Author: Matt

Jury selection in the highly anticipated trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin began Tuesday after being delayed amid an effort to gain clarity on the potential of a third-degree murder charge. Chauvin faces charges in the killing of George Floyd last Memorial Day.

Jamiles Lartey, who reports on criminal justice and policing for The Marshall Project, explains the delay.

NPR’s Leila Fadel and Adrian Florido have been covering the trial in Minneapolis.

Benjamin Crump, the attorney representing the family of George Floyd, argues that civil suits could deter police violence — even if settlements aren’t accompanied by a criminal conviction.

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Over the weekend, the Senate approved a version of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, setting up a vote in the House that could send the package to Biden’s desk as early as Tuesday.

The package contains direct cash payments for many Americans, extended unemployment benefits, billions of dollars for vaccine distribution and a significant change to the child tax credit that could lift millions of American children out of poverty. Indi Dutta-Gupta of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality explains how the credit would work.

And there’s new guidance for Americans who’ve been fully vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say vaccinated people can feel safe enjoying a few pre-pandemic freedoms. NPR’s Allison Aubrey has details. Here’s more information on the new CDC recommendations.

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What do you do after you’ve survived a mass shooting? In this episode of NPR’s Embedded podcast, we hear the staff at the Capital Gazette newspaper return to work after losing five of their colleagues.

Trauma reveals itself in unexpected ways, coworkers struggle to figure out how they fit together as a team, and the staff grapples with the question: Is the newspaper that existed before the shooting the same one that exists after?

Colombian President Iván Duque won praise from the United Nations, Pope Francis and the Biden administration with his recent announcement that Colombia would welcome Venezuelan refugees with open arms — providing protected status, work permits and legal residency for up to 10 years.

President Duque tells NPR why he’s hopeful the move will spur the U.S. toward more aggressive support of Venezuelan migrants, some of whom are currently protected by a deferred deportation order signed by President Trump on his final day in office.

Reporter John Otis explains what Colombia’s new policy means to Venezuelans already living there.

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In the U.S., the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is improving every day, but hundreds of millions of people are still vulnerable. And now, with some states relaxing or eliminating public health measures altogether, many people live in places where the virus will be freer to spread unchecked.

KUT reporter Ashley Lopez reports on how business owners and employees are reacting to the rollback of COVID-19 restrictions in Texas.

And Rochelle Walensky, the new director for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, tells NPR this could be a turning point in the pandemic — as more states face crucial decisions about whether to relax public health measures. Here’s more from Walensky’s interview with NPR’s Ari Shapiro.

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The Supreme Court heard arguments this week about voting laws in Arizona that would make ballot access harder for people living in rural areas like the Navajo Nation. NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports that the conservative court isn’t likely to strike down the laws which could pave the way for more legislation that cuts into future election turnout.

The push for legislation that would restrict voter access comes primarily from Republican lawmakers in state houses across the country. This is despite the fact that many GOP candidates benefited from record turnout last November.

NPR’s Ailsa Chang speaks with voting activist Stacey Abrams about her role in turning Georgia blue during the last election and the challenges that new legislation may pose for the future.

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Disinformation isn’t new. But in the last decade, the growth of social media has made it easier than ever to spread. That coincided with the political rise of Donald Trump, who rose to power on a wave of disinformation and exited the White House in similar fashion.

NPR’s Tovia Smith reports on the growing threat of disinformation — and how expert deprogrammers work with people who believe it.

Other reporting on disinformation in this episode comes from NPR correspondents Joel Rose and Sarah McCammon.

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Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has taken over after a turbulent time. Former President Donald Trump was frequently at odds with the American intelligence community, including some of his hand-picked intel chiefs.

In her first interview after a month on the job, Haines tells NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly “it has been a challenging time” for the U.S. intel community.

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Bayard Rustin, the man behind the March on Washington, was one of the most consequential architects of the civil rights movement you may never have heard of. Rustin imagined how nonviolent civil resistance could be used to dismantle segregation in the United States. He organized around the idea for years and eventually introduced it to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But his identity as a gay man made him a target, obscured his rightful status and made him feel forced to choose, again and again, which aspect of his identity was most important.

Listen to more episodes of NPR’s Throughline on Apple Podcasts, NPR One or Spotify.

It’s been almost a decade since Washington and Colorado became the first states in America to legalize recreational marijuana. Now a new generation of states are wrestling with how to do it with a focus on racial equity that was missing from early legalization efforts.

WBEZ reporter Mariah Woelfel reports from Chicago on why legalization plans in Illinois are still leaving Black businesses behind.

VPM reporters Ben Paviour and Whittney Evans explain how lawmakers in Virginia are designing new marijuana legislation with equity in mind.

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