P k t p k t h d 189 point one w d w f m Stamford at 88.5 w. Our ally Southampton at 91.3. Minutes ago 90 point one w 258 stores at 99.5 in npr dot org Support for the wheel house comes from the Metro Hartford Alliance and Harriet Beecher Stowe Souter. It's for the long run high school football in Connecticut coaches players and parents are scrambling for Hail Mary how can they play and prevent corona virus from spreading among players their friends and family a partisan divide deepens over Governor Ned Lamont's executive orders on covert 19 and we hear what one Connecticut police chief is doing about town residents who call 911 on a person because of his or her race. That's all coming up on the wheel house right after the. Live from n.p.r. News I'm Jenny Herbst President Trump is expected to announce another drawdown of troops from Iraq today N.P.R.'s Joel Snyder has more word of you know what the president is planning to make came from a senior administration official who talked with reporters aboard Air Force One following the president's campaign rally in Winston Salem North Carolina another announcement is expected in the days ahead about a troop reduction from Afghanistan the u.s. Currently has more than 5000 troops in Iraq some 8600 are in Afghanistan a firm number of troops to be withdrawn is not yet clear but the president has long promised to end what he has called the country's endless wars the expected announcements come as the president is facing sharp criticism stemming from reports alleging that he has made disparaging remarks about Americans who died in war trials night or n.p.r. News a major drug trial from one company making a covert $1000.00 vaccine is now on hold after one volunteer became ill as presented her along with Oxford University says it's pausing its trials for a safety review Dr Paul Offit director of the Vaccine Education Center a children's hospital in Philadelphia says it's not unusual it's not common but it's certainly not unheard of it does happen when presumably someone had a serious adverse event soon after receiving the vaccine and then the company just stops takes a much closer look at that particular case to try and answer the question was this a coincidental association or was it a causal association speaking there to N.P.R.'s Morning Edition the experimental vaccine is being studied in thousands of patients around the world the illness apparently occurred in a u.k. Volunteer but the company hasn't revealed the nature of the illness in California more than 2 dozen major fires are burning around the state amid hot and very dry conditions more than 300 people trapped in the Sierra National Forest outside Fresno have been rescued in recent days from the creek fire by the National Calif Calif. Gornja National Guard helicopters N.P.R.'s Eric Westervelt has more California's already set a record with more than $2300000.00 acres burned and the toughest part of wildfire season is only just starting the Forest Service is Steve Lohr says firefighting resources are stretched thin and dangerously erratic blazes are popping up almost daily we're seeing fire behavior that we've not seen these fires are moving quickly super intense and are really really a significant threat to the public and our firefighters because of that threat the Forest Service has temporarily closed 8 national forests in the southern part of the state and has shuttered all campground and day use areas in national forests across California Eric Westervelt n.p.r. News it was futures contracts are trading higher at this hour the Dow futures contract up about 7 tenths of a percent Nasdaq futures are up one and a half percent s. And p. $500.00 up nearly one percent this is n.p.r. Support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include Carbonite providing secure and encrypted backup of personal devices to protect this little memories from unforseen circumstances and learn more at Carbonite dot com Carbonite and Open Text company Good morning I'm Lori Mack with these news headlines a new survey shows that while a majority of can't get residents believe state officials are looking out for their best interest during the pandemic 20 percent do not plan to get vaccinated for Co The 19 and 17 percent say they're not sure Governor yesterday it's his job to lower those numbers Puerto Rico and the u.s. Virgin Islands have been taken off Connecticut's coronavirus travel advisory list but for new states have been added people traveling from Delaware Maryland Ohio and West Virginia must now quarantine for 14 days upon arrival Connecticut currently has quarantine restrictions for travelers from 34 states a Boston based coronavirus testing lab the council. Dozens of nursing homes among its clients has been suspended by the state after it returned nearly 400 false positive tests the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said Tuesday it opened an investigation in early August after it became aware of an unusually high positive rate of covert 1000 tests reported by Origen laboratory retests found at least 383 false positives This is Connecticut Public Radio it's 9 o 5 I'm meteorologist Karen r.g.s. It's another September day that will have the feel of summer time the humidity will be moderate and temperatures will be rather warm reaching above 80 and most areas will see clouds mixed with some breaks of sunshine and tonight is going to be warm and humid it will be drive through dinner time that a few showers are possible later at night lows will be in the sixty's but the Connecticut Public Radio weather report on meteorologist Garrett r.g.s. Support comes from the Harriet Beecher Stowe center announcing stope rise in place a 2 part virtual conversation on racism in the criminal justice system featuring Albert Woodfox a Newark mayor Ross Baraka Harriet Beecher Stowe dot org support comes from the Metro Hartford Alliance an investor based economic development partnership focused on business development attracting and retaining talent ensuring a strong urban core and promoting the Hartford region Metro Hartford dot com. I risk. How do you justify those kind of raids and then talk about an increase the way we operated executive orders in March was appropriate for that time and the way we operate them now. If the man in the White House had made half the decisions that the governor has made we wouldn't have 919-0000 deaths in America. This is the wheel house on Connecticut Public Radio and loosen up with Anshul bringing the show to your remote. And lift him 3 other different locations you just heard Democratic House majority leader in that red are talking about how much power Governor Ned Lamont needs to deal with Koch 19 Also Republican House Minority Leader them as Claire is explaining how her caucus feels about the governor's executive powers in this pandemic we heard from a member of the public at a hearing focusing on the lecture to ladies and also in the mix that probably the most controversial story in the last week Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference director Glen longer Rini announcing that high school football games as we know it won't be played this season we'll get to that in just a few minutes but 1st on the panel today Russell Blair is back. And you can follow him Russell Blair c.t. Russell are you there. 3 to be here virtually with you guys also making her wheel house debut is Kayla tourism cacio she's investigative editor at Hearst Connecticut Kay welcome to the wheel house. Thank you for having me and calling back in with your host of the con McNamara show on Connecticut Public Radio and he's a columnist at Hearst Connecticut I call on Good Morning Lucy and you can join us on Twitter at w n.p.r. Wheel house now just on Friday a bipartisan panel of General Assembly leaders voted to extend Governor Ned Lamont's emergency authority to deal with covert 19 his power to essentially create temporary state laws now extends through February 9th all the Republicans on this special bipartisan committee were against the extension all the Democrats voted for it so let's talk about this committee and again we talked about this briefly last week about the process this is no surprise that the special panel voted to extend allow the governor to extend they could have objected but you know why is this an issue now I believe when the governor 1st expanded his coronavirus power back in the spring that vote was you nana the miss So what has changed College Road So that's a really good question I would say this there are 2 ways of perceiving reality and one of them is the process is worked the infection rate is low the death rate is low the hospitalization rate is low so let's get going let's get out there and do all the things we haven't been doing the other way to perceive reality is all of those conditions are true because this style of public health works it works really well it is caused Connecticut to be in a superior health economic condition than you know almost all of the rest of the country and almost all of the rest of the country is almost like a laboratory to which Connecticut can turn its eyes periodical and say oh well there's what happens if you open the bars or there's what's hot what house or what happens if you list the restrictions on the percentage of seats in a restaurant that can be full I happen to be in this latter camp as you can probably tell you. You know my thought about this is that this has worked it's a very successful policy it has put Connecticut in a position where it's hard to imagine what other state you would want to be living in right now unless of course you want to bar so you know I just to go back to the famous Churchill quote about democracy it's you know the supposed he said it was the worst system of government except for all the other possibilities and I think Ned and his it emergency powers fall into that category 2 is the worst system of government except anything else that could be contemplated one of the problems is that the Republicans I mean they're in kind of a double bar you have to be some little bit sympathetic they made it political right they made this a political issue they broke with Ned along political lines. About this and you can't blame them entirely for the other the loyal opposition they're supposed to do it but it raises questions like if you'll make this political What else will you make political that shouldn't be political. In some point I hope we can talk about the or what's going to happen when vaccines roll out I don't even know what role the governor will play in communicating with the public about whether the new vaccines are safe whether they're really ready to go whether this is a rush job but there are things like that and resurgence of the disease in schools and colleges along our borders where yeah you know it actually is good if it doesn't become political and the kind of consultation that the Republicans are asking for them they don't really have a lot of things that they're saying well he's doing this wrong he's doing that wrong they just want to be at the table the question is can anything productive come out of that at the same time Collin they're elected to do the