Vox: All Posts by Ruairí Arrieta-Kennahttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2017-09-02T09:00:02-04:00https://www.vox.com/authors/ruairi-arrieta-kenna/rss2017-09-02T09:00:02-04:002017-09-02T09:00:02-04:00Trump’s hard line on immigration could threaten the accuracy of the census
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<p>Latinos and other vulnerable communities are in danger of being undercounted in 2020.</p> <p id="5Rhnu7">The Trump administration has used the most of its federal authority to crack down on immigrants in the United States. But when it comes to the 2020 census, it will also be tasked with counting them.</p>
<p id="zjGvaA">Trump still has to name a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/us-census-director-resigns-amid-turmoil-over-funding-of-2020-count/2017/05/09/8f8657c6-34ea-11e7-b412-62beef8121f7_story.html">director</a> for the Census Bureau, and Congress has set a funding cap for the 2020 census that is <a href="http://www.gao.gov/highrisk/2020_decennial_census/why_did_study">certain to be inadequate</a>. With leadership and budget woes, there is concern as to how the Bureau will accurately count vulnerable populations — especially communities that include undocumented immigrants. </p>
<p id="K2sVzZ">To understand how the Trump administration’s priorities might affect undocumented Latino immigrants, and in some cases even documented citizens who live with undocumented individuals, I turned to Arturo Vargas, a member of the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. He is also the executive director of the <a href="http://www.naleo.org/">National Association of Latino Elected Officials Educational Fund</a>. </p>
<p id="HNztqv">“For immigrants, there's always been a fear that data could be shared with the immigration enforcement arms of the federal government,” Vargas says. </p>
<p id="UcbE5G">He said<strong> </strong>Latino Americans face all sorts of threats from a president openly hostile to them, and advocates are concerned that inadequate attention to the census could hurt Latinos even more.</p>
<p id="KuywR4">“It's often the communities who are most likely to be missed or undercounted in the census that miss out on the resources of which they are most in need,” Vargas says. “Assuring these families that their census data is going to be safe and confidential is going to be a particular challenge for the 2020 census.”</p>
<p id="2qKMJv">I interviewed Vargas to ask him about the leadership, funding, outreach, and accuracy challenges the Census Bureau is facing — and what it could mean for the 2020 census and for vulnerable populations in the US.</p>
<p id="nn8TCS">Our conversation has been edited and condensed below. </p>
<h4 id="vlnDdN">Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna</h4>
<p id="7D6Iex">The challenges the Census Bureau currently faces seem to threaten the accuracy of the 2020 data. Can you explain to me why accurate census data is so important and why it may be particularly important for the Latino population in America?</p>
<h4 id="dsZ4nH">Arturo Vargas</h4>
<p id="ZX1OKE">Well, the census itself has never been completely accurate. Over time it's gotten better, and the 2010 census was, according to the Census Bureau, the most accurate census they had held.</p>
<p id="WXCX92">But some populations are counted less well than other populations, and those populations who are counted less well include immigrants, poor people, children, non-English speaking populations, and rural populations. </p>
<p id="VcT2pD">Now the census itself is used for two primary purposes: the allocation of political representation and the distribution of public resources. The Constitution requires the census in order to reapportion the US House of Representatives, so 435 congressional seats are apportioned to the 50 states based on the population each state has. And then the data is used to draw those congressional districts and other electoral districts so that they are in equal population to each other and also to enforce the Voting Rights Act.</p>
<h4 id="9hisSV">Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna</h4>
<p id="49mOfF">You mentioned that one of the populations that is at risk of being undercounted is immigrants. Does the Census Bureau ask about citizenship status?</p>
<h4 id="HSeT6J">Arturo Vargas</h4>
<p id="zVxzQw">The decennial census form does not ask about citizenship or immigration status, but a separate survey that's part of the Census Bureau, called the American Community Survey, does include questions on citizenship. </p>
<p id="Egb0sf">It asks a small sample of the US public every year for very detailed data, and a couple of those questions are whether the respondent was born in the United States or not, whether the respondent is a naturalized citizen, and in what country the respondent was born. Those are the three questions pertaining to citizenship in the American Community Survey, but there is no citizenship status question on the decennial census form.</p>
<h4 id="dFqNFM">Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna</h4>
<p id="5gelTj">Is there any difficulty in surveying immigrant populations because of a fear of being asked of their immigration status?</p>
<h4 id="1hUgKq">Arturo Vargas</h4>
<p id="IK76qK">Absolutely. Any time that you are asking anybody in the public to provide the government with personal information, there is always a level of skepticism or fear that their data will be kept confidential and in no way used against them. And for immigrants, there's always been a fear that data could be shared with the immigration enforcement arms of the federal government. </p>
<h4 id="b0z7gB">Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna </h4>
<p id="Sk4qEr">How large an effort is usually made to address those issues of assuring communities of what the purpose of the census is and that their data will remain confidential?</p>
<h4 id="AGNPc5">Arturo Vargas</h4>
<p id="62eRjt">A certain confidentiality in the census and making sure that the public understands it always seems to be the biggest hurdle that the Census Bureau has in getting the public to participate. And in the current environment we find ourselves going into the 2020 census with, we know there has been a particularly strident increase in sentiment that is considered to be anti-immigrant. There is concern by many immigrant families that enforcement has been more of a priority for the current federal government. </p>
<h4 id="QRB7pI">Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna</h4>
<p id="Ftrvjx">Do you think President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric exacerbates the misconception that the census could be used for immigration enforcement?</p>
<h4 id="VzHExq">Arturo Vargas</h4>
<p id="dpiPJM">We know that the president's rhetoric — not just to Latino immigrants but the vast variety of immigrant communities across the country and racial minorities — has not been positive. So it's going to be a bigger burden for the Census Bureau — which is an arm of the Trump administration and that is going to be led by appointees of the Trump administration — to carry out its job. And that is a job that's required by the Constitution.</p>
<p id="gdAFEG">There is no option not to do the census. In fact, if the Census Bureau does not do its job well, it really is failing its constitutional obligation.</p>
<h4 id="FM74hk">Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna</h4>
<p id="Vu87Xl">With such policies like the possible end of DACA in sight, do you think that the Trump administration will make that needed effort to inform immigrant communities that the census is safe for them to take?</p>
