12 May 21
The Worst Start to a Fundraiser in Years
Our fundraising numbers have dropped by 50% since April and overall it’s the worst start to a fundraising drive in 7 years.
RSN does not have deep pockets, we play without a safety net. When the funding falls off things come apart quickly.
Serious situation developing.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
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12 May 21
It's Live on the HomePage Now:
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Charles Pierce | Arizona Locals Are Revolting Against the Clown-Show 'Audit' of Its 2020 Election
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "The indications are the Cyber Ninjas may be outstaying their welcome."
hey're revolting!
Penzone said the law enforcement agency would be at risk if the county turned over the state Senate's intensified demand for certain routers, or digital copies of the routers. The Senate also is demanding certain administrative passwords to voting machines that county officials say they do not have. Providing the routers could compromise confidential, sensitive and highly classified law enforcement data and equipment, he said in a statement on Friday. "The Senate Republican Caucus' audit of the Maricopa County votes from last November's election has no stopping point. Now, its most recent demands jeopardize the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office," Penzone's statement said.
The ongoing farce that is the Arizona Audit has begun to alienate the locals, especially now that the people running it are saying that it might extend into July. The sheriff has had enough, and the dwindling band of sane Arizona Republicans are scared witless of the long-term political cost. From the Republic:
“I just want it over. I think Arizona needs to move on and not be the center of more of this political gossip,” said Betsey Bayless, the former Republican secretary of state for five years beginning in 1997. Jan Brewer, the former Republican governor and Trump surrogate who served as the state’s election czar before her ascent to the governor’s office, typically speaks her mind. She didn’t want to talk about the audit. Neither did former GOP Secretary of State Michele Reagan, who cited her role as a justice of the peace…
Former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, who rose to become the No. 2-ranking Republican in the chamber, made clear he’s not associated with the audit, and sees little upside to it. “It is always the case that when there are serious controversies within a political party, it doesn’t do the party any good,” Kyl said during a phone interview. “And I think the divisions within the Republican Party will not reflect well on the party's chances of success in the next election. That's pretty obvious.”
It’s not obvious to the flying monkeys who are making life hell for Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs. From 12News in Phoenix:
For the second time in six months, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the state’s top elections officer, is receiving law-enforcement protection after a reported death threat. Gov. Doug Ducey’s office on Friday assigned Department of Public Safety officers to protect Hobbs after her office made the request. “It is really unfortunate that we are at this place that people are OK just making threats like this,” Hobbs told 12 News…On Thursday, a Phoenix real estate agent who’s a correspondent for the far-right web site Gateway Pundit shot video of himself chasing Hobbs and a staffer to her Capitol office building. He tweeted that Hobbs “runs in fear.”
“If people would stand up,” Hobbs said, “regardless of party, regardless of political consequences, and just say this is wrong, that would make a difference.” Hobbs said she was referring specifically to Ducey.
In addition, the state senate and the Maricopa County election officials are about to go to war with each other because the county board is standing behind one pissed-off sheriff, and because the people running the audit are a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
Bennett, the audit liaison, says the routers are needed to test another conspiracy theory -- whether the county’s ballot tabulators are connected to the internet. “Well, there are people that have always suspected something nefarious about elections being connected to the Internet," Bennett said Saturday to audit pool reporter Dan Zak of the Washington Post. "And so I think that's why the request was made." An independent audit done for the county earlier this year found there were no connections to the internet.
Yeah, like that will matter.
Palestinians pray as Israeli police gather at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem's Old City, 7 May 2021. (photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters)
ALSO SEE: At Least 35 Killed in Gaza as Israel Ramps Up Airstrikes
Al-Aqsa Under Attack: How Israel Turned Holy Site Into a Battleground
Frank Andrews, Middle East Eye
Andrews writes: "Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the three holiest sites in Islam, has long been an emblem of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation."
Targeted by Israeli security forces, the symbolic mosque was at the centre of much of Jerusalem's long weekend of violence
l-Aqsa Mosque, one of the three holiest sites in Islam, has long been an emblem of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.