job are they doing their job reflecting what they're hearing from constituents that there is a group maybe a minority I don't know how many Connecticut residents agree with these powers being extended but they reflect on what their constituents want where they're worried about. What this means and they want to see their legislators making me think Yeah well 1st of all. I will confess that having covered the Connecticut state legislature and having watched them try to deal with much simpler issues with we would appear to have fairly straightforward outcomes I don't look forward to turning something like this over to them you know they really have a lot of trouble getting basic kinds of things done they don't proceed for the most part in an orderly fashion they wind up in gauging in political horse trading about issues I mean I literally was there when they were there was horse trading going on about early childhood education and they think Sunday do your hunting if you can have this one then we get that one well those 2 issues are completely unrelated they don't belong in the same conversation that's how the General Assembly operates that's how it's always operated it's a very chaotic environment so the notion that somehow or other we're going to put these things to a vote. And get involved in that got a process I understand we have checks and balances there's a reason reason or reason the Constitution is set up the way it is but we also have emergency powers for emergencies this is an emergency supply what do you think and went with but Collin has shared his observations covering the Capitol for many years is this something that lawmakers be making a big deal about. I mean I think you know he makes a great point about you know imagine if you put every single thing that has done the executive order out for a vote my colleague Chris Keating had a story where he talked. About Ritter and you know he said we could have a 2 day debate about you know how late should you know ours be allowed to reopen or should ours be allowed to reopen and in what capacity and you know a lot of these decisions that the governor has made he's had to make very quickly very swiftly You know certainly he's got advisors you know I'm a public health that he's talking to before he makes decisions but you need. The ability to move quickly and unilaterally and that's something that the General Assembly has never been too good about moving fast and deliberately on an issues you know and also the Collins I think one thing you can't forget is that you have an event or election coming up we did have a legislative action that was basically shut down in March during the coronavirus so there wasn't a lot got accomplished legislatively this this year so I think that that's maybe part of what you're seeing this Republican opposition arising from is the ability to go back to their constituents and say you know look we were fighting for the bars to get real and we were fighting for the restaurants to have their capacity increase as we head into the winter so that they can you know make a little bit more money as as outdoor dining you know goes away and they've been sort of cut out of the process I think there's a yearning to do something we did in the special session with the accountability bill there's discussion about another special session coming up later this month for a utility bill that would reform every source and you why and in response you know how they handle this type of storm last month I think generally you know that the way that Governor lines handled this is probably the most effective way to handle it even if you don't like the fact that you know this is the governor and he has a tremendous power and he can make decisions but the alternative of having to try to have. It Up or down vote on every single matter you know would just be chaotic and I think one thing that has got sort of lost in this conversation as people are pointing to the low infection numbers and pushing to reopen is that you know just because it is doing very well in containing the virus doesn't mean that the virus is any less that it and it was in March doesn't mean that it spreads any less ask than it did in March and you know we've seen a couple of these instances you know there was a case in Dan Barry where there was a spike in cases they had to rip pushback or reopening and take some local measures there we saw in Norwich where there was a spike about nursing home and hospital workers got sick so you know even though Connecticut is doing a very good job you know tops and in the country in containing this it doesn't mean that they stop these measures although there could be you know some big community spread here so I think that's something that people need to take into consideration when they're looking at you know moving forward with the further reopening killer we heard from a listener who tweeted this is the sort of needless the partisan bickering and grandstanding that infuriates voters especially during a crisis is that the pulse of what the public feels when that when they hear these arguments between politicians these days. Well I think it depends on which side you're on if you agree with the Republicans and you're saying they should be able to have a say you don't agree with Republicans you might say well you know yeah you got us that they're going this is exactly why we shouldn't have. The ability to say something because you can't ever agree on anything so how do you get anything done if you Jennifer Grey on any I think one of the hardest parts of all this is that things are changing so quickly day to day as Russell just that you know one day everything's going along fine and Embry as I so everything is just changing so fast I think that's why the governor having the ability to just say Ok this needs to something needs to change we need to send us something down I think that's where you know things are necessary because things are changing very fast my son just started school today and we didn't get any kind of supply list any kind of information from his teacher until like 2 or 3 days ago because and the reasoning was things are changing so fast one day they're latchkey eaters and in school and you know the kind of covering and the next No that's allowed anymore it has to be. So you know things are changing so fast over 1000 time but I think that's one of the things that make it hardest to be able to argue but we need to be able to have time to shower you these things out and we don't have time to do. Speaking of you know how things are changing both guidelines from that we're hearing from our state public health officials what we hear from the c.d.c. There was a new poll from c.n.n. College and data haven that found most Connecticut residents support mask wearing but some have doubts about the covert 19 vaccine can I want to talk a little bit about that because you mentioned the vaccine earlier in the sense that we're hearing that vaccine may be coming on line once it gets emergency approval if that happens but there's also the question of how many people the public will take this fax. When it becomes available right then I just want to see if quickly about that poll I haven't been able to see the raw polling it's not up on data Haven's own site they may have released it to the reporters like Alex part of and who wrote the stories about it but they they haven't I mean I like to look at how the questions are worded I look at legal or cross tabs and stuff like that so because I thought the 20 percent number was kind of low and there is I think a 2nd number in that poll that might describe the people who we often recall called vaccine hesitant now I mean and that's kind of a new class of people to a certain degree there was always kind of a hard core group of entice science people who are opposed to measles vaccines and stuff like that now you've got a new group of people people who in fact are quite enthusiastic about science and are questioning whether scientific practices are being out of quickly followed right now is this a safe vaccine at what point will I know it's a phase a safe vaccine yesterday in England shut down its trials because of one adverse reaction but you know a pretty serious myelitis reaction that's a good thing that's actually a good story Astra Zeneca is doing what you're supposed to do in a Phase 3 trial but that's all those things work they there are long running trials with cohorts of 30000 participants and you have to watch them all carefully you've got to see what kind of adverse side effects there might be and sometimes it takes a while for those adverse side effects to develop so any a person is vaccine hesitant right now I mean I can't wait for a flu shot day can I get public I'm always there I always get my flu shot I think vaccines are terrific I would be a little nervous for a while if I don't think that the Phase 3 parts of these trials have been run effectively and on a sleep with a real eye towards downstream side effects I would take me a while to go and get this vaccine even if I were able to get it and I'm really. The Spectrum and the end of the spectrum that's very enthusiastic about him you know she put this process because it's been politicized because it's got a name like warp speed you know it really has churned up doubts and I actually think they the heavens number might be a little bit low. Russell wouldn't we think about education about vaccines and letting people know once the these trials are completed if this is what's going to it's going to take to go back to normal or what we used to think of as normal from our state perspective you know should we be hearing from d.p.h. Or governor Lamont to raise awareness I'm just curious what your thoughts are is this something that people will just follow from from hearing from the federal government what they hear in the news. You know I think one thing that's interesting about the vaccine is you know you have to thinking into how this pushes out everything that we thought about you know once there's a vaccine we can return to large indoor events we're not going to have to wear masks anymore you know those types of things you know it's going to be a little while longer you know certainly one issue is going to be the distribution of the vaccine how is back into play out how many doses are going to be available at the beginning are states going to be making decisions about who gets those you know there was some communication recently to state health departments you know from the federal government talking about you know potential of the ability of vaccine this fall and preparing state health departments to deal with that you know one question I certainly would have is you know once there is a safe and effective vaccine available how is that going to play out among schoolchildren You know we had a Seems like forever ago but there was a public hearing Way back in February or March about eliminating the religious to sanction for vaccines for school children and there was a lot of parents that showed up and had a lot of concerns they were pushing back against that saying that the station be mandating you know that children