Los Angeles County to settle lawsuit over homeless crisis



- Jeff Page, right, also known as General Jeff, a homelessness activist and leader in the Downtown Los Angeles Skid Row Neighborhood Council, walks with U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, middle, and Michele Martinez, special master on the issues of homelessness, left, after a court hearing at Downtown Women's Center in Los Angeles. Los Angeles County leaders announced Monday, Sept. 12, 2022, a lawsuit settlement agreement that commits hundreds of millions of dollars to expand outreach and supportive services for homeless residents, marking the potential end of two years of litigation over the crisis of people living on the streets. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)More


CHRISTOPHER WEBER
Mon, September 12, 2022 


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County leaders announced Monday a lawsuit settlement agreement that commits hundreds of millions of dollars to expand outreach and supportive services for homeless residents, marking the potential end of two years of litigation over the crisis of people living on the streets.

The deal puts LA County, operator of the local public health system, in direct partnership with the city of Los Angeles, which has committed to sheltering thousands of homeless residents as part of its settlement in the lawsuit reached earlier this year.

The suit was brought in 2020 by the LA Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition that includes businesses, residents, landlords, homeless people and others who allege that inaction by the city and county has created a dangerous environment.

The homeless population was once largely confined to downtown LA’s notorious Skid Row, but encampments have spread widely, including within sight of City Hall and the Hall of Administration, where the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meets.


Supervisor Holly Mitchell said the county will commit an estimated $236 million in new funding to address homelessness through 2027, with an emphasis on expanding street outreach teams to make sure people who need help get it. That's on top of more than $530 million in homelessness funding created by a sales tax approved by voters in 2017.

Mitchell said the new money will also go toward a “comprehensive suite of services” for eligible residents of the 10,200 permanent housing units and 3,100 interim shelter beds that the city of LA has committed to build under its agreement. Services will include case management, medical and mental health support, benefits advocacy, family reunification, childcare and addiction treatment.

“I cannot underscore enough how this adds to our toolkit for stemming the tidal wave of people who are experiencing homelessness,” Mitchell said at a news conference with city and county officials.

Matthew Umhofer, attorney for the alliance, said the “monumental” settlement seals the deal with the city by ensuring county support.

“But most importantly, this deal provides something that has been desperately missing on this issue for decades: real accountability in the form of supervision over the next five years by a federal judge,” he said. The county’s agreement requires the approval of U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who is overseeing the case and will supervise the settlement’s implementation through 2027.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti conceded there's been a collective failure of properly addressing the crisis at a local level. He said the new partnership is a step toward “putting a game plan on paper for how we can continue to march towards our ultimate goal of eliminating homelessness."

The city has said it will spend around $3 billion over five years to construct the new housing units. But the exact commitment will be based on the results of the 2022 point-in-time count of homeless people that was released last week. As of February, there were more than 69,100 homeless people in Los Angeles County, with about 42,000 within LA city limits.

Last year, Carter issued an order that would have required the city and county to offer shelter to all unhoused people on Skid Row within six months.

An appeals court struck down the order on grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring most claims. The alliance then filed an amended lawsuit.

Under the city’s agreement, announced in April and approved by the judge in June, Los Angeles will create shelter or housing for 60% of homeless people in the city who do not have a serious mental illness, substance abuse disorder or chronic physical illness.

The city, which does not have its own health department, had contended the county is obligated to provide services and housing for people with those problems but was failing.

CDC warns of increase in respiratory illness among children that could lead to polio-like muscle weakness




Matt Adams
Tue, September 13, 2022 

(WXIN) – Doctors across the U.S. have seen an increase among children of a respiratory virus that can cause polio-like muscle weakness.

In most cases, enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) causes a respiratory illness with mild symptoms. It can, however, result in a condition called acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) that can cause inflammation of the spinal cord. Those suffering from AFM can have trouble moving their arms while others experience muscle weakness. In severe cases, it can lead to respiratory failure or life-threatening neurologic complications.

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According to an alert issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, pediatric hospitalizations are on the rise among patients with severe respiratory illness who tested positive for rhinovirus (RV) and/or enterovirus (EV). Some of the patients have also tested positive for EV-D68 — and hospital sites are reporting a higher proportion of EV-D68 patients compared to previous years.