Al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), the complex in Jerusalem’s Old City that houses the mosque - which includes the Dome of the Rock and other Islamic shrines - is arguably the most significant symbol of Palestinian sovereignty.
Jerusalem has been on edge for weeks over Israel's restrictions on Palestinian access to parts of the Old City during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and Israeli authorities' attempted eviction of several Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood to make way for Israeli settlers.
Al-Aqsa found itself at the centre of a long weekend of violence from Friday, that left hundreds of people injured and led to a series of deadly rocket exchanges between the Israel military and Hamas in Gaza.
By Tuesday night, Israeli security forces had raided the holy site four times in five days.
This is how the prayer, protest and violence at al-Aqsa unfolded.
Friday 7 May
On the last Friday of Ramadan, thousands of Palestinian worshippers gathered to pray outside the Dome of the Rock.
In total, more than 70,000 congregated to take part in the final Friday prayers of the holy month, according to Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Waqf Islamic affairs council.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians had reached boiling point in recent days, as events in Sheikh Jarrah continued to unfold. While Palestinians in the neighbourhood were resisting eviction orders that would force 40 Palestinians, including 10 children, out of their homes, supporters inside Israel, East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank organised protests in solidarity with them and others facing imminent eviction.
After Friday prayers, Palestinians at the mosque began their own demonstration, raising both Palestinian and Hamas flags.
Israeli police had deployed large numbers of officers to the city of Jerusalem, especially in the Old City, and closed off the surrounding streets that led to the mosque. Those who came to take part in the prayers were met with iron barriers and forced to go through identity checks.
Israeli police violently dispersed the protesters around Jerusalem throughout the day, forcing many to retreat to the mosque and hide within the confines of the shrines inside the complex.
Later that evening, Israeli forces used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse worshippers at the mosque. Hundreds were injured and hospitalised, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The Red Crescent said that many of the injuries reported were to the head and eyes. Israeli police said six officers were injured as tensions intensified throughout the night.
Videos showed worshippers trying to ignore the tear gas canisters exploding around them as they prayed. Some appeared to be struck directly, others were engulfed in smoke. All fled the armed Israeli security forces flooding the complex. The man who remained longest appeared to be hit by one of the men in uniform.
Palestinian civil society called for a day of anger on Saturday in response to the crackdown.
Saturday 8 May
Friday's violence prompted protests by Palestinian citizens of Israel in towns throughout the country, including Jaffa and Nazareth, in a show of anger against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions and the storming of al-Aqsa.
Israeli forces carried out arrests and raids throughout occupied East Jerusalem and built up their presence in the city on Saturday. This created a tense atmosphere ahead of the 27th night of Ramadan, one of the month's holiest nights, which typically draws large crowds of worshippers to al-Aqsa, completely filling its courtyards.
Israeli Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said that the force was sending extra officers to Jerusalem in anticipation of more protests on Saturday night.
Despite the febrile atmosphere in the city, some 90,000 Palestinian worshippers flocked to al-Aqsa for prayers.
Many travelled long distances from the occupied West Bank or from Palestinian-majority towns inside Israel, but Israeli forces reportedly blocked buses bringing them to Jerusalem, forcing them to walk along highways. Some Palestinians in the city drove down to ferry the stranded worshippers to Al-Aqsa.
Mohammed Atiq, from the West Bank town of Jenin, said Friday's raids on al-Aqsa did not deter him from making the journey.
"They began attempts to clear out al-Aqsa, attempts to ruin the night of worship," he told Middle East Eye. "But the will of the worshippers is stronger than bullets."
Suad Abu Eraim, from the town of Yatta in the southern West Bank, said she spent hours waiting at Israeli checkpoints before finally reaching Jerusalem.
"This is al-Aqsa mosque, this mosque is ours, we must stay tied to it," she told MEE. "We must be present here, young or old, from every place.”
Though the prayers were conducted safely, Israeli forces quickly began cracking down on Palestinians trickling out of the Old City after the service, arresting many and wounding at least 90, according to medics.
Rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas and smoke grenades were fired at Palestinians at the Damascus Gate, which was adorned with lights to mark Ramadan. Women with bloody faces were seen being led away by medics. A short distance away, Israeli forces and settlers tore up a protest camp in Sheikh Jarrah.
Sunday 9 May
Jerusalem remained on edge on Sunday following another night of violence, as solidarity protests took place in cities worldwide, including Amman, Berlin, Chicago, London and Istanbul.
Staff and volunteers in al-Aqsa washed down the mosque's courtyards the morning after Laylat al-Qadr, while hundreds of Palestinians rallied under the Dome of the Rock after the dawn Fajr prayer.
The passage between the Dome of the Rock and al-Qibli Mosque was packed with people clapping and chanting: "In spirit, in blood, we sacrifice for you al-Aqsa."
There were some confrontations with Israeli forces at the nearby Chain Gate, which many of the protesters had exited through, still chanting. Palestinians threw rocks while Israeli forces lobbed stun grenades into the mosque complex.
Compared to other days, Sunday was relatively quiet. But fears were growing about an event planned on Monday as part of Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel’s capture and subsequent occupation of East Jerusalem during the 1967 war.
Thousands of Israelis, many from the religious far-right, planned to enter the al-Aqsa complex and chant anti-Palestinian slogans as part of the Flag March.
But Israeli security officials feared that the march would only add fuel to the fire after a week of confrontations in the city, and lobbied politicians to either postpone the event or limit the number of attendees and shorten the route.
Monday 10 May
Half an hour before the Flag March was scheduled to begin, organisers called it off. Hundreds of Israelis gathered nonetheless, the vast majority of whom were right-wing religious nationalists. The crowds made their way into the plaza after a march through parts of Jerusalem's Old City, under the protection of Israeli police.
But the main development on Monday morning was Israeli security forces again raiding Al-Aqsa, firing multiple projectiles into the ancient building.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 305 Palestinians were injured and 228 others hospitalised - some in a field hospital set up near al-Aqsa - including four in a critical condition.
Ehab Jallad, a historical researcher from Jerusalem, was in the mosque when Israeli forces stormed in and attacked worshippers. He recounted his experience to MEE.
“We prayed Fajr [dawn prayers] at around 4am and watched the settlers as they continued marching in, carrying with them stones and whatever materials they could to form a barrier. Israeli forces were positioned in strategic locations, targeting worshippers in the area.
“While young people were preparing for their seminar at 8am, Israeli police started targeting us with snipers using rubber bullets. Some of the young people reacted with stone-throwing,” he added.
“I was near the Qibli Mosque when the police started attacking us. They were positioned in rows, and were targeting us with tear gas. They were aiming to drag people to the north side, and from there to the gate to evacuate the mosque.”
It was terrible,” Jallad told MEE. “Within minutes, it felt like the sky was falling down on us. I wanted to try and escape the rubber-coated bullets, so I hid, in order to be out of sight.
During the raid, videos emerged of calls blasting out over al-Aqsa’s tannoy, appealing for help for Palestinians trapped inside al-Aqsa's al-Qibli Mosque. Footage from inside the Qibli mosque also showed vast plumes of tear gas.
A spokesperson for the Jerusalem emergency medical services said Israel was denying medics access to the mosque and had even confiscated some carts used to evacuate the wounded. Israelis also reportedly seized the mosque's audio control room at one point, hampering the Palestinians' ability to safely coordinate.
Speaking to Middle East Eye in Jerusalem, Palestinian activist Hanady Halawani said many had been wounded on Monday, and journalists covering the raid had also been targeted by Israeli forces.
She added that Israeli police stormed al-Aqsa’s Qibli shrine, located in the southern part of the complex, as people were praying.
“We have reached a new point now, and it’s very dangerous. The occupation has crossed all the red lines and all the feelings of Muslims. Al-Aqsa, Ramadan, women: there are no lines which have not been crossed,” Halawani said.
The director of Jerusalem's Endowments Department also told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli forces had confiscated the keys to all entrances to al-Aqsa complex.