get certain immunizations you know you can certainly see in the future people pushing for a current virus vaccine to be required for for kids to go back to school for in person learning you know if that was something that was proposed I imagine you would see some pretty fierce pushback against that you know especially with a newer vaccine like that but that may be something that some of Health experts say you know what would be necessary in order to. Reopen schools in person and take away some of these. Ads that have been put in place I think that's one area that would be really interesting to watch. Cayle I mentioned this poll by data haven and one of their findings is that there's still low trust in the black and Hispanic community about potential coded vaccine this sounds problematic because we think about how black and Hispanic Americans and other people of color are disproportionately impacted by Colvin we think about the people that have died from this disease I mean what's your takeaway when you hear that there are there's still that mistrust in the community and how can public health officials address that. I think that more information out there I think you know we hear about these polls you know when they come out that there isn't enough information out there on a regular basis telling people how these studies are going with these explain so I think you are you're sitting there thinking why do I get the vaccine are joy not but how much information do you have about what the benefits in might be I also think I mean I like icon that I am I you know but we have to also take into account there isn't a really large anti back in movement people are already kind of nervous back scenes and doubting you know back in that have been around for Jackie and so here comes this new vaccine and you're even less aware of what's in these acts or what the effectiveness of. And so you know how do you make a decision to use I'm trying where when there's so much doubt around back ins in general I mean it is it is alarming that you know minority populations are as they are you know not really impacted by this in a way that other populations are not at a rate you know but I think it all comes down and I think it all comes down to people in really nervous I think if they don't know when I could just see 2 years into 2 good things about this one of them is you know are there's an obvious reason for this to the population of color in the United States legitimately thinks that it hasn't had. To the best health care and it is somehow in some occasions been used as an experimental population and whether it's Tusky your the whole story of Henry or any of the locks and her cell line I mean our history is full of stories that would not would in fact occasion a certain level of paranoia among people of color the other thing I just want to say because it's really important is that there will be a point where if you look to the people who are really experts about this you know and I could rattle off 20 names for your. Now the people who are those scientists and epidemiologists immunologist bar ologist who really looked at all this they will be able to tell us I think when the vaccine is safe when it is run of fact of leave through Phase 3 trials and should be released and so it's not like you'll never know when you can use the vaccine you will but you won't know from your usual sources. And when we talked about operation or Peter earlier colony and I guess the fear is if some of these vaccines are put on a rushed on line that if there is some thought effect that that can scare people and that can be problematic that they may not want to take the vaccine Yeah the side effects one thing that we know from just natural covert infections is that some of the side effects turn up weeks down the line you know and some of the side effects include Klute things like paralysis actions that affect the heart or major organs of the body and so you want to watch the to whatever extent the vaccine triggers a mirror of the body's own reaction to SARS Kovi to you want to give that time you want to see what's happening because one of the things that's especially true about SARS Coby too is that a lot of the harm is done not by the virus itself but by the body's reaction to the virus so if you're simulating virus and trying to create that reaction you want to watch carefully how the body is reacting to your vaccine. Whatever inoculation substitute you're putting in there whether it's a protein fragment or an ad know a virus vector or you know an attenuated version of the virus itself you want to see how the body handles it in not for one day but for weeks. Let's move on the related to measures to prevent the spread of Corona virus in our state many high school football players their parents and their coaches have fought against the possibility of the fall season could be can. Sold or any postponed of the spring to prevent the spread of coven 19 the conference that governs high school sports the CIA c announced on Friday it would not be possible to play full contact 11 on 11 games because the Department of Public Health would not support it the state Health Department suggesting plain games with fewer players in the field to reduce exposure coaches just like that idea that leaves linemen unable to play in high school players and others are having another rally about this issue at the state capitol today Ok what's at stake for players and parents here. I mean I think you know I think that the biggest problem with what's happening now is the honestly think of the CIA sees decision to say if we cancel now we cannot happen in spring we will not have a spring season that has been the biggest because now you have parents in players who are saying wait a minute we can't play now and we can't play later either even though we don't know what's going to be happening in 6 months I mean you know for a lot of high school students especially the seniors this is this is something that you look forward to this is something that you were you know excited about and then all the sudden you get this back and forth the beginning of the school summer is that important can we do it maybe we can you know what we'll move forward now wait a minute as now you know that that's been the CIA's biggest mistake was not only waffling on where to be stand on this and also saying even if we decide now we're not going to go to the spring we're just going to completely take that off the table because now you have here and saying Ok we can't have it now and we can't have it later so we want it now and so you know it's tough decision to make I think for it d.t.h. And for and 1st the a c. But I think the waffling in the end kind of taking things off the table that shouldn't happen is the hardest part for parents and students. A lot of people including some lawmakers want Governor Lamar to weigh in to have a role in this to be a do you think that he should be speaking about this. Well I mean I think one thing that's important is you know a decision should be guided by public health and we saw the recommendations from the State Department of Health saying you know we've all of them all of them with safe but I think the governor's role in this should be to stand up and focus week after them and say you know look we asked the public health experts and this is what they came back with and this is unfortunate but you know I'm. Department of Public Health and I'm going to stand by them and say no we can't have all this year instead yesterday we saw you know this was after lawmakers wrote letters saying hey we did all this in the room. And we talked about this more and he said you know certainly you know I can help to broker that conversation that's great and the problem with that is I think there will be another conversation and it doesn't seem like the ph is going to change its recommendation there and they're the. The point it was made earlier just a back and forth on this my wife Rose just cross-country and that's probably one of the sports writing they're hoping that they can have some some once of a regular season because it's a lower risk even with the not vocals ports you know they've had practice starting and practice was own it now and you know conditioning can start don't know about what what it's going to look like for you know cross country meet I just think when you look at the issue of all the difficulties that schools are having just beginning the academic year we've already seen several school districts that have had to close schools for a couple of days or students have gotten sick. I think that there's so much riding on doing the school year up and running successfully that this is a place where you know it should be the governor's decision but I think it is d.p.h. Is saying this then he can be the messenger and saying you know this is what experts are saying and you know he did propose the idea of doing a spring season. Doesn't seem interested in that but I think there needs to be some public person who can say I'm not with the back and forth we asked the experts this is what they came back with we're disappointed but we're going to move forward you know with something else you know I just wanted to see it and. I was bigger Joe or someone who was also a brilliant high school football coach So yes a vested interest in this and he said this thing about Lamont's approached all this . I think on this particular issue he feels terrible for the kids and he's trying to figure out a way and it's been made incredibly difficult. It has been meeting probably difficult by the Department of Health Department should be doing this so you know I think it's odd that we're having this you know asking for a question in his recommendations regarding overall when you know it's so many other things that I've asked the epidemiologist for him on whether it's and we are you know he's in or dying say you know there hasn't been so much pushback on what the experts with but in this. You know certainly. Is emotional and parents are upset about this it just seems like you know the anger and mistrust on this particular issue is a little misguided comedy you know I don't know sorry I don't know that Lamont weighing and would be. Such a big deal anywhere in the long run as this tendency to say one thing and then a week later say something else you know he did that with the school reopens where he was like I want all students in the classrooms and then you know people were angry people said Now this is not you know teachers are angry parents were angry they were everyone was concerned and then he backed out if that you know any and said Oh well you know what hybrid might be Ok And you know he tends to do that and it down when he's faced with a lot of what he's not sure that having not well and it's and actually really help this argument very much that's an interesting point that you bring up Collin when Kayla talks about the fact that Lamont has waffled on issues in the past now we're hearing from the lawmakers we're hearing from a lot of people in the community about this football issue including students so do you anticipate the governor will take a stand on this