There's no. Leadership more on this quiet crisis in policing a shortage of officers that's coming up in about 12 minutes here on k b u t but a local newspaper shuts down the immediate consequences are clear job losses and a hole in the news coverage but what about long term in the regular segment a hidden brain why local residents have to. Get down the road when a paper closes that story coming up before the end of the year on community radio for the Gunnison Valley it's 7 minutes past 7 we're seeing temperatures in the single digits digits in the South Valley. Teens in the North Valley this morning. In ski be seen toward community radio stations here in the Gunnison Valley. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Steve Inskeep And I'm Rachel Martin the country's top Democratic lawmakers meet with President Trump at the White House today going to try to hash out a plan to avoid a partial government shutdown the obstacle a wall specifically the president's request for $5000000000.00 as a down payment on a border wall this is something President Trump has been promising his supporters that he would build a wall ever since he announced his run for the White House and 2015 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer have suggested offering $1300000000.00 to the president for border security Joining us now n.p.r. White House correspondent Tamara Keith good morning Tim good morning the president has been busy on Twitter this morning not exactly offering a conciliatory tone before this meeting is well that would be the president and that would be Twitter there were 5 tweets long ones in fact talking about the wall talking about border security saying Democrats want open borders but it was all a bunch of throat clearing to get to the end which seems to be almost take a concession of defeat mixed with a declaration of victory which is President Trump at his essence Ok tell us what you think Yes So let me read it. Mind you there have been 4 tweets before this one but then he says people do not realize how much of the wall including really effective renovation has already been built if the Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our country the military will build the remaining sections of the wall they know how important it is Ok there are clearly things to discuss about this 1st of all how's he going to have the military build build the wall well that isn't clear as we all know the military troops have been stationed along the border since just before the midterm elections he sent them there to help deal with the caravan to put up some concertina wire and otherwise fortify things some. Of those troops are being extended other units have been sent home I reached out to a budget expert a man named Stan Collender who goes by the name the budget guy to ask him what he thought President Trump was talking about and he says that he thinks maybe the president is talking about reprogramming or transferring funds from the Department of Defense from other programs and that he says that that would take resources away from other military activities but he's also not sure that the president really has the discretion to do that or the Democrats that will be taking over in the House of Representatives in January will be particularly happy about going along with it right also isn't he just giving away his leverage by saying he doesn't need to Palosi and Schumer and Democrats won't they just call his bluff and the reality is that they've already called his bluff and he may well have been sort of responding to the statement that they put out last night Palosi and Schumer put out a statement saying Republicans still control the House and the Senate and the White House and they have the power to keep the government open essentially washing their hands of this current budget fight and saying that it's up to the president and Republicans to do it they add this holiday season the president knows full well that his wall proposal does not have the votes to pass the House and the Senate and should not be an obstacle to a bipartisan agreement so I mean we have been here before tomorrow many times someone's got to blink I mean at the they could pass a short term spending bill that would buy more time but ultimately someone's going to have to make a concession. Well and it almost seems like and we will see because things often change but it almost seems like with this series of tweets President Trump is conceding that he's not going to get the wall funding that he wants and in the process he's saying and I don't really need it anyway which is the declaring victory in the face of defeat so you don't see a real possibility of a partial shutdown at this point I mean I don't like to make predictions but it certainly seems as though there is a softening of the president's position at a time when no one really wants a government shutdown ever does right it doesn't know whatever wondering what Especially now you know there are so many Republican members of Congress who the president would need their votes and they just want to go home they're there done they they've been voted out of office and they just want to go home all this is happening of course while there is a revolving door in White House staffing chief of staff John Kelly is gone President Trump needs a new one who's on the list today because there aren't that many people lining up for this job well and guess what there's a tweet for that to the President Trump President Trump is just out with one saying that there are over 10 people vying for and wanting the White House chief of staff position he doesn't say