently shaken "led the investigation from that point forward, to the exclusion of all other possibilities."
'Roundly debunked'

According to his lawyers, Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States based on a conviction of shaken baby syndrome, which the American Academy of Pediatrics now classifies as abusive head trauma.

Novelist John Grisham, seen here in France in April 2024, is a former attorney who has been active in cases of wrongful conviction 

© OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP

"In the two decades that have passed since Mr Roberson's trial, evidence-based science has roundly debunked the version of the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis that was put before his jury," said Kate Judson of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences.

More than 30 parents and caregivers in 18 US states have been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted using "unscientific" shaken baby testimony, Judson said.

Roberson's attorney, Gretchen Sween, said his autism spectrum disorder, which was not diagnosed until 2018, was also not taken into account and contributed to his arrest and conviction.

During the medical crisis involving his daughter, Roberson "shut down, and his external lack of affect was judged as a lack of caring," Sween said.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday denied an emergency motion to stay Roberson's execution and order a new trial.

Another appeal is to be heard by a different state court on Tuesday, and lawyers for Roberson have also asked Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for clemency.

Citing the "voluminous new scientific evidence" that casts doubt on Roberson's guilt, a bipartisan group of 86 Texas state lawmakers has also urged the parole board and the governor to grant clemency.

There have been 19 executions in the United States this year including the September 24 execution in the midwestern state of Missouri of Marcellus Williams, whose case was also championed by the Innocence Project amid doubts about his guilt.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others -- Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee -- have moratoriums in place.

© 2024 AFP

Small town India's DIY film industry comes to London

'Mollywood' films are made on a shoestring budget and often spoof Bollywood or Hollywood classics

London (AFP) – The bright lights of the British capital are a world away from Malegaon, a down-at-heel textile town in the backwaters of Maharashtra state in western India.

Issued on: 15/10/2024 - 

Malegaon, in western India, has a thriving budget film industry 

© Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP

But the two have come together at this year's London Film Festival, where the remarkable story of Malegaon's unlikely film industry success has had its European premiere.

"Superboys of Malegaon", by director and producer Reema Kagti, follows the true story of Shaikh Nasir and his friends and their no-budget parodies of Bollywood and Hollywood classics such as "Sholay" and "Superman".

With DIY filmmaking techniques, amateur actors and the unique flavour of local dialect and comedy, his works became instant local hits.

They then gained international recognition with the release of a 2008 documentary of their work, "Supermen of Malegaon".

Malegaon's links to the giant Hindi-language film industry, though, are not so distant. By a twist of fate, co-producer Zoya Akhtar's father Javed Akhtar wrote "Sholay", which inspired Nasir's passion for filmmaking.

"It's a very, very big story from a very small town in India", Akhtar told AFP in an interview. "It tells you how connected you are, especially with cinema."

"Nasir's influences and my influences are very similar", added Kagti.

"So it was really like a privilege to be able to give a hat tip to so many people, so many actors, so much of the Indian film industry."
'Dream factory'

"Superboys" is an ode to the determination of Nasir, played by Adarsh Gourav, who featured in the Oscar-nominated film adaptation of Aravind Adiga's 2008 Booker Prize-winning novel "The White Tiger".

In Malegaon, some 300 kilometres (185 miles) from India's entertainment capital Mumbai, video parlours -- small picture houses -- are a haven for labourers keen to escape the daily slog of industrial weaving looms.
Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar's new film 'Superboys of Malegaon' charts the industry's success © SUJIT JAISWAL / AFP

Nasir's films offer comedic respite and a chance to see their town portrayed on the big screen, said Kagti.

"Every person who was part of that film has been immortalised and has been made into a hero of sorts, and it's given them a reason to not just exist but to celebrate life," added Gourav.

With no budget and little experience beyond his love for films and gigs as a wedding videographer, Nasir has to improvise and use homespun techniques to make movies.

While filming the Superman spoof, the hero dresses in comical red shorts with drawstrings dangling out, flying with the help of wacky green-screen contraptions while Nasir films tracking shots by balancing on the back of a truck hurtling down a bumpy road.
Global audience

"Superboys" touches upon everything from poverty to love, never straying far from Nasir's unwavering belief in the power of a camera -- and some imagination -- to turn the mundane into something extraordinary.

"The story is so universal that we feel there is a global audience," said executive producer Ritesh Sidhwani.

'Mollywood' films are made on a shoestring budget and often spoof Bollywood or Hollywood classics © Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP

The film has already been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and with its screening in London, Sidhwani hopes it will attract audiences beyond the Indian diaspora.

Nasir's homemade local films succeeded in creating a place in India's sometimes impenetrable film industry for Malegaon.

Akhtar said it is a lesson for everyone, particularly in a world of smartphones, where everyone can be a film-maker.

"People who watch this film will realise that they don't need to wait for a big break... They can just take that step," she added.

Today, "Mollywood" as it is sometimes called, lives on, with some actors from the original films continuing in Nasir's footsteps, sharing their DIY creations on platforms such as YouTube.

"That industry is now a part of Indian cinema's history", said Akhtar.

In "Superboys", the writer of the spoofs, Farogh, tells Nasir: "You told our stories, in our own voices... You gave us dreamers a place in history."

"In the history of Indian cinema, you've added a page for Malegaon."

© 2024 AFP