What A Day - Mr. Eviction Freeze

Episode Date: September 2, 2020

The CDC and the Health Department are moving to ban evictions through December for people who can’t pay because of the pandemic. New York City caved to pressure from teachers unions who threatened to strike over school reopenings, pushing back the start of in-person to later this month.Legal battles over mail-in voting saw major developments in Texas, Iowa, and Georgia. An audit from the Inspector General of the USPS looked at primary elections over the summer, and found that over a million mail ballots didn’t get to voters on time. And in headlines: Sheriff’s deputies in LA fatally shoot Dijon Kizzee, Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend was offered a plea deal if he implicated her in July, and Facebook and Google threaten to ground Australia from the news.

It's Wednesday, September 2nd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, where we believe that in the future, most political campaigning will take place on Animal Crossing. Yeah, so drop your Dodo code, because it looks like we're coming to your island. That is what I say to everybody that plays the game and doesn't play the game. On today's show, the latest on vote by mail and the legal fights over it, then some headlines. But first, the latest, and we're going to start with coronavirus. New York City caved to pressure from teachers unions who threatened to strike over the endless push to reopen schools. The school year was scheduled to start in just eight days as a mix of in-person and remote classes.

But now they'll go back on the 16th, starting with online only and begin some in-person classes on the 21st. Teachers are hoping that this extra delay will facilitate major updates to building safety and allow for a system to be set up that would randomly test 10 to 20% of students and staff each month. Yeah, I hope it works for them too. And in addition to teachers and faculty being worried about COVID risks, there's also more reason to be concerned here about kids contracting the virus. That's right. So this is specifically brown and black kids. So new data from the CDC and a separate study published in the journal Pediatrics show that children of color are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. I am not surprised by this. An obvious reason is that these children are more likely to have parents or caregivers who work on the front lines of everything. And we know that COVID spreads within families. Children of color have been found to be

hospitalized at rates five to eight times as high as white children. And even though less than 100 children have died from COVID-19 in a country where 180,000 plus have died, the breakdown of those deaths does not reflect the demographics of the country. Children of color are more likely to develop the life-threatening COVID complication called multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C. The research does not say that there are genetic predispositions for brown and black people, but in reality, poverty levels were more indicative of who suffers most. Affluent white families are more likely to have single-family homes. black people. But in reality, poverty levels were more indicative of who suffers most. Affluent white families are more likely to have single family homes. They can telecommute to work instead of taking public transit and working with the public directly. So once again, it's another systemic racism issue. Yeah, that's always the case, unfortunately. And all right, well, moving on to a question on housing, there is a tiny bright spot for those who have been left out of work in

the pandemic when it comes to evictions, right? Indeed. So the CDC and the health department are moving to ban evictions nationwide on all properties through December. It is wild to me that it took this long to be proposed, but I was also taught not to look a gift horse in the mouth. So let me just break down what we know. The ban applies to people who cannot afford to pay rent due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. It also criminalizes landlords who evict people for being unable to pay in this time period. There's no word on if people who have recently become unhoused will see any benefit, but this is good news for anyone who might currently be anxious about rent. Evictions for reasons other than payment are still allowed, so it's a bit unclear how one

could dispute that or verify that it wasn't about payment. And to qualify, you must be able to prove that you will make less than $99,000 this year or have already been given a stimulus check. Tenants will also have to certify that an eviction would likely make them homeless or push them to double up with others in close quarters. And critics are calling a ban on evictions without additional stimulus checks a half measure since rent is still going to be owed at some point after this ban is over. And several landlord associations have claimed that this just puts the onus on landlords to pay banks with money that they don't have. So we're going to have to see what happens next. But let's talk about another COVID adjacent topic, vote by mail. There are a bunch of legal fights playing out at the state

level. So where do things stand right now? Yeah, so big picture is a lot of states have expanded their mail access to voting because of the pandemic. But each state has different rules about how to qualify for mail voting, how to get a ballot, how to return a ballot, etc, and so forth. And all these rules make a big difference when it comes to expanding or restricting the right to vote. And this week, there were at least three pretty big developments on this front. First, there's Texas, which is one of the only states in the country that hasn't opened mail voting to everyone who wants it. Currently, only voters who are 65 or older or who can cite a disability or illness are allowed to vote by mail due to the pandemic. Democrats have been trying to fight against these restrictions,

and one county, Harris County, where Houston is, had a plan to send vote-by-mail applications to millions of its residents. Now the state's Republican Attorney General has filed a lawsuit to stop those applications from going out. Then there's Iowa, where the fight isn't about whether to send vote-by-mail applications to voters, but what the applications actually look like. The Republican Secretary of State in Iowa issued an order to keep county clerks from sending out applications that have some voter information already completed. That's like names and addresses. Republicans want people to fill out that information themselves, and National Democrats

