hello this is Chris Wilhelm and for the next hour I'll be reading from the Friday September 13th issue of the New York Times on the Niagara Frontier radio reading service from the front page DeSantis spars with abortion rights backers over Florida ballot measure Florida's governor has come under Fire from critics who say he is using State resources to work against a proposed abortion rights amendment to the state constitution by Michael wines less than 8 weeks before Floridians will vote on an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution a bitter standoff is escalating between Governor Ronda santis and the amendment's backers over whether a string of State actions directed at the measure amount to a taxpayer funded effort to defeat it at the polls the debate first erupted last week after the state agency for healthcare administration posted a 30-second video on social media that casts current Florida law which bans almost all abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy as proof that Florida cares about women in families the post links to an agency website that claims that the abortion rights measure known as Amendment four threatens women's safety it adds don't let the fearmongers lie to you at the same time state criminal investigators were revealed to be belatedly examining whether some of nearly 911 th signatures collected to place the measure on the November ballot might be fraudulent State officials certified the signatures in February and the deadline for challenging them has passed this week the state healthc care agency has begun airing its social media video as a commercial on Florida television although the extent and cost of the ad campaign remains unclear the agency's media office did not address questions about the campaign referring instead to a statement by a dis is official about the value of public service announcements on Thursday the American civil liberties Union of Florida filed a lawsuit in state court on behalf of Floridians protecting Freedom which is campaigning for the amendment the suit contends that the agency is spending taxpayer dollars to spread false and misleading statements about Amendment four in violation of the Florida Constitution and state laws barring government workers from engaging in political activity the government is trying every dirty trick they can to distract Floridians Lauren brenzel the campaign director at Floridians protecting Freedom said on Tuesday at a news conference they're doing everything they can to suppress the votes and the will of the people Mr disantis has brushed aside the complaints saying the agency's website and video amounted to public service announcements and that the signatures investigation was based on actual evidence of fraud on Thursday Florida's Democratic Congressional Delegation asked attorney general Merrick Garland to open an inquiry into Mr desantis's actions saying they constitute an abuse of official resources to intimidate and unsettle voters out of voting for Amendment four the ban evokes past episodes in which Florida State agencies or institutions have taken particularly aggressive actions to pursue policy goals favored by the governor or to punish his detractors in 20122 for example Mr DeSantis ordered the state legislature to abolish a special taxing district stripping the Walt Disney Company of benefits after the company opposed State legislation Banning classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity the governor issued executive orders in 2022 and 2023 suspending elected Democratic prosecutors from office in the metropolitan Orlando and Tampa areas claiming that the prosecutors were soft on crime the state supreme court where Mr DeSantis has appointed five of the seven justices said in June that it would not overturn the suspensions because they were political acts outside its Authority Mr DeSantis fiercely opposes Amendment 4 which would ensure the right to an abortion in Florida until a fetus is viable the nearly 91,000 certified signatures on petitions supporting the measure were close to 20,000 more than the law required the signatures inquiry which was first reported by the Tampa Bay times has simmered since at least last summer critics claim that it is unfolding now in the runup to election day in order to cast a shadow on the multi-million dollar campaign to pass Amendment four state investigators have visited at least a few petition signers personally including Isaac Manaj 71 a retired lawyer in in Fort Meyers he said in an interview that plane closed officers with a badge came to his door and told him his signature on a petition did not match the signature on his driver's license separately Mr minach wrote last week on Facebook that he had in fact signed an amendment for petition he said he was shaken because the investigator had about 10 pages of his personal information including a copy of his driver's license troubling that so much resources were devoted to this he wrote I wonder if the same could be said if the petition were for some innocuous issue the investigation was begun by an election crimes office in the State Department of State a unit set up by Mr DeSantis in 2022 two after a county election official called attention to several Amendment 4 petitions that were said to Bear signatures of dead people three people were arrested earlier this year on charges of falsifying signatures on petitions for Amendment four in a July letter the Department of State recommended opening a criminal inquiry it cited 35 people apparently workers for a company hired to collect petition signatures who had gathered some 37,000 signatures the letter expressed concern concern that a substantial number of voter signature forgeries were submitted by Floridians protecting Freedom Inc and were verified as valid by county election officials on Monday Mr DeSantis allowed that some of the petition signatures his election police were investigating could be legitimate it may be that the signature is totally different and that voter will say no I actually did do that he said and if that's what you say I think that's probably the end of it in order to become part of the state Constitution Amendment 4 would require approval by at least 60% of Voters in November a high Bar for a ballot measure to clear recent polls have differed on whether it has enough support to pass soon after the state Supreme Court ruled in April that the amendment could appear on the ballot Mr DeSantis established a political action committee the Florida Freedom fund to oppose it then Republican leaders in the state legislature intervened in the drafting of a fiscal impact statement that must appear alongside the proposal the final version of the statement says that the financial impact of the amendment is indeterminant but only after a stream of warnings that the measure might reduce live births slow the state's growth cut government revenues and raise litigation costs residents describe harrowing escapes as fire consumed nearby homes by Vic Jolly Joe