This bill Zebo with member station in Dallas reports this is the 7th police shooting in Fort Worth since June and the 6th death 28 year old a tachyon a Jefferson was playing with her 8 year old nephew early Saturday at about 2 20 am she had no way to know a neighbor who saw the lights on and front door open called police the neighbor couldn't see or inside and was worried when officers arrived they did not announce their presence one held a flashlight and a pistol when he saw movement inside he yelled to see hands then fired we had on film here it all took about 2 seconds activist Pamela Young says enough is enough this out there needs to be fired immediately and he needs to be arrested and criminally charged with murder Fort Worth mayor Betsy Price says the city still investigating this shooting I'm Bill's evil in Fort Worth and you're listening to n.p.r. News 46 year old Esther do flow is now the youngest person to ever win a share of the Nobel Economics Prize and only the 2nd woman to flow on her husband obviously banner g both economists said mit are sharing the prize with Harvard's Michael Kramer Duff The Low says it's incredibly humbling I hope he's going to you know inspire many many other woman to continue working and then many other men too . I stick to the south of the trio won the prize for pioneering new ways to alleviate global poverty going to Elizabeth reopen the British parliament today laying out the agenda prime minister Boris Johnson which included getting tougher on crime and delivering Bracks it N.P.R.'s Frank Langfitt reports from London Time is running out for Johnson's government to negotiate a withdrawal from the European Union. The Queen's Speech is the government's agenda is known called for tougher penalties as the United Kingdom grapples with a rise in knife crime new sentencing to see that the most serious offenders spend longer in custody to affect the severity of that crime but Johnson's agenda is to some degree academic because he has no majority to drive it through parliament and continues to call for an election later this year in hopes of winning one meanwhile in Brussels u.k. Negotiators are struggling to get a Brecht's withdrawal agreement with just days to go before a crucial European Council Summit u.k. Scheduled leave the e.u. At the end of this month Frank Langfitt n.p.r. News London and I'm trials night or n.p.r. News from Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from I drive providing cloud backup full system back up and on site I drive appliance to protect P.C.'s Macs and servers from data loss due to crashes and ransomware and I drive dot com slash n.p.r. And Americans for the Arts. This is Jane p.r. News I'm Angela Decker a cat sized animal in the weasel family will get stronger habitat protections in southern Oregon that's thanks to a new agreement between the Oregon Department of Forestry and u.s. Fish and Wildlife Service Eric Newman has more the agreement focuses on the historic range of the Pacific fish are the animal native to southern Oregon and Northern California is on the verge of being listed as federally threatened or endangered now nearly 184000 acres of land owned by the Department of Forestry willing clude protections for fishers if they're found on them Jason Cox is a public affairs specialist with the Oregon Department of Forestry it's essentially a proactive measure it's consistent with the standards that u.s. Fish and Wildlife would apply so in that sense it's essentially recognizing that this is proactive getting ahead of a potential listing the agreement includes timberlands in Josephine Douglas Couzin lane counties among other state forests in exchange for the added protections state forestry agencies give assurances that they won't be affected by future conservation restrictions if the fish are becomes federally protected Eric Newman j p r news. Starting next year employers will no longer be able to require their workers to go through an arbitration process to resolve workplace disputes instead of going to court Capital Public Radio's Ben Adler says Governor Gavin Newsome signed the bill into law last week as part of a package of measures he said will improve worker protections this has been a recurring battle between business and labor groups and it's another big win for unions this here at the state capital it's also another example of new some diverging from his predecessor former governor Jerry Brown vetoed similar bills twice including one by the same lawmaker last year in this video message Brown pointed to a u.s. Supreme Court ruling written by an Obama appointed Justice a limit Kagan and said he could not sign the bill because it quote plainly violates federal law Newsom also signed a bill that extends the time window to file a complaint of harassment or discrimination under the California fair employment and housing act from one year to 3 organ governor Kate Brown and Major General Michael Stansell the edu didn't General of Oregon spoke at 2 separate mobilization ceremonies honoring units from the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team as they prepare for overseas assignments The 1st was that s.o.u. And the 2nd was at St Helens school in Oregon you're listening to Jefferson Public Radio for more news find us at i.j. P.R.'s or. Support for Jefferson Public Radio comes from our listeners and from plant Oregon plant Oregon the nursery on Wagner Creek is open for summer hours Monday through Friday from 9 am to 1 pm plant Oregon grows locally adapted trees native flowering perennials and shrubs to help make landscapes be more productive ecosystems more information on the many services they provide is available at plant Oregon dot com . An exchange on the news and information service of Jefferson Public Radio or live on weekday mornings we rebroadcast on weekday evenings were heard on radio stations serving Oregon and California and were found online streaming a Jeff Exchange dot org And i.j. P.r.s. Org and the j p r app It's Monday October 14th 2019 Geoffrey Riley thank you for listening in this hour public banks in California and real world ethnic studies in Puerto Rico the California legislature just passed a law allowing public banks in the state you'll hear from a pair of supporters just how public banks would work later on you'll hear from University of Oregon professor a native Puerto Rican about how Hurricane Maria provided lessons for her students and relief for her homeland you're welcome to join our discussions will provide a phone number and an e-mail address shortly 1st let's get a weather forecast here's our student assistant Madison Hamilton welcome Matty Thank you Jeff today in the southern Oregon Cascades insist use expect sunny weather with a high near 50 and I will be mostly clear with a low around 33 in why Rica today will be sunny with a high near $72.00 tonight will be mostly clear with a low around $42.00 