well as Russell said the stand has taken so far is that he wouldn't mind seeing a spring season but see you have this kind of diffusion of responsibility d.p.h. Has got a lot. Say about whether this should happen in the fall in say anything about the spring and then a lot of states like big states like California they've canceled their fall football seasons but they're planning to do something maybe as early as January which you can do in a state with a fairly temperate climate so Connecticut's pretty unusual in that it doesn't have a fall season but it doesn't also have a plan for the spring season but that's in the lap of the CIA sea which is not a government agency I guess what I would say about this and I will make some enemies when I do it there's a certain percentage of sports parents who are impossible to embarrass by their behavior you know you see it at youth hockey games you see it in all kinds of places so we saw it in March when as you may recall when the CIA decided to cancel some spring playoffs they had a mass demonstration you know yelling screaming unruly mass demonstration outside the CIA's quarters there were eggs thrown maybe just by one person was hard to tell it was both students and their parents and you know sports parents are not big fans of public health they are the primary drivers behind early high school start times they're the ones who object to moving into a later time every single time they'll fight it there are so many positive health outcomes from having high school start times be later ranging from fewer fatal traffic accidents to all kinds of mental health stuff and everything but they'll fight that tooth and nail and so I don't really regard their attitudes as particularly valid or helpful when it comes to public health it seems pretty obvious high school football isn't safe with linemen let lining up nose to nose you know with close encounter tackles with puddles you know I really don't see how you can do it safely that's going McEnroe host of the con McEnroe show on Connecticut Public Radio last here with us Roth a Blair content editor at The Hartford Current thinking the tour as a cacio investigative editor at Hearst Connecticut coming up after the break. Well talk about a bill already to change how utilities are regulated in our state you can join us to find us on Facebook and Twitter at w n.p.r. . Support comes from Paul Newman's hole in the Wall Gang Camp watch their virtual gala celebration of hope and healing with inspirational campers and celebrity friends streaming this Sunday night at 7 sign up for free at hole in the Wall Gang dot org slash camp is everywhere on the next fresh air we talk with ya Jesse whose 1st novel home going about the legacy of slavery want to National Book Critics Circle award her new novel transcendent Kingdom is about science religion depression addiction and race in America Jesse was born in Ghana and raised in the us mostly in Huntsville Alabama joined us. Today at noon today in Connecticut history is funded by the state historian at Yukon Hartford and c.t. Humanities. Today an 886 Philip Lounsbury a bridge field co-founder with his brother of that then famous Lounsbury shoe company won the Republican nomination for governor an office he held from 887 to 8910 years later his brother George also was elected governor a nice pair of berries today in Connecticut history if you love p.b.s. Shows you'll love streaming them on c.p. T.v. Passport any time anywhere visit c.p. T.v. Dot org slash passport to learn more. This is the wheel house on Connecticut Public Radio and listen up the fans feel the General Assembly Energy Committee held another hearing Tuesday on a bill that would change the way ever source and United eliminating rates are set the proposal is a response to customer anger at every source following a bigger than expected rate hike and then outages that lasted a week or more following that tropical storm in August Russell Blair Clinton editor at The Hartford Current Are you surprised that this bill of the quick turnaround and the measures that they're calling for. And I think it's pretty interesting how quickly they didn't move on this you know the storm was you know only about a month ago and we've already seen a drop proposal you know one of the things that this legislation would do is require utilities to reimburse customers for spoiled food and that in the case of an outage that lasts more than 3 days that was an issue that some people raised immediately in the aftermath of the storm and you know to go back to your other point about you know how long the General Assembly can take so they issues you know this is a pretty rapid turnaround and you know they're striking while the iron's hot weather still has considerable You know public outrage over you know what happened with the storm and all on our restorations you know some parts of the state or without power for as long as 9 days I think it kind of goes back to the point I made earlier about there was no legislative session this year we are in election year and I think lawmakers are looking for something that is popular with constituents and this is something that you know Republicans like Democrats like you know the lawmakers going after the utilities and trying to get. To commit to working more quickly to restore power making sure they have appropriate. And all those steps be Televisa a public hearing yesterday said you know certainly that this would drive up costs that we have more staff you know they warned of future rate increases tied to this but I think. The lawmakers. Is on their side right now and have the momentum to try to do something in a special session but just some of these issues that came up with this storm. Kayla definitely the public is on the lawmakers side when it comes to this issue but we know that these utility companies spend a lot of money on lobbying and we know that regulating until it is a very complicated topic and so while this bill has some good measures in there to protect consumers to try to hold utilities accountable what's the likelihood that this will pass. You know I don't know about that so they're they have spent a lot of money on lobbying we just had a story just a couple days ago about you know however sources spend over a $1000000.00 And in just a few years. On lobbying and how little you know some senators that you know it was money well spent because you don't see you know the you build the keep getting the forward pass thing you know you keep saying Geez bits and pieces here and there but not anything substantial being passed and I don't know that this will pass I think what's surprising me is that it's moving as fast as it is and I think that might in education that this might or at least part of this bill might actually move forward I think it will really depend on how. Lawmakers react to the whole rates will go up if you do this to us argument because you know as they've been cutting staff on one side and you I have also been have you know how to record earnings so they you know their earnings keep rising rising rising so I think it'll it'll depend on whether lawmakers say you know you know you have to absorb some of this cost or whether they all just assume that they might absorb some of the cost and not really take that rate repairs will it's a bunch of arguments seriously and I don't know how serious that argument is you know I don't know whether this bill will actually help you know address I think part of what the bill is is a longer timeframe also for the fighting rate 5 months now. Which I think the purity that that is a very very short period of time to make these really big decisions one of the things that's in the bill for sure is minimum asking requirements and I think that's something that they've tried to do in the past hasn't worked out because of the argument that you know the source and you I have said well if we have to have. People on staff even when there aren't storm where Payne be calorie year round you know that's going to drive up costs because we're not using these people year round so I think that's one of the things that I mean I'm not sure that part of the law is the bill it went past you know I really kind of doubt that but. I don't know because everything is moving so fast you know like Russell said the average here is on their side so it might be a different argument. Russell we're talked about some of the proposals in this bill I believe one of them would allow Pura to factor grid management into any approval of future raids and also limit compensation of executives if you're a find that didn't deliver services can pure a do that. I'm not too serious sure about that I think there's a lot in here and it's a very ambitious bill and certainly you know every source as a regulated you knew I was regularly utilities you know sure it does have some ability to impact some of these things you know one of the things that they can do is you know all the energy legislation and regulation is incredibly complex I think there is a method where you know they can say that you know certain increase costs the to what he can't recuperate you know I think there's a way that they can manage that you know but the C.E.O.'s hey you know that to me seems like something that you know while it may be popular with the public you know I don't know enough about the workings of something that you know that they can mandate through legislation you know it's kind of an interesting dynamic there's also. All in there about requiring that they have somebody who is a designated consumer advocate on the board of directors of a company you know again I don't know if Europe. Can actually enforce you know how a company's board of directors is made up it's certainly an ambitious and issues document you know a lot in there and you know I think sort of where that resource lobbying power comes in is between now and what I don't looks like and what changes are made and that'll be something that will be interesting to track and listen to the wheel house on Connecticut Public Radio bring in take a quick break and after that we want to talk about how one Connecticut Police Department is dealing with calls from the public that are pretty silly motivating thing with. Support comes from the Harriet Beecher Stowe center announcing Stowe prize in place a 2 part virtual conversation on racism in the criminal justice system featuring Albert Woodfox a Newark mayor Ross Baraka Harriet Beecher Stowe dot org. Coming up on the next on point it's our next voter Roundtable we'll focus on Wisconsin we'll talk to both committed and undecided voters what are they looking for from elected officials what will it take for voters to be won over and out of the protest in promotion shaping their decision that's coming up next on point from n.p.r. . News in this morning at 10. Our series looking at education and the pandemic continues this time. With laptops replacing the lecture hall how well are college students connecting with their subjects and those tasked with teaching them next time on one day the view from those online and expecting to learn and the educators who are paid to deliver. Coming up this morning at 