who they are most media outlets that are tracking these things do not have a list that is nearly that long one name that keeps rising to the top is is Mark Meadows He's a congressman from North Carolina head of the Freedom caucus and a close ally of President Trump's unclear whether he would get the job he initially said he didn't want and then said that it would be a great honor stay tuned n.p.r. White House correspondent Tamara Keith thanks you're welcome Maria both know has reached a plea deal she's the Russian woman accused of launching a secret political influence campaign in the United States n.p.r. National justice correspondent Carrie Johnson reports images of a red haired graduate student posing with weapons attracted internat. Attention Maria Bhutto has been in federal custody since July and that's when the f.b.i. Arrested her for acting as a Russian agent on u.s. Soil authorities say she had a plan to appeal to Republican political leaders by targeting events at the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast now after about 6 months behind bars Boudin has reached a plea deal with the Justice Department she's preparing to plead guilty to a single conspiracy charge for failing to register her activities with the attorney general the deal calls for Buenas cooperation and her testimony before a grand jury that could be bad news for her American boyfriend he's Republican operative Paul Erickson Eriksson has been under investigation by authorities in Washington in South Dakota for months but he has not been charged with wrongdoing prosecutors say Buenas handler was a prominent Russian central banker Alexander torsion torsion became a life member of the n.r.a. He briefly met Donald Trump junior at an n.r.a. Convention in 2016 the u.s. Government eventually put torsion on a sanctions list and Russian media reported he recently retired from his post button eyes due in court Wednesday afternoon a judge needs to approve the plea agreement and ultimately to decide her punishment butin a faces a maximum of 5 years in prison but with no criminal record and cooperation she could serve far less time the plea deal indicate she'll be deported back to Russia want she completes her sentence Carrie Johnson n.p.r. News Washington something very rare is stirring in Congress there's growing sentiment to force the president to end u.s. Involvement in a war in this case the war in Yemen Congress gave itself the power to do this decades ago but as N.P.R.'s Greg Myre reports lawmakers have never really used it President Trump says the u.s. Is engaged in at least 7 separate military conflicts. In most cases presidents launch those u.s. Military actions without explicit approval by Congress row Khana is a Democratic congressman from California Congress has been silent while the executive branch continues to exert its power but the mood in Congress is changing at least when it comes to Yemen the killing of a Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi set off a chain of events that's led Congress to become much more vocal in opposing u.s. Military aid to Saudi Arabia which is fighting Hutu rebels in Yemen there's certainly no authorization for helping the Civil War against Khan is pushing a measure that would block this u.s. Military support the Senate is weighing a similar move both are based on the 1973 War Powers Resolution which says Congress can order a president to withdraw troops within 90 days yet Congress has never forced a president to actually do this it's often a tool that's more you can political negotiation between Congress and the president and are often resolved through kind of political mechanisms Scott Anderson is with the Brookings Institution and the lawfare blog The Constitution says only Congress can declare war but presidents have learned how to bypass lawmakers for a limited military engagement back and often create a lot of space by which the president can act without even really having to deal with Congress that's what happened in Yemen 3 years ago President Barack Obama approved u.s. Aid to help the Saudis with their bombing campaign against the Hooty who had taken over key parts of Yemen including the capital the u.s. Began doing a number of things Gregory Johnsen was part of the United Nations panel of experts on Yemen until earlier this year they provided refueling to the Saudi led coalition and they also impress provided intelligence the Saudis would bring a list of targets that they wanted to hit in the u.s. Would say well we think these actually are not military targets the war is widely see. Is a stalemate civilian casualties have been high millions in Yemen are at risk of starvation even key Senate Republicans like South Carolina's Lindsey Graham are now speaking out support arms sales to Saudi Arabia the war in Yemen has gotten out of control Scott Anderson says the White House is already resisting attempts to constrain its actions especially what the trouble ministration has argued is that what the United States is doing it you haven't doesn't qualify as hostilities they are thing we're providing intelligence support we are providing arms and training in advice and intelligence information and we are not directly participating in hostilities President Trump says little about the war but remain strongly supportive of the Saudis Congressman Roe Conn a says the u.s. Military should continue to pursue al Qaeda and Islamic state militants in Yemen but he thinks support for the Saudis is counterproductive and Congress has the right to stop it the founders wanted Congress to be influencing matters of war and peace Congress they