<h4 id="Gb35Ml">Arturo Vargas</h4>
<p id="idx6kl">Well, the future of DACA at risk does create an even greater sense of uncertainty and ambiguity about the status of a number of immigrants who came forward to participate in that federal program. </p>
<p id="ChlDak">The question will be: If DACA is not continued, what will happen with the information that the federal government has about these 800,000 or some immigrants who have participated in DACA? We know that, legally, the federal government is not supposed to use it for any other purposes than the implementation of the DACA program. So this will be a test about the honesty and honorability of the current administration to carry out its legal obligation.</p>
<h4 id="5TZ9Ed">Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna</h4>
<p id="ewhFbj">If a population is undercounted, what are the consequences, not just for their political representation but for their local officials, for government programs, for outside research and advocacy and so on?</p>
<h4 id="4DhPkh">Arturo Vargas</h4>
<p id="Hh6dyW">Well, there are three principal problems that will emerge from inaccurate census data. First, of course, is the inaccurate or inappropriate distribution of political representation or political power. Number two would be the inaccurate distribution of public funds to the different states. And third, policymakers rely on census data all the time to make informed decisions about government programs and policies that they will be implementing. These are decisions made from school boards and city councils all the way up to Congress. And if you have flawed data that doesn’t accurately represent the population, you're not going to be making the best decisions.</p>
<p id="s0j7f6">So for example, we know that in the 2010 census, 1 million very young children were not counted. These are children ages zero to 4. Of those, 400,000 were Latinos. Take Los Angeles County, where 47,000 very young Latino children were missed. For any decision that LA County made since the 2010 census up until now, dealing with issues for children — whether it's head-start programs, prenatal programs, postnatal programs, early childhood programs, any of those programs — those decisions affecting those programs were done with data that was missing 47,000 children because they weren't counted in the census.</p>
<h4 id="66b2FY">Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna</h4>
<p id="wU8WM0">What are the most important things between now and 2020 that can and should be done and by whom?</p>
<h4 id="VQo5ZI">Arturo Vargas</h4>
<p id="5TiluX">The most important thing that needs to be done is Congress needs to appropriate the Census Bureau sufficient resources so that it tests all these new strategies it's planning to implement to make sure that we don't have a disaster come April 2020. And that is only two and a half years from now, so we're in the home stretch in preparation for the census.</p>
<p id="i6pXrl">And we're going to need to have a massive community outreach program so that the public understands how to be counted in the census.</p>
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/2/16228838/arturo-vargas-census-2020-immigration-trump-latinosRuairí Arrieta-Kenna2017-08-29T13:56:01-04:002017-08-29T13:56:01-04:00“Trump Forest”: why environmentalists are planting trees to thwart the president
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<p>The crowdsourced forest is at 500,000 trees and growing.</p> <p id="j2uahR">Donald Trump has called global warming a Chinese “hoax” and has erroneously claimed that cutting emissions to avert catastrophic climate change will ruin the US economy. He plans to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement and is undoing many of the policies President Barack Obama put in place to fight climate change. </p>
<p id="salDDC">In short, he’s been a disastrous president so far for the climate.</p>
<p id="Oq0Zat">Among those deeply vexed by the Trump administration’s attitude toward climate change are three environmentalists based in New Zealand, all in their 20s: a French-New Zealander entrepreneur named Adrien Taylor, a British climate scientist named Dan Price, and an American political scientist named Jeff Willis.</p>
<p id="7Fwye0">In January, they came up with an idea: Why not counter Trump’s inaction on climate by planting a proverbial “<a href="https://trumpforest.com/">Trump Forest</a>”? </p>
<p id="g4wx6t">“We know Donald Trump likes his name on things,” they cheekily wrote on their <a href="https://trumpforest.com/">website</a>. And the planet could use a lot more trees to <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/18/16166014/negative-emissions">sink some of the carbon</a> in the atmosphere.</p>
<p id="890bIL">Originally, the <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40401086/growing-a-living-resistance-to-trumps-anti-climate-policies">idea</a> was to plant a tree every time Trump uttered the words “climate change.” But that was nixed after it became obvious Trump rarely uses the words. (Various departments in his administration have even since <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/climate_desk/2017/08/usda_discourages_use_of_term_climate_change.html">discouraged</a> or <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/energy-department-climate-change-phrases-banned-236655">banned</a> the term’s usage.) </p>
<p id="tNoDUB">On March 29, the group decided it was go time. The day before, Trump had signed an <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/3/27/14922516/trump-executive-order-climate">“energy independence” executive order</a> with the <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/3/29/15098994/trump-executive-order-message-damage">message</a> that climate change doesn’t matter to his administration. Included in the order was the intention to dismantle Obama’s signature policy, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/3/27/14922516/trump-executive-order-climate">Clean Power Plan</a>. </p>
<p id="wyhAUR">So Taylor, Price, and Willis decided they would try to plant enough trees to make up for the greenhouse gas emissions that would occur without the Clean Power Plan. </p>
<p id="hnY4k3">In practical terms, that means 10 billion new trees, which Price says is a rough estimate for what would be needed to prevent 650 million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. (That’s what an analysis in <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v6/n12/full/nclimate3125.html"><em>Nature</em></a> suggests the Clean Power Plan would do if fully implemented over eight years.)</p>
<p id="TV8U2G">The organizers admit their goal of 10 billion trees “sounds ridiculous,” but they also insist that it’s not completely out of reach. In just the past four weeks, the number of trees planted or pledged increased from 50,000 to 500,000, according to the tally they update on their website every day.</p>
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<figcaption>Adrien Taylor, Dan Price, and Jeff Williams founded Trump Forest in March.</figcaption>
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<p id="wOlBwp">Trump Forest doesn’t actually handle any money, and it doesn’t ever plan to. The founders tell me that they all have regular day jobs and have no intention to make anything off of Trump Forest. Instead Taylor, Price, and Willis say they simply wish to connect people who want to do something about the climate with reputable organizations that will help them plant trees.</p>
