England on the campfire were to say the victims were found in their burned out vehicles so you Hudson of member station k.q.e.d. Has more Authorities say the 5 people were found in their vehicles in the small town of Paradise they were overtaken by fire and burned too badly to be identified the fire has scorched more than 70000 acres and destroyed an estimated 2000 buildings Mark Dillard to cheat director of the California Office of Emergency Services says the whole state should be on alert weather wise we are literally in a state wide red flag weather warning fire weather conditions are extreme and we are seeing it from literally border to border which is making our job obviously much harder more than $6000.00 firefighters are on fire lines throughout the state for n.p.r. News I'm Sonja outs and Nancy Pelosi says she is 100 percent confident that she'll be the next speaker of the house but as N.P.R.'s got Death Row reports the small group of House Democrats is working to organize opposition to a close the speakership Palosi was speaker for 4 years then remained as minority leader during 8 years of Republican rule with Democrats set to regain the majority in January Palosi is confident she'll return to her old job but about 10 House Democrats met earlier this week with the goal of rallying enough opposition to her from within the party to deny closely the vote she would need to win a floor vote the group has a big problem it hasn't yet found a Democrat willing to challenge Pelosi for the speakership several of the Democrats who won the Republican held districts this week had vowed to vote against Palosi the opposition group says it's unfair to those Democrats to make their 1st house vote something that breaks a key campaign promise it's got to throw n.p.r. News Washington. In Florida the races for governor and Senate are too close to call and ballots are still being counted now candidates are getting the courts involved including Republican Senate candidate and current governor Rick Scott the supervisor of elections Ripon the each county Susan who share is defending her efforts and says the county faced off with Scott's lawyers in court this afternoon I just shall be here very unfortunate that some of the highest elected officials in our country are trying to disrupt our democracy because they don't like the demographics of our voters I would wish that they would allow us to continue to count the ballots we're just doing our job in accordance with law Meanwhile a Florida circuit court judge has ordered Broward County election supervisor Brenda Snipes to provide records on the total number of ballots cast counted and not counted along with data on vote by mail for the county by 7 pm Eastern tonight Wall Street ending the day in negative territory you're listening to n.p.r. News. As President Trump threatens to curb access for asylum seekers the caravan of Central Americans spent the last few days resting at a makeshift campground in Mexico City as N.P.R.'s Carrie Kahn reports hundreds have begun walking again out of the city the migrants voted at a late night meeting Thursday to start out again on foot they also voted to head toward the northern border city of Juana just south of San Diego California the border crossing is one of the farthest points from where the caravan is now but organizers and migrants say they feel safer route north Mexico City officials say around $5000.00 Central Americans mostly from Honduras have been camping at the stadium for the past few days the migrants have been receiving 3 meals a day medical care and donated clothes and shoes. To curtail the migrants access to applying for asylum in the u.s. The administration says any migrant who illegally enters the u.s. Outside a border station will be denied asylum Carrie Kahn n.p.r. News Mexico City meanwhile civil rights groups including the a.c.l.u. Have filed suit challenging the legality of President Trump's newly announced restrictions on migrants seeking asylum in the u.s. The new rule would only allow migrants crossing into the u.s. That legal entry ports to apply for asylum and Wall Street lower by the closing bell the Dow down 201 points at 25989 That's down 3 quarters of a percent the Nasdaq was down 1.6 percent losing 123 points on the day at 7406 and the s. And p. 500 was down 25 points at 2781. N.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include f j c a foundation of donor advice funds working to maximize the impact of charitable giving and to create customized philanthropic solutions learn more after they see dot org And the any case the foundation. Wrong. Thing. To. From n.p.r. News this is All Things Considered I'm not the Chang and I'm married to Reese Kelly it is no longer Election Day but it sure feels like it in a few parts of the country but in Georgia in Florida in Arizona there are big races still too close to call you know I tell you lawsuits have been filed and the president of the United States before heading overseas he weighed in today on one of those contentious Reeses the Florida Senate all of a sudden they're finding votes out of nowhere and Rick Scott who won by you know I was close but he won by a comfortable margin every couple of hours it goes down a little bit Rick Scott a reference there to the governor of Florida who would like to become a senator from Florida N.P.R.'s lead political editor Dominica Mont tomorrow is here to there hey there what is going on in Florida well 1st of all over the fact check on the president I mean you know these are provisional ballots and not at all outside the normal range of what happens in close elections as happens every single time and it takes a while to get over though