in reading Mt Shasta today will be sunny with a high near $67.00 tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 38 in Redding and Red Bluff today will be sunny and hot with a high near $82.00 tonight will be mostly clear with a low around $51.00 in the claimant Basin today will be sunny with a high near 67 tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 36 on the southern Oregon coast expect patchy morning fog in mostly sunny weather throughout the day with a high near 67 tonight will be partly cloudy with a low around 45 on the northern California coast expect patchy morning fog and partly sunny weather throughout the day with a high near 59 slightly mostly cloudy with a low around 44. In Roseburg in the basin expect patchy fog throughout the morning with partly sunny weather and a high near 68 so I will be partly cloudy with a low around 45 in Grants Pass Medford in Ashland they will be mostly sunny with. The Heinie are 73 tonight mostly clear with a low around 44 and in Eugene in Springfield city morning fog with mostly sunny weather throughout the day and when you're 62 and I partly cloudy with a low around 43 thank you Matty So enjoy today and tomorrow they'll be rather similar a fairly typical for what we expect for the middle of October and we also have the big bright hunters moon at night to take advantage of it was full last night I guess and I don't get a chance to see it till this morning early but boy it's still big and bright 6 o'clock in the morning not that I recommend getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning mind you substantial little bit tonight get to see the big Hunter's Moon enjoy tomorrow and then get ready for having your umbrella handy on Wednesday because it looks like most of the region will begin to see rain or precipitation in some form or another and we'll get further details on that as it gets closer let me let you know that we are running the presidential debate on Tuesday night from Ohio so that'll be Audie Cornish leading N.P.R.'s coverage of the c.n.n. New York Times presidential debate that will be here on the news and information service on Tuesday at 5 pm and thanks for listening to us on the exchange we always appreciate when you're here with us you can join our conversations at 88383760 Jay x. At Jeff net dot org type in banks near me into a search engine and you're likely to see a long list of financial institutions all of them with similar ownership private ownership stock holders that sort of set up and there is a standard concern that a bank owned by private investors will be looking out for those private investors before anyone else so there's a movement to establish public banks and that takes some legislation like the law just put on the books in California Assembly Bill $857.00 recently signed into law by Governor Newsome allows for the creation of public banks let's hear from supporters how the bill and the banks would work Sushil Jacobs with the California public banking Alliance the Senior Economic Justice attorneys who see Sushil thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me David Cobb is with us as well from corrupt local cooperation Humboldt He's also an attorney and a board member for c h thank you for joining us David thank you just so Cecile let's start with us tell us about the alliance and what it is working toward the light the alliance is working toward that best public money from Wall Street banks so that they can be used for public good through a system of public banks All right so public money divest it from public banks what would that mean for Dr basically talking about the money that that comes from state and local governments yes some of the deposits that most of our local governments have right now they're using Wall Street banks their bankers so it would mean that we would create a new type of bank that are nonprofit banks located Martin that would be able to lend for the benefit right but these are not retail banks is that right so we're not talking about having potentially a new place with tellers and a lot of stuff to go with to go enjoy the banking options there that's correct most likely they will not have retail services the retail activity the law requires the bank to partner with 'd the local credit and community banks to provide retail unless there aren't any in the region where the bank of established so that stay in that circumstance they could provide some retail services correct. So and So what are the advantages and what are the major issues that we see with that one with wanting to divest public money from private banks. Some of the main reasons are people are tired of hearing about the litany of abuses that Wall Street banks are preventing on California. And the cost of not acting too high people don't want there to be even counties that continue using Wells Fargo and Chase and Bank of America to bank their public and they would rather have a bank that is dedicated to the locals. That their public departments are being put into so let's talk about how this works at the local level David Cobb that brings you in here Lou we talked to a cooperation humbled recently on a different matter remind people what you mean by the solidarity economy and cooperation humble. Thank you just for us at cooperation how but we're dedicated to creating an economy that actually works for People and Planet putting those interests above mere profit so for us we're proving that we can meet all our needs to not just survive but rich and meaningful lives without exploding or oppressing other people but not allowing other people to exploit oppress us and here's Key that we can do this in an ecologically sustainable manner so we know that to do this to finance this we're going to have to shift away from the private exploitive based Wall Street banking system to a public backing model and that's the reason that we are part of the California Alliance for Public banking So if somebody is thinking well I know I have my deposits in my neighborhood bank for years yes part of a big corporation now but I don't feel exploited when used when you talk about it being exploitive how. Well 1st of all let's remember that as Cecile correctly pointed out the public banking model in California the depositories are going to be local governments. Fire District School District successor So the premise of the question I just want to point out is not the same your retail banking needs will still be met by community banks credit unions or if you choose even one of the Wall Street banks but it is important that I address your question directly the current private banking model operates to benefit shareholders interests though shareholders are almost always outside of it of the community and their business model is 'd to make a profit for those shareholders and that's the difference between public banks literally they are owned by the people of that state