thought would be less likely to go to war Congress is directly accountable to citizens who are going to bear the cost of war the last time Congress declared war was 77 years ago the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor read my read n.p.r. News Washington. You can follow these stories and more on line at npr dot org Or follow us on Twitter you can find me Rachel n.p.r. And well as well King David is at n.p.r. Greene and Steve is n.p.r. Inskeep. This is n.p.r. News. President Trump says he has support from Democrats and Republicans for criminal justice reform these members have reached a bipartisan agreement that I hear the word bipartisan but time is running out for Congress to act does criminal justice reform have a chance in a lame duck session this afternoon on All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. Here's It's happening all around from city council and county commissioner meetings new community programs environmental organizations growth and development mining tourism recreation and much much more gave you tea is there to help you make sense of what's happening in the community missed a story this week visit to give you t. Dot org slash news access our deep news archive. Support for k b u t comes from cooler painting in garages cooler with a k. Provides home services that include painting garage doors and potty floors helping home and business owners express who they are into their living spaces k o l e r Homes dot com and from freestyle architects freestyle architects strives to bring a fresh perspective to mountain architecture bringing your design to life Jim can be reached at 970-596-8126 their portfolio is at freestyle architects dot com additional support comes from western Colorado University in Gunnison where dedicated professors provide a personalized education to career minded students go to Western dot edu. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Caroline with the new Van Morrison album the prophet speaks including original songs like gotta go where the love is and those by Sam Cooke Solomon Burke and others the prophet speaks of Ailill now at Amazon and other music retailers from Log Me In makers of Go To Meeting a collaboration meeting platform that comes equipped with features to help people stay focused to get work done learn more it go to meeting dot com and from little passports a monthly subscription service for kids each package includes games souvenirs and activities from a new country designed to spark curiosity and cultures around the globe at little passports dot com slash radio. This is Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Rachel Martin and I'm Steve Inskeep there's a quiet crisis in American policing a shortage of officers departments across this country are struggling to find enough qualified applicants for the jobs available and the total number of sworn officers is dropping even as the American population grows N.P.R.'s criminal justice team has been looking at this phenomenon and Martin cost joins us now hey there Martin Good morning Steve how much is this drop Well we have some new numbers from the Bureau of Justice Statistics they look at this every few years and about 700000 full time sworn officers are working right now in this country and that's a drop of 23000 officers since 2013 so that's the 1st big dip since the ninety's and as you say the populations are growing so what we get is a change in the number of officers per capita it used to be about $2.00 officers for every 1000 residents it was 20 years ago now it's closer to $22.00 I guess that makes police departments like everybody else at a time when there's almost full employment the hot job market is a big factor here but there are other things going on I think a lot of younger people are more skeptical about going into police work certainly the Chiefs are telling me that since Ferguson a lot of people wonder well if I'm going to become a cop is something I do wrong and end up on video and becoming a big scandal so a lot of people aren't even considering going to law enforcement when they would have 10 years ago so you have openings you're don't have cops to fill them how is police work different when there are just fewer cops Well it means a lot more overtime for the cops were still on the job it means try in some places they're simply not doing some routine things they used to do when Sheriff's Department I visited are doing their annual visits to the addresses of registered sex offenders any more they just don't have the time and it really is suffering in some places is this idea of proactive policing of looking for problems before they become a call to the police we have it n.p.r. a Criminal justice collaborative with some of our station reporters and Lori Mack of Connecticut Public Radio is part of that and she did a really. Right along with an officer in New Haven Connecticut give a quick listen to this and we'll talk afterwards. It's Monday morning usually one of the slower. And yet officer Christian is already on his 3rd call today normally there would be 6 officers patrolling the densely populated area. And one of those officers working overtime. A mother's upset after her 18 year old son purposely damaged her car officer. Says this kind of community policing in which. The individual. Entities are generally. He wants to be more proactive which would mean. Looking for problems before they're called in but. If something. Police departments around the country are. Dealing with. Even seen squad cars with holes in the floorboards patched with old license plates New Haven's slashed benefits including