At some point during the raid, some of the stained glass windows at al-Aqsa were smashed by Israeli security forces.
Following the morning’s violence, the mosque was littered with rocks and shards of glass, and the carpets were stained.
However, despite the violence and unrest caused by the raid, Palestinians were quick to return to the mosque to start cleaning it again. With Israeli forces no longer in al-Aqsa Mosque's complex, some Palestinians were able to return to the courtyard.
MEE correspondent Latifeh Abdellatif reported that only Palestinians above the age of 40 were allowed into the courtyard by Israeli police via the Lions' Gate.
Israeli forces violently stormed al-Aqsa for the third time in four days on Monday evening. Tear gas was used to disperse crowds, sound grenades were aimed at people, and heavily armed police made their way into al-Aqsa, causing further damage to the interior of the buildings.
After hours of attacks against worshippers, trapping hundreds inside the mosque’s buildings, Israeli forces withdrew from the complex.
Tuesday 11 May
Much of the attention turned to Gaza on Tuesday, with Hamas and Israel exchanging rocket fire amid warnings of a "full-scale war".
According to Gaza's health ministry, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli air strikes on the besieged enclave since Monday has increased to 36 civilians, including 12 children, while 220 people have been wounded.
In Israel, at least five civilians have been killed by missiles fired from Gaza in retaliation for the air strikes, according to Haaretz, including one teenager and her father.
On Tuesday evening, Israeli security forces again stormed al-Aqsa - the fourth time since Friday.
Media outlets and social media users shared footage of heavily armed Israeli officers running towards the mosque from two separate directions.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that Israeli forces blocked medics from entering the mosque, amid attacks on Palestinians inside.
"Blocking medical rescue teams from reaching the wounded is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, which requires the occupying force to facilitate the mission of medics and provide healthcare to the sick and injured," the Red Crescent said in a Facebook post.
Israel’s raids on al-Aqsa may, under international law, constitute war crimes. Yet while some have described the events at the mosque over the past few days as "unprecedented", there have been several major incidents of Israeli police violence at the mosque and its immediate vicinity over the years.
In October 1990, for example, Israeli security forces massacred around 21 Palestinians, shooting live bullets into a crowd.
A man working in a bakery. (photo: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Light Rocket/Getty Images)
US Labor Shortage? No, We Have a Crisis of Low Wages.
Heidi Shierholz, In These Times
Shierholz writes: "Don't easily believe claims that there's a lack of people to fill jobs. What's really going on is that employers aren't offering workers a living wage."
here are lots of anecdotal reports swirling around about employers who can’t find workers. Just search “worker shortages” online and a seemingly endless list of stories pops up, so it’s easy to assume there’s an alarming lack of people to fill jobs. But a closer look reveals there may be a lot less to this than meets the eye.
First, the backdrop. In good times and bad, there is always a chorus of employers who claim they can’t find the employees they need. Sometimes that chorus is louder, sometimes softer, but it’s always there. One reason is that in a system as large and complex as the U.S. labor market there will always be pockets of bona fide labor shortages at any given time. But a more common reason is employers simply don’t want to raise wages high enough to attract workers. Employers post their too-low wages, can’t find workers to fill jobs at that pay level, and claim they’re facing a labor shortage. Given the ubiquity of this dynamic, I often suggest that whenever anyone says, “I can’t find the workers I need,” she should really add, “at the wages I want to pay.”
Furthermore, a job opening when the labor market is weak often does not mean the same thing as a job opening when the labor market is strong. There is a wide range of “recruitment intensity” that an employer can apply to an open position. For example, if employers are trying hard to fill an opening, they will increase the compensation package and perhaps scale back the required qualifications. Conversely, if employers are not trying very hard, they may offer a meager compensation package and hike up the required qualifications. Perhaps unsurprisingly, research shows that recruitment intensity is cyclical. It tends to be stronger when the labor market is strong, and weaker when the labor market is weak. This means that when a job opening goes unfilled when the labor market is weak, as it is today, employers are even more likely than in normal times to be holding out for an overly qualified candidate at a very cheap price.
This points to the fact that the footprint of a bona fide labor shortage is rising wages. Employers who truly face shortages of suitable, interested workers will respond by bidding up wages to attract those workers, and employers whose workers are being poached will raise wages to retain their workers, and so on. When you don’t see wages growing to reflect that dynamic, you can be fairly certain that labor shortages, though possibly happening in some places, are not a driving feature of the labor market.
And right now, wages are not growing at a rapid pace. While there are issues with measuring wage growth due to the unprecedented job losses of the pandemic, wage series that account for these issues are not showing an increase in wage growth. Unsurprisingly, at a recent press conference, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell dismissed anecdotal claims of labor market shortages, saying, “We don’t see wages moving up yet. And presumably we would see that in a really tight labor market.”
Further, when restaurant owners can’t find workers to fill openings at wages that aren’t meaningfully higher than they were before the pandemic — even though the jobs are inherently more stressful and potentially dangerous because workers now have to deal with anti-maskers and ongoing health concerns — that’s not a labor shortage, that’s the market functioning. The wages for a harder, riskier job should be higher.
Another piece of evidence against widespread labor shortages is the fact that the labor market added more than 900,000 jobs in March, the seventh highest percent increase in jobs in the last half century. It is difficult to imagine that labor shortages were creating a large impediment to hiring when hiring was happening at such a scale. Further, despite many anecdotes of restaurants in particular not being able to find workers, the labor market added 280,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector in March, the sixth highest percent increase in the last half century, even though average weekly earnings for nonsupervisory workers in that sector equate to annual earnings of just $19,651. With these kinds of numbers it is difficult to take the claims of widespread shortages very seriously.
And there are far more unemployed people than available jobs in the current labor market. In the latest data on job openings, there were nearly 40 percent more unemployed workers than job openings overall, and more than 80 percent more unemployed workers than job openings in the leisure and hospitality sector.
While there are certainly fewer people looking for jobs now than there would be if Covid weren’t a factor — many people are out of the labor market because of Covid-related care responsibilities or health concerns — without enough job openings to even come close to providing work for all job seekers, it again stretches the imagination to suggest that labor shortages are a core dynamic in the labor market.
One question people raise is whether the expanded pandemic unemployment benefits keep workers from taking jobs. Right now, for example, unemployed workers who receive unemployment insurance benefits get not just the (very meager) level of benefits they would get under normal benefits formulas, but an additional $300 a week. That means that some very low-wage workers — like many restaurant workers — may receive more in unemployment benefits than they would at a job. Is this making jobs hard to fill? There was a lot of fuss about this same question a year ago, when workers were getting a $600 additional benefit a week. There were several rigorous papers that looked at this question, and they all found extremely limited labor supply effects of that additional weekly benefit. If the $600 a week wasn’t keeping people from taking jobs then, it’s hard to imagine that a benefit half that large is having that effect now.
I cut my labor-market-monitoring teeth during the Great Recession, and it was a formative experience. In the aftermath of that recession, there were nearly constant tales of employers who couldn’t find workers. The stories at that time about labor shortages in construction, when the unemployment rate in construction was still close to 13 percent, have a similar feel as claims today of labor shortages in restaurants, considering that the unemployment rate in leisure and hospitality is currently 13 percent. The Great Recession was caused by the bursting of a giant housing bubble that threw many construction workers out of work, and the Covid recession was caused by a public health crisis that shuttered many restaurants.
In both cases, counterintuitive reports about employers not able to find the workers they need really captured the public’s imagination. But a look under the hood reveals that beyond the anecdotes there is little evidence of a real shortage.
Young migrants wait to be tested for Covid-19 at the Donna facility in the Rio Grande Valley in Donna, Texas, on 30 March 2021. (photo: Dario Lopez-Mills/AFP/Getty Images)
Revealed: Biden Administration Holding Tens of Thousands of Migrant Children
Garance Burke, Juliet Linderman and Martha Mendoza, Associated Press
Excerpt: "The Biden administration is holding tens of thousands of asylum-seeking children in an opaque network of some 200 facilities that the Associated Press has learned spans two dozen states and includes five shelters with more than 1,000 children packed inside."