city community and they are required to benefit the public by serving local community needs so it really is Democratic money. Right and thank you for the correction and by the way I want to hear we keep the retail part separate from from the from the servicing of the local governments part but but so so what we're talking about here is that for example you could have the you know the city of Eureka the county and home both these would all be doing their banking locally through a community bank you're seeing a public bank public bank and Jeff you really had upon the right idea let's focus specifically on the city of Eureka where we are currently involved and financing several major infrastructure projects or a sewer system upgrade there's always road work going on and that's every Jefferson exchange listener right now is living in a community where those infrastructure projects are currently underway here's the kicker under the current private banking model our governments have to go to usually well big Wall Street banks and take a premium for fees but most importantly for the interest for the privilege of borrowing money to finance and pay for those projects a public bank allows the city of Eureka to go to the public bank to finance those projects and what that means in real terms is it cuts out the middleman it cuts out the private shareholders it virtually eliminates the fees but most importantly the financing rates are slashed because in any project usually up to 3040 percent of the cost of that project is literally financing costs those costs get slashed not to completely 0 because there are still administrative costs but they get slashed considerably we're talking about public banking here on the Jefferson exchange with David Cobb from cooperation home Bolden Sushil Jacob from the California public banking Alliance a b 857 just signed into law in California allows the creation of public banks but they're not generally retail banks you can join the conversation here on the exchange at 800. 8383760 by phone our e-mail address is j x at Jeff net dot org I'm going to take a phone call here from Mark in Redding Welcome to the exchange morning but in what ways. Banks differ from credit unions in what way do they differ from the North Dakota State Bank Ok excellent question thanks for that Mark would you take that she'll Yes. Public banks are actually very similar to credit the major difference is that credit unions are for normal people you and I to open accounts that but the public bank the person opening the account is not an individual it's a local agency a city or county all right and then when we talk about the the initial startup of above a bank you know where the if is not dealing with the public where does its initial capitalization come from where does it get the deposits that allow it to make loans I mean how does it get its initial nest egg in essence the initial capitalization will come from the sponsor city let's say the city of Eureka's starting a public bank up in Humboldt County this city would be providing the initial investment into the bank that's the the city's equity as shareholder of the bank and then it also can withdraw its deposits from other banks and put them into this bank so it's also been deposited in the bank and then many other local agencies the school district the Fire District other towns and cities around there could start using this bank to deposit their funds. All right so you get a lot of public entities getting into this now it could be owned by a single or multiple public entities is that right Sushil yes multiple public agencies could come together in a variety of ways we already have joint powers authority is which is the way in which our local. Public agencies collaborate on big projects they can do that with public banks or they could. The banks are already separate nonprofit member corporations so they could become members of the nonprofit corporation Ari So would there be any federal backing like f.d.i.c banks the deposits at banks and and the credit union as a credit use of a separate backing agency but similar structure. Yes. The banks will have Federal Deposit So if you back Ok. And then let's come to you David Cobb again I mean as long as you've been talking about this in Humboldt County are there I mean do you have the backing of the city the county some some place some public entity there that is interested in creating a bank. Jeff we do and I'm very proud to say that the city council of Eureka California actually passed a resolution supporting 8857 as it was making its way through legislation important note that that was a unanimous decision by the city council so both the mayor and all our city council members voted in favor of that resolution of support we have several county board of supervisors who are interested to hear some breaking news for you over the Jefferson exchange airwave I've already been contacted by one of our supervisors in Humboldt County who is eager to start talking to supervisors in the north county and Lake County and Mendocino and Sonoma County supervisor to supervise it's so I think the momentum that is happening here is being expressed not just by the grassroots activist which is substantial but elected officials are seeing the benefits of this commonsense solution and are eager to apply those solutions. Let's take another call here we have the Carter and Wolf Creek on the line we're talking to see she'll Jacob and David Cobb about public banking in California welcome Carter Good morning I'm wondering whether these entities are going to be fractional reserve entities or not and I forgot what my original question my 1st question was that I said to the screener they be taxable I think was your other question. We'll know will the. Break in the state of Oregon u.s. Bank is there depository for for example county taxes and. Will. This. These new as these new fiscal entities will they be the repository for county taxes in California and that our 3rd question in this is what's the relationship between now between these changes in banking in. California in relationship to Oregon Ok Well good question thanks for the card or you want to give us Sushil Jacob. Yes So I'm not I keep a militia what's happening with the 2 different banking Oregon but to get to the heart of the question yes these will be. They'll have the benefits so they will be. Licensed depository institutions and they have California's banking charter and they will be able to do lending in the community based on their deposit base. Ok And then what about. What about the good the similarity Actually that was March question about the Bank of North Dakota is it similar to that because this is what people often talk about like hey we want this public bank in the Bank of North Dakota is the one that always gets mentioned. No there's a quite a few similarities with the bank notes for the model primarily