mlan has lived in a two-bedroom home in a rural Hillside neighborhood in Southern California for his entire life and in that time he has seen plenty of fires every time they blew by someone else's house was taken this time was different a fire driven by searing heat and powerful winds roared across the Santa Ana mountains and devoured his house in the community of el cariso Village leaving the structure a charred and mangled mess his Ford Explorer parked nearby was reduced to a hunk of metal tires blown rims melted Windows shattered my dad bought the place back in 72 and I was born in ' 81 and lived up there my whole life said Mr mlan who works as a carpenter never thought it would happen they've always taken care of us you know we have a very good fire department the airport fire a 23,000 acre Blaze That Grew rapidly on Monday and Tuesday left a trail of Destruction in the isolated Community along Ortega Highway that was Mr mcan's home the Flames blew in on Tuesday around 400 p.m. he said he heard neighbors shouting that houses were burning and that everyone needed to leave people were going by telling me my house is on fire get out of here Mr mlan said there were multiple homes on fire in the distance Mr mlan said he and his wife and mother jumped in two cars with a dog and cat their other cat could not be found and left their house was still standing then a couple who lived nearby Jenny Poindexter said 74 and Michael Williams 77 left a short while later and saw the McLean's house on fire as they passed by it's like being in the middle of a tornado Miss po Dexter said later recounting their harrowing Escape down the mountain toward Lake Elenor it was fire it was ashes propane tanks were popping trees were exploding it was crazy we had masks on we just threw everything in the trunk and ran driving down the winding narrow Highway she said there were flames on each side of the road we had to drive through two fires on each side with visibility about 5T she said roommates Tammy and Smith 59 and Tammy wormsbecker 50 were ordered to leave their Big Bear Lake home on Tuesday because of the line fire they don't know the fate of their home some friends came down from Big Bear and set our house burned down but the fire guy here said it hadn't Smith said referring to a fire department official at a shelter in Victorville California the friends spent two nights sleeping in Smith's car in the parking lot because her dog Zar couldn't go inside the shelter unless he stayed in a crate it's hot Smith said sitting in her car doors open the dog at her feet but it's so depressing inside the wildfires and poor air quality have forced the cancellation of dozens of local blood drives live stream told donors in an email the San Bernardino based blood products nonprofit said there was a blood shortage emergency and urged donors to give blood our shelves are critically low the email said earlier this week the biggest concern of firefighters was that the line fire would push Northeast into the populated Resort communities around Big Bear Lake the fire burned about 800 acres yesterday in that area but firefighters said on Thursday they were confident they could prevent the fire from reaching Big Bear Homes that Big Bear area looks really good the calfire operations section chief Jeremy Pierce said in an update on Thursday he said that fire Crews have controlled the part of the line fire that was threatening homes in Highland where about 56,000 people live Pierce said fire crews are now focused on preventing the line fire from spreading to Lake Arrowhead California has gotten a lot of rain over the past 2 years but that rain has had an outsize impact in typically dry Southern California it fueled unusually high amounts of vegetation growth in the southern half of the state all that vegetation has turned to Tinder after a warm summer and brutal Heat Wave this month if the same Heat Wave would have occurred in a September following two very dry years it is very likely that there would not be much fire as a result said Park Williams a hydroc climatologist at UCLA the much awaited cooler temperatures seem to have arrived places that have been over 110 are in the 80s now the highest 86 Dees in San Bernardino and 81 in Los Angeles the air quality is looking pretty good across most of Southern California today with the exception of places that are in evacuation zones as well as the city of Yuka which is just south of Where the Line fire is burning fire Crews working on the bridge fire in the San Gabriel mountains Northeast of Los Angeles said Thursday that they gained ground against the blaze which has been threatening homes in rightwood San Antonio Hills and Upland things are going really well yesterday we had very favorable conditions said Spencer Andre with Cal Fire forecasters out of the Los Angeles area were optimistic saying that after this morning's breezier conditions the weather would finally settle into a fairly benign pattern for the rest of the week the red flag warnings and wind advisories in the area were on track to expire this morning Governor Gavin Nome last night declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles San Bernardino Orange and Riverside counties because of the airport and Bridge fires earlier this week he had done so for the line fire too you are listening to a reading of articles and features from The New York Times on the Niagara Frontier radio reading service Biden poised to approve Ukraine's use of long-range Western weapons in Russia the topic will be on the agenda Friday with the first official visit to Washington by Britain's new prime minister Kier starmer by David E Sanger Helena Cooper and Eric Schmidt President Biden appears on the verge of clearing the way for Ukraine to launch long-range Western weapons deep inside Russian territory as as long as it doesn't use arms provided by the United States European officials say the issue which has long been debated in the administration is coming to a head on Friday with the first official visit to the White House by Britain's new prime minister Kier starmer Britain has already signaled to the United States that it is eager to let Ukraine use its Storm Shadow long-range missiles to strike at Russian military targets far from the Ukrainian border but it wants explicit permission from Mr Biden in order to demonstrate a coordinated strategy with the United States and France which makes a similar missile American officials say Mr Biden has not made a decision but will hear from Mr starmer on Friday if the president approves the move could help Ukraine hold the line after it ceases Russian territory as it did during its surprise incursion into Russia's kers region but Mr Biden has hesitated to allow Ukraine to use American weapons in the same way particularly after warnings from American intelligence agencies that Russia could respond by aiding Iran in targeting American forces in the Middle East on Thursday White House officials insisted there was no imminent decision on the use of the