isn't always that there's a big difference between what's projected on election night and the vote that winds up having to be counted before it can be certified So just to put that out there right now in Florida we're seeing the 2 marquee statewide races for governor and Senate are likely headed to state mandated recounts that's because they're both within those 0.5 percentage point margin to trigger that we'll probably find something out about that tomorrow to figure out where that's going to go and were if a machine recount this is what would be ordered happens and the race especially for the Senate which right now is within this margin is within 0.25 percentage points really narrow then a manual recount would be triggered which is a huge state that's a lot of manual work to do and the earliest we'd see results from that would be next Saturday and it's of course not Saturday a week for a week from tomorrow right and you know it's already gotten ugly we heard Rick Scott talk about you know how liberals he thinks are trying to steal the election pointing to election officials. In South Florida and the president we heard they're weighing in Ok now that's the Senate race what about on the governor's race in Florida which injured Gillum the Democratic candidate conceded on Tuesday night he did but you know concessions are really political terms of art you know we saw Al Gore for example in the 200-2000 presidential race concede to President Bush but if the senator if this and mentor to back of course well if the Supreme Court had gone any differently he would have happily gone on to be president so let's just put that out there and you know as these provisional ballots and other votes have been counted the race between Gillum and the Republican run the census who is ahead has gotten tighter pause with me for a moment just to note we are talking Florida you mention talk or we're talking Florida the home of the hanging chad where all this is unfolding Absolutely lots of close races over the years walk over the state line to Georgia with me and talk about the governor's race where Republican Brian Kemp has declared himself a winner but it's not over there yet either that's right that race is still considered too close to call Kemp is barely above the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff lawsuits have been filed there by Democrats about how the election was administered there are a lot of voters waiting in very long lines for hours and hours on election day and we're still days away from any finale of where that race is going to campus ahead and the latest in Arizona were a vest Senate race there is stole 2 Coast other tight race and another one where the president tweeted questioning the rig the election results saying that there were the signatures that were counted twice yes signatures get can get looked at if they don't match they don't get counted so he should talk to the Republican secretary of state in that state for how that's administered any timing on when we might know what's going on in Arizona Well right now the Republican Martha Mick Sally is leading was leading on election night now cure since cinema has edged out a small lead there are still some 300000 ballots left to be counted for early votes that were delivered on Election Day So that could take a week or so and the race could still go either way N.P.R.'s Dominican wants. N r Oh thanks as ever your welcome all right the never ending midterms is a great place to start our week in politics conversation Joining us now are e.j. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution and Guy Benson of town hall Welcome to both of you great to be with you thanks for having me I mean let's begin with what we just heard from Dominica about Florida e.j. As someone who I am sure they did Lee remembers that the 2000 presidential election is this kind of like deja vu for you a little bit count every vote yes I remember every single thing about Florida I was a Florida obsessive I'm still upset about the failure to recount all the votes in Florida and it's really striking that the president is trying to link Florida to every conspiracy I mean that he can imagine he's even gone back to the dos e.a.a. What's really striking in terms of similarities is present trying to spin a Democratic conspiracy the fact is once again a poorly designed ballot in a Democratic county in this case it's Broward in the last case was Palm Beach County with a butterfly ballot and a poorly designed ballot where they buried the Senate race may have hurt the Democratic candidate in this case Senator Nelson very badly the good news is that recounts are required by law now that was and will be more and so we'll get to know more about what actually happened in this election than we did in 2000 got you've also been pretty critical I mean you wrote today that Broward County election officials are totally bungling this and I'm trace whatever their criticisms are different is my suspicion but I had met her that I thought you know whatever happens in the end with this count Are you suggesting that you are not going to be trusting the outcome no not at all I just think that there was a lawsuit filed that Rick Scott the Republican candidate the governor there just won moments ago where there were issues in Broward County involving the law where Broward County officials were not following the law in terms of. Being transparent about where the votes the outstanding votes were how many were left to be counted that sort of thing so a judge has sided with Scott that's just a transparency issue my hope is we will get that information soon I doubt that either race of the 2 big ones will be beyond