This isn’t the first time EV-D68 has caused problems. In 2014, an outbreak of enterovirus D68 was reported in multiple states. The outbreak involved nearly 1,400 people, although an undercount is very likely because many who experienced mild symptoms didn’t get tested.

Increased activity was also reported in 2016 and 2018, with lower circulation in 2020 likely due to COVID-19 mitigation measures.

Between July 2022 and August 2022, the number of detected EV-D68 cases was greater than the period from the three previous years (2019, 2020 and 2021). While the CDC hasn’t seen increased reports of AFM, an increase in AFM cases generally follows an increase in EV-D68 cases, the agency said.

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The CDC alert asks providers to consider EV-D68 as a possible cause of respiratory illnesses among children and warns of a potential increase in cases in the weeks to come. Common symptoms for EV-D68 include cough, shortness of breath and wheezing. Fever is present in about half of known cases.

“On rare occasions, EV-D68 may cause AFM,” the CDC noted in its alert. “This rare but serious neurologic condition primarily affects children and typically presents with sudden limb weakness.”

According to the CDC, signs of AFM include:

arm or leg weakness


pain in the neck, back, arms, or legs


difficulty swallowing or slurred speech


difficulty moving the eyes or drooping eyelids


facial droop or weakness

The agency noted that there are no available vaccines or specific treatments.

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Infants, children and teenagers are most likely to get infected. Those who suffer from asthma may be at greater risk for severe cases of EV-D68.

The CDC urges the public to follow typical prevention measures:

Wash your hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds


Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands


Avoid close contact such as kissing, hugging, and sharing cups or eating utensils with people who are sick, and when you are sick


Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue or your upper shirt sleeve, not your hands


Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces, such as toys and doorknobs, especially if someone is sick


Stay home when you are sick


Consider wearing a mask around other people if you have respiratory symptoms


Contact a healthcare provider immediately if you or your child has trouble breathing or has a sudden onset of limb weakness


Ensure you or your child are following an up-to-date asthma action plan if you or your child have asthma


Stay up-to-date with all recommended vaccines

Pastor Our faith does not 'force pregnancy

and birth onto a 10-year-old little girl'

Gini Lohmann-Bauman

Mon, September 12, 2022 

Gini Lohmann-Bauman is a transformational leader, prophetic preacher, social justice witness, and Christian minister to those on the margins of society as the senior pastor of St. John’s United Church in Christ in Columbus. She lives in Westerville with her husband Gery and their daughter Katie.

As a person of faith, I know my beliefs are not in conflict with facts.

After reading “I'll take my beliefs over your 'facts' and scientific surveys, studies,” a letter to the editor by Diana Lewis, I feel compelled to explicitly state how much my faith not only aligns with facts, but also leads me to be in support of people’s right to access abortion care.

Lewis argues most Catholics, and many other people of faith, are opposed to abortion because of the Fifth Commandment. While she is certainly welcome to her opinion, it does not trump the truth. And the truth is having faith does not automatically mean opposing abortion and other forms of reproductive freedom.

More:Letters: I'll take my beliefs over your 'facts' and scientific surveys, studies

People of faith never have been, and never will be, a monolith.

Erasing the faith of millions of people simply to push a political narrative not only distorts the truth, it is morally wrong. In fact, several faiths adamantly support women having the freedom to choose or not choose pregnancy for themselves.

A May 2022 Pew survey notes 88 percent of Catholics, 87% of Black Protestants and 77% of white Evangelicals support some form of abortion access. These numbers tell a story that we do not hear often: People of faith across the board support people’s right to bodily autonomy. Supporting people having self-determination is not in contradiction to my faith.

I was taught to lead with compassion and to champion people’s right to dignity, agency, autonomy, love and self-determination. Assuming people who seek abortions are irresponsible or reckless is totally void of compassion and care. The Bible is very clear when it comes to being judgmental and it’s unreasonable to assume we are in a position to determine if a person should be able to control their bodies based on how we feel about how they got pregnant.

More:Ohio clergy: 'Trigger ban' an 'overreach by religious zealots' that would take us backward

As people of faith it is our calling to protect other’s innate dignity, to respect their moral agency and to be co-creators with God ensuring that everyone has safe, healthy and sustainable communities where they can thrive and parent if they decide to do so.