the bank is the California banks will be primarily bankers banks and wholesale banks and the retail activities are not to be conducted by California Public Bank they will continue to be conducted by your vocal credit unions that model is similar to how the bank North Dakota operates did in banking in the bank and what the court operates of the Central Bank to the local banks in the state of North Dakota a primary difference here is that our banks are required to be a separate nonprofit corporations with an independent board of directors and they're required to have several deposit insurance these are additional protections to ensure that there is a system of checks and balances separating the banks and the bankers from the elected officials in the cities and counties who are creating the banks so when with a little reserve orders is insulated politically from from branches of the federal government in theory it will correct that so that there's an insulation from political decisions because these are separate corporations with their own separate boards of directors and they're also heavily regulated because they are required to have a state charter for the State Department of Business oversight they're required to get federal insurance in as the banks are public agencies. The very important distinction are that's a huge difference between our current Thanks banking system these banks are subject to open meeting laws into the public record that so there's a lot of transparency volved with public banks David Cobb is there an act an optimum size that you can see for a public bank you mention the supervisors talking in several Northern California counties would with the optimum size be a bank for one county a bank for 6 counties I mean as much thought been given to that though Jeff it's a great question and we have given a lot of thought also a good time to point out that the current legislation in California actually is a pilot project it's actually only going to go for 7 years we have 10 licenses only 2 licenses per year so what we know is this let's just cut to the tracks we know that Los Angeles is going to get a public bank we know that San Francisco is going to get it public but I suspect that San Jose Sacramento will get public banks that are really municipal or city or maybe their county as well right but that means that other areas are going to need to create regional public backs I'm already working or we are already working with folks in Humboldt and El Norte and lake and then the scene Oh and Sonoma probably my rent our vision is to work together to create the regional bank of the north coast of California to apply for one of those 10 to answer your specific question Jeff the optimal size is all about capitalization the reason that I mentioned l.a. And San Francisco and San Jose in my initial answer is because those places have so much economic activity at the governmental level that it makes sense for them to have a bank where there are local needs communities like Eureka California or even Humboldt County they're just not big enough to. Listed capitalize public but that's the reason that we'll need to create a regional in this. Agency probably along the lines of the j.p.s. Of. All right so yeah going to see the point where a place like Los Angeles could probably have 2 banks in that one county but but in the north coast we're talking about the need for multiple organizations to pull together so the Sushil What's the timeline then what's the soonest that the 1st of the licenses will be allowed under the under the tile it project that is a b 857. Bill so the law goes into effect January 1st 2020 and the regulator has implemented regulation. Before any locally been applied for a license from the state they have to go through a local process they have to put together a business plan and they have to get that business plan approved by the local governing body if it's a county then the Board of Supervisors. That after that to prove locally then it gets the county or city applies to the States for a charter and concurrently applies to the f.b.i. See for federal deposit insurance we think the timeline would be something like that 2020 all of these local agencies across the state are putting together their business plan by the end of 2020 there submitting applications to the state regulator and very 2021 is when charters will start to be issued that's also hope with the caveat that the f.b.i. Plays Knights of the cooperate All right well as several question marks there but anyway we should look for anything to happen in concrete other than the law going into effect in the beginning of the paperwork next year then possibly something the year afterwards so some ground to cover yet in the public banking in the state of California allowed under a pilot project by simply build a 57 Sushil Jacob is with the California public banking Alliance David Cobb from cooperation humble thank you both for joining us on the Jefferson exchange it's the bottom of the hour on exchange Time for today's edition of Marketplace Tech. It's like money ball for Empire. From American Public Media this is Marketplace tack demystifying the digital economy I'm maybe you're in from Ali would. Marketplace Tech is supported by home advisors helping homeowners find the right. Pros for their home projects homeowners can read reviews book appointments and check cost guides for any project at Home Advisor dot com and Irish finitude of offering often platforms in advanced technologies to power the world's financial markets refine it in data is just the beginning. With the World Series just around the corner we're hearing a lot about player stats but another issue is when an umpire gets a call wrong and Major League Baseball is trying to make those instances less frequent over the summer robot umpires helped officiate a minor league game the goal is not only to improve accuracy of the calls but to speed up the game to get more butts in the seats Boston University professor Mark Williams thinks there's a way to use technology to make human arms better at their jobs before we turn the reins over to the bots He just launched an app that serves as a kind of digital baseball card for umpires It's called scores you can see how many calls a given empire has historically gotten wrong I asked Williams What's the idea behind turning the spotlight on the arms on pyres on average make 14 bad calls a game so that's roughly $1.00 errors per inning that can dramatically impact a game so it's really interesting to say well what areas are they weakest in you know there are certain ops for example better do very well in certain parks there's certain umps to do very well with certain pitchers and 13 so the data is there and all we're doing is really creating the analytics so is in l.b. Going to ask you if they should be using this app they are the are the fans going to be able to