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<img alt="Trump’s policies will put the US 2025 emissions target out of reach." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/x75WRI71PJNfO4y7Fw2JukH4h0Y=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8578563/CO2_Paris_Emissions_US_chart_vox.jpg">
<figcaption>Trump Forest <a href="https://trumpforest.com/science/">claims</a> that if their tree-planting goal is met, the US 2025 carbon target can be met, and “the backward steps of the Trump Administration will be negated until a sane, logical government, that bases its decisions on scientific advice wins the next election.”</figcaption>
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<p id="ZhriHH">While many of the tree-planters are American, they say they’ve also seen a lot of support come from Europe and other places. "People all around the world realize that we’re all going to pay for his [Trump’s] actions,” says Taylor, whose sustainable hat company Offcut Caps provided the first pledge of 1,000 trees.</p>
<p id="dZQXVh">“Obviously it’s a big challenge,” Price says of their goal of planting 10 billion trees. “We are looking to cover an area about the size of Kentucky or the North Island of New Zealand or Iceland,” he explains. “These aren’t huge areas, especially when you break them down by country. Split that between 200 countries around the world, and it’s not too bad.”</p>
<p id="fW0tt9">Unlike Trump Hotels, Trump Steaks, Trump Water, or the myriad other products with the Trump name on it, neither the president nor his family has a stake in Trump Forest. But the creators of Trump Forest say that they’d love if he found out about it, and they are keen to work out an arrangement should he be interested in endorsing their project.</p>
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/21/16151244/trump-forest-environmentalists-planting-trees-thwart-presidentRuairí Arrieta-Kenna2017-08-27T08:13:46-04:002017-08-27T08:13:46-04:00Why you should never drive on flooded roads
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<figcaption>A car in a flooded street as Hurricane Matthew hit St. Augustine, FL on Friday October 07, 2016. | Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The risk of drowning is higher than you'd think.</p> <p id="i8amXg">Hurricane Harvey is posing an <a href="http://mashable.com/2017/08/25/hurricane-harvey-unprecedented-flood-risk/#0HdVL6AoEOq4">unprecedented, catastrophic flood risk</a> to Texas. As of Sunday morning, it had downgraded to a tropical storm. But it’s the storm surge and rains Harvey will continue to bring to the Texas coast that will cause the most destruction to life and property. Already two people are reported dead and up to are 14 injured, with significant damage to buildings and trees.</p>
<p id="Qiz3nW">Right now, emergency managers are advising many coastal communities in the storm’s path to stay put — because once roads are flooded, driving actually becomes one of the most dangerous things you can do. Most people who die in heavy flooding, it turns out, die in their cars.</p>
<p id="ttUyUL">Almost two out of every three flood-related deaths between 1995 and 2010 (not including Hurricane Katrina) occurred in motor vehicles, according to Greg Forbes, a severe weather expert for <a href="https://weather.com/safety/floods/news/flash-flooding-vehicle-danger-20140717">the Weather Channel</a>. Here’s how that happens.</p>
<h3 id="ltmIBI">Driving injuries and deaths occur in floods when:</h3>
<ul>
<li id="NryAck">Drivers hit pools and spin off the road</li>
<li id="iFSBGJ">Drivers hit water, stall, and get stuck as water is rising</li>
<li id="rxI35B">Drivers get carried off by moving water</li>
<li id="YHOlBm">Drivers hit trees in the road</li>
<li id="fVkl65">Drivers drive into collapsed sections of the road</li>
</ul>
<p id="7dEm7s">These conditions can cause fatal accidents on their own but can also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14630576">lead to</a> (horrifically) drivers or passengers drowning while trapped in or attempting to escape their vehicles.</p>
<h3 id="lfcJVE">Repeated public health warnings have not been able to prevent people from driving during storms</h3>
<p id="Fs5WVf">“As little as six inches of water may cause you to lose control of your vehicle,” warns the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/psa/driving.html">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> (CDC). Not to mention, two feet of water — or one foot of fast-moving water — can sweep away most cars, according to the CDC and the <a href="https://www.ready.gov/hurricanes">Department of Homeland Security</a>.</p>
<p id="0lS1Q0">A 2003 study in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14630576"><em>Traffic Injury Prevention</em></a> found that many of the people who died in 1999’s Hurricane Floyd had received warnings but still either deliberately drove into flooded roadways anyway or unexpectedly encountered flooded roadways while driving in severe-weather-affected areas.</p>
<p id="8YNfoA">And even in 2016, after Hurricane Matthew, a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6605a3.htm">CDC mortality surveillance report</a> found that repeated public health warnings still resulted in drowning associated with a motor vehicle as the most common cause of death.</p>
<h3 id="QJEuDV">PSA: just don’t drive if the street is flooded</h3>
<p id="4TCuo0">The best advice, according to <a href="https://weather.com/safety/floods/news/flash-flooding-vehicle-danger-20140717">the Weather Channel</a>, is to never drive when you don’t know how deep water is. And if the water is covering the surface, you probably don’t know how deep it is. It’s easy to misjudge the depth of water, they say, especially at night.</p>
<p id="rhI0Sc">Recently, in response to Hurricane Harvey, the <a href="https://twitter.com/NWS/status/900928221528678400">National Weather Service</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/fema/status/900016097134596098">FEMA</a>, and other <a href="https://twitter.com/waynekthompson/status/901060697236398081">local</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/HurdOnTheHill/status/901096839579000833">federal</a> government officials and <a href="https://twitter.com/TxDOTFTWPIO/status/901080302105350145">departments</a> have been pushing the message “turn around, don’t drown” on Twitter to discourage people from driving on flooded roads.</p>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Half of all flood fatalities is vehicle-related. Turn Around Don’t Drown! <a href="https://t.co/NifPjd3ZYq">https://t.co/NifPjd3ZYq</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FloodSafety?src=hash">#FloodSafety</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SummerSafety?src=hash">#SummerSafety</a> <a href="https://t.co/2HtF3E1mlo">pic.twitter.com/2HtF3E1mlo</a></p>— NWS (@NWS) <a href="https://twitter.com/NWS/status/900779760577466368">August 24, 2017</a>
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<p id="1zPfjf">If you’re in the affected region, please heed their advice.</p>
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/25/16202636/hurricane-harvey-flooding-drivingRuairí Arrieta-Kenna2017-08-25T17:41:04-04:002017-08-25T17:41:04-04:00After public outcry, the Interior Department won’t eliminate any national monuments
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<figcaption>Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke at a podium in March 2017. | AP Photo</figcaption>