americanmade surfac to-s surface Army tactical missile systems known as attacks but Mr Biden himself has signaled that a loosening of restrictions is coming he was asked on Tuesday whether he was ready to Grant the increasingly insistent requests from president volodimir zalinski of Ukraine we are working that out right now now he said if Mr Biden permits the British and French to go ahead and if he follows in coming weeks by allowing the use of the attacks it could well be his final acceleration of the military aid to Ukraine quietly Republican leaders in the Senate especially Mitch McConnell the minority leader have been urging an aggressive response a sharp split with former president Donald J Trump who refused in Tuesday night's presidential debate to declare that he wants Ukraine to win or to say that Russia should get out of the 20% or so of Ukraine it has taken since the War Began on Thursday President Vladimir V Putin of Russia issued an unusually specific warning to the West noting that the ukrainians alone cannot operate the long-range missiles because they require Western technical help and satellite guidance this will mean that NATO countries the United States and European countries are at war with Russia Mr Putin said according to a report by the Kremlin and if this is the case then bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us for the United States assessing how much to believe Mr Putin has been a difficult task over nearly 31 months of war the pattern has been clear at every stage Mr Biden has been concerned that providing new weapons to Ukraine or allowing Ukraine's military to shoot into Russian territory would cross one of Mr Putin's red lines in the opening months of the war Mr Biden was reluctant to provide haar's artillery to Ukraine then M1 Abrams Tanks F-16 fighter jets and short and then longer range attack thems but in each case as the administration discovered Mr Putin appeared less eager to escalate the war than initially believed it loosened the rains in the spring for the first time Mr Biden approved allowing Ukraine to fire at Russian Artillery and other targets just over the Russian border to avoid giving Mr Putin's forces a Haven for attacking cities and towns around Kev that permission was later expanded but striking the Border areas is essentially a defensive operation senior White House officials say there remains worry about using American attacks to strike more than 60 or so miles into Russia in classified briefings American intelligence officials have expressed deeper concerns about direct visible American participation in Ukraine's move to seize and hold positions near K there are indications they have warned that Russia could provide technological help that would allow Iran and its proxy forces to attack American forces in the Middle East the administration this week accused Iran of shipping missiles for the first time to Russia for use in the war an accusation the government in tran has denied in a series of meetings with senior Administration officials in recent weeks Ukrainian officials have been arguing that their seizure of actual ual territory inside Russia demonstrates that us fears of Crossing Russian red lines were overblown the United States those Ukrainian officials argue should allow ke to use American weapons to strike deeper into Russia emerging from one of those meetings in keev on Wednesday Secretary of State Anthony J blinkin told reporters that he and Mr zalinski joined by the British foreign minister David Lamy discussed long range fires but a number of other things as well we're going to take what we learned back to President Biden in my case and the prime minister in David's case the two of them will meet in just a few days time in Washington to discuss how our countries will continue to support Ukraine to a growing number of military analysts and former US officials the administration's reticence makes no sense especially since they say Ukraine's incursion into K has yet to elicit an escalatory response from Moscow easing the restrictions at Western weapons will not cause Moscow to escalate 17 former ambassadors and Generals wrote in a letter to the administration this week we know this because Ukraine is already striking territory Russia considers its own including Crimea and kers with these weapons and moscow's response remains unchanged senior Ukrainian officials were at the Pentagon two weeks ago making a similar argument to defense secretary Lloyd j Austin III Ukraine's new defense minister rustem umarov argued that the kskk incursion showed that Russia's red lines were simply Bluffs that had slowed the Western effort to help Ukraine with the Kur incursion Mr umarov argued Ukraine has demonstrated it can invade and even occupy Russian territory without igniting World War III according to two officials but American officials say it is too early to reach that conclusion because there are many ways for Mr Putin to retaliate during the meeting Mr Austin asked Mr umarov several questions about which sites inside Russia Ukraine would Target probing to make sure Ukraine would focus on on Military sites like airfields but not power plants or other civilian infrastructure Mr Austin also queried his Ukrainian counterpart about what objectiv such targeting could accomplish Mr Austin continues to believe that the use of Us weapons for long- range strikes into Russia won't turn the tide of the war in part because there are not enough attachs or British and French missiles to sustain an attack at Ramstein a US Airbase in Germany last Friday Mr Austin added that loosening the Reigns on Ukraine's use of attacks would not resolve one of the biggest problems facing Ukrainian cities and troops so-called Glide bombs launched from Russian attack planes deep inside Russia as we look at the battlefield currently we know that the Russians have actually moved their aircraft that are using the Glide bombers beyond the range of attack thems Mr Austin said the United States has already supplied Ukraine with several hundred of the long-range attacks but its stockpiles are running low American officials are concerned they could not supply enough of those Munitions to seriously damage a wide range of Russian targets Mr Umar off's counter made during the Pentagon meeting officials said was that even if the attacks are not a GameChanger they can still be used to good effect to hit Russian sites inside Russia and to disrupt Russian Logistics the strikes would help degrade Russian military capabilities and Russia already uses Iranian Chinese and North Korean weapons and components against Targets in Ukraine said Seth G Jones a senior vice president with the center for strategic and International Studies meanwhile Major General Patrick S Ryder the Pentagon press secretary told reporters on Tuesday that the new shipment of short-range ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia set a dangerous precedent that is likely to lead to more shipments one has to assume that if Iran is providing Russia