sort of write proverbial e-mails and letters about that aren't doing the job right well the hope here is that this app is really going to highlight those really strong arms and also give a tool that can be used by Major League Baseball could be used by the OPs themselves really to study their blind spots in areas where they could improve I was going to ask you about the scrutiny of umpires and how it could change the games it sounds. Like you think they do need more help from technology is unfair Absolutely I think human collaboration with technology will improve their performance dramatically you know behind home plate there is no technology at all the fans who are watching on t.v. Or if you are live streaming you have access to technology that tells you where the strike zone is and shows you the accuracy rate but yet behind home plate these umpires have to do it the old fashioned way just by human judgment and humans make mistakes are we worried about sort of call reviews and things like that like we've seen in certainly the n.f.l. I mean are going to be scrutinized to that extent where coaches are throwing red flags and asking that a strike call be be reviewed Well right now huge action rate this year was over $220.00 objections it was 35 percent greater than it was last year so there is increased frustration by players and managers and I'm sure by fans that the Jacksons are occurring in part because of disputes of calls behind home plate so there is a need to improve what's going on behind home plate I think there is a great opportunity here as well just for fans to learn more about how hard it is to be an umpire the profession itself and how could improve it Mark Williams developed an app called up scores and grades umps and also shows us that weather conditions affect certain umpires just like it does the players for example some do really well in domes others not so much. I mean dealer and that's Marketplace Tech . This is a p m. Support for j.p. Comes from our listeners and from d.e.i. Engineers d.e.i. Is an engineering firm located in Ashland providing structural engineering services to local architects owners contractors and developers d.e.i. Is known for their design solutions with a focus on efficiency and constructibility d.e.i. Has experience in building design using all types of construction materials and will work to provide solutions to their clients design teams challenges more information at d.e.i. Engineers dot com. Thank you for listening to j p r to stay abreast of current events did you know we also offer Jeff not a noncommercial Internet service provider that gives you direct online access to global news and information sports entertainment and more Jeff net is the only i.s.p. That directly supports j p r and helps us bring public radio to southern Oregon and Northern California you have a choice of Internet providers choose just visit Jeff net dot org or call 866 Jeff net. The Jefferson exchange on the news and information service of Jefferson Public Radio and I'm Jeffrey Riley thank you for listening we're online at Jeff Exchange dot org And i.j. P.r. Dot org or on social media on Facebook and Twitter at Jeff exchange and you can take part of the program as it happens by phone 808383760 Our e-mail address is Jay x. At Jeff now dot org Hurricane Maria is devastation of way to Rico 2 years ago provided a catalyst for both education at the University of Oregon and relief for the survivors of the hurricane from the u.s. Those 2 threads meet in the person of our next guest. Santos is an associate professor in the you of those indigenous race and ethnic studies department she's also from Puerto Rico originally and watching what the hurricane did to her homeland led to the formation of the Puerto Rico project at the u.f.o. Project and creator are the subject of this month's edition of curious research meets radio our joint project with the university races Sondos thank you for joining us and a pleasure to be with the good to have you you're dead if I as an activist scholar where have you directed your activist energy in the past before the hurricane. Oh well. I've done a lot of work with student activists working on accessible at the Kaisha for low income students over the past 20 years when cost of tuition of God has gone up. A little my gun rights were environmental justice work in the recent past doing a lot of work on water in particular in the state of Oregon so that's a little bit of what I've been doing an activist call over the past 15 years all right so so certainly all will be having an eye on what we can do not just how we can teach all this and so so how long since you left for Rico I left Puerto Rico didn't want to be you know 80 years it's a good long time what was it like watching the storm on fold from thousands of miles away. You know I think heartbreaking is the word that some rices said it was just incredible to see this massive here it came that everybody had feared for a long time. People knew that the infrastructure was not going to be able to pull things together just hit it from far away and just to get ready powerless really really powerless that's the word that comes to mind your mother apparently had said things in years past about about a hurricane coming in from a certain direction how she thought that would cause a real problem for Puerto Rico Yeah since we were going out as a child she was just always pay attention whenever you're a consistent came and pay attention to the Specter the tragic story and she always said if he hits some of the southeastern part of the island and he crosses over that island we need to watch how we need to be very careful we don't know if that will be totally destructive so when I saw that happening that night I was here in Oregon and I saw a sight that strikes Tory and at that moment I picked up the phone to call people already cell phone that. I knew that it was going to be horrifying to be honest with you I would have never respected the fact that we're still dealing with the consequences of this many years later 2 years later. We're still talking about it so so this that's one of the major points here is not only watching what what the devastation was but then bin I mean how long did it take to become clear to you that the relief efforts just weren't quite keeping up with the needs of the people well 1st of all 3 Weeks went by without even hearing if people were life just the fact that we couldn't even get communication across from here to there but also on the island itself I would some things reach people in the cities but they wouldn't be able to tell me their family members to thousands over were fine the side said only it was in the news media but it was clear that the government here in the u.s. I mean that actually said we're not going to say it sent aid because but there he goes money to the federal government therefore we're not going to be