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<p>But Secretary Zinke still plans to make other "changes."</p> <p id="O3w505">After a massive public outcry about a review of national monuments on federal lands that might have led to their elimination, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has decided not to seek the removal of any monument designation, according to a draft report he submitted to the White House on Thursday. But reports suggest that Zinke may still make significant changes to the monuments that could strip them of protections.</p>
<p id="8GgaiS">Some 2.4 million public comments, nearly all of them supporting the national monuments — which include the dazzling and historically important geological formations of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears in Utah — were submitted in the past 60 days. And they seemed to have had a big impact on the administration’s review.</p>
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<cite>Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Sights at the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.</figcaption>
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<p id="6TB14E">The victory for supporters of the monuments, however, is only partial. Zinke has still recommended shrinking some of the monuments as well as changing what activities are allowed on the federal lands. And Lisa Friedman of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/us/bears-ears-utah-monument.html">New York Times</a> reports that the monuments that could be shrunk include Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and two others.</p>
<p id="m2JdPT">Alex Taurel of the League of Conservation Voters released the following statement in response:</p>
<blockquote><p id="bBjXBA">If these reports are true, it’s even clearer that Secretary Zinke’s assertion that he wouldn’t ‘eliminate’ any of our national monuments was just shallow spin. Any changes to monument boundaries threaten to open up our treasured public lands to drilling, mining and other special interests who want to pad their profits. It’s no coincidence that shrinking Bears Ears by nearly 90 percent could coincide with the 90 percent of the monument that <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-10/trump-takes-aim-at-western-monuments-that-may-hold-oil-riches">has potential</a> for oil, gas and coal speculators — further proof that the Trump administration’s sham review was a pretext for selling out our public lands and waters to the highest bidder.</p></blockquote>
<p id="LQP2wh">The hullabaloo over the monuments began in April, when President Donald Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/26/presidential-executive-order-review-designations-under-antiquities-act">executive order</a> directing Zinke to review 27 specific land and marine national monuments — all designated over the past two decades. Zinke was tasked with submitting to the White House a report of recommendations for what to do with them within 120 days.</p>
<p id="hj9Dup">At the April signing ceremony, Trump described the federal designation of large areas of land as national monuments (a power given to presidents by the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906) as a “massive federal land grab” and declared that “it’s time we ended this abusive practice.”</p>
<p id="NklD3P">But environmental groups and other defenders of the monuments saw the Trump administration’s gestures at eliminating the monuments as an unwise concession to the oil and gas industry, which covets these lands for drilling and development.</p>
<p id="iknbkL">“Zinke and the Trump administration want to gut the power of the Antiquities Act to shore up the fossil fuel industry,” May Boeve, executive director of the environmental organization <a href="http://350.org">350.org</a>, said in a statement in April. “On top of all the attacks on our climate, now we’ll have to defend our parks and monuments from Big Oil as well.”</p>
<p id="7Ty450">But over the past two months, environmentalists, outdoors enthusiasts, and others have come out in force in defense of the national monuments under review, inundating the Interior Department with comments.</p>
<p id="lgCjXy">The report is not yet publicly available, though the DOI has published a <a href="https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/monument-report-summary.pdf">summary</a> of the draft on its website. In the summary, Zinke acknowledges that the vast majority of the <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-zinke-sends-monument-report-white-house">2.4 million responses</a> received during the comment period “were overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining existing monuments.” Early analyses in <a href="https://medium.com/westwise/new-analysis-shows-national-monument-support-dominates-public-comment-period-7550888175e">May</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/westwise/america-to-trump-and-zinke-dont-touch-national-monuments-8f4b40c43599">July</a> by the Center for Western Priorities suggested as much too.</p>
<div id="Apa5LJ"><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 75.0019%;"><iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1cP82BH4PDcVcgFpxzcfpL6COepo&source=iframely" style="border: 0; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></div>
<p id="CdnmMz">But the fight for the protection of these federal lands is far from over.</p>
<p id="f7ex6p">It was <a href="http://protectnps.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Squillace-Biber-Antiq-Act-article-May-2017.pdf">doubtful</a> anyway whether it is in the executive’s authority to remove national monument designations bestowed by previous presidents. And in an <a href="https://apnews.com/34f20413a25144428e36b18bd4f101f2">interview with the Associated Press</a> published Thursday, Zinke explained that his report will instead recommend certain changes — which could potentially include adjusting the borders to make monuments smaller and easing restrictions on what can be done on the lands — to a “handful” of monuments.</p>
<p id="HGIIfn">Environmental organizations remain concerned by Zinke’s vagueness. As Jacqueline Savitz of Oceana said to AP, “A change can be a small tweak or near annihilation.”</p>
<p id="KsbfO2">In a <a href="https://foe.org/zinke-reckless-national-monuments-decision-hands-public-lands-oil-gas-industry/">statement</a>, Ben Schreiber of Friends of the Earth said that if Zinke attempts to shrink or allow mineral extraction on national monuments, “he can rest assured that his latest giveaway to corporate polluters will be litigated in the courts.”</p>
<h3 id="YgHHhD">Further reading:</h3>
<ul>
<li id="kr73ev">
<a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/26/15433912/trump-executive-order-federal-lands-national-monuments">Trump’s executive order to remove protections for national monuments, explained</a> (Sarah Frostenson/Vox)</li>
<li id="FVZ1yP">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY29zfVsrWI">Video: What is the Antiquities Act?</a> (E&E News)</li>
<li id="71MSlZ">
<a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-national-monuments-pictures-20170426-htmlstory.html">Here are the national monuments being reviewed under Trump's order</a> (LA Times)</li>
<li id="xqZFCB">
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/obama-conserved-13-million-acres-in-utahcan-trump-un-conserve-them/530265/">Obama Conserved 1.3 Million Acres in Utah — Can Trump Undo That?</a> (Robinson Meyer/the Atlantic)</li>
</ul>
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/24/16199048/interior-department-national-monumentsRuairí Arrieta-Kenna2017-08-23T14:20:02-04:002017-08-23T14:20:02-04:00A State Department science envoy resigns in a letter that spells out IMPEACH