have now sued to overturn that order. And what gets complicated here is that some voters have already used pre-completed ballot applications. Then those applications got invalidated, and so the message to those voters is that they have to start all over. Finally, in Georgia, a judge has extended the time window for mail ballots to be accepted. Instead of getting in on election day, ballots now will count as long as they get in within three days of it and are postmarked by election day. So that makes things a little bit easier for mail voters. So that gives us a sense of the kinds of legal battles happening around voting right now. There are similar lawsuits like these going on other crucial swing states like Pennsylvania. So this will definitely be important to keep a watch on.

Right. And overall, the advice from experts is if you are planning to vote by mail, just do it as early as possible, which brings us to the Postal Service. So there was an audit that found that over a million ballots didn't get to voters on time earlier this year. Not great. So what are the specifics? Yeah, so this audit comes from the inspector general of the USPS, which is the agency's watchdog. It looked at primary elections over the summer and, as you said, found that over a million mail ballots didn't get to voters on time. And so by on time here, they're saying the ballots went out during the final week leading up to the election, which definitely puts ballots at high risk of not being able to get filled out and

returned on time. A much smaller amount of ballots in the hundreds were sent once elections were already done, which of course in those cases means that they could not get counted at all. According to the New York Times, the biggest problems in the overall audit were in New York and Kentucky, where over 600,000 ballots were sent out late, making it harder for people to get their votes back in on time. And then in another instance in Pennsylvania, about 500 were sent of voters reportedly the day after the election was already done, so not a ton of use. This report comes amid concerns about Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and his operational changes at the USPS, many of which took place after these primaries that were focused on in this audit. But the report largely blamed local election officials for mailing ballots last minute, as well as out-of-date voter addresses and ballot envelopes missing tracking barcodes as well. One of the main conclusions from this audit is that to get this whole complicated thing right, it's going to take a lot of collaboration between the Postal Service and local election officials. Yeah, well, here's hoping they can do that. And just quickly, we haven't talked about it to Joy in a while. He did those hearings. He said he was going to

stop making changes to the mail. So is he just like chilling now? Not exactly. But, you know, it would be great if he could just say that and then it would be trusted and, you know, we would shake hands and walk away. But today, House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney is planning to issue a subpoena to DeJoy in order to get any documents that have to do with mail slowdowns or possible communications with President Trump or his campaign. So when DeJoy appeared for a hearing last week, he said that he didn't want to voluntarily provide records, saying that his testimony had sufficed. But the USPS did pledge to give weekly status updates on service levels, which has started to take place. And lastly, while we're talking about elections, the Massachusetts primary results are starting

to come in as we go to record. In the Markey-Kennedy Senate race, Markey is up by several points. In the House primary for Massachusetts First District, Richard Neal has beaten out challenger Alex Morse to keep his seat in Congress. We will have more on these elections tomorrow, hopefully, maybe, most likely, but that is the latest for now. It's Wednesday WOD Squad, and for today's Temp Check, we are talking about an old-fashioned concept, flying on airplanes. This week, major airlines United, American, Delta, and Alaska all announced that they were permanently dropping change fees on domestic flights amid billions of dollars in losses this year. For all four airlines, basic economy is excluded from the new policy because they want to make you feel bad about being frugal. So Giddy, assuming a pre-COVID world, do you consider yourself good or bad at air travel?

I want to say first of all that this is bad policy because I feel like basic economy is where you would most want to make the change and not have a fee ascribed to it. That's what they're saying, right? That like basic economy, you still have to pay to change. Yeah. Yeah, I don't like that. Like you should have upgraded the first class if you were going to change your flight. That's frankly discriminatory and I don't like it. But before all this began, I was just starting to acquire the skill of being good at air travel. Like, I feel like I would get the flights overnight so I could sleep.

Mostly talking about like cross-country flights here. You know, pop the melatonin. I'm getting pre-check. That was a new addition for me, a new adult addition for me at the start of 2019. I was just getting good at it. And then, you know, now it's new adult addition for me at the start of 2019. I was just getting good at it. And then, you know, now it's just not a skill I can use. I feel for you, man. You know, you were getting really close. And I'm sure you feel like an Olympian training, finding out that there's no Olympics. So, you know, maybe next year. There's a whole group chat of us talking about, you know, how we're like Olympians.

And yeah, it's very, it's a one-to-one. But same question for you, Akilah. You're a flyer. I know that for sure. You have flown. I can say that. Are you good or are you bad at the act of the air flight? Oh, I'm excellent at flying on airplanes.