that margin for a recount so we will see the recount and generally recounts don't upset the outcome from election night it's very very rare I think on average in recent decades recounts have flipped votes a few 102 or 300 on average and so if the Republicans remain on top by thousands of votes it is likely that we will see Senator elect Scott and Governor elect to Santos but I just want to see the process and the law followed and I think everyone should Ok let's turn to the races where we do you know who won and who lost and look at what 2 things results mean for Washington continue Mary in a victory speech Tuesday night Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi offered this message bipartisanship. We have them our bipartisan marketplace of ideas that make our democracy strong Democratic Congress to work for solutions that bring us to gather because we have all had an ounce of division. We have all had enough of division but we still do have a divided Congress where we now have a divided Congress after 2 years of Republican controlled now we have 2 chambers that went to opposite directions as a result of the election no one party was the clear winner it seems like anyone can pick and choose the explanation for why Tuesday unfolded the way it did was was it a blue wave or a blue ripple with their red wall I'm curious what story did you guys pick to explain it e.j. Let's start with you Well I think the most important thing substantively and also in terms of the will of the electorate is that the Democrats took over the house because they now have some power in the federal elected branches of the federal government they had no real power before Election Day and the house was the one set of contests that covered every single voter in America there were house contests everywhere saying it's about national representation right what people feel right now where exactly whereas the Senate took place in only a forward of the states and the Senate races took place only in only one 3rd of the states and the Republicans picked up seats in the court 3 courtroom states Indiana North Dakota and Tennessee what I also think is important is Democrats gained a lot of ground in the old industrial states Pennsylvania swung to trump it swung back Hard to the Democrats in the governor's governor and Senate race same was true in Michigan and same was true a little more narrowly in the governor's race in Wisconsin that's a big deal a so it is for a strong Democratic showing in Nevada and it appears although we're still counting votes are. Zona guy what's your explanation for why the 2 chambers went in opposite directions when there's some repudiating going on as e.j. Suggests the Republicans certainly and I think the president 1st and foremost particularly in House races decided in suburban districts the type of swing districts that Republicans will need to win again if they want to regain the lower chamber I don't think it was particularly helpful for the president to be sort of ridiculing some of those Republicans who lost races because they didn't bear hug him hard enough that was not their problem although he seems to think it was perhaps I do have a spoiler alert for Nancy Pelosi there will be more division we have presently not much of a spoiler we have a Republican Senate we have a Democratic House they may get together on infrastructure and to spend money together that's what both parties seem to like to do but there are going to be some major fights ahead so yes a very good night for Democrats a better night for Democrats and Republicans but one hell of a consolation prize in the Senate for the g.o.p. Gaining we'll see exactly how many seats depending on what happens in Florida and Arizona but giving Mitch McConnell more of a question that matters a lot when it comes to judges which was a top priority for many conservatives Ok we have about a minute left I want to get quickly to of course President trumpery clase his attorney general with Jeff Sessions with sessions chief of staff Matthew Whitaker curious what did you make of that e.j. The timing of it the speed with which it was done and how it was done well 1st time getting over guys saying we're not going to get along I'm so disappointed. But this appointment is itself a sign of why it's probably unconstitutional the case made by people very different views Neal Katyal and George Conway Yes Kelly and Conway's husband awkward and he had a participation with a very dodgy company fined by the f.t.c. This is problematic What do you make of what happened this week the timing is not terribly surprising because Jeff Sessions has been a dead man walking politically for quite some time but yeah. So I think that there are some legitimate questions about the true authority that Jeff Sessions replacement or at least temporary replacement has in that position and it's not just liberals or Democrats saying that as e.j. Has mentioned John Yoo for example has weighed in on the other side of that because all right that Guy Benson of town hall and e.j. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution thanks to both of you great to be. You're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Log Me In makers of Go To Meeting a collaborative meeting platform with over 18000000 monthly users designed to connect people from anywhere in the world on any device learn more and go to meeting dot com. And from Bill dot com used by more than 3000000 members bill dot com works to simplify digital business payments and enhance accounting software by automating the way businesses pay and get paid learn more at Bill dot com. News this is All Things Considered I'm Alpha Chang and I'm Mary Louise Kelly investigators probing this week's shooting at a bar and 1000 Oaks California still haven't found signs of a motive the shooter was a 28 year old former Marine who had a reputation for angry outbursts N.P.R.'s Martin cost he has this look at the inevitable question of whether he could have been stopped on Wednesday night law enforcement responded quickly to the 1st reports of trouble at the borderline Bar and Grill 7 are set fires like this as I say that's a success the 1st officers were at the door within minutes when the 1st time. I met President of inter County Sheriff's Sergeant Ron he list was shot and killed in that initial encounter but the speed of the response may well have interrupted in limited the killer shooting spree now the inevitable question becomes could something have been done even earlier that is before the shooting ever started easy clue quandaries that he had out 1st she knew the shooter about a decade ago when she helped to coach his high school track team you get mad he would go on mom sometimes he would come to practice high at one point she says she saw him grappling with another woman coach an assault she says but one that wasn't taken seriously enough at the time 10 years later when she heard that he'd committed a mass shooting she says she was angry because had he gotten help back in high school maybe that wouldn't happen maybe but Klute also acknowledges that there were other boys with anger problems in the school others who came to track practice high we're having this conversation with the benefit of hindsight we know what happened there and went to mutism yard doctor who runs a violence prevention program at the University of California Davis he's one of the country's leading experts in policies and laws that are designed to reduce gun violence and he's a proponent of laws that allow courts to remove guns temporarily from people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others California has such a law which took effect in 2016 so why didn't that last stop this shooting. The simplest answer is that a gun violence restraining order to our knowledge wasn't petitioned for a gun removal order can be asked for by a person's close relatives or the police and law enforcement did visit the shooter's home this past spring after he was reported to be acting irrationally according to sheriff's department mental health workers involved in that visit decided that the man was not an imminent threat to himself or others but that decision was about whether to take him in for an involuntary psychological observation they may not have considered whether to apply the state's relatively new law allowing them to take away his guns this is a problem in California and it might be that the people involved did not know that gun violence restraining orders were an option we have not done a good job in California in educating people in law enforcement and their mental health professions to the mere existence of gun violence restraining orders that effort is still under way when to be it says California's gun removal law has been used about 300 times in its 1st 2 years but he says the numbers are very uneven varying by jurisdiction he says other states have passed similar gun laws more recently Maryland and Florida are applying their laws at a faster rate maybe because of recent shootings there which have increased the sense of urgency as to whether applying the gun removal law in California has actually reduced the number of shootings he says it's too soon to say anything scientific The data are still being collected. Martin costy n.p.r. News workers who were sickened after cleaning up the country's worst ever coal ash spill may now be able to seek damages after a federal jury this week ruled that the company hired to clean up the spill failed to keep workers safe and even endangered them coal ash is a toxic byproduct of power plants and here's what happened 10 years ago a dike helping to contain coal ash from the Tennessee Valley Authority is Kingston Fossil Plant that dike failed sludge poured out swamping nearby communities it wasn't clear at the time just how dangerous the cleanup would be as of today more than 30 workers have died and $250.00 others seriously sick and reporter Jamie Satterfield has been covering this for the Knoxville News Sentinel and she says when the spill happened 900 workers came from all around the country with absolutely no awareness of the hazards you know they really didn't care what they were told is that there might be bodies in this stuff that there had been a couple of houses that had already been taken out and then once they got it contained and workers then began the process of cleaning up this mass and that was a years long process and explain why this kind of work is dangerous how toxic is this you know coal ash is full of toxins that has arsenic right you know active materials Mark Yury lead tag me and I could go on and on it's got at least $26.00 dangerous chemicals it is the long term exposure to coal ash that is at issue here these workers were without any kind of protective clothing or mask so coal ash is a very dangerous substance and well it sounds like the company that hired them didn't do so no verbal warning what my best to go in showed was that Jacobs Engineering this firm that was put in charge of the cleanup they not only did not tell it to them what was in it and coal ash which. Doesn't mean Corey Maggette later as some of these workers started getting sick on the job at the coal ash if I hired or you were also involved it on their behalf from right here in Mt is whale able to the lawyers and the other thing that I did was any time that I discovered in my reporting I would once we publish he continued to hear about costs storage use that terminology wise there are certain protections that then become in this year so as witnessed to $900.00. S. Every step make out it was a real can sort of swagger past fully because like household carpets. Jamie Satterfield is every part of the thank you you know. Term election. To give a new meaning to the phrase they don't want to be are not some. Things Considered from 16 new members of Congress come Jack One is that they've committed to a return to bipartisanship now into parts of such an iconic going to head towards them this is Karl Canyon resiting the growing to firefighters that. I just played In fact I'm watching an old super say it's in their hands and I'm hoping to with family members. Ernie general temperature today Trump said life for us is very very specific and publicly criticizing the special counsel's probe saying it's gone beyond his he expects trying to bury and 10 used to air at least 8 update on the Norwegian Refugee Council renewed fighting in who's the region Refugee Council within the city most of the food even more to stop operating over the roads from a cut off will be looking at and test to see that I find it very very difficult to describe since fighting ramped up a week ago the residents of the city have been plagued by relentless airstrikes She says the violence has turned her data into a ghost town her back n.p.r. News Washington the federal government is taking additional steps to curb the dramatic increase in vacant by young people of Food and Drug Administration will announce plans next week to impose new restrictions on cigarettes the civically the sale of most flavored cigarettes in retail locations like gas stations and convenience stores the f.d.a. Will also require age verification for online purchases stocks vanish lower across the board on Wall Street today with steep losses for tech Internet and energy companies you're listening to n.p.r. . Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Focus Features presenting boy erased starring Lucas hedges Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe based on the true story of a son who must overcome the fallout of being outed to his parents now in select theaters from Fidelity Investments taking a personalized approach to helping clients grow preserve and manage their wealth learn more at fidelity dot com slash wealth fatality brokerage services l.l.c. And from the listeners who support this n.p.r. Station. It's All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Mary Louise Kelly and I know it's a changing shortly after firing in Jeff Sessions Wednesday President Trump appointed Matthew Whitaker as his acting attorney general an installation that some are calling unconstitutional ya'll is one of those people he's a former acting solicitor general and now a professor now a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University welcome thank you so you want another lawyer George Conway who we should point out is the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway the 2 of you set forth an argument in an op ed for The New York Times in which you say the president's appointment of Whitaker as acting attorney general is a betrayal of the Constitution explain your argument you know I mean it's a pretty simple argument you know I grew up at a time when attorneys general used to have to be confirmed by the Senate you know that's actually what our Constitution says to require is principle officers and heads of departments are kind of the occurred not a case and the attorney general's repaired Mattick case of a head of a department for people like that you need Senate confirmation and Justice Thomas actually written opinion about this 3 years ago and the basic idea was that the founders feared a corrupt executive they obviously had the experience of King George the 3rd and what they said was we're going to vest executive power in this president we need checks and balances within the executive branch itself you cite support from Justice Clarence Thomas and we should know that no one else on the court joined Thomas' concurring opinion in the case that you're referring to from 3 years ago so it wasn't squarely presented in the case but Justice Thomas states what I think is actually a pretty and not controversial view which is the point of Senate confirmation is massive and that's why our founders put it in the got him and because we don't trust in the executive to just put his own people in and look I can totally accept that you're going to have an emergency situation. In where you don't have a Senate confirmed official but this is the opposite of that president Trent bypassed his own people the confirmed deputy attorney general of the confirmed number 2 Rod Rosenstein and then the solicitor general the number 3 person or Francisco both of those people were nominated by the president by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate and you have to ask yourself why is it that the president bypass those people and put a constitutional nobody in place it constitutional nobody who happens to have been taking views for the last several years out in public that Muller's investigation was problematic you know when President Trump was asked about this earlier he said Whitaker has been confirmed by the Senate before back in 2004 when he was confirmed to become u.s. Attorney in Iowa what do you make of that argument the idea that would occur being confirmed in 2004 allows him to serve as the attorney general today is preposterous it was in 2004 with a different Senate and a different president and most importantly it was for a