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XDxzbOy0YTzr4OJQ5pYBgYizWDI=/0x0:5184x3888/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56329063/14996536218_a9c4f7d7f1_o.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Dr. Dan Kammen | California Air Resources Board</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It follows last week’s resignation letter that spelled out RESIST.</p> <p id="lePiGg">One of the State Department’s seven science envoys publicly resigned Wednesday morning, sharing his resignation letter on social media. In it, former science envoy Daniel Kammen spelled out the word “IMPEACH” in an acrostic as he recounted President Donald Trump’s controversial response to recent deadly violence in Charlottesville and the president’s failure to condemn those responsible. </p>
<p id="E3kg6U">“My decision to resign is in response to your attacks on the core values of the United States,” writes Kammen, addressing Trump. He continues, arguing that the president’s failure to unequivocally rebuke white supremacists and neo-Nazis “enables sexism and racism, and disregards the welfare of all Americans.” </p>
<p id="Zc2Qj1">Kammen also admonishes Trump’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/6/1/15724980/trump-paris-climate-agreement">decision to withdraw</a> the United States from the Paris climate agreement and cites his own career-long commitment to public service, working for the Department of Energy, the EPA, and the State Department in various roles beginning in 1996. </p>
<p id="m5ZQWe">In a move that echoes another recent public resignation letter, the first letter of each paragraph in Kammen’s letter spells out a message: “IMPEACH.” Last week, all 17 members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH) submitted a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/18/16169980/arts-and-humanities-committee-resigns-trump-resist">resignation letter</a> that also contained an acrostic spelling out “RESIST.”</p>
<div id="IGF0yk">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mr. President, I am resigning as Science Envoy. Your response to Charlottesville enables racism, sexism, & harms our country and planet. <a href="https://t.co/eWzDc5Yw6t">pic.twitter.com/eWzDc5Yw6t</a></p>— Daniel M Kammen (@dan_kammen) <a href="https://twitter.com/dan_kammen/status/900360794231013376">August 23, 2017</a>
</blockquote>
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<p id="CNDXYU">Many on Twitter, including the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, quickly pointed out the acrostic:</p>
<div id="0v4pmE">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/dan_kammen">@dan_kammen</a> resigns as Trump science envoy. <a href="https://t.co/2WJ2mxnHNg">pic.twitter.com/2WJ2mxnHNg</a></p>— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/900390047605764096">August 23, 2017</a>
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<p id="ZvP2Op">Kammen, one of 18 scientists who have participated in the <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/e/oes/stc/scienceenvoy/index.htm">science envoy program</a> since President Barack Obama created it in 2010, only had a month remaining in his post.</p>
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/23/16190336/state-department-science-envoy-resigns-letter-spells-impeachRuairí Arrieta-Kenna2017-08-23T10:50:01-04:002017-08-23T10:50:01-04:00CNN's Don Lemon gave a scathing rebuke of Trump's Phoenix speech
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SB-eoBfVkX_AtT4PspEkfRA4Kzk=/306x0:2337x1523/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56323415/Screen_Shot_2017_08_23_at_10.39.34_AM.0.png" />
<figcaption>CNN/YouTube</figcaption>
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<p>“He’s unhinged. It’s embarrassing.”</p> <p id="L8HX6G">Following President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Phoenix Tuesday night, CNN anchor Don Lemon delivered a concise and stunningly sharp rebuke to Trump’s speech. In his <a href="http://time.com/4912055/donald-trump-phoenix-arizona-transcript/">remarks</a>, the president attacked the media — in particular for how his response to recent deadly violence in Charlottesville was covered — and criticized the GOP for failing to deliver on his agenda. </p>
<p id="w9TqvS">“This is who we elected president of the United States, a man who is so petty that he has to go after people who he deems to be his enemy, like an imaginary friend of a 6-year-old,” Lemon said in an under-two-minute monologue.</p>
<p id="cEpmcV">“His speech was without thought. It was without reason. It was devoid of facts. It was devoid of wisdom. There was no gravitas. There was no sanity there. He was like a child blaming a sibling on something else. ‘He did it. I didn’t do it.’”</p>
<div id="Ihyg8r"><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.2493%;"><iframe src="//fave.api.cnn.io/v1/fav/?customer=cnn&env=prod&video=politics/2017/08/23/trump-speech-total-eclipse-of-the-facts-lemon-ctn.cnn" style="border: 0; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;" allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no"></iframe></div></div>
<p id="FIuOpb">Here’s are Lemon’s full remarks:</p>
<blockquote>
<p id="qHaXVo">I’m just going to speak from the heart here. What we have witnessed is a total eclipse of the facts: Someone who came out onstage and lied directly to the American people and left things out that he said in an attempt to rewrite history, especially when it comes to Charlottesville.</p>
<p id="Ofkc0Z">He’s unhinged. It’s embarrassing. And I don’t mean for us, the media, because he went after us — but for the country. This is who we elected president of the United States, a man who is so petty that he has to go after people who he deems to be his enemy, like an imaginary friend of a 6-year-old. His speech was without thought. It was without reason. It was devoid of facts. It was devoid of wisdom. There was no gravitas. There was no sanity there. He was like a child blaming a sibling on something else. ‘He did it. I didn’t do it.’</p>
<p id="NuAIBe">He certainly opened up the race wounds from Charlottesville. A man clearly wounded by the rational people who are abandoning him in droves, meaning those business people and the people in Washington now who are questioning his fitness for office and whether he is stable. A man backed into a corner, it seems, by circumstances beyond his control and beyond his understanding.</p>
<p id="VMjRMM">That’s the truth. If you watched that speech as an American, you had to be thinking, ‘What in the world is going on?’ This is the person we elected as the president of the United States? This petty? This small? The person who is supposed to pull the country together? It certainly didn’t happen there.</p>
</blockquote>
<p id="aAdhFC">Later on in CNN’s post-rally coverage, former director of national intelligence James Clapper called Trump’s speech “downright scary and disturbing.” </p>
<p id="KEQqFm">Lemon went on to suggest that Trump’s rhetoric could inspire more violence. “He has given oxygen to racists,” Lemon said, referencing Trump’s frequent reticence to condemn the alt-right and white supremacist groups. “He is clearly trying to ignite a civil war in this country.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/23/16189198/cnn-don-lemon-rebuke-trump-phoenix-speechRuairí Arrieta-Kenna2017-08-23T08:00:04-04:002017-08-23T08:00:04-04:00The list of charities canceling events at Mar-a-Lago keeps growing