READ MORE
Republican Conference Chairman Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) speaks during a press conference with House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (R) and Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) at the US Capitol on December 17, 2019 in Washington, DC. (photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
House GOP Set to Oust Trump Critic Rep Liz Cheney From Leadership
Kevin Breuninger, CNBC News
Breuninger writes: "House Republicans are expected to vote Wednesday on whether to strip vocal Trump critic Rep. Liz Cheney of her party leadership role and replace her with pro-Trump Rep. Elise Stefanik."
Some families wait years to get a housing voucher only to find out many landlords won't accept them. (photo: Beck Harlan/NPR)
Government Housing Vouchers Are Hard to Get, and Hard to Use
Pam Fessler, NPR
Fessler writes: "The Biden administration is preparing to release $5 billion in new housing vouchers, approved in the latest COVID relief bill. The goal is to help 70,000 low-income families at risk of homelessness due to the pandemic. But, even in the best of times, it can be hard to use such vouchers."
But, even in the best of times, it can be hard to use such vouchers, which allow recipients to pay one-third of their income on rent, with the government covering the rest. Many landlords won't accept them and the vouchers are often hard to come by. Some families have to wait years to get one.
That's why Sheena Haskin of Sacramento, felt lucky when she received hers last October. Now, six months later, she's homeless, after her last landlord evicted her and her three sons.
"I am living from hotel to hotel. Paying out of pocket. And I'm just about broke," says Haskin.
Haskin found a new landlord who was willing to accept her voucher, but she says the local housing authority didn't want to pay the rent the landlord wanted to charge.
"I had an inspection date. I had a move-in date. They said that they wanted to negotiate with the apartment complex. The apartment complex did not want to negotiate and I had to start all over," she says.
And that's not unusual. By some estimates up to 30% of families nationally can't use their government vouchers because they encounter one hurdle or another.
Sarah O'Daniel, deputy executive director with the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, wouldn't comment on Haskin's specific case, but she says her agency can only cover what's considered to be a reasonable rent. She says some landlords want to charge more than what the government thinks a particular unit is worth after checking it out.
"It's basically like when you buy a house and you've got to do an appraisal to see what the value is," O'Daniel says.
Finding enough affordable units and landlords willing to participate in the program have been among the many challenges housing authorities have faced. Like other cities, Sacramento began to offer incentives this past year, such as a one-time $2,500 bonus to encourage new landlords to sign up.
"We also were helping to pay for security deposits, applicant fees and also we put aside some money for damage claims as well because that is one of the things that landlords have a hard time with," O'Daniel says.
She says there's a lot of stigma associated with the voucher program, previously known as Section 8. Some people believe that voucher holders are not as responsible as other tenants, even though the government guarantees the rent.
Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, says balancing landlord, tenant and taxpayer interests has always been difficult, but the situation has been more dire than ever in the pandemic, with millions of Americans struggling to pay rent.
"There's a need for all of our members, a crying need, for additional vouchers that are serving a wide range of populations," Zaterman says.
The new vouchers are specifically aimed at those who are either homeless, at risk of homelessness, or fleeing domestic violence. Zaterman says these recipients will likely need additional services to stay housed.
Eva Rosen, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, says that landlords are often reluctant to get involved with the voucher program and in many places can simply refuse to rent to voucher holders. About 15 states and several dozen cities have laws prohibiting such discrimination.
"But there's lots of ways for landlords to get around that," she says.
One way is to charge a higher rent than the government wants to pay. Or to run a credit check, which voucher holders are more likely to fail. Rental units also have to be inspected, and Rosen says landlords can fail these inspections intentionally.
"If the light switch doesn't work, or the outlet has paint on it and the landlord hasn't fixed that, and then if they fail to fix it upon the reinspection, it's really easy to go ahead and just sort of fail that on purpose to avoid having to take the voucher tenant," she says.