pensions and it salaries are lagging behind the richer suburbs says a lot of his fellow New Haven cops are looking for better options. He says they've lost more than 20 officers in the last couple of years and by the end of this year 50 people in the New Haven Police Department will be eligible to retire within 5 years. There's no new leadership. For 10 years 5 in New Haven He says he stays mostly because he enjoys the work but he's not sure how much longer. Joins the search the woman is eventually found safe he's lost count how many calls this is for him now 6 he thinks maybe 7 that was Connecticut Public Radio reporter Lori Mack in New Haven Connecticut. Martin is troubling to think about a life or death situation and somebody doesn't quite have time to deal with it but at the same time there surely a lot of people listening whose businesses have learned to do more with less just do more with less Well they certainly are trying especially if they have the money a lot of departments have the budget line start even being used for people they can't find to hire so they're using some of that money for technology there's a lot of interest in this predictive policing stuff you know where you use forms of Ai to. Dicked where you need the officers the most to try to assign them in a more sort of rational manner one department was toying with sort of using facial recognition technology in the field to speed up identifying people who don't have driver's licenses on them but if you're a police chief or sheriff and you simply don't have enough people to do the job the way you used to do it you look for ways to do it faster and that's what they're looking for and there's this bigger question about whether we need as many police as we've had the last couple of decades some people especially since Ferguson have said that no maybe we need less patrol that then raises the big question of which neighborhoods will get the policing you know will neighborhoods with a lot of crime get neglected or not basically we're going to go through a laboratory experiment as a country the next few years here seeing if we can maintain lower crime levels with fewer police That's N.P.R.'s Martin cost to you will have more this afternoon on All Things Considered asking what departments are doing to attract new human officers. This is n.p.r. News this hour of programming is underwritten by precision Automotive a AAA Auto repair facility servicing vehicles in the valley since 1984 for station Automotive is located at 510 west highway 50 in Conason precision auto dot net 64140405 the Crested Butte Land Trust together preserving the stunning views local trails wildlife habitat and family ranching in your backyard for the next generation to enjoy 970-349-1206 See Land Trust dot org. Additional support comes from West Elk martial arts tongue pseudo providing character education and fitness through traditional martial arts training since 19934 tongue pseudo course information West martial arts dot org This is k b u t community radio for the Gunnison Valley Thanks for listening. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Dave Mattingly House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer are due with the White House this morning money for a wall along the Us Mexico border will be among the issues when they sit down with President Trump to discuss next year's budget the c.e.o. Of Google some DARPA China is on Capitol Hill this morning N.P.R.'s Alina cell York says he's expected to face questions about privacy political bias and China earlier this year Google had decided not to send an executive to a big hearing with other tech companies about dissent from Mission So today's hearing of the House Judiciary Committee has been a long time coming a major thread that c o p China is likely to face is the allegation by President Trump and some Republican lawmakers that Google and youtube searches are politically biased with the purpose of sidelining conservative views Google has long denied this and so does the child in his prepared testimony lawmakers will also likely ask about Google's strategy for China and the decision to cancel a Pentagon contract for artificial intelligence to analyze drone video after employees protested Elina so you can p.r. News Washington wholesale prices in the u.s. Rose slightly last month the Labor Department says they were up a 10th of one percent despite a sharp decline in gasoline prices the Federal Reserve meets again this month to decide whether to raise interest rates for a 4th time this year this is n.p.r. News from Washington. In the Scheme community radio for the Goddess in Valley Thanks for tuning in Folks It's Tuesday December 11th $34.00 inch basic to be a mountain resort with 9 lives in operation $69.00 trails open 70 inches total snowfall year to date 30 inches. Open and 70 inches of total snow fall there as well as the press to be Nordic centered the east side has been groomed today recommended skiing is all of it it's all good the Broomfield. Retailer Mrs Field's will pay more than $26000.00 to settle a claim that it discriminated against u.s. Citizens of authorized to work according to the Department of Justice the company asked residents in the Salt Lake City distribution center to show Department of Homeland Security issued documents but did not force the same requirement on workers who are u.s. Citizens a district court judge a. Practice of jailing people suspected of being in the country illegally ruling that El Paso County sheriff has no authority to hold people once they have resolved their state's case stories both from the Associated Press this morning it's 7 $33.00 we're seeing temperatures mostly in the low teens throughout the valley starting to warm up just a little bit it's $733.00 Thanks for tuning in this hour programming is underwritten by living journeys Gunnison county's Cancer Support Organization living journeys can help living journeys or. Additional support comes from the Crested Butte Arts Festival the 1st weekend in August to learn about sponsorship opportunities that will reach more than 13000 patrons Crested Butte Arts Festival dot com and from Cold Harbor Institute facilitating education incubation and demonstration of sustainable agriculture green building regenerative energy and land management practices on Cold Harbor ranch more on Cold Harbor strategy and capital campaign at Cold Harbor Institute dot org. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from campaign monitor and e-mail marketing platform used by more than 200000 customers worldwide with email templates a drag and drop email editor and 247 customer service more a campaign Monitor dot com and from the pajama gram company offering 26 matching holiday pajamas for the whole family including dogs and cats with Snoopy Star Wars and St Nick themes in its fleece and flannel learn more at pajama gram dot com. This is Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Rachel Martin and I'm Steve Inskeep good morning Sean Hannity is ever more passionately defending the president the fox personality and presidential friend was on the radio overnight his voice booming in the car on my way to work Hannity said quote doing a real estate deal in Moscow with Latimer puton is not illegal it was responding after federal prosecutors released documents saying the president's lawyer repeatedly lied about efforts to build a Trump Tower Moscow among other things Hannity also downplayed the president's hush payments to women during the presidential campaign so how bad is all of this really we've brought in John Yoo He was a top lawyer in President George w. Bush's Justice Department is in our studios good morning thanks for coming by I Steve thanks for having me early embrace this morning is it is a little bit early let's start with that proposition as laid out by Hannity isn't it correct that there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to do business in Moscow even if lot of their Putin might be involved other than being a bad business decision I don't think it is illegal for a private citizen to want to do business in Russia or any other country the legal problem is whether President Trump was then candidate Trump was trying to do a business deal in Russia while he was running for president meaning that that creates a possibility of a conflict of interest to say the least yes not just a conflict of interest but as you know special counsel Robert Mueller has been charged to see whether there's any kind of conspiracy not collusion I'm that's the generic term a legal claim is conspiracy to commit a violation of federal law with there was or any effort by members of chump of ministration to conspire with Russians and then you could see the payback from Russia being fancy business deals or just loans through Deutsche Bank or whatever the different theories are in exchange for Trump helping to defeat Hillary Clinton win the presidency. And using information stolen off of Hillary Clinton servers which were classified that's the crime stealing information that's classified from Hillary Clinton servers and then disseminating it in public and we already have some bits of evidence suggesting the kind of collaboration that your describing in one of the court papers there's a description of a Russian representative telling I believe Michael Cohen that there is an opportunity here for a political synergy as well as a business relationship it's pretty much offering what you're saying the question is whether the president or someone around him took the took the deal Yes that's right I think what you're seeing with all these disclosures they're coming rapid fire now in the last few days as Certainly Russia was trying to reach out we even had the can. Announce meet yesterday of the gun toting one from Russia China and infiltrate the n.r.a. Which sees me actually like kind of comic actually is an effort to infiltrate but obviously Russia was kind of flooding the zone if you a sports metaphor with people trying to get in touch with a trump administration Personally I haven't seen anything which shows a trump initiation responded I think because they were so chaotic and badly organized and you go back to remember the campaign the Trump campaign could do anything right I don't think they were well organized enough to conspire affectively but we're still going to see Count special counselor is disclosing I think he's getting close to the end he's sort of wrapping up the loose ends or starting to see more is there something inherently wrong with taking so very many meetings as you mentioned there were plenty of Russians who seem to be rushing out reaching out in multiple ways and that's on them there seem to be plenty there seem to have been plenty of people around the president Michael Cohen Paul man afore Don Jr Jared Kirshner Michael Flynn other people who took the meetings Yes I think that's right I think that's why ultimately in the end we need to hear from President Trump I think. Special counselor Smith have written questions asking him ice and we still haven't seen. When are they answers officially many of these questions the Russians kind of human contacted President Kennedy Trump order subordinates in the campaign to respond