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aFEMELLBt8HAvpPlgziZq2KcGCY=/0x0:3000x2250/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56313179/GettyImages_80072086.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>A gala at Mar a Lago. | Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>16 organizations have scrapped their plans to use the venue over Trump’s Charlottesville comments.</p> <p id="5G5eYi">More than a dozen charities have pulled their events from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in a continued backlash to how Trump responded to the fatal violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last week.</p>
<p id="8Ki3Bn">Trump initially cast blame for the violence at a white supremacist rally on “many sides,” before he walked back his statement and condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis. But he subsequently doubled down on his first remarks, saying there were “very fine people on both sides.” Trump’s comments were so controversial that <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/17/16157510/trump-business-councils">CEOs began to abandon</a> his business councils, causing Trump to disband them, and lawmakers on <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/15/16154212/gop-lawmakers-react-to-trump-charlottesville">both sides of the aisle</a> rushed to denounce his comments and issue their own rebukes of racism and other types of discrimination.</p>
<p id="sWkkMU">Now the Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/08/22/16th-charity-cancels-its-event-at-president-trumps-mar-a-lago-club-blaming-political-turbulence/?utm_term=.c7c78e25b42d">reports</a> that since Trump’s controversial comments last week, a total of 16 charities have canceled events that were planned at Mar-a-Lago.</p>
<div id="FsOfvR">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is what <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a>'s Charlottesville comments did to business at Mar-a-Lago. One list is before C-Ville, the other from today. <a href="https://t.co/1L3em5Dt4U">pic.twitter.com/1L3em5Dt4U</a></p>— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/899654324753772544">August 21, 2017</a>
</blockquote>
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<div id="vitKh9">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Another list: charities planning *non*-gala events at Mar-a-Lago (lunches, lectures, etc). Before/after <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> comments on C-ville <a href="https://t.co/YKttCVSNE4">pic.twitter.com/YKttCVSNE4</a></p>— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/899696523444989955">August 21, 2017</a>
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<p id="ZOkhJb">The photos of Fahrenthold’s notepad, which he posted on Twitter Monday, are already out of date, as additional charities have ditched the venue since.</p>
<p id="wZT8oD">The full list as of Tuesday afternoon is: American Cancer Society; American Friends of Magen David Adom; American Red Cross; Autism Project of Palm Beach County; Big Dog Ranch Rescue; Cleveland Clinic Florida; Hearing the Ovarian Cancer Whisper; Leaders in Furthering Education; MorseLife; Palm Beach Zoo; Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach; Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts; Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation; Salvation Army; Susan G. Komen; and Unicorn Children's Foundation.</p>
<p id="tWaZzp">Sharon Alexander, executive director of the Unicorn Children’s Foundation, an international nonprofit focused on special needs children, issued a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/unicornchildrensfoundation/posts/10155637341799784">statement</a> on the foundation’s decision to cancel a fashion show luncheon at Trump’s property. It read in part: “Due to the political turbulence associated with this choice of venue it would be a disservice to our supporters and our children to hold our event at Mar-a-Lago.”</p>
<p id="HO1QH9">The <a href="http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/update-big-dog-ranch-event-chaired-lara-trump-pulls-out-mar-lago/Ak8WihK9tIWwJkoCy2jsnL/">Palm Beach Post reported</a> last Friday that Big Dog Ranch Rescue, a national animal welfare organization co-chaired by the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, decided to move its annual luncheon.</p>
<p id="zdUlAJ">Canceled events at Mar-a-Lago will likely result in quite a bit of lost revenue for the Trump family. Fahrenthold reports, “Charities hosting large galas can pay Trump's club between $125,000 and $275,000 for a single night's revelry. Even lunchtime events can cost charities between $25,000 and $85,000.” </p>
<p id="SVZnaG">But he also suggests that some of the charities may be taking a hit for making this choice. <a href="https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/900078020345647105">According to Fahrentold</a>, the Unicorn Children’s Foundation is expecting to lose out on about $160,000 in donations from its canceled luncheon event.</p>
<div id="Y0CKoG">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mar-a-Lago is taking a hit as charities cancel — but the charities are taking financial risks, too. <a href="https://t.co/RUE9YfU736">https://t.co/RUE9YfU736</a></p>— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) <a href="https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/900077613481422850">August 22, 2017</a>
</blockquote>
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<p id="D8QCI1">Though some charities insist that this move is <a href="http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/local/updated-red-cross-komen-join-salvation-army-departing-mar-lago/iAfBOPKRUIUBbzzG71YNXK/">not a political statement</a>, others made clear that they were taking a stand. </p>
<p id="jOitXP">In an announcement that the American Cancer Society would be moving a dinner for its sponsors as well as an anniversary gala from Mar-a-Lago, spokesperson Miriam Falco said in a statement, “Our values and commitment to diversity are critical as we work to address the impact of cancer in every community.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/23/16185216/charities-canceling-events-mar-a-lago-charlottesvilleRuairí Arrieta-Kenna2017-08-22T13:20:01-04:002017-08-22T13:20:01-04:00Phoenix mayor warns Trump not to hold campaign rally in searing op-ed
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VnOg9g1wXDOcsq-F-Lkkd4hI_JE=/0x0:5760x4320/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56306969/32784058501_40a278c717_o.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton | <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/32784058501/in/photostream/">Gage Skidmore</a></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is Mayor Greg Stanton’s second public warning to Trump not to inflame racial tensions in his city.</p> <p id="YhjEJs">In a sharply worded <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/phoenix-mayor-greg-stanton-why-i-dont-want-trump-to-come-to-my-city/2017/08/21/e4bb5d46-8679-11e7-961d-2f373b3977ee_story.html">op-ed in the Washington Post</a>, Phoenix’s Democratic mayor, Greg Stanton, repeated his request for President Trump to delay a campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center planned for Tuesday night.</p>
<p id="CbbEY5">Stanton’s op-ed, published Monday afternoon online and Tuesday morning in print, reads in part: “America is hurting. And it is hurting largely because Trump has doused racial tensions with gasoline. With his planned visit to Phoenix on Tuesday, I fear the president may be looking to light a match.”</p>