11. Support comes from the Metro Hartford Alliance an investor based economic development partnership focused on business development attracting and retaining talent ensuring a strong urban core and promoting the Hartford region Metro Hartford dot com. This is the wheel house on Kattegat public radio and listen up and chill over the last couple of years Connecticut lawmakers have passed laws to rein in police departments racially profiling residents and traffic stops but what can be done to keep members of the public from calling the police when they see a person of color and think that's reason alone to call 911 well Fairfield Police Chief Christopher Liddy said his department will no longer respond to calls from people if the only reason the caller can give for their concern is the person isn't white and that makes them suspicious in this story the Hearst Connecticut story Collin the police chief in Fairfield said his department gets a call like this about once a week because that's surprising to you not at all and I think he's right to a certain degree to shift some of the focus back on to citizen complaints because look you know there are bad cops and there are reasons cops and there are cops who abuse their authority and they would under almost any circumstances but there also is a problem with the citizenry there's a lot of cops who are doing this stuff not because they've chosen to do it but because we asked them to do it so our couple quick examples of a few years ago there was quite a scandal when Doug Glanville former Major League Baseball player was approached by West Hartford police officer to see when he was shoveling snow question was was that his driveway blah blah blah this is because there was a complaint in West Hartford was never actually has a rule that says you can't go door to door offering to shovel snow there was a black man in a neighborhood not far from Glen Bowles walking around with a shovel offering to do shoveling and a cop got sent out if you think that cop wanted to spend his day driving around looking for a rogue snow shovel or I think you're wrong I think this is because of us and so we have to accept that fact to a lot of times are a reaction we see something we're not sure what it is we roll up the windows lock the car doors and maybe call the cops rather than even taking a couple of minutes to you know make sure we understand what's happening. Ok when I read the story I was surprised that chief. Had to make this statement but also I was thinking about just how police are trained Isn't this something that dispatcher and police officers are already trained to do like to get more information before heading out to see what's so suspicious. That was one thing that I thought was interesting so a lot of the departments that Hearst reached out to did say you know we don't see this as an issue because our dispatchers are trained to ask a question they're not you know they're not just strange they owe you're just you know your complaint is this and so with an officer out but ask well what is it it's happening what is it that's happening who is doing what and who did surprise me that what he was basically saying were going out there and almost kind of saying we're we're not asking a question because if you were asking the question that maybe you would be responding to these calls he would have made it is surprising to think that that's not part of the conversation from the very beginning of a point but at this think I am knowing you know the kind of culture and climate that we're in these days and you know and you know there's this running joke about care and you know. The police and it's a joke and it's such a you know well known joke because it happened so well so you know it's not surprising that these things are happening it is surprising that the department is saying where we were in handling these very correctly to begin with and work and we're going to stop doing this we're not going to accept any more of these all make that kind of you know statement is it is surprising. We know Russell There have been high profile incidents where you see someone's cell phone video of Christian Cooper who was the black man who was birding in New York City and a white woman called the police saying that you know he was threatening her and obviously that wasn't the case I mean it goes viral on social media but it's it's harder for people maybe to think about this is happening in their communities to community as well. You know one thing I thought was interesting about the whole me Cooper issue is that that was one of the many things that was included in the piece accountability bill that the legislature in Connecticut past summer was stiffer penalties you know you can actually not be charged prove that you made a 911 call you know solely based on somebody's race you get a miss and I want to spend charge and I thought. Her story the court from Scott as bail was out of enlightening that you know it and it was just made that it's kind of sad that a department has to have a policy say we're no longer going to do this you know sort of says a lot about you know where we are now in a lot the progress that still needs to be made that you know these are. Coming in and sort of up until now you know the departments were annulling that and sending people out so I think it shows that you know there are still is a lot of work to be done even in a place like Medicare and you know we're more more progressive or we don't have the same kind of issues we certainly do. I just make sure addressed that in the piece accountability bill you mentioned Scott as Dale from the Connecticut and . Kayla before we move on you know we're talking about you know why this may happen people who have implicit bias they think someone who doesn't look like them and doesn't live in a certain neighborhood must be up to some some no nothing good but at the same time this kind of interaction that communities of color have with police it doesn't help that situation of having trust in the law enforcement me especially when you see again these protests that are still calling for police accountability mean this is something that needs to be addressed. Absolutely and I think you know a lot of it has to do and I covered Bridgeport for a long time and you know a lot of the times you need the things you're covering when it comes to police and community is we want more we want to know our police officers more we want to know who they are we want them to know who we are so that we don't get into these situations where ways officers come out they have no clue who they're dealing with in this neighborhood and these kinds of happened and so I think you know a lot of that has to do with that is and in these big cities how do you kind of handle that how do you how to police officers know you know who people are in communities or who you know how certain neighborhoods function and how you know when you have. People who may be you know be troublemakers you know and you know them and you can kind of odd them and then you or not you know you know you don't see them very often you don't so it's hard to you know kind of what can be done but there's only a minute think a lot of it and Johnson and the community police and and officers and knowing the communities and being out there and knowing when they think well you know being having to depend as much on people calling and being and being out in the community and watching and seeing how communities unction we just heard from state senator Gary Winfield who writes This is exactly why a portion of the police accounting countability bill deals with this issue of calling the police because someone is black I want to move on to feats of strength an airing of grievances we've got a little under 4 minutes. So I was thinking about something that addresses a lot of the stuff that we've been talking about one of the networks has been rerun running Friday Night Lights is an amazing series set in Dillon Texas a town consumed by football and football passion is a was way ahead of its time in addressing questions of race there was one episode where the black players did. No walkout because of how they felt they had been treated. It was way ahead of its time and everything but in terms of the whole question of how do you keep football from overwhelming your good judgment how do you keep football is a terrific life and adjunct to the rest of your existence as opposed to a be all and end all it would be a great series for a lot of people to watch right now that's a player. My fee just rang me just mention this last week but I've just been so captivated by the story and I think that everything going on in the world it's just this great story just like I'm worth and other reporters covering and the way it is I guess is the Terryville Department is now talking about using you know try to be hiding trying to get with drones it's just a kind of sort of silly great community story that's kind of uplifting and positive next time when there's so much negative news out there and that's the runaway be follow a cross between a bison and cattle that's in the Plymouth area on the way to the slaughterhouse but he got out another strange thing about that Russell and I believe the Plymouth police union is doing Go Fund Me to raise enough. Money to put that before and will sanctuary once it's been captured so it's no longer just our house just a great story about a community coming together over this is our story and I hope it's now for over and Kayla. I think the news that kind of kept to me is any story that has anything to do with no problems the 1st school because it's like it starts well today you know then kind of top of mind for me and you know Secretary you know I'm teacher any stories that have anything to do with distance learning and actually going in school and doing well and not having it is like Summers today you know that was a great story to read for us a producer Matt Dwyer chatted that maybe we could send some high school football players to help find the beef. You can e-mail Matt and wired I want to thank our panelists for being on the show especially Kayla tourism cacio your 1st time on the wheel house thank you so much invested and her time. Content Editor at the heart of herd current and called McEnroe host of the con McEnroe show today show produced by Matt why our technical producer is kept pastor potential will be back next week 7. At Connecticut Public Radio we love Keeping you informed your support makes it possible thank you. Castro and I'm shuffling this week on season tune in for a conversation with the cooks at Bloodroot a restaurant in Bridgeport run by 2 feminists that's been serving vegetarian meals for more than 40 years plus tips from Clark for eating more plants beans and tofu and less meat and dairy lentils are your friend lentils are delicious and they cook in 40 minutes joined us. Thursday afternoon through. Radio this week we're chatting with pastry chef Holtz teaches us how to mix and match ingredients to make exceptional. Last Generation novels. And we try to overcome his fear of. Coming up this week Radio x. . Listen Friday night at 11 this is Connecticut Public Radio w n p r and n.p.r. . At 90.5. 