because that's there's a difference between talking and actually conspiring to commit the law it's a line that we would see if was cos I still think only President Trump really knows and I think Special Counsel Mueller ultimately may well ask for a trump to sit down for a real interview rather than bring questions that could be a constitutional confrontation like one we haven't seen since Watergate Why would Robert Mueller say I'm not satisfied with the written answers so according to press reports all that President Johnson legal team has done so far is to answer questions about whether there was a conspiracy to violate the law and terms of the issues we've discussed but not yet about obstruction 2nd special counsel or may want to follow up like any good investigator would want to he may well be unsatisfied with the written questions which are certainly been drafted by President Trump's lawyers he will want like any investigator to look. The witness in the eye and to see whether he's credible and then to follow up with questions now President Trump may wish to refuse and then if that's the case the special counsel may well have to go to court and get a subpoena and that's the same thing that happened constitutionally back in Watergate when President Nixon had to decide whether to obey a subpoena for the Watergate tapes is this a dilemma for the president we've heard from press reports that some of his past lawyers felt he could not sit for an interview because he can't tell the truth and that is in no way a partisan statement he's been under oath in lawsuits before and was caught making false statements again and again and again is that really a dilemma for the president if he has if that demand is made it's a good question see it's not just a personal dilemma for Trump it's a constitutional dilemma for the presidency Tromp if he was a normal person his lawyers are going to tell him don't testify in person don't go under go under oath you talk too much you tweet too much you might commit perjury it's a you know what you see here referred to as perjury trap on some small issue even though Trump may want to touch but Trump's not just a private citizen he's the president the president constitutionally is the chief law enforcement in the force an officer in the country all prosecutors who work for him it's a terrible message to all of us in the country if we're expected to cooperate and help law enforcement but then the chief law enforcement officer under the Constitution himself won't cooperate with those same prosecutors So I think presidents have at least some kind of obligation maybe not constitutional but leaving the country to show that they cooperate with their very own law enforcement officers Democrats as you know John Moore about John John you are about to have much more power here they'll take over the house they would have the opportunity to impeach the president if they wanted to they've already said some of them that the offenses relating to the alleged offenses relating to paying off women during the campaign look illegal might not rise to the level of impeachment What would you have Democrats do in this situation as an interesting question to your point out all the Constitution dilemmas every. Yes in this presidency so the house the 1st thing they have to face is what do they think high crimes and misdemeanors mean high Christmas demeanors I think this is something we've learned from the past from the framers intentions when they wrote the clause it's not just narrowly limited to crimes they're going after decide whether they might consider seeking the removal of President Trump for things which are full of political offenses which is the framers said to the body politic rather than strictly violating federal law or not by committing perjury understood this to you thanks so much thanks Steve John you was a top lawyer in the Justice Department under President George w. Bush. This is n.p.r. News. It's snowing outside the studios here in Crested Butte we're seeing temperatures mostly in the low teens around the valley see some serious skies later on today. President Trump says he has support from Democrats and Republicans for criminal justice reform these members have reached a bipartisan agreement that I hear the word bipartisan but time is running out for Congress to act does criminal justice reform have a chance in a lame duck session this afternoon on All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. This hour programming is underwritten by living journeys Gunnison county's Cancer Support Organization living journeys can help living journey's dot org by the Crested Butte news the official newspaper of Crested Butte and mount Crested Butte on the stands in in your hands every Thursday and by Thurston kitchen and bath specializing in new construction and remodels locally owned and operated since 1977 you can visit their showroom located a 5 for 4 Burger land drive Thurston kitchen and bath dot com. Good morning I'm Steve Inskeep the fearless girl is moving an artist created the statue of the top kid elbows out heels on hips and placed her to confront a famous sculpture of a ball in lower Manhattan she was controversial to crowds but the sculptor of the ball objected his creation was supposed to symbolize prosperity a bull market not danger so the girl was moved a few blocks to a new location and she will now face down the entire New York Stock Exchange It's Morning Edition. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Amazon Web Services used by millions of customers a w.