Our calling is not to force pregnancy and birth onto a 10-year-old little girl who experienced a sexual assault that already left her traumatized. Considering all she experienced, it’s unconscionable to require her to travel from Ohio to Indiana just to seek medical care. Where is the love and compassion in that?

Our faith mandates that we fight to protect basic human rights like bodily autonomy, housing, healthcare and the ability to parent or not parent how we see fit. We are not charged with expanding or even supporting barriers that further prevent us from living with the dignity that God desires.

The right to have a child, the right to not have a child and the right to parent a child or children in safe, sustainable and healthy environments should be basic human rights.

More:Rabbis: Abortion 'not only allowed but necessary' under our religious law.

We cannot allow the continuous exploitation of faith to be weaponized to create stigma around reproductive health care.

We have to counter cultural narratives that associate faith solely with opposition to abortion access and reproductive justice, we have to tell our truth about how our faith plays a role in us supporting access to abortion care.

Gini Lohmann-Bauman is a transformational leader, prophetic preacher, social justice witness, and Christian minister to those on the margins of society as the senior pastor of St. John’s United Church in Christ in Columbus. She lives in Westerville with her husband Gery and their daughter Katie.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: Having faith does not automatically mean opposing abortion

Guest opinion: Unintended consequences and myths about abortions


Dr. Allen Malnak
Tue, September 13, 2022

United States Supreme Court exterior

Let me make it clear. I’d like to see the abortion number as close to zero as possible while allowing safe abortions whenever a woman feels she requires that procedure.

On June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court determined that abortion is not a constitutional right, effectively reversing Roe v. Wade.

Do you think there’s a girl or woman anywhere who awakens in the morning thinking, “Oh great. I can’t wait to get pregnant, so I can have an abortion”? Not likely.

Keep in mind, much evidence exists indicating restricting abortion doesn’t put an end to it. In fact, sometimes, the opposite is true.


Reproductive freedom implies that “every person can make the best decision for themselves and their family about whether and when to have a child without undue political interference.” RF should indicate freedom from both forced sterilization and compulsory motherhood.

I remember the pre-Roe vs Wade times clearly since I was involved in medicine for some twenty-three years prior to that ruling. While I never performed an abortion, as an intern at an enormous charity hospital and later as medical director of Chicago’s Mount Sinai Hospital emergency department, I witnessed close-up the disastrous results of criminal abortions. Naturally, these mostly affected the poor and minority women. Wealthier women always have and always will continue to find physicians who, for significant amounts of cash, will perform an abortion. When properly done by an experienced physician under sterile conditions, abortions are one of the safest operations with few complications. Not so when self-induced or done by “back-alley” operators.

Dr. Allen Malnak

Abortion remains a controversial and divisive issue. There are many myths and misconceptions. There are valid reasons for opposition without resorting to scare tactics using outdated or disproved medical evidence. Such is the case with the claim abortions cause breast cancer. The earlier limited studies purporting such a relationship were found to be flawed. For example, "recall bias" compromised some results. Later, more carefully performed research indicated no relationship exists.

The American Medical Association called the Dobbs decision “an attack on best medical practices and acknowledges it as a violation of human rights when the government impedes access to abortion.”

Complex medications like methotrexate can be banned because they can result in an abortion. But these meds are necessary to treat other non-related serious diseases.

Some of the problems the Supreme Court has caused include: Longer distances to travel, increased waiting for the procedure, increased financial burden, and unsafe abortions.

Here are some unintended consequences of banning abortions: harm to women’s health, including death and possible banning of in vitro fertilization.

There are too many abortion myths to discuss. They include: Abortion is high risk. Actually, it’s among the safest operations if done by a skilled operator. Most are performed in a clinic. With the use of prescription meds, many abortions are now medically induced. Abortions cause infertility. They almost never do. Abortions negatively affect mental health of the patient. If it does, it’s a rare occurrence. Most who seek an abortion are childless. In truth, about 60% have children. Most just don’t want to have children. There are many, many reasons. That is only one of them. Are abortions common in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy? Most occur during the first trimester, i.e., first 12 weeks after conception. Are most women who have abortions teens? No, only 9%.