with these types of missiles that it's very likely it would not be a one-time good deal he said that this would be a source of capability that Russia would seek to tap in the future un and Britain denounced Israeli attack in Gaza that killed un workers Israel said the former School had become a Haven for militants and released a list of men it said were Hamas Fighters targeted in the attack by Liam stack and Thomas Fuller condemnation mounted on Thursday of a deadly Israeli strike on a school turned shelter in central Gaza but Israel said that the compound crowded with people driven from their homes had become a command center for militant Fighters the site aljani school had been home to around 12,000 displaced people from the Gaza strip mainly women and children according to the United Nations agency that operated the school Israel has struck the compound five separate times since the War Began last October the agency said the Palestinian authorities said the Israeli strike on Wednesday killed 18 Gins including women and children and injured a similar number the primary un relief Agency for Palestinians known as unrwa said six of its employees including the shelters manager were among the Dead the most UN rwa employees to die in a single strike in a war that has killed more than 200 of them Britain's foreign secretary David Lamy on Thursday added his voice to the criticism from the United Nations and others calling the deaths of the UN workers appalling and reiterating calls for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel the government of cutter a key mediator in talks over a ceasefire called the strike a horrifying Massacre the Israeli military defended the strike which it said killed nine members of hamas's military wing it said the compound in nerat was being used as a Hamas command and control center a claim it has made repeatedly to justify increasingly frequent strikes on schools serving as shelters Israel issued a list of nine names of people it said were Hamas militants who had been killed in the attack including three who it said were employees of unw way addressing the claim that some of the UN workers killed were also Hamas Fighters Stefan duari a spokesman for un Secretary General Antonio gues said we are not in a position to confirm it deny it so an independent investigation is called for as for whether Hamas used the school compound as an operation Center Mr duar told reporters at a news briefing if people were visibly misusing it we would know and that there had been no such obvious signs un officials without naming Hamas said it would violate international law for an armed combatant group to embed itself among civilians using them to Shield a military objective from Attack as Hamas routinely does but they criticized Israel more directly saying that 16 times in August alone the Israeli military had attacked a School Compound many of which now serve as shelters for those who have fled their homes during the war the bombing in nerat emphasizes the Israeli military's systemic failure to comply with International humanitarian law the Palestine Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for human rights said in a statement during more than 11 months of War Israel has said it has targeted and killed thousands of Hamas militants but the Relentless bombardment and ground operations have come at a cost in civilian lives and physical destruction that even many of Israel's allies have condemned more than 40,000 people in Gaza have been killed according to the health Ministry there which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians the pattern of attacks the UN Human Rights office said suggests a complete disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians and raises grave concerns about the systematic Commission of disproportionate attacks or attacks directed at civilians which are war crimes Israel says its strikes are conducted in accordance with international law and that Hamas has exploited schools hospitals and shelters using them as bases and civilians as human Shields with nearly each strike on a school or Hospital compound it has said that it took steps to reduce the chance of harming civilians Israel's increasing strikes on school grounds appear to reflect a shift in its efforts to root out Hamas and Gaza some military analysts say that as Israel has destroyed Hamas fighting units and part of the group's network of tunnels it has forced more Fighters above ground with the first anniversary of the war just weeks away the military announced Thursday that a top Israeli intelligence Commander Brigadier General Yosi sarel had announced his resignation general sarel led unit 82000 Israel's signals intelligence agency which was long seen as a pillar of a vaunted Israeli intelligence apparatus but he drew criticism after the October 7th hamas-led attack caught Israel by surprise because his unit had stopped monitoring Palestinian radio traffic that might have given away the plan in April Major General Aaron haliva the head of military intelligence resigned saying he wanted to take responsibility in January Israel accused a dozen United Nations workers of participating in the October 7th attacks in Israel or its aftermath in which about 1,00 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage the United Nations fight ired 10 of the 12 employees Israel had accused an internal un investigation later found that Israel had not provided evidence to back up its separate allegation that many unrwa workers had ties to Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups you are listening to a reading of Articles and features from The New York Times on the Niagara Frontier radio reading service in narrowly divided North Carolina a light blue County county is key for Harris for 16 years the state has been a heartbreaker for Democrats and so has mecklinburg County a reliably blue area that just hasn't been blue Enough by Maya King ask any Democrat knocking doors hosting debate watch parties or making phone calls in the blue pockets of North Carolina over the last several weeks and they'll say 2024 feels a lot like 2008 that was the year Barack Obama became the first Democrat to win the state in more than three decades no presidential candidate for the Democrats has managed it since but an outpouring of excitement for vice president Kamala Harris has gotten their hopes up Democrats eager to avoid another disappointment point to the state's biggest metropolitan area and the source of the party's biggest recent heartbreaks as the key mecklinburg County home to Charlotte and its suburbs is a reliably blue region that in the 16 years since Mr Obama's first and only Victory there just hasn't been blew enough in 2020 Joseph R Biden Jr lost the state by under two percentage points his narrowest losing margin that year and a key culprit was low voter enthusiasm and an underfunded County party operation two years later when Sher Beasley fell short in her Senate bid her Democratic allies pointed to mecklenburg's