-s. Provides a range of cloud services and functionality from tools to security to compliance more information at a ws is how dot com from Charles Schwab when it comes to wealth management Schwab believes in asking questions and being in gauged so investors can better own their tomorrow learn more it shrub dot com and from listeners like you who donate to this n.p.r. Station. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Steve Inskeep And I'm Rachel Martin it has been more than a century since American soldiers seized 3 church bells from a town in the Philippines that was back during the Philippine American War in 1000 or one today those ballots are being returned N.P.R.'s Julie McCarthy has been following the odyssey of the bells and watched as they returned and she joins us now to tell us the story Hey Julie hi there can you just start off by telling us why these ballots were taken in the 1st place well it's 1901 picture this the United States is the colonial power in the Philippines but the Filipinos fight for independence and before long you've got a full blown u.s. Philippine war on your hands where 200000 people are dead now in this small place called Bolland the us occupiers start jailing the men abusing the women destroying the food supply and one of the locals do they stage a revolt and what do they do to use a signal to launch it all the bells of St Lawrence the martyr church the local fighters end up killing 2 thirds of the American unit arguably the worst loss in the u.s. Philippine war the u.s. Retaliates there told a part of the turn the place into a howling wilderness they do and they carry off the bells as they go as booty Wow So what do these bells represent for the Philippines Well I guess you can imagine after a tale like that the bells of Bolland come to be seen as a symbol of resistance the struggle for independence they signal a revolt against the imperial Americans who ended up being slaughtered and certainly for president do tear to tear these are no question a symbol of resistance he has sort of staked out a claim resisting the American administration where he can and he has made this a point of the oval of owning these bells he said last year in his State of the Union. That I want these bells back we should demand them to come back and a historian said to me he's the winner out of all of this now it's hoped that this will also smooth relations by bringing the 2 sides closer but for how long really is the question but I imagine this was an incredible scene I mean what was it like when the bells came home oh it was really wonderful was full of emotion and joy and pride and it was full of history the bells were flown in a cargo plane the spirit of MacArthur The general who commanded the troops who liberated the Philippines during World War 2 The u.s. Had taken the bells when they were the colonial power and when and when the Philippines was battling for them for independence so they these battles sort of track the whole relationship really in some ways at the start of that relationship and intice a patient of their arrival things got even more charged when these burly servicemen couldn't break into fiqh crates and when they finally broke into the moment hoisted them into the public view there was a there was a big round of applause they are in great condition by the way and yeah and the u.s. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim said that lot of people had had a hand in bringing these bells from the highest levels of government to scholars to retired u.s. Personnel and he talked about how it reflected the u.s. Philippine relationship here he is showed history is doing and deeply personal it is my great honor to be here at this closing of a painful chapter in our history a painful chapter but really just real quick why to take so long well as one Navy captain who was very involved in this said to me it takes a long time to change these sentiments and attitudes and people have fierce feelings about this everybody was bound up in a sense of valor on their own side as they described it N.P.R.'s Julie McCarthy with a remarkable story thank you so much for sharing that Tilly We appreciate it thank you this is n.p.r. News. 24th. Field Office. Between 1st 6th Street. News. Comes from Bluebird real estate in downtown Crested Butte and a member of luxury portfolio International you can shop homes at. Dot com Bluebird real estate bringing dreams home from black tie ski rentals locally owned Ski and Snowboard rental and delivery service offering in room equipment rental fittings slope side service and full tuning service reservations and information at black dot com or 970-349-0722 black line entertainment the rental source for audio lighting staging back line and power distribution in Crested Butte. Black line entertainment is that 970389697. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Rachel Martin and I'm Steve Inskeep travel to a town with a good local newspaper and you feel it a good paper helps a town feel vibrant open accessible in recent years many towns have fewer papers smaller papers or no paper and you feel that too N.P.R.'s Shankar Vedantam found a financial consequence in February 2009 Colorado's oldest newspaper The Rocky Mountain News shutdown investigative reporter Laura Frank remembers that day as she left the newsroom for the last time Frank says she worried not just about her own financial future but also about the work she was leaving behind I had all of these stacks of documents on my desk at the Rocky Mountain News each representing some issue that I thought needed investigating one of those issues was electronics waste or. Frank was looking into a Colorado