The last myth I will discuss is that irresponsible behavior results in unplanned pregnancies. But in fact, “more than half of abortion patients used some form of contraception prior to getting pregnant.”

Dr. Allen Malnak, M.D., is a resident of Bonita Springs. Following his internship and residency, Dr. Malnak served as chief of internal medicine at U.S. Army Hospital, Fort Sill, OK, and then was a clinical investigator in liver disease at Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago. He was a board-certified internist in the Chicago area for more than 35 years. He was a clinical instructor at Chicago Medical School for eight years and an assistant clinical professor at the Stritch School of Medicine of Loyola University for 25 years. Dr. Malnak was medical director of a number of medical organizations, including the emergency department of Mount Sinai Hospital and Principle Health Care of Illinois.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Unintended consequences and myths about abortions

QAnon song plays and MAGA supporters give unusual finger salute as Trump speaks at JD Vance rally in Ohio, video shows

Joshua Zitser

Sun, September 18, 2022 

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on September 17, 2022.Tom E. Puskar/AP Photo

• Former President Donald Trump spoke at a rally for JD Vance on Saturday in Youngstown, Ohio.

• A QAnon song played while he spoke about Ukraine, "Fake News," and Hunter Biden's laptop.

• His followers pointed their fingers to the sky. Experts say the finger salute may have also been a nod to QAnon.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday spoke at a rally for Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance while a QAnon song played dramatically in the background, and his supporters raised their fingers in an unusual salute.

In recent weeks, Trump has amplified QAnon talking points on his social media, but Saturday night's spectacle in Youngstown, Ohio, was perhaps the clearest sign yet that he's now openly embracing the baseless conspiracy theory.

As Trump complained about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "Fake News," and Hunter Biden's laptop at the Ohio rally, a cinematic soundtrack played throughout.

According to Media Matters, the US-based media watchdog, the soundtrack appears to be a song previously released online with the title "Wwg1wga" — the QAnon slogan.

QAnon figures noticed the song choice, perceiving it as a nod to the movement by the former president. "QAnon figures are claiming the use of the song brings some kind of legitimacy for them," said Alex Kaplan, a senior researcher for Media Matters, in a tweet on Saturday.

Last month, Trump posted a video on his social media platform Truth Social using the same audio, per Media Matters. At the time, the former president's spokesperson claimed to Vice that it was not a QAnon song but music by the composer Will Van de Crommert.

However, a Media Matters review using Google's voice assistant and Apple's Shazam app identified it as "Wwg1wga," which stands for "where we go one, we go all," by an artist called Richard Feelgood. QAnon followers celebrated the use of the audio at the time, per Media Matters, with one describing it as "THE mother of all Q proofs" and "the biggest nod they've ever given us."

People point their fingers to the sky during a speech by former President Donald Trump at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio.Newsmax via Aaron Rupar/Twitter

An unusual finger salute, which saw attendees of the Youngstown rally raise their fingers to the sky, is also being described by experts on the conspiracy theory as a potential nod to QAnon.

"Some on Twitter are calling it a QAnon salute, with 1 finger for 'Where we go 1,' and Trump is playing a pro-Q song as he talks," said Will Sommer, author of an upcoming book on QAnon, in a tweet on Saturday.

Ben Collins, a senior reporter who covers extremism for NBC News, said in a tweet that there is confusion in Trump forums as to why his followers raised their fingers at the rally and whether it was a gesture to the QAnon community.

"Some people think it's for Where We Go 1 We Go All — the QAnon catchphrase," he wrote. "Others think it's to symbolize America First. Whatever it is, it's deeply weird and I haven't seen it before."

Recently, per AP's reporting, Trump has moved from "winking" at QAnon to openly embracing it.

On Tuesday, he reposted an image on Truth Social of himself wearing a Q pin on his jacket with an overlay of the words "The Storm is Coming." In QAnon mythology, the "storm" refers to a day of violent retribution when Trump's enemies will face televised mass executions.

In late August, Trump reposted (and then deleted) a "Q drop" — a cryptic message said to be posted by the anonymous Q.

And according to AP, nearly a third of the 75 accounts Trump has reposted on his Truth Social profile in the past month have promoted QAnon.