89 point one. F.m. 88.5. 1.3 npr dot org. Major funding for point is provided by Geico offering auto insurance coverage for cars trucks or S.U.V.s and providing 247 customer service more information on auto insurance at Geico dot com or 180947. From n.p.r. And w b u r Boston I'm Meghna Tucker body this is on point and today we continue our series of voter round tables to hear what American voters say and how they think about leadership in the future they want for this country we'll be focusing on Wisconsin voters today both the Trump and Biden campaign see was constant as a must win state the police shooting and protests in can no should have made the state of national inflection point as well so what do is constant I think about that what do they want and need from whomever will be the president of the United States some point a conversation with risk once and. First the new. Live from n.p.r. News I'm Jenny Herbst the top u.s. General overseeing military operations in the Middle East says American troops in Iraq will be cut from 52023000 General Frank Mackenzie says the reduction still allows the u.s. To go after the remnants of ISIS and train Iraqi forces N.P.R.'s Tom Bowman has more general McKenzie said the cuts will be made this month and link them to the progress of the Iraqi security forces but President Trump has repeatedly called for removing u.s. Troops from the region saying only he wanted to stop endless wars just 2 weeks ago the president said hopefully we're leaving a country that can defend itself the president is also expected to soon announce troop reductions in Afghanistan dropping from $6500.00 to about $4000.00 general Mackenzie In a statement said that besides rooting out ISIS in Iraq the u.s. Troops will also work to go after the group in neighboring Syria some 600 u.s. Troops in Syria are partnering with local forces there a logistics hub in Iraq helps maintain that operation Tom Bowman n.p.r. News. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden heads to Michigan today his 1st visit to the swing states since he won his party's nomination it's a state he hopes to win back for Democrats this fall N.P.R.'s Halid has more on today's visit Joe Biden will be in Warren Michigan today to talk about manufacturing and specifically he intends to announce a plan to establish an offshoring tax penalty as well as a Made in America tax credit he also intends to announce that if he's elected he plans to sign a series of executive actions in his 1st week as president to ensure that the federal government is using taxpayer dollars to buy American products N.P.R.'s. President Trump is scheduled to visit the state tomorrow stocks opened higher this morning after 3 days of losses N.P.R.'s Scott Horsley has more investors are tentatively buying again after a 3 day sell off that pushed the tech heavy Nasdaq stock index down 10 percent from the record high it reached just last week Tesla shares tumbled 21 percent on Tuesday after the Lecter carmaker was not added to the s. And p. 500 index as many investors had expected General Motors stock on the other hand rose nearly 8 percent after that company announced a $2000000000.00 investment in Nikola a maker of electric trucks investors are also keeping a wary eye on Corona virus vaccine trials Astra Zeneca has suspended a large scale trial while it investigates an unexplained illness in one of the trial volunteers Scott Horsley n.p.r. News Washington all straight is trading higher at this hour the Dow's up 401 points at $27902.00 the Nasdaq is ahead by $207.00 points that's the nearly 2 percent jump at $11058.00 yes of the $500.00 is up $56.00 points at $3388.00 you're listening to n.p.r. News support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include Tablo partnering with Community Solutions on ending homelessness. With data Community Solutions is a finalist in MacArthur Foundation's 100 and change competition Tablo dot com slash n.p.r. Good morning I'm Lori Mack with these news headlines schools in Hartford Open today a day later than planned because of a ransomware attack on city computer systems School officials say the systems have been repaired Meanwhile 2 students at Valley Regional High School and a staff member at summer's elementary school have tested positive for Kovan 19 the schools are closing 2 days for sanitation the city of New Haven has announced a budget surplus for the 2020 fiscal year after fears the city would be in the red Officials credit the unanticipated 1.9 $1000000.00 surplus to tough financial decisions by the mayor public schools and local officials they say reduced expenses related to the ongoing code $1000.00 pandemic also played a part the money will boost New Haven's a rainy day fund 8 towns in eastern Connecticut will soon begin receiving a new free weekly newspaper the day publishing company reported a lot to the Norwich times on October 1st managing editor Tim Cotter says many of the towns are becoming news deserts and the new weekly paper is designed to fill that void it's 10 o 5 a meteorologist Karen r.g.s. The weather overall is not going to cause you any major problems for outdoor plans today it is going to be warm again with most areas reaching above the 80 degree mark with moderate humidity tomorrow is going to be very humid don't forget your umbrella or some off and on rain that is going to be refreshing on Friday with much lower humidity with the Connecticut Public Radio weather report on meteorologist to Garrett r.g.s. . I'm Jeremy Hobson enrollment in daycare is down 67 percent on average across the country and some daycare centers are struggling to stay afloat financially. Maintaining. The state of daycare and the consequences of financial failure next time and. Joining us this afternoon to. From n.p.r. And w.v.u. Or Boston I magnetron probity and this is on point we're continuing our series of voter round tables today every week between now and the election we are hosting conversations between voters about the issues that matter most to them what they want for the future of this nation we've talked with ardent supporters of Donald Trump and Joe Biden over the past couple of weeks today we're going to hear from a cross-section of voters from the state that both campaigns feel is a must win for them Wisconsin wrote it out issues in my mind or Trump. Overtaking. The act of retribution from 3 Jewish the country. They're in a different party right now identify. Well what we need a leader and united and you know but. We need healing that's Andrea from Madison Wisconsin to Ken from Dodgeville and from works in show who called us to share their views on the 2020 election so now let's listen to 3 other residents from the great state of Wisconsin joining us from Lake Geneva is cast the men up Mentawai. Men it men in awe they get that right Kasey yes men and men are Ok I'm so sorry for mispronouncing I promise you'll get it right for the rest of the show cast Cassie is an assistant manager at Black Point at the state museum and she graduated from Carthage College in commercial just last year so welcome to the show Cassie Thank you Randy Schmidt joins us from Gautham Wisconsin he's a dairy farmer Randi great to have you. Thank you how many down and also with us from Green Bay is Alexis Arnold she's a gallery and gift shop owner Alexis Welcome to you thank you so much Ok so how we've tended to start these conversations is just kind of a quick roundtable of you know if you were to cast your vote today who would you vote for so let me just kind of get a tally here Kasey let me start with you if if you had to send in your ballot today who would get that check mark if I sent in my belt today I would be voting board Joe Biden Ok and you want to just quickly tell me why he wasn't initially you know my ideal candidate I think compared to down Trump he just represents more ideals that I can get behind especially again terms of you know racial equality. The environment health care. And Randi what about you who if you had to vote today who would you vote for. Well there have been a lot of we haven't really heard a lot of rhetoric. There haven't been debates between the 2 candidates for anything and right now I would say I voted Trump for the last election and every dairy farmer and. Producer I will. Probably go for Trump because of. Trade policies and other things Ok So agriculture and trade are really big issues in Wisconsin and we'll we'll talk more about that a little later in the show I promise I want to hear all of your perspectives on that so thank you for that Randy and Alexis what about you who would you vote for if you cast your ballot today yeah that's a really hard question I am that undecided voter at the moment and honestly if it was today I don't know if I would have a clear decision you know of one or the other nobody's really standing out to me Ok so tell me tell me more why is that what haven't you seen yet that would help you make your make up your mind well I think what Randy said to we haven't really seen any debates between the 2 so I think that you know it definitely stands out where it just feels really disconnected I mean obviously on all levels of what's happening in society but between the 2 of them as well we haven't really had the chance I think to hear I haven't heard enough policies of like what change is really going to happen or what they're going to implement specially on Biden side Ok Well so tell me then. I hear what you're saying about not having heard enough of policy I guess it depends on how much time people have to pay attention yeah exactly those of us who are in the thick of it all the time I think we've had like more than a year but. People are living their real lives I totally I get your point here but but yeah thus far given what you know what do you think what do you see as the differences between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Well I mean I think what Randy said I like seeing and hearing that Trump is helping. Small business owners obviously I'm from Wisconsin so the agriculture I know that's huge for our area and I'm sure Randy can get into it more the little I know about is that there was a time where a lot of farms were at risk of going under. You know and that's major for our state so you know I'm a small business owner to entrepreneur so for me I want to see things are going to help the small business owner succeed that instead of bringing us down Ok Go ahead Randy good no go ahead ask question although I was actually just going to jump to Kathy here but you know what like make the 3 of you talk with each other that's perfectly fine well. As a small business owner and a farmer. You know we've seen the prices that we've seen our supply chains interrupted. We've seen I mean in Wisconsin her bucks the star shells were empty of Melk. How can that happen in the dairy state. And we had to speed up and you know we met that and it's just been a moving target you know when one sector calls down another you have to you know you know we're we're kind of by the seat of our pants right now as an industry to keep moving to keep the supply chains keep food to keep the food