<p id="0yN0aJ">Stanton referred in his op-ed to the deadly violence that took place at a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12. After the march, President Trump blamed the violence “on many sides,” refusing to specifically condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis. </p>
<p id="Zddnl2">Trump <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/14/politics/trump-condemns-charlottesville-attackers/index.html">initially walked back that statement</a>, calling out the “KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups” as “repugnant,” but he then doubled down on his first sentiment, saying there were “very fine people on both sides” at the march. </p>
<p id="dqyAGk">Stanton took to Twitter in the following days to request that the president delay his rally in Arizona. “It is my hope that more sound judgment prevails and that [Trump] delays his visit,” he wrote. In addition to citing the violence in Charlottesville as a reason to delay, the mayor cautioned, “If President Trump is coming to Phoenix to announce a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/22/16151256/trump-pardon-arpaio">pardon for former Sheriff Joe Arpaio</a>, then it will be clear that his true intent is to enflame emotions and further divide our nation.” </p>
<div id="QHxI26">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">My statement on Trump's August 22 event at the <a href="https://twitter.com/PhoenixConvCtr">@PhoenixConvCtr</a>. <a href="https://t.co/nPYIHX5eVg">pic.twitter.com/nPYIHX5eVg</a></p>— Greg Stanton (@MayorStanton) <a href="https://twitter.com/MayorStanton/status/897963549514911744">August 16, 2017</a>
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<p id="TwY9pu">Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — whose controversial track record included, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/31/joe-arpaio-arizona-sheriff-criminal-contempt-241181">per Politico</a>, running an “open-air ‘tent city’ jail in the scorching Arizona heat” — was recently convicted of criminal contempt for having willfully violated a court order to stop his department from racially profiling members of Maricopa’s Latino population.</p>
<p id="KEiDGf">In his Washington Post op-ed, Stanton expanded on his ultimatum regarding Trump’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/22/16151256/trump-pardon-arpaio">rumored intent to pardon Arpaio</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p id="y17W8i">Let’s be clear: A pardon of Arpaio can be viewed only as a presidential endorsement of the lawlessness and discrimination that terrorized Phoenix’s Latino community. Choosing to announce it in Phoenix — especially in the wake of Charlottesville — would add insult to very serious injury and would reveal that the president’s true intent is to further divide our nation.</p></blockquote>
<p id="5IXYJb">After describing how Latino residents of Maricopa lived in fear of the policies Arpaio practiced, Stanton continued:</p>
<blockquote><p id="ohWGZc">Even before his trial and conviction, voters grew tired of Arpaio’s brand of racism and blatant violation of the law. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/joe-arpaio-arizona-sheriff.html?mcubz=0">Last year</a>, in an overwhelmingly Republican county, Arpaio lost by nearly 10 points. Although local Republicans helped defeat Arpaio, the white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other racists who shamed our country this month in Charlottesville would surely cheer a presidential pardon.</p></blockquote>
<aside id="jkGDir"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"Why both Democrats and Republicans are worried Trump will pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio","url":"https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/22/16151256/trump-pardon-arpaio"}]}'></div></aside><p id="OzNiQM">Indeed, there’s reason to believe local residents aren’t pleased with the president either. Trump only narrowly won Arizona’s electoral votes in 2016 — and his approval ratings, while higher in Arizona than nationally, are <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2017/07/27/arizona-polltrump-approval-at-47-support-for-gop.html">still below 50 percent</a> in the state. </p>
<p id="wbOBTW">Most recently, Arizona Sen. McCain cast the final vote that killed the GOP Obamacare repeal effort, and the state’s junior senator, Jeff Flake, <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/31/my-party-is-in-denial-about-donald-trump-215442">published a scathing essay</a> in Politico Magazine, excerpted from <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/9/16079244/jeff-flake-book-trump">a forthcoming book</a>, in which he suggested that nominating Trump was the Republican Party’s “Faustian bargain.” </p>
<p id="QNylcV">McCain, Flake, and the state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, all plan to skip the rally tonight. Meanwhile, the Arizona Republic <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2017/08/18/z-attend-protest-rally-president-trump-phoenix/578422001/">reported</a> that a number of anti-Trump demonstrations are planned for Tuesday night outside the rally.</p>
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/22/16183854/phoenix-mayor-trump-rally-op-edRuairí Arrieta-Kenna2017-08-22T09:42:07-04:002017-08-22T09:42:07-04:00America’s solar eclipse might have been the most watched in history
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LThlYe3LeF5I85Nts1492BuvXzg=/0x0:3000x2250/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56296411/GettyImages_836328510.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>See <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/21/16171826/solar-eclipse-2017-photos">Vox’s collection</a> of photos of the solar eclipse and the people who watched it around the country. | Scott Olson/Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Millions got outside to see Monday’s eclipse, and millions more watched online. </p> <p id="iDKWqS">Monday’s solar eclipse was truly an American experience, visible as a partial eclipse from all 50 states and as a total eclipse from a 70-mile-wide sliver of 14 states. While total solar eclipses occur somewhere on Earth about every 18 months, it has been 38 years since the last total solar eclipse passed through the United States, and 99 years since the last coast-to-coast eclipse.</p>
<p id="LfkM8x">And this eclipse was certainly historic. While it’s impossible to know exactly how many people saw it, the Associated Press is <a href="http://www.wtsp.com/news/eclipse/watch-live-follow-the-solar-eclipse-from-coast-to-coast/465904404">reporting</a> that it was the most observed and most photographed eclipse in history.<strong> </strong>That squares with what Rick Fienberg of the American Astronomical Society <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/08/21/great-american-eclipse-be-most-watched-celestial-event-history">predicted last week</a>. </p>
<p id="ck49Ss">At a <a href="https://www.space.com/37292-most-watched-eclipse.html">NASA briefing in June</a>, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency's Science Mission Directorate, said that it is ultimately impossible to judge the relative audience of the 2017 eclipse.</p>
<p id="IbgdeG">"My personal feeling is that it will be the most watched," Zurbuchen said at the time, citing the many ways it would be available both in person and online, "but I can't prove that scientifically. We don't have really hard numbers on any [previous eclipses].”</p>
<p id="ZcDVq8">What we do have is these numbers:</p>
<ul>