Insider contacted Trump's post-presidency office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Yeshiva University halts clubs amid high court LGBTQ ruling


The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, Monday, June 27, 2022. The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a court order that would have forced Yeshiva University to recognize an LGBTQ group as an official campus club. The court acted Friday, Sept. 9, in a brief order signed by Justice Sonia Sotomayor that indicated the court would have more to say on the topic at some point. 

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) 

Associated Press
Sat, September 17, 2022 

NEW YORK (AP) — Yeshiva University has abruptly suspended student club activity in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this week that ordered the school to recognize — for now — an LGBTQ student group.

In an email to students, university officials on Friday said that it “hold off on all undergraduate club activities while it immediately takes steps to follow the roadmap provided by the U.S. Supreme Court to protect YU's religious freedom.”

On Wednesday, the high court cleared the way for the LGBTQ group, YU Pride Alliance, to gain official recognition from the Jewish university in New York.

The undergraduate group describes itself as “a supportive space for all students, of all sexual orientations and gender identities, to feel respected, visible, and represented.”





Spokespeople for the university did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on Saturday.

By a 5-4 vote Wednesday, the justices lifted a temporary hold on a court order that requires Yeshiva University to recognize the group, even as a legal fight continues in New York courts. Two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, sided with the court’s three liberal justices to form a majority.

The disagreement among the justices appears to be mostly about procedure, with the majority writing in a brief unsigned order that Yeshiva should return to state court to seek quick review and temporary relief while the case continues. If it gets neither from state courts, the school can return to the Supreme Court, the majority wrote.

The case was being closely watched by other faith-based institutions.

Following the ruling, the president of the university, Rabbi Ari Berman, said that faith-based universities have the right to establish clubs within its understanding of the Torah.

“Yeshiva University simply seeks that same right of self-determination,” he said. “The Supreme Court has laid out the roadmap for us to find expedited relief and we will follow their instructions.”

Berman also said the university's “commitment and love for our LGBTQ students are unshakeable.”

Nevertheless, a lawyer for the students said the university's action Friday was divisive and “shameful.”

“The Pride Alliance seeks a safe space on campus, nothing more. By shutting down all club activities, the YU administration attempts to divide the student body, and pit students against their LGBT peers,” said the lawyer, Katie Rosenfeld.

The university's tactic, she said, “is a throwback to 50 years ago when the city of Jackson, Mississippi closed all public swimming pools rather than comply with court orders to desegregate.”

The university, an Orthodox Jewish institution in New York, argued that granting recognition to the Pride Alliance, “would violate its sincere religious beliefs.”

The club argued that Yeshiva’s plea to the Supreme Court was premature, also noting the university already has recognized a gay pride club at its law school.

A New York state court sided with the student group and ordered the university to recognize the club immediately. The matter remains on appeal in the state court system, but judges there refused to put the order on hold in the meantime.

HUMAN RIGHTS TRUMP RELIGIOUS RITES

ANTI-LGBTQ RIGHTS PROTEST IN TURKEY

Turkish demonstrators chant slogans while holding Turkish flags during a anti LGBTI+ protest, in Fatih district of Istanbul, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. AP Photo/Khalil Hamra

Sun, September 18, 2022 

ISTANBUL (AP) — An anti-LGBTQ group marched Sunday in Istanbul, demanding that LGBTQ associations be shuttered and their activities banned, in the largest demonstration of its kind in Turkey.

Several thousand people joined the demonstration dubbed “The Big Family Gathering.” Kursat Mican, a speaker for the organizers, said they had gathered more than 150,000 signatures to demand a new law from Turkey’s parliament that would ban what they called LGBTQ propaganda, which they say pervades Netflix, social media, arts and sports.

Hatice Muge, who works as a nanny, came to the gathering from Bursa province.

“People are here despite the rain for their children, for future generations,” she said, urging the Turkish government to take action. “They should save the family, they should save the children from this filth."

The group held banners that read: “Protecting the family is a national security issue.”

LGBTQ parades have not been allowed in Turkey since 2015.

Ahead of Sunday’s demonstration, the organizers circulated a video using images from past LGBTQ Pride marches in Turkey. The video was included in the public service announcement list of Turkey’s media watchdog.