I would never take a red eye on purpose. So I'll stop you there about flying cross country. It is painful no matter what you do five hours is not enough and like being tired getting onto the plane and then off and the smell oh my god the smell of the morning so literally I will say that I have found ways to make air flight you know very comfortable for me. I like to just like pack light, don't check bags, get stuff on the way or there and, you know, call it a day. So that's my tips in the future if we ever get to fly on planes freely again. Yeah. And listeners, look, just combine these two and, you know, choose a red eye at your own risk. It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. But, you know, if you get used to it, you're an Olympian.

You're a champ. There you go. Well, just like that, we have checked our temps. They are cool but not cold like those really cold airplanes. Why are they so cold? Anyway, stay safe. We'll check in with you all again tomorrow. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines.

Sheriff's deputies in South Los Angeles fatally shot a black man Monday afternoon. According to the Sheriff's Department, 29-year-old Dijon Kizzy was stopped for an unspecified violation related to riding his bike. Truly, what is illegal about bike riding? When Kizzy tried to flee, deputies chased him down and shot him several times. They claimed that Kizzy had dropped a handgun, but no body camera footage has been made available, and it's unclear if the deputies were even wearing body cameras. After shooting him around 15 times in his back, officers handcuffed his body. All this happened just four miles from the site of an LASD shooting in June that led to the death of 18-year-old Andres Guardado. The deputy who shot and killed Guardado was identified as a prospective member

of a gang within the Compton Sheriff's Station called the Executioners. According to whistleblower testimony, the gang operates with impunity within the station, routinely encourages violence, and lies about things like finding guns on suspects. Kizzy's shooting was quickly met with protests, which have continued in L.A. over the past two days. Breonna Taylor's ex, Jamarcus Glover, was offered a plea deal in July that would have implicated her in an organized crime group. Louisville prosecutors offered to reduce Glover's potential 10-year sentence if he agreed that Taylor and other defendants helped him traffic large quantities of drugs into the city, which lawyers representing Taylor's family say was part of a smear campaign to try and justify her death. Glover's suspected drug trafficking was what led

police to raid her apartment and fatally shoot her, but there's no evidence that Taylor was involved in any way. The prosecution claims that the offer was just a draft that was later revised, but Glover told local press, quote, how is it a draft and they want me to sign it. In other news, Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend at the time of her death, is suing the city of Louisville. His $10.5 million lawsuit alleges that he was maliciously prosecuted by the police department for acting in self-defense after officers forced entry into Taylor's apartment. Facebook and Google say that if Australia passes a new law, they might dole out the ultimate punishment, grounding the entire continent from the news.

The law in question is from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and it would require Facebook and Google to pay publishers whose content appears on their sites. The intent here is to correct an imbalanced media landscape where traditional media companies are struggling and online ad businesses are thriving. Facebook and Google both said they'd be willing to pay publishers but disagreed with the approach Australia is proposing. Facebook said if the new law is enacted, they'd simply take away the ability of publishers and users in Australia to share news on the site. One concern is that a lack of verified news sources on these platforms could lead to the spread of disinformation, which you might not know is actually an Australian slang term meaning Facebook. Truth. There's nothing more reliable than the taste of a McDonald's

hamburger, except for systemic racism. America's biggest fast food chain was hit with a lawsuit yesterday from 52 former franchisees who say the company sold them subpar stores because they're black. The former franchisees say the company steered them towards locations in inner cities, which had lower sales and higher insurance and security costs. As a result, franchise owners say they had to close more than 200 McDonald's locations and are now seeking collective damages of more than $1 billion. McDonald's also faces a lawsuit filed in January by two black former executives who said the racial discrimination led to them being demoted. The company has denied both sets of allegations

and said they are committed to fair treatment of their employees of color, TBD, if that only applies to Grimace. And those are the headlines. Quick announcement before we go. It's officially September. That is wild. And that means many states have less than one month to finish registering voters ahead of Election Day.

Earlier this year, Vote Save America teamed up with PowerPack to launch the Every Last Vote Fund. The fund supports aggressive on-the-ground efforts to mobilize Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities who are routinely the victims of targeted voter disenfranchisement efforts. Support goes to groups like Souls to the Polls in Wisconsin, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, and many more in the battleground states. We want to raise $750,000 to help them do what they do. So if you can, visit votesaveamerica.com slash every last vote to donate and learn more. That's votesaveamerica.com slash every last vote. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review,

don't ground Australia from news and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just 3D campaign signs and video games like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And we miss you, airplanes. I mean, I like looking out the window.

Yeah, I miss a sweet bag of Terra chips when I'm settling into 13D.