Rosen literally wrote the book on vouchers, called The Voucher Promise, a promise she says has yet to be fully met. She thinks the program needs to be more flexible, by cutting out some of the red tape and allowing housing authorities to pay even higher rents in nicer neighborhoods. She notes that one of the main goals is to get families away from concentrated poverty.
That's one of the things Sheena Haskin is hoping for, after her oldest son was shot last summer outside their old apartment.
"I don't want to get out of a bad neighborhood and then go back to another bad neighborhood," she says.
Haskin recently found another place that will accept her voucher — a three-bedroom apartment in an area of the city with less crime and better schools. She has her fingers crossed that, this time, the deal will go through.
In this Jan. 14, 1995, photo, a wolf leaps across a road into the wilds of central Idaho. (photo: AP)
Bill to Kill Up to 90% of Idaho Wolves Signed by Governor
Keith Ridler, Associated Press
Ridler writes: "Idaho Governor Brad Little signed into law a measure that could lead to killing 90 percent of the state's 1,500 wolves in a move that was backed by hunters and the state's powerful ranching sector but heavily criticized by environmental advocates."
The bill passed the Senate and House with enough votes to overcome a veto. Lawmakers who sponsored the measure said they want the state’s wolf population reduced to the allowed minimum of 150 to reduce attacks on livestock and to boost deer and elk herds.
The primary change allows the state to hire private contractors to kill wolves and provides more money for state officials to hire the contractors. The law also expands the way wolves can be hunted and killed. Those methods include hunting, trapping and snaring an unlimited number of wolves on a single hunting tag, using night-vision equipment, chasing down wolves on snowmobiles and ATVs and shooting them from helicopters. Also under the new law, newborn pups can be killed if they are found on private land.
“I think (the new law) will be very effective,” said Steve Alder of Idaho for Wildlife, a group that wants wolf populations reduced to boost elk numbers. “I really do think that they’ll finally get wolves down to the 150.”
He said the most effective new wolf hunting methods will be professional trappers sent into the state’s rugged wilderness areas and the use of aerial gunning from helicopters. Adler said most regular hunters never see wolves or kill them but will now have much better odds of doing so using night-vision equipment.
He recalled a winter camping trip when he said wolves were “all around us in the dark.”
“Had we had the ability to use night-vision, we could have harvested a lot of wolves,” Alder said.
Environmental groups decried the new law. Zoe Hanley of the Defenders of Wildlife group said in a statement that “today marks a low point for gray wolf recovery in the U.S.
“For years Idaho wolves have been intensely persecuted through the nation’s most permissive hunting and trapping seasons, and this bill all but pushes the species back to the brink of federal relisting,” Hanley said.
“We’re disappointed that Gov. Little signed such a cruel and ill-conceived bill into law,” said Andrea Zaccardi, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity
Nearly 30 former state, federal and tribal wildlife managers sent a letter to Little last month asking him to veto the measure — saying the methods for killing wolves violate longstanding wildlife management practices and hunting ethics. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission also opposed the bill because it removes wildlife management decisions from the commission and its experts and gives them to politicians. Idaho took over management of wolves from the federal government in 2011, and the commission has been liberalizing wolf hunting and trapping over the years. But they have been criticized for moving too slowly.
“Fish and Game had 10 years, and they dropped the ball,” Alder said. “They failed. People are mad at the Legislature (for the new law), but they had to do it. I think it was Fish and Game’s ideology against killing wolves that brought this about.”
The Idaho Cattle Association representing ranchers said it supports the measure because it allows the free-market system to play a role in killing wolves. Little’s family has a long history of sheep ranching in Idaho.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game, using remote cameras and other methods, reported in February that the wolf population has held steady at about 1,500 in the last two years. About 500 wolves have been killed in the state in each of the last two years by hunters, trappers and wolf-control measures carried out by state and federal authorities.
Idaho’s wolf conservation and management plan calls for at least 150 wolves in the state and 15 packs. Supporters of the new law say the state can increase the killing of wolves to reach that level.
According to the plan, if Idaho’s wolf population fell to 100, there is a possibility the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could resume the management of wolves in the state.
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