AM Quickie

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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Florida has become the latest state to pass Republican legislation making it harder for people to vote. Voter advocacy groups are already challenging the new law in court.

Meanwhile, Brazilian police committed a massacre in one of Rio’s largest favelas. At least twenty five people were killed in what police described as a campaign to ensure public safety.

And lastly, the United States is reportedly turning a corner in the pandemic. Public health experts are expressing cautious optimism about declining infection numbers, but they also warn against letting our guard down too soon.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

This dispatch from the Republican war on democracy comes from the Associated Press. Governor Ron DeSantis signed a major rewrite of Florida’s elections law yesterday, tightening rules around drop boxes and mail-in voting. Critics say the changes will make it harder for voters, particularly the elderly and people of color, to cast ballots. It’s the latest victory in the nationwide push by Republicans to restrict access to the polls. The campaign has been fueled by Donald Trump’s false claim that his reelection was stolen from him. Florida’s Republican legislators passed this law – without a single Democratic vote – even though they acknowledged there were no signs of fraud in the state.

The AP reports that DeSantis, widely viewed as a potential presidential candidate, clearly saw the political advantage in fighting for what his party describes as election integrity. In an extraordinary move, he staged his bill-signing live on Fox and Friends, with no other media outlets allowed. Elections supervisors did not ask for the changes, warning that some of the new rules may prove cumbersome. Voter advocates assailed the law as a blatant attempt to impede access to the polls so Republicans might retain an advantage. Patricia Brigham, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, called the law despicable, undemocratic, unconstitutional, and un-American. The league joined the Black Voters Matter Fund, the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans and others in assailing the new law in a federal lawsuit filed minutes after the signing. May the courts strike it down!

Rio Police Commit Massacre

The news from Brazil is ugly. The Guardian reports that at least twenty five people have been killed after heavily armed police stormed one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest favelas in pursuit of drug traffickers. Activists called it one of the deadliest raids in the city’s history. About two hundred members of Rio’s civil police launched their incursion into Jacarezinho (Haca-ray-zeenho) in the early hours yesterday, sprinting into the vast redbrick community as a bullet-proof helicopter circled overhead with snipers poised on each side. By lunchtime at least twenty five people were reported dead, including a drug squad officer who was shot in the head. Police and local media described the other victims as suspects but offered no immediate evidence for that claim.

Photographs and videos taken by residents and shared with the Guardian showed bloodied corpses splayed out in the favela’s narrow alleyways and beside the heavily polluted river from which Jacarezinho takes its name. Police officials and their cheerleaders in Rio’s tabloid press celebrated the mission as an essential attack on the drug gangs who have for decades used the favelas as their bases. But there was outrage from human rights activists and public security specialists as the scale of the carnage became clear. Pedro Paulo Santos Silva, a researcher from Rio’s Centre for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship, said, " It’s extermination – there’s no other way to describe it. This was a massacre." The least we can do is bear witness.

US Pandemic Case Numbers Falling

Good news! The New York Times reports that after weeks of coronavirus patients flooding emergency rooms in Michigan, the worst Covid-19 hot spot in the nation, hospitalizations are finally falling. On some recent days, entire states, including Wisconsin and West Virginia, have reported zero new deaths. And in New York and Chicago, officials have vowed to fully reopen in the coming weeks. Americans have entered a new, hopeful phase of the pandemic. Local officials have joined in the newfound optimism, rapidly loosening restrictions. Public health experts remain cautious. But they said that while they still expect surges in the coming weeks, they do not think they will reach past peaks. The nation is recording about forty nine thousand new cases a day, the lowest number since October.

Hospitalizations have plateaued at around forty thousand, a similar level as the early fall. Nationwide, deaths are hovering around seven hundred a day, down from a peak of more than three thousand in January.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post says the pandemic could be at least temporarily throttled by July if the vast majority of people get vaccinated and continue with precautions. That’s according to a strikingly optimistic paper released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said she expects the current infection numbers to continue their recent decline. She also warned against complacency. She said, "If we’re not humble at this point, we have a problem." And remember, it’s not over until it’s over everywhere.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

The Washington Post reports that months after the Trump administration weakened the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, allowing industry and individuals to kill any number of birds, the Biden administration proposed a new rule that would revoke that change. The proposal announced by the Interior Department yesterday would restore protections that governed accidental killings of birds. Oil companies are mad, so you know it’s good.

According to CBS News, refusing to wear a mask or other unruly behavior on an airplane has gotten more than four thousand people banned by US airlines over the past year. Airlines have referred more than thirteen hundred passengers to the Federal Aviation Administration for unruly behavior since February, after the agency announced a zero- tolerance policy. Is it really that hard to keep your mask on?

The New York Times reports that New York City is launching a new program to provide funding to artists for public works. Officials said the city will spend $25 million on the program, called the City Artist Corps. It’s expected to create jobs for more than fifteen hundred artists. Color us excited.

Gizmodo reports that informants working for the FBI committed more than nine thousand six hundred crimes under the bureau’s supervision during Donald Trump’s first two years in office. That’s according to unclassified government reports known as Otherwise

Illegal Activity reports, which detail the number of crimes committed by what the bureau calls confidential human sources. Want to break the law? Get a cop’s permission first!

MAY 7, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn