PROGRESSIVES – CULTURE –THE DAILY STRUGGLE IN THE NAVAJO NATION 
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
JULY 17, 2021 

AS WITH ALL OF THE ADAM YAMAGUCHI REVERB PRODUCTIONS, THIS DOCUMENTARY FEATURES ORDINARY PEOPLE TALKING FROM THEIR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND KNOWLEDGE. THEY ARE DESCRIBING THE DIFFICULTIES OF THEIR LIFE AND THE EFFECT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THEM. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cAdHtNwI00  
REVERB: Coronavirus in Navajo Nation | Full Documentary 
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Description
A history of unfulfilled promises between the Navajo Nation and the U.S. government has helped fuel one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the country among Navajo People. The Navajo Nation imposed extensive lockdown orders, but inadequate infrastructure and lack of access to basic needs like running water is intensifying the crisis. Will the virus drive the Navajo People closer to the brink – or will it spark a rallying cry and finally lead to the relief that’s long past due? CBSN Originals is our premium documentary series that is sure to challenge your views on this and a variety of other issues. See our full series library at http://cbsnews.com/cbsnoriginals.

HERE ARE SOME NUMBERS SHOWING THE DEVASTATION OF THE CORONAVIRUS ON THE NAVAJO PEOPLE.   
 
https://www.hcn.org/articles/indigenous-affairs-covid19-a-broken-system-the-number-of-indigenous-people-who-died-from-coronavirus-may-never-be-known
HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
A broken system: The number of Indigenous people who died from coronavirus may never be known
Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, Sunnie Clahchischiligi and Christine Trudeau   June 8, 2021
 
From medical health privacy laws to a maze of siloed information systems, the true impact of COVID-19 on American Indian and Alaska Natives is impossible to calculate.
 
ILLUSTRATIVE ART -- Jolene Nenibah Yazzie
 
This story is produced by the Indigenous Investigative Collective, a project of the Native American Journalists Association in partnership with High Country News, Indian Country Today, National Native News and Searchlight New Mexico. It was produced in partnership with MuckRock with the support of JSK-Big Local News.
 
In May of 2020, the Navajo Nation reported one of the highest per-capita COVID-19 infection rates in the United States. Since that milestone, official data reveal that the Navajo Nation has been one of the hardest-hit populations since the pandemic began. The Navajo Nation boasts the largest population of any Indigenous nation in the United States, and thousands of Navajos live outside the nation, in towns along the border, cities across the country, and in other parts of the world, making it difficult to tally the virus’ impacts on Navajo citizens.
 
It’s made worse by a labyrinthian system of local, state, federal and tribal data-reporting systems that often do not communicate with each other or share information. In an effort to come up with a more reliable fatality count, reporters with the Indigenous Investigative Collective (IIC) made multiple public-records requests for death records held by state medical examiners of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Those requests focused on the counties on or adjacent to the Navajo Nation where many Navajo families live. The states rejected those requests, citing privacy concerns, preventing independent analysis of those records to determine death rates. Experts also cite pervasive misidentification of race and ethnicity of victims at critical data collection points, making the true toll of the pandemic on the Navajo Nation impossible to ever know.
 
The  Indigenous Investigative Collective has found that those data problems extend nationwide. As of June 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 6,585 American Indian and Alaska Natives have died from COVID-19 — the highest rate of any ethnic group in the United States. That estimate likely falls far short of the actual death toll.
 
“Even though right now we’re showing as having some of the highest death rates, it’s a gross undercount,” said Abigail Echo-Hawk, Pawnee, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) based in Seattle, Washington, one of 12 nationally recognized tribal epidemiology centers in the country.
 
INSERT -- “Even though right now we’re showing as having some of the highest death rates, it’s a gross undercount.”
 
That undercount leaves researchers and epidemiologists completely in the dark when creating practices and policies to deal with future pandemics.
 
WHEN THE CORONAVIRUS HIT the Navajo Nation, Utah Navajo Health System (UNHS) was at the forefront of providing testing. The private, not-for-profit corporation is tribally run and provides services to the Navajo Nation as well as rural Native and non-Native Utah communities. From the start of the pandemic, the UNHS data team reported its information to the state of Utah, local Indian Health Service (IHS) units and the Navajo Nation’s epidemiology center.
 
“We pretty much tracked anything that we were doing,” Verlyn Hawks, director of health information systems for Utah Navajo, said. “The scope of what we could handle is basically what we did.” At first it was just test results, then deaths and now vaccines. Hawks said he and his team reached out to neighboring health-care facilities like Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico, to ask for COVID-19 data from their service area and would provide them with data. From there, he said, data were reported to the state of Utah and then passed to the CDC.
 
“But we really don’t have a good way to know where our numbers are going and what’s happening from there,” Hawks said, adding that the process for the Indian Health Service was equally opaque. “There’s no sharing between states.”
 
MAP – NO CAPTION [Navajo nation in relation to surrounding area, EPA REGION 9, ESRI, USGS], Christian Marquez/Searchlight New Mexico
 
On the Navajo Nation, efforts to track cases, vaccinations and deaths are also complicated by the fact that community members move freely between health-care facilities, registering at different hospitals and clinics.
 
“Patients on the Navajo reservation tend to be kind of transient, meaning they go to different places for care,” Utah Navajo’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Jensen said.
 
Take for example a patient at Utah Navajo who tests positive for COVID-19, becomes ill, and seeks treatment at that Utah Navajo health center. But if that patient becomes critically ill, Utah Navajo would transfer the patient to a nearby hospital, and if that patient were to die from COVID-19 complications, the hospital they were transferred to may or may not report the death back to Utah Navajo, where the patient originally registered. The same is true for vaccines and COVID-19 results.
 
“Our systems can gather all kinds of data and run reports every way but sideways,” Jensen said. “But the transient part of that makes it more challenging, and obviously if somebody passes in an inpatient facility, we’re not notified unless we follow up with the family or the doctor calls.”
 
Accurately tracking Indigenous COVID-19 patients would involve the entire health system, which is made up of IHS health facilities, tribally owned facilities, tribal hospitals, urban Indian health programs, private clinics and other non-IHS health facilities, like city, county or private hospitals. No agency is consistently or reliably doing that.
 
IHS, which collects data from Indigenous nations that volunteer to share, relies on the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System, which receives its information from states. “We’re not [tracking COVID-19 deaths] because we want to avoid any underreporting,” said IHS Acting Director Elizabeth Fowler, a Comanche citizen and a descendant of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
 
RELATED ARTICLE -- The erasure of Indigenous people in U.S. COVID-19 data
 
The CDC, however, is also likely undercounting. A reliable database for the Urban Indian Health Institute’s Echo-Hawk is the APM Research Lab, which reported at least 5,477 Indigenous deaths as of March 2, based on figures from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Around the same time, the CDC was reporting 5,462 deaths.
 
All deaths, regardless of where they occur, are reported to the state, but the states have refused to release those details. The Indigenous Investigative Collective requested dates, cause and location of death, race, ethnicity, age, gender and a specific request for COVID-related information, including whether or not the infection may have occurred at a work site. Those requests were rejected by records custodians in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado, citing privacy and protected health information, obscuring information for COVID-19 deaths in dozens of tribal communities in those four states combined.
 
New Mexico, in particular, further explained the denial of public records, stating “the information contained in the responsive records consists of protected health information and information reasonably believed to allow identification of patients.” New Mexico Department of Health Records Custodian Deniece Griego-Martinez said even with names and case numbers redacted, patients could still be identified. “Since this information is identifying on its own and in combination with other publicly available information, it is not possible to redact the responsive records.”
 
GAPS IN STATES’ COVID-19 DATA often begin right after a person has died. The process for determining and recording the cause of death varies from state to state. In Minnesota, for example, cause of death is registered by medical certifiers such as physicians, medical examiners or coroners. If a person dies from COVID-19, the cause of death on the certificate may say respiratory or heart failure — the reasons for those failures are not included.
Minnesota funeral director Robert Gill, who is Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, said when he sits down to fill out vital statistics forms with a deceased’s family members, most of the work is straightforward: legal name, address at the time of death, social security number, next of kin, parents, children, siblings and details of funeral arrangements. Where it can get tricky is when he needs to include the person’s race and ethnicity.
 
“They could say, ‘I'm Swedish, African, German, Native American, Hawaiian, Puerto Rican all mixed in one,’ so then I’d ask the family, ‘Well what would you like? What are you, what would you legally consider yourself?’” Gill said. There’s no limit on how many races or tribes can be written down, and often everything is included. He also doesn’t differentiate between individuals who are enrolled in a federally recognized tribe or are descendants or simply community members.
 
“I write down what they would consider their race. Whether it gets recorded as that, I don’t know,” he said. “I send that into the state and I don’t know what they do with it.”
 
INSERT -- “I write down what they would consider their race. Whether it gets recorded as that, I don’t know.”
 
In Gill’s facility, identifying American Indian or Alaska Native people is part of the job. But in other parts of the country where medical examiners or funeral homes have no knowledge of Indian Country, those individuals can be identified as Hispanic, Asian or any other incorrect ethnicity because medical workers, funeral home directors or coroners simply look at the body and make a decision. While no data exists for death-certificate undercounts of Indigenous people, a 2016 report from the National Center for Health Statistics concluded that of everyone who self-identified as American Indian or Alaska Native on the U.S. Census, 48.6 percent were classified as another race on their death certificate.
 
“There are so many different ways that these death certificates are improperly categorized for race and ethnicity,” Echo-Hawk said. “But the number one issue ends up being nobody asks the family.”
 
The CDC website states that “cause-of-death information is not perfect, but it is very useful.” While the agency estimates that 20 to 30 percent of death certificates have issues with completeness, the agency adds: “This does not mean they are inaccurate.” The agency did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
 
The IHS has tried to correct the problem and continues to do so, with little success so far. In a 2020 COVID-19 response hearing, the chief medical officer for the IHS, Rear Admiral Michael Toedt, testified that the agency was working with the CDC to address the issue of racial misclassification through training. However, Toedt stressed that the main problem with collecting good, timely data for American Indian and Alaska Native deaths rested almost entirely on how the death certificate was filled out.
 
RELATED ARTICLE -- Why the U.S. is terrible at collecting Indigenous data
 
In short, death counts of Indigenous people, no matter how they died, are woefully inaccurate — and correcting that is likely impossible without a unified system for tracking health issues in Native communities, and regulations requiring death certificates to accurately reflect a person’s Indigenous citizenship, race and ethnicity. Experts who spoke with the Indigenous Investigative Collective could not give an exact number for the undercount.
 
A 2021 Urban Indian Health Institute report card that grades the quality of collecting and reporting COVID-19 data for Indigenous people gives most states a C grade or lower. The states were graded on the inclusion of Native people and statistics on state health dashboards as well as accurate CDC data for Indigenous people. That information, Echo-Hawk said, helps leaders make decisions and scientists think through vaccine allocations, and helps measure success or failure in the health system.
 
The omission of data on Native communities, Echo-Hawk said, is “data genocide,” contributing to the elimination of Native people in the public eye, and aiding the federal government in abandoning treaty laws and trust responsibilities. In other words, no data on Native people means no need for obligations or resources.
 
INSERT -- “We know that the picture, the true picture, is actually worse than what the data tells us.”
 
“We definitely are in a situation where we are not capturing all of the impacts, and we are not capturing all of the deaths for American Indians and Alaska Natives. So we know that the picture, the true picture, is actually worse than what the data tells us,” said Carolyn Angus-Hornbuckle, who is Mohawk and the chief operating officer and policy center director of the National Indian Health Board. “That information is needed because like every other government that’s facing this crisis, our tribal nations need to have real-time, accurate data so that they can protect their citizens.”
 
Meanwhile, infection rates and deaths in the Navajo Nation are improving, but Utah Navajo Health System CEO Michael Jensen said their work continues. “We’ve done our own contact tracing to find out where it started and who those people are interacting with; we’ve tried to share that publicly — for deceased rates, I think communities should know what’s going on,” he said.
 
“I hope everybody would want to provide the most accurate and true numbers possible.”
 
Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, Diné*, is  the managing editor for Indian Country Today in Washington, D.C.  She is also a board member of the Native American Journalists Association. Follow her on Twitter @jourdanbb.
 
Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi, Diné, is a contributing writer for Searchlight New Mexico and is an award-winning journalist from Teec Nos Pos, Ariz. Follow her on Twitter @clahchischiligi.
 
Christine Trudeau, Prairie Band Potawatomi, is a contributing editor for the Indigenous Affairs desk at High Country News, and the Indigenous Investigative Collective’s COVID-19 project managing editor. Follow her on Twitter @trudeaukwe or email her at christine.trudeau@hcn.org.
 
 
Diné*  
 
DINE, PRONOUNCED “DEE NAY,” IS THE ORIGINAL NAME WHICH THE NAVAJO CALLED THEMSELVES. IT MEANS “THE PEOPLE.” THE TWO WRITERS ON THE ARTICLE ABOVE ARE USING IT AS A TITLE, PERHAPS TO DENOTE THEIR MEMBERSHIP IN THE TRIBE OR AS AN HONORIFIC. THIS ARTICLE FROM THE INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE (IHS) GIVES MORE INFORMATION ON THE TRIBE AND THEIR LANDS.
 
https://www.ihs.gov/navajo/navajonation/   
Navajo Nation
History - The People
 
PHOTOGRAPH -- picture of Navajo people
 
Anthropologists believe the Navajos probably arrived in the Southwest between 800 and 1,000 years ago, crossing the Bering Strait land bridge and traveling south. The Navajo people call themselves Dine', literally meaning "The People." The Dine' speak about their arrival on the earth as a part of their story on the creation.
 
The Navajo are believed to have learned the rudiments of agriculture after arriving in the Four Corners area. They became acquainted with domesticated livestock after contact with the Spanish, taking on shepherding and horsemanship.
 
After the United States defeated Mexico in 1846 and gained control of the vast expanse of territory known today as the Southwest and California, the Navajos encountered a more substantial enemy. Colonel Kit Carson instituted a scorched earth policy, burning Navajo fields and homes, and stealing or killing their livestock. After starving the Navajos into submission, Carson rounded up every Navajo he could find - 8,000 men, women and children - and in the spring of 1864 forced his prisoners to march some 300 miles to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Navajos call this "The Long Walk." Many died along the way, and died during the four long years of imprisonment. In 1868 after signing a treaty with the U.S., remaining Navajos were allowed to return to designated lands currently occupied in the Four Corners area of the U.S.
 
Navajo Land
 
PHOTOGRAPH -- white house ruins
 
The Navajo Nation is the largest Indian reservation in the United States, comprising about 16 million acres, or about 25,000 square miles, approximately the size of the state of West Virginia.
 
Some of the most photographed scenery in the United States is on the reservation, notably Monument Valley near Kayenta, Arizona, and Canyon de Chelly near Chinle, Arizona. The geological history of the area is so apparent and stunning that it begs close investigation. Volcanic plugs and cinder cones, uplifted domes of rock that form mountains, and twisted meandering streams that have carved canyons over many hundreds of years make the high desert plateau inhabited by the Navajo people among the most interesting locations to live and work in the United States.
 
Average precipitation on the Reservation ranges from five inches in the lower elevations to 25 inches in the heights. Some of this is in the form of snow. The entire area is subject to winter snow and temperatures below freezing; summer temperatures may top 100 degrees with extreme aridity. During the late summer, seasonal torrential rains render many unpaved roads impassible and flash floods common to the Southwest US are not uncommon.
 
Navajo Lifestyle
 
PHOTOGRAPH -- lake powell
 
Generally speaking, Navajos do not live in villages. Their traditions did not dictate this necessity, as is common with other Native American societies. They have always banded together in small groups, often near a source of water. Their wide dispersion across the reservation is due in part to the limited amount of grazing land, and the limited availability of water.
The traditional Navajo dwelling, the hogan was a conical or circular structure constructed of logs or stone. The more modern version is usually six-sided with a smoke hole in the center of the roof constructed of wood or cement. The doorway typically faces the East to receive the blessing of the day's first rays of sun.
 
Traditionally, the Navajos are a matriarchal society, with descent and inheritance determined through one's mother. Navajo women have traditionally owned the bulk of resources and property, such as livestock. In cases of marital separation, women retained the property and children. In cases of maternal death children were sent to live with their mother's family. Traditional Navajo have a strong sense of family allegiance and obligation. Today, Navajos are faced with large unemployment rates; and "acculturation" to a more nuclear family structure similar to Anglos in the U.S. is increasingly present. As a culture in transition, the Navajo people and their traditional lifestyle is under the substantial stress brought about by rapid change in their society.
 
Navajo Nation Executive Branch - (928) 871-6355
Navajo Nation Legislative Branch - (928) 871-6358
Navajo Nation Judicial Branch - (928) 871-6762
Navajo Nation Homepage  
 
 
THERE IS A LEGAL IMPEDIMENT THAT MAKES SAFER HOUSING NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE TO ACQUIRE FOR NAVAJO FAMILIES. THIS LETTER IS INTERESTING AND INSIGHTFUL ON HOW LAWS CAN FUNCTION TO KEEP CERTAIN POPULATIONS DOWN LOW ON THE SOCIAL LADDER, WHETHER OR NOT THAT IS THE ACTUAL INTENTION. IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO KNOW WHO IS ACTUALLY PROFITING BY THIS SETUP, BECAUSE UNDOUBTEDLY SOMEONE IS. 
 
https://navajotimes.com/opinion/letters/letters-home-site-lease-process-helps-spread-virus/  
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Letters: Home-site lease process helps spread virus
By Navajo Times | Published Jul 23, 2020 | Letters
 
This is in response to coronavirus on the Navajo Nation reported by Adam Yamaguchi (“Navajo Nation residents face coronavirus without running water”). As a Navajo Nation citizen, one issue that is newsworthy that is never brought to light is the home-site lease process.
 
Multi-generational Navajo families live in overcrowded homes, which has attributed to the spread of COVID-19. In order for a Navajo individual to get a piece of property (one acre) on the Navajo Nation they need to apply for a home-site lease.
 
The home-site lease process is laborious, as well as physically and financially burdensome. The Navajo applicant has to hire an archaeologist for land clearance, cultural resources compliance officer, and must find a vacant location and ask for permission from the Navajo Land Department to live on that site (this is where it gets difficult).
 
If that site belonged to a person, who has been long deceased, rather than re-assign the land to a new tenant the land department puts the burden on the applicant to locate the deceased individual’s family and ask permission to live on the site.
 
More often than not, the deceased family member denies the request. (It is unknown why the Navajo Nation Land Department allows this to happen rather than use their authority to re-assign a vacant property.)
 
They can apply for a quiet title* through Navajo Nation court. This process can take over 20 years just to have a hearing. The result is Navajos give up and choose to live in a multi-generational home. If the applicant does acquire a home-site lease, the land department does not assist Navajo families whose neighbors prevent them from building a home and harasses them.
 
The Navajo Land Department gives a lot of power to individuals who object to other Navajos living near them. When there is discourse, the Navajo Land Department does not step in to remedy the situation.
 
Due to the Navajo Land Department’s silence, Navajos have murdered each other over one acre of land. There is also the issue of red lining. Banks do not give home loans to Navajos because they live on trust land. If Navajos want a home, they have to build it themselves because there are no Navajo-owned businesses that build homes on the Navajo Nation.
 
Having a Navajo-owned business in the nation is difficult, which is why there is no economic growth. (Another good story — Navajo Nation Economic Development Office does not promote Navajo-owned business or outside business to come in to the nation to bring jobs).
 
There is the Navajo Housing Authority that has a 40-year waiting list for a home but, once again, a home-site lease is required to apply for a home. Navajo families who are middle class do not qualify for a NHA home. Once again, families give up and just build a shack or buy a mobile home that deteriorates over time. Navajo Tribal Utility Authority requires a home-site lease to provide water and electricity.
 
The lack of a home-site lease is the foundation to why Navajos live in poverty because without a lease they cannot build a home to have water and electricity. This is a story that needs to be told. Navajos live in Third World conditions, not by choice, but by roadblocks set by our own government.
 
Candita Woodis
Shiprock, N.M. 
 
 
A Quiet Title* 
 
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/quiet_title_action  
 
Quiet title action
 
Definition
A special legal proceeding to determine ownership of real property.  A party with a claim of ownership to land can file an action to quiet title, which serves as a sort of lawsuit against anyone and everyone else who has a claim to the land.  If the owner prevails in the quiet title action, no further challenges to the title can be brought.
 
Illustrative caselaw
See, e.g. Alaska v. United States, 545 U.S. 75 (2005).
 
property & real estate law
wex definitions
 
Wex is a free legal dictionary and encyclopedia sponsored and hosted by the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School. Wex entries are collaboratively created and edited by legal experts. More information about Wex can be found in the Wex FAQ.
 
Wex | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
SOURCE -- https://www.law.cornell.edu  › wex
 
 
 
THIS IS A SALUTE TO CBSN FOR THEIR CONSISTENTLY COGENT AND HONEST REPORTING ON IMPORTANT ISSUES THAT FAUX NEWS WILL NEVER TREAT FAIRLY, IF THEY MENTION THEM AT ALL. TUCKER CARLSON WILL SLASH AT THEM, OR SEAN HANNITY. CBS IS ONE OF THE MAIN SOURCES I CAN GO TO FOR THE TRUTH.
 
https://www.viacomcbspressexpress.com/cbs-news/releases/view?id=55193  
05.13.2020
CBSN ORIGINALS REPORTS ON THE FATE OF THE NAVAJO NATION IN THE FACE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
 
“Reverb | Coronavirus in Navajo Nation” Available Now Across CBS News’ Digital Properties
 
May 13, 2020 – As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact communities across the country, CBSN debuts its newest original documentary, “Reverb | Coronavirus in Navajo Nation,” which brings to light the impact of the virus on the Navajo people, a vulnerable rural population and one of the hardest hit by the pandemic.
 
In this episode of “Reverb,” CBSN Originals’ Adam Yamaguchi reports on the struggle of life on the reservation - a community already devastated by decades of broken promises made by the U.S. government. Resources as vital as running water are scarce in the Navajo Nation, which is also a food desert according to the USDA, and the onslaught of COVID-19 has added even more pressure. Yamaguchi speaks with Dr. Michelle Tom, who shares the grim statistic that the Navajo Nation carries the highest per capita rate of diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome in the U.S. Additionally, the risk the virus presents to the elderly makes the population’s survival even more precarious. Dr. Tom explains, “they're our teachers and our protectors, our providers of our language and our way of life. So we want to protect them as much as possible, keep them safe...if we don't have that...who are we as a people anymore?” The community now finds itself at a critical juncture. Will this moment bring them even closer to the brink? Or will their voices be heard, and bring the relief they are owed?
 
“Reverb” is a CBSN Originals series featuring CBSN correspondent Adam Yamaguchi, who takes the audience on a journey exposing the ripple effects of events or trends that the daily news cycle often doesn’t. He examines issues like the hidden drivers of deforestation in the Amazon, the disturbing ripple effects the internet has created in education and society, and more.
 
The documentary is available now across all CBS News digital properties including CBSN, CBS News’ 24/7 streaming network.
 
CBSN launched its documentary series, CBSN Originals, in January 2016, adding a new dimension to the network with immersive reports that take a deep dive into some of the key issues driving national and global conversations. CBSN has now streamed 58 Originals on a range of topics including the mass migration from Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, social media’s role in the violence against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, gender identity, and the dangerous journey to America through the Darien Gap, among others.
 
Catch up on the entire slate of CBSN Originals: https://cbsn.ws/2T1NRug
 
CBSN, CBS News’ streaming news service, is available live, 24/7 via CBSNews.com/live and on all CBS News mobile apps. Stream CBSN anytime, anywhere on your phone, tablet or connected device for iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and game consoles like Xbox and PlayStation.
 
* * *
 
Press Contact:
 
Rachel Zuckerman
718-902-5703
rachel.zuckerman@cbsinteractive.com
 
****    ****    ****    ****   

JULY 2, 2021
FRIDAY
 
PROGRESSIVE OPINION AND NEWS
 
LOOK AT THIS MAN’S PICTURE. HE IS SO PROUD OF HIMSELF! CONGRESS MEMBERS WERE “UNAWARE” OF WHO HE WAS, THEY SAY, THOUGH HE INTERACTED WITH THEM CLOSELY DURING THEIR TRIP TO THE MEXICO BORDER. MAYBE THEY HAVE EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. THAT WOULD EXPLAIN SOME OF THEIR BEHAVIOR.
 
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/02/politics/kfile-anthony-aguero-accompanied-members-of-congress-to-border/index.html
Capitol rioter accompanied members of Congress on trip to US-Mexico border
CNN Digital Expansion 2018, Andrew Kaczynski545438 CNN NY Talent Expansion, New York, 9/11/19, Em Steck
By Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Drew Myers, CNN
Updated 12:48 PM ET, Fri July 2, 2021 

VIDEO -- Photo shows Capitol marcher at US border with GOP members of Congress, 02:49 MIN., CNN
 
(CNN) A conservative YouTuber who participated in the January 6 riot accompanied Republican members of Congress on a trip to the border Tuesday night, serving as a translator at times.
 
Anthony Aguero, a close ally of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene can be seen in videos and photos with Republican members of Congress who traveled to a route along the border frequented by migrants on Tuesday night. CNN's KFile previously reported that Aguero went into the Capitol during the January 6 riot and cheered and justified the break-in.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/02/politics/kfile-anthony-aguero-accompanied-members-of-congress-to-border/index.html

Capitol rioter accompanied members of Congress on trip to US-Mexico border

 
During his livestream of the Tuesday visit, Aguero interviewed and chatted with Reps. Tom. Tiffany of Wisconsin, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Chris Jacobs of New York, Michael Cloud of Texas, John Rose of Tennessee, Ronny Jackson of Texas, and Mary Miller of Illinois.
 
"Hi guys, Congressman Hawthorn is behind me," Aguero tells viewers during his livestream, mispronouncing Cawthorn's last name. "That is freaking awesome. That is freaking awesome. I'll tell you that."
 
Aguero told his viewers that the Border Patrol was "herding" immigrants crossing the border into a particular location, saying, "We're about to catch them all as they basically come out of the woodworks."
 
In a statement, Aguero told CNN, "I appreciate the Congressmen and Congresswomen that went out of their way to come to the Border to see the crisis for themselves." He did not answer questions regarding how he was at the border with members of Congress.
 
Aguero has not been charged for unlawful entry at the US Capitol on January 6. After chanting "heave-ho" as rioters attempted to break in, he entered the Capitol Rotunda and later chanted "our house" on the Capitol steps. In a livestream one day after the Capitol riot, he attacked those who condemned the ransacking of the Capitol. The FBI previously declined to comment on whether it was investigating Aguero in an email to CNN.
 
The trip to the border in La Joya, Texas, was organized by the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of conservative members of the House of Representatives, and covered by reporters from CNN, Politico, The Hill, and members of conservative media.
 
The members were visiting ahead of former President Donald Trump's visit to the border on Wednesday. Aguero sat in the audience directly behind the former President on Wednesday night during Trump's appearance on Hannity.
 
It's not clear how Aguero joined the group Tuesday night, as he was not at the press briefing prior to the trip that was attended by reporters, according to a photo and a CNN reporter present. He was already in the area as the members of Congress arrived.
 
Buckley Carlson, the RSC's deputy communications director, said Aguero's presence at the border was "purely incidental."
 
"Chairman (Jim) Banks never spoke to the individual in question, the Republican Study Committee was unaware of his identity and whereabouts on January 6, and he did not travel with our group to the border," Carlson said in a statement to CNN.
 
Aguero, who told members of Congress he was there as an "independent journalist" with Border Network News, posted a lengthy livestream on his YouTube channel in which he is seen interviewing and sometimes translating conversations with migrants for Reps. Boebert, Tiffany, August Pfluger of Texas, and Randy Weber of Texas.
 
In one instance, Aguero drove Weber in his truck after the congressman missed his van.
 
"Come right in the front, Congressman," said Aguero, chuckling. "You can ride in the front with me." Aguero also posed for a photo with Boebert at the end of his broadcast.
 
Aguero previously ran in the Republican primary for Congress in 2020 for Texas' 16th Congressional District, which encompasses most of El Paso and the surrounding suburbs, but lost.
 
The videographer, who sometimes goes by the moniker "Conservative Anthony" online, frequently documents migrants along the US-Mexico border and the activities of right-wing activists and militias, including the Guardian Patriots, the border militia group formerly known as the United Constitutional Patriots, and the Proud Boys.
 
In one disturbing clip filmed by Aguero in April 2019 that appears in the PBS documentary "Targeting El Paso," Aguero can be heard screaming at migrants crossing the border and seen shining a light on migrants' faces. In the clip, Aguero tells a group of migrants they "come out like roaches, out of everywhere." According to PBS, the clip was viewed 160,000 times before Aguero deleted it from Facebook.
 
He also has a history of criminal violence, according to online court records. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor family violence assault causing serious bodily injury. In 2015, he was convicted of felony vehicular assault while intoxicated and sentenced to two years in Texas state prison.
 
 
AN ASTUTE OBSERVER OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE DANGEROUS LIES COMING FROM THE RIGHT SPEAKS OUT.
 
https://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/20210703004030-2020-election-misinformation-continuing-to-spread-across-the-u-s/#x
2020 Election misinformation continuing to spread, 06:24 MIN.
11M AGO [JULY 2, 2021]
ROSALIND-S-HELDERMAN, Washington Post Reporter
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/rosalind-s-helderman/
Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington, D.C.
Reporter focusing on political enterprise stories and investigations
 
Education: Harvard University, BA in history
Rosalind Helderman is a political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2001.
Honors & Awards:
George Polk Award in 2014 for political reporting for investigation of relationship between Virginia governor and wealthy supporter
 
 
MORE GOVERNMMENT WHISTLEBLOWERS ARE IN TROUBLE FOR TATTLING ON THE PRACTICE OF DELETING NEGATIVE INFORMATION FROM THEIR SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. THE REASONS FOR IT ARE LESS CLEAR. THIS IS VERY INTERESTING. WRITER SHARON LERNER'S ARTICLE IN THE INTERCEPT IS BELOW, ALONG WITH A LIVE INTERVIEW FROM CBS.
 
VIDEO ONLY
https://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/20210702233605-whistleblower-says-epa-chemical-safety-reports-altered/
VIDEO – CBS INTERVIEW WITH SHARON LERNER FOR THE INTERCEPT, 06:54 MIN.  
 
 PRINT ARTICLE
https://theintercept.com/2021/07/02/epa-chemical-safety-corruption-whistleblowers/
WHISTLEBLOWERS EXPOSE CORRUPTION IN EPA CHEMICAL SAFETY OFFICE
EPA managers removed information about the risks posed by dozens of chemicals, according to whistleblowers.
Sharon Lerner
July 2 2021, 7:00 a.m.
 
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION : Soohee Cho/The Intercept, Getty Images
 
MANAGERS AND CAREER STAFF in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention tampered with the assessments of dozens of chemicals to make them appear safer, according to four scientists who work at the agency. The whistleblowers, whose jobs involve identifying the potential harms posed by new chemicals, provided The Intercept with detailed evidence of pressure within the agency to minimize or remove evidence of potential adverse effects of the chemicals, including neurological effects, birth defects, and cancer.
 
On several occasions, information about hazards was deleted from agency assessments without informing or seeking the consent of the scientists who authored them. Some of these cases led the EPA to withhold critical information from the public about potentially dangerous chemical exposures. In other cases, the removal of the hazard information or the altering of the scientists’ conclusions in reports paved the way for the use of chemicals, which otherwise would not have been allowed on the market.
 
This is the first of a series of articles based on the four whistleblowers’ highly detailed allegations, which were supported by dozens of internal emails with supervisors, meeting summaries, and other documents. Together, the evidence they provided shows a pattern in which the EPA failed to follow the law that oversees chemical regulation, particularly the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, and depicts a workplace in which EPA staffers regularly faced retribution for following the science.
 
“The Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention is broken,” the scientists wrote in a statement they provided to The Intercept and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. “The entire New Chemicals program operates under an atmosphere of fear — scientists are afraid of retaliation for trying to implement TSCA the way Congress intended, and they fear that their actions (or inactions) at the direction of management are resulting in harm to human health and the environment.”
 
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The four EPA staff members, who hold doctorates in toxicology, chemistry, biochemistry, and medicinal chemistry, said that they told colleagues and supervisors within the agency about the interference with their work. Each of the scientists also filed complaints with either the EPA’s inspector general or the Office of Science Integrity, which has pledged to investigate corruption within the agency. But because most of their concerns remained unaddressed months after they disclosed them — and because, in each case, the altering of the record presented a potential risk to human health — the scientists said they felt compelled to make their complaints public.
 
Maybe the Hazards Will Go Away
Elyse Osterweil, one of the four scientists, said she was at first reluctant to speak up about the intense pressure she faced from her supervisors to remove references to potential toxicity from the assessments of new chemicals. The assessments, which use animal studies to gauge a chemical’s potential risk to humans, can lead the agency to place limits on its use — or to ban it entirely. In the case of one substance that Osterweil was reviewing in February of this year, the animal studies suggested serious potential for harm. Rats exposed to a single dose of the chemical had become lethargic, lost weight, and had trouble moving. Some became comatose, and others died.
 
“Usually with this type of acute study, there are no effects,” said Osterweil. “So this was a red flag to me that we needed further information.” But when Osterweil said in a meeting that she needed more data to complete her hazard assessment report, one of her supervisors responded with a series of questions. “She kept asking me, ‘Look at the data, look at the data, look at it again, tell me what you see,’” Osterweil said of her supervisor. “I knew she wanted me to make the hazards go away, and she even said that: ‘Why don’t you take a look at the actual study data again, and maybe the hazards will go away?’”
 
Although she knew she didn’t have enough information to say that the chemical didn’t pose a risk, Osterweil seriously considered giving in to the pressure to deem it safe. “There was a time when I thought, ‘Well, maybe I should let this one go and just pick my battles,’” she said. “But I just couldn’t.”
 
A chemist named Martin Phillips faced similar pushback when he was assessing a mixture of compounds in January of 2020. One component of the product, which was to be used in cleaning solutions, is a chemical that caused birth defects and miscarriage in experiments on rats. Phillips and another risk assessor noted the developmental effects in the chemical’s hazard assessment, which must by law then be added to the chemical’s safety data sheet, a document the Occupational Safety and Health Administration uses to communicate risk to workers. But the company that had submitted the product for approval balked at the requirement. And the day after the assessment Phillips wrote was finalized, a representative of the company who had recently worked in the same division of the EPA met with several of Phillips’s colleagues and his supervisor, whom she had known from her time at the agency. Phillips wasn’t invited to attend the meeting. The following day, another assessment of the chemical was uploaded into the EPA’s computer system without Phillips’s consent or knowledge. The new version omitted the information about the birth defects and miscarriages.
 
When he learned of the new assessment, Phillips asked that the original one be restored. The meeting that followed was hostile, with a senior science adviser in the office calling Phillips “passive aggressive” for being so concerned about the assessment. While some information about the chemical was restored in the assessment after Phillips complained about its removal, the warning about its potential to cause developmental toxicity, which would alert pregnant people to these harms, never made it into the safety data sheet.
 
Phillips had his work revised without his knowledge on other occasions too. In one case in 2019, he was asked to assess a chemical even though the manufacturer had not submitted studies. Phillips followed the EPA’s written guidance for such situations and used toxicity numbers for the class to which the chemical belongs. When he plugged in the proper values, Phillips calculated that the likely exposures to the chemical would exceed the agency’s safety limit by more than 15,000 times. Three months after he submitted the document with this conclusion, he noticed that a new assessment of the chemical had been uploaded to the EPA’s computer system. In this new assessment, which deviated from guidelines, the assessor found that the chemical posed only a slight risk and that workers who used the material could mitigate the danger by wearing protective gear.
 
The second assessment, which found the chemical not likely to pose harm, was finalized in August of 2020. “So it went from being over 15,000 times over the safe dose to you just need to wear a dust mask and you’ll be fine,” said Phillips.
 
Siding with the Company
All four scientists said the pressure to downplay the risk of chemicals increased during their time in the division. “We started getting increasing pressure to use the wrong exposure metrics,” said Sarah Gallagher, who joined the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, which is within Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, in May 2019. (The Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention is also home to the Office of Pesticide Programs.)
 
Gallagher protested changes in multiple risk assessments between March and June of 2020. Her supervisors asked her to represent the developmental effects of one chemical, which included the reduction of fetal weight in animal studies, as effects on the pregnant people. Such a mischaracterization would mean that the risk the chemical poses to a developing human fetus would not be reflected by its safety data sheet. Gallagher refused to make the change.
 
RELATED ARTICLE -- How Pesticide Companies Corrupted the EPA and Poisoned America
 
One month later, she was reassigned to another office.
 
Even after her transfer, documents she had written while in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention continued to be altered, including an assessment of a PFAS compound. Because there was limited information available about the chemical, she had looked to studies of similarly structured compounds, as is EPA policy. In this case, one of the closest analogues was PFOA, an industrial chemical that poses both cancer and developmental risks, as Gallagher noted in her assessment. But one of her former supervisors had instructed another scientist to remove her reference to PFOA from the assessment and replace it with another, less toxic chemical to gauge its safety. The change resulted in a 33-fold underestimation of the compound’s risk, according to Gallagher.
 
William Irwin, another of the four whistleblowers, who has worked at the EPA for over 11 years as a toxicologist, was also moved out of the office after repeatedly resisting pressure to change his assessments to favor industry. Irwin said that while it had seemed obvious that the pressure stemmed from chemical companies, the science adviser in the office made the point irrefutably clear during an argument over one particular chemical assessment.
 
“At one point, he was shouting at me to change it,” Irwin said of the science adviser, who was urging him to eliminate hazards noted in the assessment. “He basically was siding with the company, shouting at me that ‘the company went apeshit when they saw this document.’” Irwin replied, “Well, that’s the assessment.”
 
INSERT -- “He basically was siding with the company.”
 
Irwin didn’t make the changes. “I actually added extra hazards to it,” he said. “It was also a carcinogen.” Several months after that encounter, the antagonism stopped when Irwin was transferred out of the office. The scientist saw the move as a last resort for his managers. “I have three board certifications in toxicology, so it was hard for them to say, ‘William, you’re stupid,’ and so instead they just kicked me out of the program.”
 
Phillips was also transferred in September 2020. Meanwhile, Osterweil continues to work in the office, where she said disputes over chemical assessments and retaliation against her have continued unabated.
 
The ongoing issues are evidence that the pressures on chemical assessors within the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention have persisted even under the Biden administration, according to Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, an organization that provides support to whistleblowers and helped the scientists draft their disclosure document. “The problems in OCSPP are not due solely to the Trump administration and its appointees,” said Bennett. “The issues faced by our clients occurred before Trump took office, during the Trump years, and continue now.”
 
On Monday, PEER submitted its complaint to the EPA inspector general; Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention; and Khanna, asking that they conduct an audit to identify risk assessments that were altered without the knowledge or consent of the risk assessor; investigate apparent violations of the EPA’s records management policy, in which documents were altered; and evaluate the process that allowed these changes to be made and remain uncorrected.
 
Khanna provided a statement to The Intercept applauding the whistleblowers. “Clean, cancer-free air and water still isn’t a given in our country,” Khanna wrote. “I will continue to monitor this situation and ensure that these scientists’ concerns are addressed to ensure that toxic or harmful chemicals are not going out to the market without the appropriate health and safety warnings. I am so proud of the work of our Environmental Subcommittee is doing to create a healthier world.”
 
Asked about the complaint, the EPA wrote in an email that “This Administration is committed to investigating alleged violations of scientific integrity. It is critical that all EPA decisions are informed by rigorous scientific information and standards. As one of his first acts as Administrator, Administrator Regan issued a memorandum outlining concrete steps to reinforce the agency’s commitment to science.
 
“EPA takes seriously all allegations of violations of scientific integrity. EPA’s scientific integrity official and scientific integrity team members will thoroughly investigate any allegation of violation of EPA’s scientific integrity policy that they receive and work to safeguard EPA science. Additionally, EPA is currently reviewing agency policies, processes, and practices to ensure that the best available science and data inform Agency decisions. EPA is committed to fostering a culture of evaluation and continuous learning that promotes an open exchange of differing scientific and policy positions. Additionally, retaliation against EPA employees for reporting violations alleged to have occurred will not be tolerated in this administration. EPA leadership are reviewing these complaints, and any appropriate action will be taken.”
 
While such complaints are usually kept confidential, by Tuesday many mangers [sic] in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention had somehow obtained a copy of the whistleblowers’ allegations. “The fact that EPA released our clients’ names is inappropriate and troubling,” said Bennett. “They’ve been put in an incredibly uncomfortable situation. This gives the managers the chance to circle the wagons trying to go after them.”
 
For the whistleblowers, the release of their names is just the latest battle in a war they’ve been waging for years. For Gallagher, a scientist with expertise in chemistry and toxicology, the combative turn of her career has been a surprise. “Like a lot of us who are in this, we came to work at the EPA because I wanted to preserve the environment for our children’s children,” said Gallagher. “It’s infuriating that I have to push back against managers to do that.”
 
CONTACT THE AUTHOR:
Sharon Lerner
sharon.lerner@​theintercept.com
@fastlerner
 
 
 AN EXPERT ON THE US CONSTITUTION DISCUSSES WITH MAJOR GARRETT SOME IMPORTANT EFFECTS OF THE JANUARY 6, 2021 INSURRECTION ATTEMPT ON THE BODY OF OUR GOVERNMENT ITSELF, RATHER THAN MERELY BEING A FAILED ATTEMPT TO PUT THE EX-PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP BACK INTO THE SEAT OF POWER.
 
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/constitutional-scholar-says-january-6-represents-framers-nightmare-the-takeout-podcast/
Constitutional scholar says January 6 "represents the framers' nightmare" - "The Takeout"
BY GRACE SEGERS
JULY 2, 2021 / 5:59 AM / CBS NEWS
 
Jeffrey Rosen, the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, is sure that the country's founders would be horrified by the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
 
"January 6 represents the framers' nightmare," Rosen told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett on "The Takeout" podcast this week. "This is a nonpartisan statement. It's a statement of fact to say that what they most feared was armed mobs interrupting the peaceable engines of government."
 
Highlights from this week's episode:
 
*Jeffrey Rosen on January 6: "January 6 represents the framers' nightmare. This is a nonpartisan statement. It's a statement of fact to say that what they most feared was armed mobs interrupting the peaceable engines of government."
 
*Rising extremism in the House: "In an age when representatives are deferring to their most energized and conspiratorial constituents, rather than the other way around, we have a problem."
 
*Modern challenges to democracy: "Resurrecting faith in institutions and in truth rather than falsehood is an important democratic challenge."
 
*Rosen on the role of the Supreme Court: "As Congress has become more polarized and paralyzed and has wanted to pass the buck or has just been unable to act, the courts either by choice or necessity have been asked to step in, and they've been resolving stuff that the framers didn't think they would, and few people have been happy with the results."
 
Rosen explained that the framers wrote the Constitution in part as a response to Shays' Rebellion of 1786, during which a mob unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the government. The rebellion served as a catalyst for the Constitutional Convention to create a new government to replace the one established by the Articles of Confederation.
 
The mob that overran the Capitol sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election. But unlike the members of the Shays' Rebellion, many of whom were Revolutionary War veterans responding to economic injustices, the rioters attacked the Capitol because they believed false claims that the election had been stolen. Those falsehoods continue to be promoted by former President Trump and some Republican members of Congress.
 
Rosen noted that the framers of the Constitution intended representatives in the House "to play a cooling role" to their constituents, instead of bowing to their passions — a contrast with the present, which has seen some House members espouse conspiracy theories.
 
"In an age when representatives are deferring to their most energized and conspiratorial constituents, rather than the other way around, we have a problem," Rosen said.
 
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He also talked about how the inability to agree on the truth, in part due to divisions sowed by social media, is damaging democracy.
 
"An age where people can't agree on the truth is one where we have a serious problem. And generally, the truth depends on some deference to expert bodies," Rosen said. "Resurrecting faith in institutions and in truth rather than falsehood is an important democratic challenge."
 
Rosen discussed the increasingly large role the Supreme Court plays in setting the country's policy because Congress hasn't been able to legislate.
 
"As Congress has become more polarized and paralyzed and has wanted to pass the buck or has just been unable to act, the courts either by choice or necessity have been asked to step in, and they've been resolving stuff that the framers didn't think they would, and few people have been happy with the results," Rosen said.
 
For more of Major's conversation with Rosen, download "The Takeout" podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or Spotify. New episodes are available every Friday morning. Also, you can watch "The Takeout" on CBSN Friday at 5pm, 9pm, and 12am ET and Saturday at 1pm, 9pm, and 12am ET. For a full archive of "The Takeout" episodes, visit www.takeoutpodcast.com. And you can listen to "The Takeout" on select CBS News Radio affiliates (check your local listings).
 
Producers: Arden Farhi, Katiana Krawchenko, Jamie Benson and Sara Cook
CBSN Production: Alex Zuckerman and Eric Soussanin
Show email: TakeoutPodcast@cbsnews.com
Twitter: @TakeoutPodcast
Instagram: @TakeoutPodcast
Facebook: Facebook.com/TakeoutPodcast
 
First published on July 2, 2021 / 5:59 AM
© 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 
Grace Segers
Grace Segers is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital based in Washington, D.C.
 
  
WEISSELBERG AND TRUMP DANCING IN THE DARK
 
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#MSNBC #Trump #TaxScheme
Watch Rachel Maddow Highlights: July 1st | MSNBC
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Watch highlights of Thursday's The Rachel Maddow Show where she highlights reporting by the New York Times that the indictments of the Trump Organization and Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg do not mark the end of prosecutors' interests in Donald Trump. Rachel also compares the tax scheme described in the Allen Weisselberg indictment to reporting in the New York Times about payments made by Trump Org to Ivanka Trump. Watch the top news stories and highlights from The Rachel Maddow Show, airing weeknights at 9 p.m. on MSNBC.
 
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END OF JULY 2 FRIDAY
 
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