<li id="NKqxAn">A <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/19/politics/eclipse-poll-travel-plans/index.html">CNN poll</a> earlier this month indicated that about half of the US population (323.1 million in 2016) planned to watch the eclipse. </li>
<li id="uFR7kk">About <a href="https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/statistics/">12 million</a> people live in the solar eclipse’s 70-mile-wide path of totality, which stretched from the Northwest in Oregon to the Southeast in South Carolina. There were predictions that <a href="https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/statistics/">2 million to 7 million</a> of the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2017/06/29/americas-total-solar-eclipse-what-you-need-know/439544001/">200 million</a> people who live within a day’s drive to the path of totality would make the trek to see it there too.</li>
<li id="JjWJVm">Others suggested that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/06/27/seven-things-you-must-anticipate-for-the-2017-solar-eclipse/#40cd813447b8">even 20 million might be a conservative estimate</a> for how many people would watch from the path.</li>
<li id="Y96fmU">NASA reported that at the midpoint of its live stream today, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/eclipse-eve-millions-converge-across-us-to-see-sun-go-dark/2017/08/20/44def522-8614-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html?utm_term=.7737fb14877a">4.4 million</a> people were watching, making the eclipse the most viewed event in the agency’s history.</li>
</ul>
<p id="F8UR9T">(We’ll be updating this post as more estimates roll in.)</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mIMBIYdyyAWMOiz4SU-UHmsZ8sY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9090007/AP_17233719080153.jpg">
<cite>AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais</cite>
<figcaption>First-grade students from Oyster Adams Bilingual School in Washington, DC, watch the eclipse as part of their first day of class activities on August 21, 2017.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="4O95Aq">Chief among those excited and engaged in the eclipse were young people. CNN’s poll found people’s excitement about the eclipse to be consistently inversely correlated with age.</p>
<p id="EaxXhl">Hundreds of students participated today in an array of citizen science projects to photograph and document the event. This is an “incredible opportunity to excite and inspire future scientists as so many of these volunteers and students are just getting introduced to science,” France Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation, wrote for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/599a4d52e4b02eb2fda32151#">HuffPost</a>.</p>
<p id="5O1AJP">Rick Yeames, an amateur astronomer from New Hampshire who traveled to Casper, Wyoming, to view the eclipse, likened the event to the Apollo space program in its potential to inspire young people with science. “Millions of American children just had a life-changing experience that could inspire them to get into STEM,” he said.</p>
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/21/16180362/total-solar-eclipse-most-watched-in-historyRuairí Arrieta-Kenna2017-08-21T15:40:02-04:002017-08-21T15:40:02-04:00Trump’s large family and frequent travels are blowing through the Secret Service’s budget
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1ow4pq_y0fV1A30zUo980eRJFaw=/0x31:5004x3784/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56292715/GettyImages_611582226.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Getty</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>USA Today reports that the Secret Service is running out of money to pay its agents.</p> <p id="8P2Rlc">On Monday, USA Today published an <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/21/secret-service-cant-pay-agents-because-trumps-frequent-travel-large-family/529075001/">exclusive report</a> on the state of the Secret Service just seven months into the Trump presidency: Facing astronomical costs for protecting multiple properties and the members of a large family, the Secret Service is essentially running out of money for the overtime required to protect the president. </p>
<p id="i57UtM">The Secret Service is required by law to safeguard the president and his family at all times — but it also has a federally capped budget, and according to USA Today’s Kevin Johnson, “more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally-mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.” </p>
<p id="ucOQqs">The fact that the Trumps are uniquely expensive to keep safe is not exactly new. Back in December, Trump was estimated to be the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-priciest-president-elect-protect-1m-day-article-1.2897524">priciest president-elect to protect</a>, at up to $1 million a day. </p>
<p id="dVH78u">Trump also likes to get away from Washington on weekends, which adds to the cost. He’s gone so far as to dub Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, the “winter White House” and his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, the “summer White House.” Despite criticizing Obama for going golfing as president, Trump has <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/3/15914664/trump-golf-president">hit the greens</a> more times than his recent predecessors at the same point in their presidencies.</p>
<p id="eABM1l">And those <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/how-much-time-trump-spending-trump-properties-n753366">53 trips and counting</a> to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster add up quickly — a single trip to Mar-a-Lago costs the Secret Service more than $3 million.</p>
<p id="rYX93R">Making matters worse, the number of protectees in the Trump administration is also greater than it was in Obama’s administration. Trump’s children, other family members, and close associates mean that 42 people require Secret Service protection, compared to 31 in the Obama administration.<s> </s></p>
<p id="bJ6wX0">The USA Today report includes some startling details on the Secret Service’s budget woes, including: </p>
<blockquote>
<p id="tULryD">The compensation crunch is so serious that the director has begun discussions with key lawmakers to raise the combined salary and overtime cap for agents, from $160,000 per year to $187,000 for at least the duration of Trump's first term. </p>
<p id="LgClwR">But even if such a proposal was approved, about 130 veteran agents would not be fully compensated for hundreds of hours already amassed, according to the agency.</p>
</blockquote>
<p id="IvTHgY">While the Secret Service has hired 800 more people in the past year, the article states, a rising attrition rate has made the increase effectively only 300 employees.</p>
<p id="fBSvZC">Another reason attrition rates are so high could be morale. In addition to agents being underpaid, Center for Public Integrity investigative reporter Christina Wilkie shared that she’s heard they are also feeling underappreciated.</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I also hear from multiple sources that Secret Service agents are at the end of their rope, sick of being treated like servants by Trump. <a href="https://t.co/EavXQb48qI">https://t.co/EavXQb48qI</a></p>— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) <a href="https://twitter.com/christinawilkie/status/899616421113733124">August 21, 2017</a>
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https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/21/16179346/secret-service-budget-trumpRuairí Arrieta-Kenna