spending money there so he was very clear from the beginning that the federal government's position was we're not going to actually provide relief efforts in and he's spent so offensive we saw that was. That made it even worse than even fitting even more powerless to do anything a particular time Yes Well and you you do certainly didn't sit on your hands on this end of things you quickly published an op ed in The Register guard called Why should Oregon care about Puerto Rico What do you want to say there. I basically wanted to indicate Oregonians I mean here in the Pacific coast people oftentimes didn't even know the point that it took This is a us territory that we're citizens so I figured the least I could do here was to provide some information to people about the history for Rico what this means that I see was there a Tory its relationship to the history of the us and white Matt it should matter to are going to advocate for the vehicle and it was amazing because the Be honest with you. I wrote it thinking at least educate people and see if maybe they can at least support a foundation to a letter writing I never imagined that it would get picked up in the way it did by media both the mainstream media here in Oregon us well as they also noted media in Spanish and also by lawmakers and other social justice activists in the here like I never imagined the impact just 500 words would have on getting people to actually push also the federal government to provide relief efforts there so you really lit a fire under people from the sounds of it yeah I guess so yeah that's true. I mean to be on as the film I did in a way just as a teacher and also as somebody who felt like I had to do something similarly sustain myself too in the process and I'm just really thankful that other people were able to hear that message and actually go out there and galvanize and organize themselves and it was amazing the response of Cory Clouston Oregon was beautiful and all the people I met I hadn't met before here who immediately organized teaching fundraisers and ways of sending food directly to people there so that it wouldn't have to go to the warehouses where things got stuck for months and even year with arriving to people so that was we. Know that op ed again that you were published on the register Guard was called Why should Oregon care about Puerto Rico and it ticked off a series of points and one of them was we owe it to Puerto Rico describe that relationship in that particular aspect of it. Well for me. First of all the ways in which. For Reagan something central to the political life of this country served in the military and each military. Kind of like plan that we've had over the past 100 years anywhere we've been in the military for a cause of service is really incredible ways the ways in which. We also have been the center like creating diplomacy and treaties developed in America and the Caribbean with the u.s. I mean there's something really strategic about Florida's location a relationship with the mainland. Our economics status as being league greatly diminished by the relationship with the us the way the u.s. Farming subsidies has destroyed every cultural economy put the vehicle. And continues to do so in such a way that where we can farmers continue to struggle to sell their food because the u.s. Subsidize foods make a really hard for them to sell food in the market. We can talk also about all the pharmaceutical companies where a lot of drugs are actually consume in the u.s. Are producing for the contest in Puerto Rico. We can talk about the pill Well actually that's a very good woman with very station and how we have a pill now of the kind that this in the u.s. And many other places that is all these ways in which we hope for many of the things that we experience in the u.s. But also in the way that the u.s. It's about economics so a testing ground a place for experimentation but still no statehood up in the face and. Santos is our guest on the Jefferson exchange an associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of Oregon and we're talking about Hurricane Maria and its effect on her native way to Rico and our she galvanizes student response on the Oregon end of things you can join us on the Jefferson exchange this is this month's edition of curious research meets Radio 80833762 join the conversation by phone by e-mail j. X. At Jeff net dot org I was trying to put together that timeline in my head i.e. And I realized that all the events that are the devastation of Puerto Rico the clarity about the fact that the relief was taking a long time and was insufficient and all this would have happened just days before classes started in 2017 I mean do you remember a particular event or moment when you said I have to make this part of classwork or was that in your mind from the getgo. Actually to be honest with you I was quite shocked and also feeling that I didn't have enough information the 1st week the 1st 2 weeks I was like preparing for classes the begin it was I think after a week one of sure to 2 weeks of not hearing from people and feeling. Nothing was happening and from the u.s. Side I went to my class that morning and I said you know this is happening but this is the little information we have and to be honest a lot of the information was coming from the capital from San Juan and I am from the countryside and from the mountain range and I just kept wondering what's happening in the mountain range I know that I knew that there had to be landslides for example but you are not getting all that information from those communities so I share with my students this is what's happening people don't have water people don't have food people don't have roofs people I keep hearing reports of people getting getting sick in their lungs because of pollution and so I had friends sleeping in the roofs because that was the only place where they could sleep there were they had bees and wasps all over their houses because those bees had lost their refuge. So I just heard all those things with them and said on the will be honest with you together as a class we decided that we wanted to do something and then the student began to imagine I remember I had them as a group work and they all began to come up with different I.D.'s a few of them wanted to fundraise If deal with them wanted to go to put those ego in kind of a delegation bring the aid directly if you know them wanted to document stories and then would that's how we came up with the idea of a web site together and actually one of the students who was part of student government immediately wrote the student government people and they said we will fund for a number of students to actually travel there so I have to say I don't like that that credit for the class because I feel that it was only possible because the students were so engaged and they themselves came up with ideas about how we