record low turnout Miss Harris will visit Charlotte and Greensboro on Thursday in a trip that underlines both her campaign's incre increased confidence in their North Carolina prospects and serves as a soft endorsement of her party's strategy there run up the score on friendly Turf to impact the state mecklinburg has to overperform said Amy Steel a veteran organizer who leads the new North Carolina project aimed at mobilizing voters of color across the state democratic candidates in the past she said have not nurtured their voters as much as they probably should or could over time and over time some of those voters have fallen off and not voted regularly the voter Coalition that powered Mr Obama's 2008 Victory included an explosion of black turnout in the urban Democratic strongholds around Charlotte and the Research Triangle that includes Raleigh and Durham while counting on critical masses of Democrats spread out in rural regions alongside white college educated voters and young people canvers in mecklinburg have focused largely on turning out black and Latino voters as as well as the handful of independent and infrequent voters in the area whether Democrats will be able to pull off a win after so many close calls is still an open question the state's electorate remains narrowly divided and Republicans have invested heavily in turning out their most reliable voters in the rural conservative areas that make up much of the state but miss Harris's galvanizing candidacy capped by a strong debate performance on Tuesday night has only fed the party's excitement about their prospects in both the county and North Carolina were at large the Democrats have truly gone from a death march to a campaign that's energetic and excited and enthusiastic said Brad cron a veteran Democratic political strategist in the state who is unaffiliated in the race this year if they hit the levels that they hit in 2008 the Democrats are going to have a big night that turnout push is shaping up to be extremely expensive for both sides former president Donald J Trump's campaign has largely outsourced its ground game in swing states to a network of super Pacs which have hired paid canvasing firms that in turn seek out a small army of short-term workers to knock on doors for example Blitz canvasing a firm hired by one of the super Pacs has posted job listings based in Newburn North Carolina a small coastal city offering 22 to $30 an hour 6 days a week to drum up voter support a democratic group the progressive turnout project has also posted listings for voter contact jobs in New Burn offering $125 for door knockers who complete a set number of contacts each day one person with knowledge of the Trump allies efforts in North Carolina described a paid canvasing operation focused largely on Rural turnout an expensive and timeconsuming strategy in the pursuit of Voters who are more difficult to deliver to the polls the focus on Rural voters could also mean missing some conservative leaning voters in blue areas who are open to their message Ron Robinson 73 a part-time Insurance instructor whose neighborhood west of Charlotte includes a heavy concentration of independent and moderate voters said he has been inundated with television advertisements and visits from democratic canvassers asked if he'd heard from any Republican groups he said very few have reached out I'll talk to anybody said Mr Robinson who said he would vote for Miss Harris and the Dem ratic candidate for governor Josh Stein but plans to support some conservative candidates for state house and city council they just haven't come out Jason Simmons chairman of the North Carolina Republican party defended the party's strategy calling it a much more narrow and focused measure that is a departure from those used during previous Cycles but is far-reaching as opposed to the broader shotgun approach that has been utilized in maybe previous Cycles it's a much more targeted approach he said but we have the resources we have the Investments and we have the ground game Republicans have also focused much of their voter mobilization efforts on pole watching training which Mr Simmons said was effective those who attend could serve as pole Watchers and greeters who he argued could monitor activities at precincts and tell other conservative voters about the Republican ticket and as Democrats and Allied groups argue that a turnout election like this will will depend on the strength of Grassroots canvasing a weekend of door- knocking in several key Democratic leaning areas of mecklinburg and neighboring counties underlined the challenges that organizers face in getting voters to the polls canvassers were often rebuffed by video camera doorbells do not disturb signs and in some cases dogs more concerning for them the state Supreme Court's decision in favor of former presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr's push to remove his name from North Carolina's B ballot has slowed the timeline of mail-in ballot delivery and complicated the message to voters about alternative ways of voting she said she was going to expand the map and she has succeeded in doing that said Mark farinella who led Mr Obama's North Carolina State operation in 2008 and expressed confidence in Miss Harris's prospects this year but he added North Carolina is still going to be a tough battle for her this is no sure thing her coalition will also rely on voters who were once skeptical of her campaign sitting on the front porch with her sister in the conservative rural charlot exer of Monroe North Carolina Sylvia Winfield Perry who is a North Carolina native but lives in Los Angeles recounted her distaste for Miss Harris during her 2020 presidential campaign Miss Perry said that as California's attorney general she led a system that prosecuted and imprisoned many black men now pointing to what she felt were the dangers Mr Trump and his allies posed she said she is comfortable supporting the vice president I believe she has an opportunity to grow and I don't think she's going to go in there and just allow our children to just die again she said so I'm going to give her a chance and if she doesn't work out right what do we do in four years we vote her out to counter some of this Democrats have spent Millions on the airwaves in all of North Carolina's media markets the party is on track to outspend Republican by nearly $15 million through November according to an analysis of AD spending from ad impact a Data Tracking firm still that has not eased concerns from even the most devoted Democratic voters Bob gelder 74 an independent Asheville resident said he planned to vote Democrats up and down the ticket and make regular $500 donations to miss Harris's campaign he sees his vote as one against Mr Trump as much as it is in support of the vice president president but he still wasn't sure if the party he is supporting would be able to win in the state the polls show it even but I doubt that will happen he said it seemed to me they were even last time I know