and that's what we do we produce food and then it trickles up to there the other workers and through that you know they the production they make cheese I mean most of our market for cheese and they've had to change their product mix to adapt you know having a 50 percent go to the restaurant food and you know that type of industry back to just people drinking by in March even if people are eating more you know making more of their meals at home so it's everything everything's changed and the last 6 months in the last 6 months Ok So Kathy what do you think about that. Yes I guess I have a question for Randy or Alexis I'm not you know a small business owner I don't really know much about agriculture but I'm interested to see obviously the crown of ours pandemic kind of threw everything off for a lot of people but I'm interested to hear before the pandemic what do you think the trumpet ministration specifically was doing to help small businesses and you know agriculture you know it's a good question. I'm fairly new I just recently took over an art gallery in downtown Des pier Wisconsin and so it was already there for maybe about a year and a half it was in the process of growing and I receive the keys on November 1st of 2019 so I didn't really have a very long before I did have to shut down and that was really hard obviously because I wasn't essential. But you know as a small business owner you want to do what's right for your community so I guess I don't as far as you know coming into the new business and just kind of getting it up and running and trying to get it to grow you know we just came to kind of that halt. And it just it was it was a massive It's like nobody really knew what was going on. You know it was changing literally a by the hour and it's like can we be open Can we not be open and it was really stressful there for a little bit and then I just kind of learned you know what we just got to go with the flow and not stress about it and we'll come out of it I think you know your business we have you know all of a sudden we became essential workers that we had essentially and were right on the ground floor of an essential business and and so that's that's what thing but I think we're talking about before the let's go back before I mean we've reworked reworked we reworked like NAFTA the trade policies. I think maybe there's some improvements in there you have to remember the dairy producers are our main. Trading partner really is Mexico they were our majority a majority of ours actually Mexico Canada and then of course the rest of the world China being also a major player and China voice you know they weigh in on everything already can I ask you about that because I was just wondering when the president's soon after he took office I mean he really went hard after China under a right and and there was essentially a trade war going on and in we're still feeling that well yeah so that's because farmers were essentially I mean farmers got hit really hard because the exports to China drop way off the go ahead we're not we're not only producers we're consumers I mean a lot of our supplies come from China and you know just save for your for instance your fans for your ventilation for your buildings and everything for your livestock there's pair of put on there I mean our cost you know when that trade war went out and it raised some of our costs and but hopefully it it. Makes you know for trading you know free for free trading instead of you know manipulative trading and I think that's what we you know really have to focus on. So I can just ask you one more quick question is this we're talking so much about agriculture I'm seeing here that. Ultimately China did agree to buy some $200000000000.00 worth of u.s. Goods including $342020.00 total goods Yeah and then I think I'm seeing around $30000000000.00 of agricultural products this year but because of the pandemic and reduced global trade that hasn't quite yet happened so you know there was there were developments on that the trade relationships between the u.s. And China specifically around agriculture but do you think I mean did you have to do a lot of belt tightening because of the trade war that that that did take place and I'm wondering if you think that the president's methodology was the right one because I know a lot of farmers did suffer for a couple of years at least and maybe are still suffering. Well if I have that for dairy you know China is important because it just represents such a huge market for of and and one or 2 percent difference in our total But you know when you look at the whole not production United States I wonder 2 percent shortage you know if it's being traded on we're doing more and more trade I think you know what Trump over 20 percent of our product of more. Over You know but that's part of and. And that of important Ok Well Randy Schmidt and Cass the men and Alexis Arnold Stand by for just a moment there's a lot more about Wisconsin and about the nation that we want to hear from all 3 of you about so we are talking today with Wisconsin voters. Who they might cast their ballot for and what they want for this country of the next 4 years back this is on point. On the next fresh air we talk with ya Jesse whose 1st novel home going about the legacy of slavery want to National Book Critics Circle award her new novel transcendent Kingdom is about science religion and depression addiction and race in America Jesse was born in Ghana and raised in the u.s. Mostly in Huntsville Alabama join us. Today at noon coming up on the next episode of the Collin McEnroe show the culture of v.h.s. What got lost when that whole thing went away I will tell you also Bruce Barber will explain how his scenes in 3 musketeers were caught in this afternoon at one support comes from Carlos pasta. Support for on point comes from the listeners of w.v. You are Boston where the program is produced and from your n.p.r. Station from Legal Zoom offering legal help for customers that want to take care of things they need to get done without having to leave their home learn more at Legal Zoom dot com and Geico offering car insurance as well as services for homeowners and renters insurance through the guy go insurance agency additional information can be found at Geico dot com or 180947 auto. This is on point i magnetometer Bartie we're listening to voters from Wisconsin today it's the latest in our series of voter roundtables that we're holding every week between now and the election I'm joined today by Randy Schmidt he is a dairy farmer and is from Gautham Wisconsin likely voting for Donald Trump Kasey man in our joins us from Lake Geneva She's assistant manager at Black Point State Museum in Lake Geneva she went to Carthage College in Konoha she is planning to vote for Joe Biden and Alexis Arnold joins us from Green Bay She's a gallery and gift shop owner and as of yet doesn't know how she's going to cast her vote and we talked a lot about agriculture which is a big issue in the state in the previous segment I want to shift gears a little bit here and focus in on the issue of race because of course what has happened in Konoha and the police shooting of Jacob Blake really put Wisconsin back at the center of the national discussion on police violence and race and here's a little bit of sound of how the community has Incan OSHA has reacted. Was it was. 7 Well it was was 'd the sounds of protesters in kind OSHA now Cassie I'd love to hear from you about this how have the recent events there how they had an impact on your or affected your vote. Yeah having gone to school in Coushatta for you know the past 4 years. You know it's kind of personal obviously I've approach of not being affected by adding of it directly because I'm no longer living. You know seeing it woke early it does kind of put in a different perspective I think something that's interesting to me about the whole situation is that a lot of people interviewed ask him like how can this happen in Wisconsin you know like we've seen it happen in other places how can it be in Wisconsin but I think when you look at Wisconsin as like a whole Wisconsin has a lot of issues with race it's one of the worst states for in terms of racial inequality and disparities. Especially in education and I think that's something that needs the you know talked about more specially coming into the election so tell me more what do you want to be talked about more go ahead I want to be talked about more because you know it obviously it affects us all and that if we look at you know systemically the inequalities that are present in you know the fabric of our nation and every sector of you know society we can kind of understand these things a little better I think in why they happen I know old President Trump and Vice President Biden they both have that he can OSHA you know within the past couple weeks and they took very different stances you know I think Joe Biden's approach was more to listen to the community and kind of hear what they had to say and I really you know I like to see that kind of leadership where he sits down he listens to the community that's actually you know suffering at the moment and hear what they have to say. So that's that was really appealing to me. Well again I want to find all 3 of you to engage in conversation with each other so Randy or Alexis what do you think What have you what have you seen in what has happened in Konoha. Well I'm curious before we could dig into that Kathy what it was like you know when you went to school there were you seeing issues during that time and or do you feel like it just escalated you know with the shooting in the area yeah that's a big question I want to you know because it's college bred in the Lake Michigan and it's kind of a little separate from the rest. So personally I didn't experience any thing you know. Racially charged or anything like that but there are incidents that happen you know all the times. You know in many different cities and you know clashes Martha from our you know do you do you think that it Kathy that it escalated after like the National Guard was brought in or before or after when you know they started I mean they came in and they started burning up the city they burnt that car lots I mean I get up early in the morning and you'd be watching the news and see you know what they did the night before and as same thing kind of happen in Madison and and I think that's one thing when we look at it all the sudden response to disarm all the police departments and everything else in the country I mean when you look at devices and that's why do we want a law less society or do we want do we want just because of one incident or there are a few incidents but you know 99.9 percent of law enforcement is good do we let. Some bad acts once in a while just all of a sudden have to wholesale change everything. Yeah I think those are interesting points and I think something that really I personally feel escalated the situation International is the fact that you know these issues like especially with police brutality and you know racial violence they have been in the national news since you know George Floyd was murdered it's