could work together in the classes called Race ethics justice so you know obviously difficult a good place to talk about these sorts of things but I understand that particular year and in the the the fall quarter of 2017 more students enrolled Yes I have to say it was a new class the 1st time I had a thing maybe 10 students possibly 12 of the particulars here because they heard about it from the previous year I had at least 2528 so I had double the amount of students and you know when I asked them why they were in the class they just said when we saw that title and we heard about what you did last year. We felt like it would be a class where we could really engage the things that mattered right now we could do something that would make an impact when we see so many harsh things happening in the world so who deal with the day to day lessons of what kinds of things you were you were trying to get across to about about the things that happen to people of certain ethnic groups because they are in those ethnic groups when something that you would think wouldn't you know show favorites or or enemies or natural disasters hit those ethnic groups. You know well some of what we discuss in the class will be part of what we. Discovered in our work was we met with an organization of Dominican migrant woman into the input the legal and a lot of the work I did for my 1st book was about migration and the creepy and on and going about the minicon migrants in this community against oftentimes. And so we discovered that actually a lot of the make the neighborhoods were not even be this that it. Officials like government officials. That they were being like blatantly ignored so if there was water being given away in a community they will not receive the water for example so that was one of the issues that we discussed how it needs to be a migrant status with shifting even the little aid that was being made accessible wasn't to be not made accessible for them we'll talk about black identified where we can communities and how also because they tend to be imagined criminalized but those are criminal neighborhoods they should be afraid of walking in those spaces also relief efforts would have find their way into the communities and definitely the rule communities which some of them with very strong business play you know history those people some of those with this the different school they told us we have seen the mayor one. Female one with a helicopter trying water out us we never saw anybody else again everything else we have here we go to our own family members and other townspeople come and help those but none of what you see here this food this milk for babies came from a government aid so we were able to talk in class about how relief efforts actually even did not get distributed to everyone in the same way you know Ok let's take some phone calls here we have William and Sutherland on the line sort of one rather welcome to the Jefferson Exchange with all your ears Sancho's from the University of Oregon. I have a question for the lawyers. But I took my Peace Corps draining in 63. I want to Puerto Rico we were working in a self-help program building supposedly hurricane proof houses. That were all built out of concrete reinforced concrete and through closing the roof and I'm really curious to know how they stood up and which part of the where where they built a member would build I don't remember or we were out we actually were pretty much all over the island one time or another Ok let's see if Ali knows anything about that when he say Well actually it's interesting I remember. The time when the construction changed the concrete a lot of a lot of houses made it Ok However some of the challenges we have is that even even concrete houses because of how the euro came with the intensity of the euro came. Those houses got filled with water and so sometimes it wasn't the people lost their roofs is that they either lost windows or they have so much water coming in that their houses were full of mildew and mold and so they're livable actually literally livable people in the livable conditions were living all this elderly people people have chronic asthma breathing mildew and mold I mean they continue to be because a lot of houses haven't been restored I mean 30000 households still have tarps in put the vehicle right now 30000 still. And how many were damaged altogether. I believe that 90 percent of the Island Houses damage is some way or another at least 90 percent of households up by Safina. Because the houses were damaged when other than water damage was completed is justice and a hazard for health conditions Sure let's take another phone call mission in Eugene Welcome to the Jefferson change yeah he read the I think this is this is the thing here of like racism because. What's happened is people or where after Hurricane Katrina happened to be poor talk about New Orleans they were talking about the was talking this this tough does this mean this is racism and maybe they should rebuild New Orleans because because maybe the thing is there are a lot of our people quote unquote Afro Americans there in the people didn't care about them and I know that like when there were situation with the problem in the one Chinatown there's a thing about some of the people burned down to rethink about you know in San Francisco you separate but they had done that in another place but to me it's a thing of like racism like certain people aren't treated quite right kind of like after the Spanish after for example a lot of Mexican Americans have had their land taken away in California that their land stolen so I think that's just another thing of racism and people aren't getting together the way that we should all right thanks for that mission appreciate thoughts of you Ali. I mean sadly the truth is racism impacts so much of our lives every day to clear thinking about environmental issues and the saucers. There's plenty proof that it is committees of color experience racism experience economic violence and environmental and natural disaster issues that a higher rate I mean we can think about Flint Michigan we can look even though here in Eugene Oregon where we look at lead in how seeing it is oftentimes migrant communities are exposed at a higher rate to that painting unhealthy or toxic water to their pipes and so that is just one example of how racism impacts the fact that we don't think oh I we need to handle that issue because it is just the communities that need. Them when we think we'll sub out infrastructure where do we invest in building how seeing that actually was a natural disaster housing that's clean for children to be able to live in them that is free from that then you know land slight for example which is part of what's happening with the course the poorest communities that got hit the hardest because they were living in places themselves where not built the right