completely different role I mean the attorney general of the United States has a role of massive responsibility that supervises all the $94.00 prosecutors not just the prosecutor in Iowa but everyone and I think it would be that the height of irresponsibility for the president to trot that argument out it sounds like based on your argument you're suggesting someone should be in front of a judge very soon to make this case but who would meet that challenge I mean who would have standing to sue at this point there's going to be many court cases on this because the Justice Department and the attorney general is the nation's most frequent litigant they're in court literally hundreds of times every day and anyone who is facing an adverse action by the Justice Department can now walk into court and say that's a fake attorney general this is not a real process. And seek to have the acting attorney general disqualified from acting on the case in any way shape or form what bothers you the most out of all of this the thing that bothers me the most is President terms how the tutorage the Constitution this is a president who treats the Constitution like a tax code looking for a loophole here in a loophole there instead of Turner stand with this grand document is that our founders gave us when our founders were concerned about precisely this a president who is self dealing in cutting his own interests above those of the country Neal Katyal was an acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama thank you very much for joining us today thank you so much. At least 16 new members of Congress selected on Tuesday are military veterans that is out of 150 veterans who ran as candidates now that didn't used to be so notable 30 years ago half of all members of Congress were military veterans that number has shrunk and some observers link that decline to a decline in civil discourse and bipartisan compromise it also means veterans who do run for office these deeds stand out more as N.P.R.'s Quil Lawrence reports Americans rank Congress among the least respected public institutions and hold the military in the highest regard according to polls which is one reason that hundreds of veterans who ran for Congress this year put it front and center when I was about 12 years old wrote a book by a former seal it was about patriotism and heroism in adventure and that was everything I wanted to be about where the Navy let me fly one of these has it that a lot of those were ads for Dan Crenshaw a retired seal a Republican from Texas and Mikey Cheryl chopper pilot and Democrat from New Jersey they both won seats in the house. Representatives veteran status was hardly a guarantee many vets lost close races including 2 other female combat pilots Amy McGrath in Kentucky and m.g. Hagar in Texas both Democrats running in deep red districts but with a few races still being tallied the new Congress may double the number of female veteran serving and will have the largest number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to date why Barcott a former Marine says he's hoping that will mean Congress does what it's supposed to do what's exciting about these group of vets that have won is that they've committed to to serve an across partisan coalition and talk to each other across party lines and get things done Barcott has that commitment in writing he leads a super pac called with honor which funded dozens of vet candidates both Republicans and Democrats all of those candidates including Cheryl and Crenshaw signed a pledge to meet with the opposite party co-sponsor legislation and serve with civility core the mission is really to be to have this commitment to serving in across partisan way and Lord knows we need markets says it's just the beginning of a long road to fixing gridlock in Washington which was what many of my key Sheryl's constituents in New Jersey told her they wanted certainly the issues that people are concerned about are tax reform health care reform infrastructure spending but then the narrative beyond that is you know like you can you judge me you're going to go and try to get Congress to work again that you're going to put the country 1st not spend all your time and effort fighting Republicans the same goes for Dan Crenshaw who ran as a conservative in Texas he and Sheryl disagree on most of the issues but Crenshaw wants to debate the other side not demonize them personal destruction is a huge part of a politics right now and we should never be proud of that I think is amplified these days both by the media and by social media but it doesn't make it right it doesn't make your ideas better just because you insult the other side. And with your manner both candidates say their military service creates a baseline of respect and pragmatism they hope will spread in the next Congress and continue as another generation of veterans begins to enter politics. Considered from n.p.r. News. Several new social media sites have popped up as alternatives to Facebook and Twitter the other times themselves as censorship free but some are also accused of harboring hate groups one of those sites is called gab and it looks a lot like Twitter it's under scrutiny after one of its users posted an anti-Semitic rant and then allegedly went on a deadly shooting spree at a synagogue in Pittsburgh N.P.R.'s Jasmine Garth's has this report on what keeps these sites in business in the hours after the Pittsburgh shooting one after another tech companies like Go Daddy and Pay Pal dropped forcing it offline Brian Hughes an American universities studies the all rights presence on the Internet he says this is why social media sites like vote and gab aren't hugely successful