he didn't win by much but we didn't win the state it's going to be hard to move him out us mortgage rates continue to fall the average rate on 30-year mortgages declined to 6.2% this week the lowest point since early 2023 by Danielle Kay mortgage rates fell this week to the lowest point in over a year and a half as markets reacted to economic data showing a slowing economy the average rate on 30-year mortgages the most popular Home Loan in the United States dropped to 6.2% this week Freddy Mack reported on Thursday the decline from 6.35% a week earlier left rates more than half a percentage Point lower than six weeks ago here's what else to know about the decline in mortgage rates this week's dip extends a downward Trend that started in April and intensified in early August when mortgage rates saw their biggest weekly drop of the year but mortgage costs are still twice as high as they were 3 years ago when the average 30-year rate stood at around 3% many potential sellers remain reluctant to put their homes on the market unwilling to part with lower rates on their existing mortgages mortgage rates are influenced by a range of factors including moves by the Federal Reserve and the market-based yields on government bonds US Treasury yields have drifted lower in recent months responding to economic data showing a slowing economy with inflation Cooling and the job market shifting to a lower gear next week the FED is expected to start cutting interest rates for the first time since early 2020 there are signs that lower borrowing costs have started to Spur more activity among home buyers and sellers but significant movement in the market is likely to take more time despite the improving mortgage rate environment prospective buyers remain on the sidelines as they negotiate a combination of High house prices and persistent supply shortages Sam Cotter Freddy Mack's Chief Economist said in a statement you are listening to a reading of Articles and features from The New York Times on the Niagara Frontier radio reading service this chatbot pulls people away from conspiracy theories in a new study many people doubted or abandoned false beliefs after a short conversation with the debunk bot by Teddy rosenbluth shortly after generative artificial intelligence hit the mainstream researchers warned that chatbots would create a dire problem as disinformation became easier to create conspiracy theories would spread rampantly now researchers wonder if chatbots might also offer a solution debunk bot an AI chatbot designed by researchers to very effectively persuade users to stop believing unfounded conspiracy theories made significant and long- Lasting progress at changing people's convictions according to a study published on Thursday in the journal science indeed false theories are believed by up to half of the American public and can have damaging consequences like discouraging vaccinations or fueling discrimination the new findings challenge the widely held belief that facts and logic cannot combat conspiracy theories the debunk bot built on the technology that underlies chat GPT may offer a practical way to channel facts the work does overturn a lot of how we thought about conspiracies said Gordon Penny cook a psychology professor at Cornell University and author of the study until now conventional wisdom held that once someone fell down the conspiratorial rabbit hole no amount of arguing or explaining would pull that person out the theory was that people adopt conspiracy theories to State an underlying need to explain and control their environment said Thomas Costello another author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at American University but Dr Costello and his colleagues wondered whether there might be another explanation what if debunking attempts just haven't been personalized enough since conspiracy theories vary so much from person to person and each person may cite different pieces of evidence to support one's ideas perhaps a one-size fits-all debunking script isn't the best strategy a chatbot that can counter each person's conspiratorial claim of choice with troves of information might be much more effective the researchers thought to test that hypothesis they recruited more than 2,000 adults across the country asked them to elaborate on a conspiracy that they believed in in and rate how much they believed it on a scale from 0 to 100 people described a wide range of beliefs including theories that the moon landing had been staged that covid-19 had been created by humans to shrink the population and that President John F Kennedy had been killed by the Central Intelligence Agency then some of the participants had a brief discussion with the chatbot they knew they were chatting with an AI but didn't know the purpose of the discussion participants were free to present the evidence that they believed supported their positions one participant for example believed the 911 terrorist attacks were an inside job because jet fuel couldn't have burned hot enough to melt the steel beams of the World Trade Center the chatbot responded it is a common misperception that the steel needed to melt for the World Trade Center towers to collapse it wrote Steel starts to lose strength and become more pliable at temperatures much lower than its melting point which is around 2500° fhe after three exchanges which lasted about 8 minutes on average participants rated how strongly they felt about their beliefs again on average their ratings dropped by about 20% about a quarter of participants no longer believed the falsehood the effect also spilled into their attitudes toward other poorly supported theories making the participants slightly less conspiratorial in general Ethan Porter a misinformation researcher at George Washington University not associated with the study said that what separated the chatbot from other misinformation interventions was how robust the effect seemed to be when participants were surveyed 2 months later the chatbots impact on mistaken beliefs remained unchanged oftentimes when we study efforts to combat misinformation we find that even the most effective interventions can can have short shelf lives Dr Porter said that's not what happened with this intervention researchers are still teasing out exactly why the debunk bot works so well an unpublished follow-up study in which researchers stripped out the chat box niceties I appreciate that you've taken time to research the JFK assassination bore the same results suggesting that it's the information not the chatbot itself that's changing people's minds said David Rand a computational social scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author of the paper it is the facts and evidence themselves that are really doing the work here he said the authors are currently exploring how they might recreate this effect in the real world where people don't necessarily seek out information that disproves their beliefs they have considered linking the chatbot in forums where these beliefs