way because they were not considered to be communities where money had to be invested in them so definitely racism and poverty. Play a role in how is it that people experience the impact of natural disasters. So in starting the Puerto Rico project at the University of Oregon what came 1st did you begin to start the blogging and then take the trip with the pictures or how did I'm just curious about the order of events there not actually we we 1st of all begin the process of training students 1st of all having students applied to go to but the vehicle begin the students who are going training them with Professor Ana Marie Lara who's an underdeveloped is here to train them and how you do interviews in a natural disaster because you work in Haiti after the earthquake 2010. Then I In the meantime students were doing research for trading power points that people could use for fundraisers with just basic but the tickle history and what was happening with here again because people kept asking us to give presentations but we just didn't have the capacity so we thought people could just use the Power Point the present themselves and educate themselves. And then we went to what the vehicle brought all those 2 cases this to all 50 years of cases of funding and also interviewed people and then winter and spring a few students continue working with me as interns and then that's how we created the Web site so it took us a whole year to be able to actually produce the website that exists right now so how many students from the u. Of old together went to Puerto Rico we had. 3 students when we meet Ok Yes And how many times have you been back since the hurricane been out actually that's the one time I was back I've been back since. For many personal reasons actually I love my mom to gun violence and. That's another story I'm so sorry yeah so so I mean did you feel like you made any kind of a dent in the situation today that you were able to help enough people to make a difference in their lives you know what people said when we went was that. They was amazing to receive the water filtration system the food items I mean they filled they were still thankful the money but that was more important to them is to feel that other people were listening to them and their story that they were not forgotten and I think I when I say this I get teary eyed because. Everybody was just we see was the most love and everywhere we went the people gave us the best food they had the little coffee they had. Everywhere we went to receive that was such openness my students were just moved so moved because they said well people suffering so much are giving us what they have but what they said that we were giving them was a chef tell their story to be heard at times to connect with other people in the island because because part of what we discovered traveling to the island is that people didn't know what was happening in the front parts of the us we were traveling we were able to share stories and this found this happening the other part that's happening and people began to get a sense of the whole picture so I feel like the website was great to give something for people to piece and share and get a sense of what was happening in the mountain region in particular for people who we develop this with this is typically if they felt that it was the most important was the human connection and the getting that with her son not so much the delivering of the of the food the water but but but you know that helps obviously but but just being able to receive their story and listen to the people of the good listen to don't think they do they do what they love radio because his story so it's good all right the printer we go project is online we link to it at our website at Jeff Exchange dot org I'll erase Santos is an associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of Oregon and they created the Puerto Rico Project thank you so much for joining us on the Jefferson Exchange thank you so much for having me good to have you this is that was part of our monthly series curious research meets radio a joint project with the University of Oregon and that's it for this hour of the Jefferson exchange we'll talk about genocide in North America in our number 2 coming up. Recognizes the nonprofit community support of the Southern Oregon field and our Tobar fest fast as one of 2 major art of events in the Illinois Valley October 19th and 20th at our headquarters inside the r.c.c. Kerby campus visitors meet artists and meander through displays of wall art jewelry fabric arts and ceramics accompanied by food and music other than using Kirby are it's a barrel and you know custom jewelers the 12th Annual Valley Girls quilt show adds to the weekend's celebration of the arts in the Illinois Valley more details on Facebook at Southern Oregon field and friends at Southern Oregon guild. This is the news and information service of southern Oregon University's Jefferson Public Radio 12 30 am k s j k talent at 9 30 am Grants Pass also heard in the road Valley one of 2.3 at that news of the region the nation and the world. Coming up after the news the book Surviving genocide is a story from our own shores about the new white Americans who were placed Native Americans in a steady March west across the continent University of Oregon Professor Jeffrey ost and wrote the book it's the 1st of 2 planned books taking the story across the eastern part of the country roughly up to the civil war here details of white colonization that you may not have heard before stories of disparate tribes working together to resist and you hear about some of the notable white political figures who played major parts Andrew Jackson Sure but Thomas Jefferson all men are created equal he wrote put his shoulder into native extirpation. Surviving genocide and your phone calls and e-mails ahead on the Jefferson exchange after the news of the hour. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Barbara Kline Syrian forces loyal to the regime of Bashar al Assad are deploying in northeastern Syria to help Kurdish militias fend off Turkey's offensive it's a major shift in alliances and adds a major player to the conflict as N.P.R.'s Daniel Estrin reports from the Syria Iraq border Syrian government forces are advancing to parts of northeast Syria and returning to the Syrian border with Turkey for the 1st time in years u.s. Forces used to protect the Kurds here but President trying to side to pull out troops and a u.s. Official tells n.p.r. All troops will be out within a week international journalists and aid organizations that entered Syria without regime permission are now rushing out of Syria before the regime retakes the area at the border crossing with Iraq there are a lot of tearful goodbyes. This 4 year old a saying come on Grandfather why aren't you coming his grandfather doesn't have residency papers to cross into Iraq.