most 3rd party vendors just don't want to be linked to the hate groups that are often on them when there are these big controversies like say a domestic terrorist using your platform d.m.s. Hosts like Go Daddy decides that they don't want to do business with you anymore and you're forced to find an alternative who's maybe less reliable and there's something else a successful social media platform requires that a critical mass of people be on it what's the point of shouting your opinion to a couple 100000 followers who agree with you when you could be trolling the whole world on Twitter so this really creates a winner take all scenario where there can be only one Twitter there can be only one Facebook nevertheless about a week after the synagogue shooting God was back online thanks to hosting site epic dot com I think was subpoenaed by the attorney general of Pennsylvania the c.e.o. Of that big hit back warning about the dangers of silencing opinions on the Internet that's the same view held by Matthew Prince the c.e.o. Of a company called Cloud Flare it protects gab from cyber attacks Prince works with thousands of mainstream sites when it comes to the controversial ones he says there's not much money to be made. Oftentimes they use just a free version of service and they do pay as they pass not much at all so why even bother Prince talks about something that happened last year after a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville Virginia he cut ties to a controversial client the neo nazi publication The Daily Stormer and princes said he immediately regretted that So while I find something like that they were stronger absolutely viral and reprehensible and disgusting it becomes a very dangerous for deep infrastructure companies like us to be effectively silent saying one side or another Bryan Hughes from American University says Prince's dilemma might be short lived he thinks very few of these sites which provide a platform for hate groups will be around for too long most of them will be gone in a matter of years but that's not necessarily good news he says and other experts worry that in another generation or so hate groups will migrate completely to the dark web where they can't be found using traditional search engines or browsers and it wouldn't be subject to the same kind of oversight from journalists and other people that we typically expect to keep an eye on these things for the health of our democracy he says Ultimately it boils down to this would you rather hate speech and groups be out in the open or hidden from view but still I'm honest judgment or is n.p.r. News New York. You're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. From n.p.r. News this is All Things Considered I'm Mary Louise Kelly and I'm Elsa Chang federal regulators plan to ban the sale of most flavored East cigarettes at retail locations like gas stations and convenience stores they also plan to require people buying cigarettes online to verify their age from Colorado Public Radio John Daly has these details the new restrictions come as the f.d.a. Has been trying to rein in a dramatic increase in v.a. Being by young people smoking of traditional tobacco cigarettes has fallen to a record low. But the popularity of e. Cigarettes with youth is raising alarm bells f.d.a. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told Politico's pulse check podcast he fears one form of nicotine is replacing another he bottom line is that if we are creating a hope pool of kids addicted to nicotine through the cigarettes some proportion of them are going to become long term users of combustible tobacco that otherwise might never have been issued on tobacco Dr Amy sass works in adolescent medicine at Children's Hospital Colorado she says research indicates is cigarettes can affect teens brain development and the Eastlink flavors like mint mango and cucumber really attract kids I think you know really should be a great 1st step Colorado is among the leading states for teen vaporing Governor John Hickenlooper applauds the f.d.a. Taking action what's nice about this is that the f.d.a. Is following on and therefore amplifying public attention towards this issue Don Daniels who teaches about tobacco risks at a Colorado high school welcomes the new crackdown he says convenience stores and gas stations are mainly where teens buy isa carets but students tell him they'll still be able to buy online it's going to have adults or older siblings had problems for them and that's already happening many in the vaporing industry fear the f.d.a. Regulations will make it harder for adult smokers to quit but some say the marketing to kids has gone too far re story is c.e.o. Of an industry trade group he says they've been giant Jewel has been irresponsible when it comes to teen use and you get to a point where basically they're selling a product that is that is like a lot of the problem jewel declined to comment the exact f.d.a. Rules are expected next week for n.p.r. News in Denver I'm John Daly his story is a reporting partnership of n.p.r. Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News. Of the oceans of ink spilled by Raiders wrestling with the Trump presidency it's probably safe to say that Jonathan Lethem is the only one who has managed to produce a book featuring the following one in a shootout on a decrepit Ferris wheel to hippies living off the grid like really off the grid in California and 3 a detective who keeps a live possum in his desk drawer Leatham is new novel is titled The feral detective and he that is not the feral detective Alastor Ince we know Jonathan we thumb welcome thanks nice to be with you good to have you with us so I want to ask how you came to write this book you sat down and started writing it January 2017 how come yeah well you know I've been planning a book before that I had a I had a notion about about the desert and this feral child who grows up to be a detective who finds missing people in the in the desert and I was you know very complacently thinking that was this would be a nice project to write during the Hillary Clinton Administration and then the fall of 2016 came and I was sort of. Undone I looked at what was on my desk and it looked about as useless as as could be I didn't think I had a book or why I just felt suddenly Fergalicious or what I probably in some ways was . Better prepared than some people because I'm used to be a science fiction writer but I felt like I was living in a in a really different universe and I wasn't sure that this book meant anything or that being a novelist meant all that much but I sort of got back on my horse like we all had to do and then I Then I looked at the materials and I realized I can see Phoebe who is a 1st person female narrator and that she could be you know the mouthpiece for my confusion thank you very good relationship she's a reporter she's a journalist. And she shares your sense of disorientation after 2016 elections here she quit her job as a reporter at The New York Times and the question that was really important to me was I Do they look different because they changed because they were unmasked because our reality had a kind of disguise torn off of it and if I believe the 2nd which in many ways is what I came to to feel then my book did make sense my book was about kind of ancient archetype fissures in individuals and society is and between men and women and I thought Well Ok You know I can try and you end up using Phoebe is your arm for you into this world talked about how you couldn't make sense of what was happening in the country maybe Phoebe can make sense let's listen to her and see where she goes yeah even even make sense of it is probably overstating it a lot of ways this is a book about trying not to think about the election it's about it's about running off into a free space where maybe you can conceive that there isn't just a right in a left to read in a blue a man and a woman but that there's some kind of possible reinvention in that sense it's a you know it's chasing the the old American fantasy of the frontier. We're which is a kind of you know utopian space where something can be a new kind of world can be set up you do set up Phoebe as a radically anti Trump character she refers to him as the beast she refers to him as the idiot and I wonder do you worry that you're going to turn off half your potential readers I don't know I. It really has mostly to do with her being a New Yorker and feeling like the weird guy from Queens who we'd all been taken for granted as a kind of a medium for ground peculiarity in our environment was suddenly thrust upon the entire world that it really snuck up on us because it was a different thing for New Yorkers who were familiar with Donald Trump he wasn't he was the new story. Not to give people listening the wrong idea because we're talking a lot about politics and what was going on in America in real life as you're writing this book the book actually is is your character's living through this moment in January 2017 but not paying great attention to Julie developments in Washington there is a smidgen involved in shootouts and a ferris wheel in the desert in California I agree were being totally misleading it's basically just a long chase scene interrupted by spasms of sex and violence but there's really it's not I think you just sold a 1000000 copies right there I've never written a book as quickly because the velocity of the story and the antic nature of the characters swept me along I was also along with thinking about the election I was hiding from from all of that I was just using this as a place to go and and and make up a world that was briefly what I could be amused and kind of consoled by without giving away plot twists or the ending I think I can say that you leave things a little unsettled at the end we don't we don't quite know where your characters are headed next or who might be by their side was that deliberate Yeah the book is a snapshot and it's a snapshot of you know Phoebe and myself in you know the 5 days before the 5 days after the inauguration and they've survived some things and they sort of are together but they're also when a car in motion which I guess describes how I feel just about every day Jonathan Lee from his new novel is a feral detective It's out this week thank you so much much great to talk. 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Coverage of your Pacific home that's been missing comprehensive news features and news analysis in the Pacific Island times a monthly publication featuring current events and allow c.n.n. Mine and the rest of the region Pacific Island Times the paper for the intelligent reader online at www dot Pacific Island Times dot com. Coming up on Ask me another Emmy Award winning actor Michael c. Hall tells us how he got into character for his role as a serial killer on Dexter I think certainly in the case of Dexter and with any character an imaginative leap is ultimately required then Jonathan Coulton parody game where you don't need a degree in art history but it wouldn't hurt. You send them the sky. And you know. Shred it after you but you'll never see him. And we're joined by comedian who tells us that Australia takes its comedy scene very seriously every comic does one hour no food no drinks go opening act it's just you so join me. Puzzles word games and trivia the.