are shared or buying ads that pop up when someone searches a keyword related to a common conspiracy theory for a more targeted approach Dr Rand said the chatbot might be useful in a doctor's office to help debunk misapprehensions about vaccination Brendan Nyan a misperception researcher at Dartmouth College also not associated with the study said he wondered whether the reputation of generative AI might eventually change making the chatbot less trusted and therefore less effective you can imagine a world where AI information is seen the way mainstream media is seen he said I do wonder if how people react to this stuff is potentially time bound GM and Hyundai plan to work together on new vehicles General Motors and the South Korean automaker say they will collaborate on new vehicles buying parts and Clean Energy Technologies by Neil budet General Motors and Hyundai said on Thursday that they would look for areas where they could collaborate on new vehicles Supply chains and Technologies and a bid to cut costs and move faster the two automakers said they aimed to work together on internal combustion along electric and hydrogen powered vehicles but they did not provide details on where the joint work would be done which Executives would oversee the effort or how quickly they would come up with new models GM and Hyundai have complimentary strengths and talented teams Mary T Bara GM's chief executive said in a statement our goal is to unlock the scale and creativity of both companies to deliver even more competitive vehicles to customers faster and more efficiently the companies have signed a non binding agreement and said they would begin exploring possible areas of cooperation immediately like other automakers GM and Hyundai have invested tens of billions of dollars to develop electric vehicles that have so far fallen short of the lofty sales goals some Executives had set consumer enthusiasm for the battery powered models has cooled in the past year largely on concerns about the high prices of electric models and the challenges of charging them sales of such cars and trucks are growing at a modest Pace though generally at a faster Pace than for conventional gasoline vehicles many manufacturers including Tesla have cut prices to Spur demand and are scrambling to reduce costs this partnership will enable Hyundai motor and GM to evaluate opportunities to enhance competitiveness in key markets and vehicle segments as well as drive cost efficiencies and provide stronger customer value Hyundai's group executive chair Chung Yun said in a statement GM has been losing money on the electric model it makes but has said it expects those vehicles to become profitable by the end of the year Ford motor lost $2.5 billion on its electric vehicle business in the first half of this year and has set up a development team in California to design models that are less costly to produce Automotive Partnerships have had a mixed record of success however several years ago Ford invested in the electric El vehicle startup rivan but later decided to sell most of its shares Ford also established a partnership with Volkswagen but the companies have reduced their collaboration and Volkswagen said this year that it would work with rivan mainly on software GM and Honda also formed a partnership to develop electric vehicles Honda and its luxury brand Acura recently introduced two electric sport utility vehicles that are assembled at GM factories with GM's Battery Technology but the two companies have scrapped plans to work together on more models and Honda has said it is solely developing its next slate of battery powered models Tesla has at different times worked with Toyota and Mercedes-Benz before shifting its strategy funnel cake macchiato anyone the coffee Wars are heating up from the giant Starbucks to upstarts like scooters coffee in Nebraska the battle is joined for who can come up with the craziest calorie Laden not really coffee drink by Julie crestwell 6 years ago Odessa an oil town in West Texas probably best known for the high school football team that inspired Friday Night Lights had all of 17 coffee or tea restaurants today it boasts around 55 Starbucks has eight outlets in the community with another expected by the end of the year a regional brand out of Arkansas 7even Brew has put up three drive-through coffee stands where it serves drinks like funnel cake macchiato pixie stick energy drinks and wild berry smoothies from Oregon coffee company's Dutch Brothers and the human being have also established tow holds in the community on top of numerous mom and pop coffee cafes that have also opened in recent years in Texas almost every Community the same size as Odessa is seeing the same thing an explosion in what we call the three C's car washes chicken places and coffee shops Javier hovind odessa's mayor explained recently a few hours after he had ordered his Starbucks usual a venty caramel macchiato upside down extra hot with soy milk this is not a phenomenon unique to Odessa across the country in cities large and midsize cafes and Drive-ins that specialize in tea and coffee drinks make up one of the fastest growing segments of the restaurant industry in terms of number of stores and it's not just the biggest coffee chains Starbucks and Duncan that are trying to get customers their coffee fixes numerous Regional players are racing to expand their Footprints in parts of the country like the Midwest and South which they argue are under caffeinated 7 years ago seven Brew Coffee opened a kiosk in Rogers Arkansas today it has more than 190 stands stretching from Casper Wyoming to Upstate New York likewise scooters coffee a chain out of Nebraska has grown grown from 170 shops in 2018 to an expected 770 by the end of this year according to data essential a market research firm based in Chicago Christine Baron the chief executive of Dutch Brothers a publicly traded restaurant based in Western Oregon said in 2019 we had 370 shops and we have 912 right now she added we hope to have 4,000 plus shops over the next 10 to 15 years but good luck finding an ordinary cup of joe at most of these new restaurants there's something of an arms race going on in the coffee world with a growing number of establishments seemingly desperate to outdo one another in coming up with sweetened imaginatively flavored concoctions that in some cases bear only a passing acquaintance with what the average customer might consider coffee instead most of their sales growth is coming from iced beverages whether they be syrupy foamy cookie flavored Lattes or macchiato fruit smoothies high octane energy drinks or souped up selers and sodas this changing landscape is one of the challenges facing Brian nickel the new chief executive of Starbucks who last month was wooed away from Chipotle with a jaw-dropping compensation package that could exceed $100 million he replaced laxman nariman who was abruptly ousted after a 16-month stint Starbucks to be blunt is trying to get its mojo back throughout the covid pandemic