company that was allegedly sending. To a village in China where people were dipping parts in acid and burning them over open flames to get little bits of gold and other metals and they were exposing the village to dangerous levels of lead the federal government was also investigating these allegations so here you had an ongoing federal investigation into the role a Colorado company allegedly played in and danger in kids in a in a foreign nation and my newspaper was shutting down we couldn't investigate but the the worst thing was no other local media had the capacity to investigate it either this of course is what happens when a newspaper shuts down some stories especially the long and costly ones simply don't get done where there once was reporting there's now a void and it was this void that piqued the interest of 3 finance professors Dermot Murphy Paul guy and Chang. There. A hunch that the loss of a newspaper might be bad for the financial health of a city or town specifically they thought it might Hama municipalities ability to borrow money so they investigated Muffy says they started by looking at all newspaper Aman x. So we calmed through all the next for the period 1906 to 2015 to figure out the newspaper closures overturning it turns out that in that period about 300 papers closed across the country and then we cross reference this information with government borrowing cost data we also looked at the borrowing power of cities and towns with thriving newspapers when they were done crunching the data they found there was a significant difference between places that had local newspapers and those that lost them when the newspaper closed the cost to borrow money for projects like schools and roads and hospitals it went up in the long run after newspaper closes the borrowing cost for governments increases by about $10.00 basis points or 0 point one percent you might be thinking here that doesn't seem like a lot but it adds up when loans are for huge amounts of money on average a loan will be for $65000000.00 in our sample with a point one percent increase in a loan that size taxpayers have to pay an extra $65000.00 in interest that's every year for the life of the loan which could be 10 years or more in addition cities and towns usually have more than just one project in the works so if the government funds several projects in one year then just multiply that by the number of projects basically the bottom line that little rate increase of 0 point one percent can cost taxpayers millions so why are lenders charging more when towns don't have newspapers Dermott Murphy and his colleagues had an idea so our intuition was that if a newspaper closes then they are no longer performing a crucial watchdog role for keeping local governments in check. And if local governments are not being kept in check then they are more likely to engage in bad behavior and just generally be more inefficient and that makes it riskier to lend money to that city or town and so when a lender is more nervous about lending to an inefficient government and they're going to have to ask for a higher interest rate on the money they're lending to compensate for that risk and of course there's an irony here people who cancel the newspaper subscriptions to save money will be among the taxpayers who bear the cost of higher interest rates it's an interesting trade off really if the local newspaper is no longer around then the local news consumer no longer is paying for that newspaper so I suppose they save dollars in that sense but in the other sense borrowing costs go up for local governments and they as a taxpayer only going to be footing that bill so we think that the net cost is definitely higher famo Rocky Mountain News reporter Laura Frank is well aware of the value of investigative reporting to a community so after the rocky shutdown she came up with a new project to keep investigative journalism alive she used money from a fellowship to start a nonprofit she called it i news and the I stood for and Vesta gate of and the idea was that we would do investigative stories and share them with other newsrooms and that's what we did and one of the 1st stories that frankly open was that one about a waste not only did Frank Steve confirm that electronics waste from Colorado was being illegally exported and smelted abroad they discover something else we found that some of the same kinds of dangerous practices that were happening in China in Hong Kong it was happening right here in Colorado on a much smaller scale but completely under the radar of state regulators eventually Frank steam produced a hard hitting report it was widely picked up by other newspapers and t.v. Stations it was a victory for great journalism but francs. Says the 2 years it took to get the work published was simply too long so how many children were exposed and wound up with high levels of lead in their blood while we were trying to figure out a way to get the story out and then Frank says there are all the other stories no one is even aware off they simply remain on told it's the unknown unknown that is also very worrisome to me those unknown unknowns they can end up costing us the most Shankar Vedantam n.p.r. And good morning you're listening to Crested Butte k.g. And I gonna send I'm Kelly Dole about to begin your Bohemian daybreak on this absolutely beautiful morning caked in snow I'm in the mood for some very hot chocolate with the really big marshmallows I'm going to hit that up at some point today hope that you had some good sleep and I'm going to start with something by Snow Patrol about a place just like this. Leg Lead.