The video and the demonstration prompted an outcry from LGBTQ associations and other rights groups. The organizers of Istanbul Pride called on the governor’s office to ban the event and authorities to take down the video, arguing both were hateful.

ILGA Europe, which works for LGBTQ equality, tweeted it was extremely concerned about the risks of violence.

“The Turkish state needs to uphold its constitutional obligation to protect all its citizens against hate and violence,” it said.

Amnesty International’s Turkey office said public service announcements listing the event violated Turkey’s equality and non-discrimination principles.

Top Turkish officials have called LGBTQ people “perverts” who aim to hurt traditional family values.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves Mocked Jackson At An Event After More Than 150,000 Of The City's Residents Had No Clean Water

Steffi Cao   Sun, September 18, 2022 

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves made fun of the ongoing water crisis in Jackson on Friday, just a day after the state lifted a weeks-long boil water advisory, that left more than 150,000 people in the capital city without clean water in their homes.

“I’ve got to tell you it is a great day to be in Hattiesburg. It's also, as always, a great day to not be in Jackson,” Reeves said, as he spoke at a groundbreaking event in the southern Mississippi city on Friday. “I feel like I should take off my emergency management director hat and leave it in the car and take off my public works director hat and leave it in the car.”

The governor’s comments drew swift backlash online, with people blasting Reeves for making light of a public health emergency that has disproportionately impacted people of color. For nearly seven weeks, Jackson residents — about 82.5% of whom are Black — were forced to boil what came out of their faucets because of concerns that the water was contaminated and could cause illness. The crisis intensified in late August, when the city’s main water treatment facility started to fail, forcing workers to adjust treatment processes. As a result, many residents were left with no or low water pressure in their homes for days.

“In the most disgraceful Governor sweepstakes, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves is a winner,” Sherrilyn Ifill, a civil rights attorney and former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, tweeted.

“I think we can officially say that Tate Reeves, Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are the new Axis of Evil,” another person said.

A representative for Reeves did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.

Residents of Jackson have grown accustomed to going weeks without safe, reliable drinking water due to years of deferred maintenance on its aging water infrastructure. While speaking to reporters last month about the lack of water pressure in the city’s pipes, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba acknowledged that “it's not a matter of if our system would fail, but a matter of when our system would fail.”

His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Reeves’s statements on Friday. Reeves has tried to blame city officials for the latest chapter of the yearslong crisis, though the state has historically refused to help pay for repairs that have been impossible for the city to afford as decades of white flight have left it with less tax revenue.

In recent weeks, residents took to social media to post about the dire realities of the water crisis, sharing videos of opaque brown water coming out of their faucets and long lines of people in their cars waiting to pick up clean water. Although the latest boil-water notice was lifted on Thursday, health officials advised that pregnant people and young children should continue to take precautions due to high lead levels previously found in some homes.

More on this

• 
  

  More Than 150,000 People In Jackson, Mississippi, Are Once Again Trying To Survive Without Reliable Clean WaterStephanie K. Baer · Aug. 30, 2022

• 
  

  In Jackson, Mississippi, You Can Go Into Debt Trying To Take A ShowerBrianna Sacks · April 7, 2021

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves says it's 'a great day to not be in Jackson,' where residents went without clean running water for weeks

Sarah Jackson
Sat, September 17, 2022

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves seen on June 30, 2020.Rogelio V. Solis/Pool via REUTERS

More than 150,000 people in Jackson — Mississippi's largest city and capital — went without clean running water for weeks.

Speaking in Hattiesburg on Friday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said it was "a great day to not be in Jackson."

Jackson lifted its boil-water notice, which had been in place since July, on Thursday.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves called it "a great day to not be in Jackson" on Friday, referring to the state's capital, which has been deprived of clean running water for weeks.

Reeves made the remarks while attending a groundbreaking ceremony in Hattiesburg, roughly 90 miles southeast of Jackson, according to local reports.

"It is a great day to be in Hattiesburg. It's also, as always, a great day to not be in Jackson," he said, according to local television station 16 WAPT News. "I feel like I should take off my emergency manager director hat and leave it in the car and take off my public works director hat and leave it in the car."

Jackson is the state's largest city, home to more than 150,000 residents, the majority of whom are Black. The city lost access to clean running water after severe flooding in late August damaged its main water treatment facility.