the company had been a big winner expanding its loyalty programs and drive-through capabilities while serving up 12 ingredient iced beverages for Jen zers who happily posted them on their social media platforms but two quarters of the consecutive declines and a stock price that dropped nearly 30% in 6 months were clear warning signals to the board of Starbucks and a key reason the company decided to go with a new occupant in the Executive Suite on top of concerns that slowing traffic and revenue suggest some coffee drinkers may be cutting back on their caffeine fixes Starbucks and the other traditional coffee chains are facing big competition not only from one another but from fast food restaurants in terms of securing top real estate locations in cities all over the country in a postco world every Coffee House burger joint and taco restaurant is looking for the same thing drive-throughs and then there is this question how much coffee does a city or neighborhood even need in Odessa mayor hovind who shells out $7 four times a week for his customized venty drink said he was unperturbed about the number of coffee shops popping up around town everybody has their preference of where they want to go for their coffee he said if there is oversaturation some places getting more business and others less they just won't survive when Brian nudson and his wife Carmen opened their first coffee shop in Longmont Colorado in 20 2004 they didn't have much of a plan and their aspirations were pretty low we basically hoped we'd make enough money to pay the mortgage on the place but around 10: p.m. the night before we opened what was then called Gees we realized we hadn't put together a menu board yet Mr nson said so one of our friends brought over a chalkboard and we were trying to decide what to put on there and how much to charge how about we put on a latte and maybe charge $3 for it today that coffee chain now called Ziggy's coffee has 97 locations around the country mostly franchises run by others with plans to open up to 40 stores a year in the coming years and its goals have grown as well Starbucks is our competition Mr nudson said noting that iced beverages make up the bulk of its sales and that ziggies now offers a variety of food items from breakfast sandwiches and pastries to cake pops people pick up on some of these foods and drinks from Starbucks and we're appreciative of what they do our job is to make it a little bit better indeed if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery Starbucks is greatly admired like Starbucks many of the regional coffee players that are racing to expand make the bulk of their money from frothy sugary iced Beverages and like Starbucks they are focusing on developing drive-through locations and many have loyalty programs for their customers many offer breakfast sandwiches and cake pops that are similar to those at Starbucks and more than a few sell their versions of Starbucks puet chinos for furry friends there are a lot of people who complain Starbucks this and Starbucks that but Starbucks taught the world that casual convenient coffee cafes can exist here said Alec Chi mean the founder of fox tale coffee which in eight years has grown to 60 locations in Florida and nine in Michigan Nevada and Georgia While others are focusing on drive-throughs foxtail Embraces Starbucks sitdown Roastery Cafe concept I don't know where any of the coffee brands would be in America if not for the invention of the model of Starbucks he said but how the various coffee chains hope to differentiate themselves from Starbucks and from one another is through a variety of drinks and beverages all mostly iced that hardly look like coffee ziggies sells basic hot and iced coffee but also highlights a number of non- coffee drinks on its menu including the lime sickle refresher the cosmic blast energy drink and for fall the Harvest spice energy infusion combining white chocolate and pumpkin in an energy drink likewise scooters is offering for fall and iced maple bourbon latte and a green apple infusion drink Starbucks may not be sweating the competition but it is clearly watching it after other chains began selling iced energy drinks Starbucks launched its own version this summer including the melon burst iced energy drink still analysts say it will take years if not decades for a true competitor to emerge to the coffee Juggernaut that is Starbucks first it's their size Starbucks has more than 16,000 locations in the United States and they generated $26 billion or 3/4 of the company's Revenue in 2023 that dwarfs not only Duncan which has about 9,600 stores but Mak Starbucks bigger by store count than the 10 largest coffee and tea shops in the United States combined on top of that Starbucks scale and size means it has access to less expensive capital and can more readily absorb higher real estate costs than smaller competitors analysts say Starbucks Executives declined to be interviewed for this article but the company said it planned to open 580 new stores this year there are significant barriers to becoming a competitor to Starbucks said Peter Sal an analyst at Investment Banking firm bti who covers Starbucks if you wanted to build a competitor to Starbucks starting today you'd be at it for 30 or 40 years before you even make a dent it may seem as if there's a Starbucks on every corner but the coffee giant isn't everywhere and the places where Starbucks are scarce or absent think midsize cities in the Midwest and the South are the markets that various Regional players are flooding into we're focusing on the I35 corridor from Minnesota to Texas explained Scott Harvey president of dun Brothers Coffee a coffee restaurant based in Minneapolis that roasts coffee on its site it currently has 50 stores with the goal of having 250 in the next 5 years as we March further south from Iowa to Texas we're finding lots of markets there that are underserved and so we're focusing on bringing our brand to them Mr Harvey said in Green Bay Wisconsin the number of coffee and tea Outlets has jumped to 80 from 33 in 6 years according to data essential Cedar Rapids Iowa has gone to 96 from 58 in that time and Tyler Texas jumped to 52 coffee and tea restaurants from 176 years ago as the regional coffee players rush into new markets however they are competing with one another as well as with other food chains for key real estate these days the hottest commercial real estate in most cities is known as the endc cap the far end corners of a shopping center or strip mall that allows for a cafe and drive-thru to be built pre pandemic drive-through locations weren't in high demand Mr Harvey said today real estate is more competitive than ever been all of us are out there looking for the same site the end caps or good drive-through locations and that's causing real estate prices to go up as well you've been listening to a reading of Articles and features from the Friday September 13th issue of the New York Times your reader has been Chris Wilhelm thank you for listening