The crisis has highlighted the devastation that happens and will continue to happen when issues like climate change, poor infrastructure, and systemic racism intersect.

Jackson had a boil-water notice in place since July, as residents turned on their taps to see brown water and waited in hourslong lines for bottled water. The city lifted the notice on Thursday.

"We've significantly increased the quantity of water produced," Reeves said at a press conference announcing the update on Thursday, according to The Mississippi Free Press. "We've restored water pressure to the city. We've installed an emergency rental pump. We've fixed and reinstalled broken parts on site, and we've monitored and tested water quality."

Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba later tweeted, "This is progress as we continue to work towards a consistent and reliable system."

Rep. Lauren Boebert said humanity is in its 'last days' and Christians should 'rise up,' invoking Christian nationalist imagery that's linked to violence


Kelsey Vlamis
Sun, September 18, 2022 

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., addresses attendees during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, Saturday, July 23, 2022, in Tampa, Fla.

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

Boebert echoed Christian nationalist talking points and invoked the end times in a speech last week.

She said it's time for Christians to "rise up" and "influence this nation as we were called to do."

Christian nationalism experts say such rhetoric has been linked to violence.

A recent speech by Rep. Lauren Boebert — during which she invoked the end times and said it's time for Christians to "rise up" — demonstrated how Christian nationalist ideals, including some associated with violence, have made it to the halls of Congress.

"It's time for us to position ourselves and rise up and take our place in Christ and influence this nation as we were called to do," the Colorado Republican told the crowd at a Christian conference held by the Truth and Liberty Coalition in Woodland Park, Colorado, on September 9.

"We need God back at the center of our country," she added.

Boebert heavily quoted scripture in her speech. She framed the formation of the US as divinely inspired and described the founding fathers as men of faith who were motivated by God — contentions that have been challenged by historians.

"We know that we are in the last of the last days," Boebert later said, referencing the belief held by some evangelical Christians that Jesus will return after a period of tribulation, or great suffering, and save believers. "But it's not a time to complain about it. It's not a time to get upset about it. It's a time to know that you were called to be a part of these last days. You get to have a role in ushering in the second coming of Jesus."

Boebert's comments expressing an intrinsic tie between the US and Christianity aren't new: In June she said she was "tired of this separation of church and state junk" and that "the church is supposed to direct the government." But by invoking the end times, Boebert is tapping into a side of Christian nationalism that has been associated with violence.

Although a spokesperson for Boebert told The Denver Post she does not identify as a Christian nationalist, her comments align with the tenants of Christian nationalism, an ideology and cultural framework that says Christianity should have a privileged position in American society.

"We found in our book that among Americans that embrace Christian nationalism, we see increasingly this embrace of a premillennialist interpretation of the end times, where there will be a tribulation but Christ will take away the faithful," Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at IUPUI and co-author of "Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States," told Insider.

Whitehead said Boebert was taking a specific and relatively new interpretation of the end times and melding it with the idea that Christians are supposed to have an influential role in public life. He said her view wasn't necessarily about saving the nation, but about Christians countering the forces of evil while they still can and remaining faithful up until the end.

"Citing the end times really does feel like a call to action and a rallying cry in some sense," Whitehead said, adding: "A lot of that end times imagery is associated with violence and rapture and descending into chaos societally."

Experts on religion and politics told The Denver Post that Boebert's remarks could be interpreted as a call for violence, particularly in relation to the midterm elections.

"Now the apocalypse is because if we don't get our people in, it's an apocalypse," Anthea Butler, chair of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Religious Studies, told the outlet.

Though Boebert's comments aren't new among proponents of Christian nationalism, such rhetoric has rarely, if ever, been deployed by a member of Congress.

Christian nationalism has also inspired acts of violence in the past. A report published in February by a group of faith leaders, historians, and religious scholars — including Whitehead — argued the concept was on display at the Capitol on January 6 and helped justify the insurrection. Christian nationalist ideals were also espoused by the suspects in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and the 2019 New Zealand mosque shootings.

"Any time that our political rhetoric moves in an area where we are raising the stakes — where it is ultimate good vs. ultimate evil," Whitehead said, "that's when political violence becomes much more likely."

Boebert's office did not respond to Insider's request for comment.