been in the national news for years but you know we've really been focusing on it and we've been seeing these protests and of them throughout you know basically the whole time the time of the pandemic and it's interesting to see you know at a time when the whole world is essentially aware and watching these you know protests and these events on the fold you know there's a spotlight and yet this still happens you know we still see. Excessive force you know used in broad daylight caught on video it's interesting to see that situation play out when it's already you know under a spotlight so I think that you know kind of amplifies the reaction and I think that's something that's you know confusing for a lot of people like Why is it still happening even if we're all paying attention to it you know. And I think the issue of you know. The the police an issue in general I think that is it's a hot topic for a lot of people there's a lot of misinformation. Personally I don't think I just don't think we can let the actions of a you know I feel I mean I you know I didn't just the head 21st basically in Rochester New York resigned the other day I don't really know much at all but this kind of issues I mean I mean we don't want to move into a model a society awful Ray I think something that's important like in this entire conversation about policing is kind of. Think about what we mean when we talk about reforming police and we don't essentially you know want to disarm every police officer but if we seeing you know if we consider some you know the fun not of the funny but divesting from from you know the police off the police departments and seeing that reallocated in different areas such as education we can kind of see a change happen hopefully So that's something I'm looking forward to see explored in. You know the coming years I know Joe Biden. Has this policy proposal with police and then you wanted to invest in programs to prevent you know child abuse and improve literacy rates among children and I think you know we could see. If we address systemic issues we can see them you know kind of play out in terms of crime rates and then you know eventually see a change there I'm just going to just step in here just for a 2nd just to provide a little bit of context as Randi you mentioned the Rochester New York Police Department and I just wanted to just add a little bit something there is in case people are wondering but the police chief there and other high ranking fit officers did resign because there's an ongoing inquiry into the death of Daniel prove who died in police custody after he was there's a camera footage of him and them using a spit hood while arresting him and and he had a hood they put a hood over him and tried to subdue him. And he couldn't breathe and he died later in the hospital essentially in police custody so there is an investigation going on into his death and as that investigations going on there is a lot of community reaction and the police chief and other high ranking officers in the department have chosen to resign but I think it's because they are they feel the criticism of them is currently unfair right now well go right well maybe not. Rural America that's really what you know we're talking 31 every one I'd like to play for enforcement I mean I'm very thankful along the way are you know they handle the view of domestic disputes but you know we don't have population density of the great and a lot of you know unfortunately a lot of their duties also are just the minister in something like Narconon because the issue of the round here are you know of drug use. Map and things like that every player 4th. It could probably vary a bit there and you know if. We have to look at it I want to have a way but also we have to look at how it affects every area independent. Yeah definitely I mean I think kind of growing Cassie had talked about more education I think just overall I mean obviously with our children but I think there's like a serious lack of training when it comes to our police departments like no matter where they are I can't remember what they were saying how long it takes what to go through the program but it's it's short it's you know like when you consider that job. And what they do have to entail I know that I don't I mean think of put yourself in that position and going out there and dealing with that stress you know kind of day in and day out be nice to see instead of taking funds away from them give them the support they need you know whether it's mental health. You know like give them you know more time to just like decompress if they need to because it is a very stressful job and again training there's ways I think that they could. You know educate them on how to disarm without weapons you know without tasers but that takes a lot more time you know that's more hand to hands. You know Combat Understanding that and how you can subdue someone without actually you know bring out your firearm or taser. Cassy Do you mind if I ask you if you want to tell us a little bit more about you and your family as as Wisconsinites and how. Sort of your personal experience going up there has informed. Why how you view this country in 2020. Yeah I think personally. I've grown up in a smaller you know kind of vacation town really centered on you know tourist economy and things like that but for the most part where grown up it's not very Dave or you know it's you know majority of I would say the majority of our city you know our leans towards the in white so I think going to school and cannot even though it's still not the most diverse place ever it was a lot more they were and I got to experience a totally different kind of setting that I had not experienced you know even just an hour you know west of where I went to school so and about you know putting yourself in different you know environments that's you know important and it helps I think it helps shape how you view the world definitely I hope it's Ok if I point to somebody but your father is just as black Right yeah so my dad is you know he's he's mixed race my mom is white you know growing up a lot of people would you know ask me you know what are you based off of you know me having you know a tenor complection So you know this definitely informs my you know my world and even though you know my family we've never really been you know. What I'm trying to say we're never been in a situation in which you know we've been unsafe because of you know the way we've grown up because of our you know you know racial heritage but you know it's definitely something that shapes the way I see the world pressure Tell me more about how it shapes that well I think having you know you see new things you see other you know African-Americans being. You know I'm fairly treated and is a lot of it is the systemic issues and then growing up you know having you know. A parent who is you know mixed race but also has privilege because they pass as white a lot of the times you know I passes white and I were very privileged for that because you know we don't face a lot of discrimination that we otherwise would but you are still like aware of. You know situations you could experience otherwise if you just look a little different. You want to do it when gritty go ahead just go ahead Randi is no way we are met you know I mean United States there is no melting pot of you know different ethnic groups over the years and everything and. I think you know we do have to we just do have to have that diversity you know we have that diverse we we have to become smart I guess user friendly to everybody and more people but I mean we do live in that you know and I really have I have you know we. It's predominantly white but you know. I my kids mostly live in the city of our Iraq you know one with an you know teaches them Racine and he tells about the diverse Poppy other just a lot of melting pot so we have to figure out how we can all exist. Alexis what do you think. I mean it's interesting because when I was younger I just really craved kind of that city life so I just slowly moved west and I ended up in Portland Oregon for about 15 years and I just came back to the state of Wisconsin about 4 years ago and you would think that living in a larger city would be more diverse but ironically it was not. There were pockets you know within the city but you know Portland itself was a very white community which I was kind of surprised and then coming back to Green Bay I mean to me Green Bay was almost like had more diversity which I I like being around that I like you know. I just like what it brings to a city whether it's you know food culture obviously I'm having into the arts so that's important as well and. So yeah it's this is interesting you know seeing I think like the racial tension you know popping up all over. And it's sad I think you know we all I mean what it's 2020 and it's like you know we can't right along at this time I couldn't since just. I don't know it just feels like we're we're kind of moving backwards while a lot of ways we've got to head into a rather quick break here but. One of the big lessons I'm learning is the the candor and the compassion and the bravery the 3 of you are showing and having this conversation with each other is we need more of that in part of the problem is like if we don't get enough opportunities to talk with people from different walks of life in our own nation so let's do a little bit more of that when we come back on the other side of this break we're listening to Wisconsin voters about issues that matter to them and what they want for this country over the next 4 years will be back this is one point. Of. Support comes from Pro Health Physicians part of Optum care on week nights and weekends Pro Health express Care offers secure video visits with Pro Health primary care providers available for current patients and the public profile to m.d. Dot com slash expressed care. Education. Educator. Creating a fall routine that gets you back in the swing of. Whether it's working out every day or. Whatever your morning is like listen to Morning Edition. Speaker your phone or even a radio. You'll be informed. The weather is always changing listen for weather forecasts for meteorologist. Morning Market. Community. This is on point a magnet talker Bartie we are continuing our series of voter round tables today we're talking with Wisconsin voters about issues that matter to them and about what they hope for this country over the next 4 years Wisconsin being a very key state for both the trumpet and Biden campaigns and we'll talk a little bit about how the campaigns have been. Have or how the members of the campaigns have been what they've been doing in Wisconsin over the past few days we'll talk about that in a 2nd but but next week in the next installment of these voter round tables we will be turning to members of the United States military so if you are a veteran or if you are currently serving we want to hear from you what qualities do you believe are most essential in a commander in chief and what are your deepest hopes for the next 4 years for the country you served what do you think people need to understand about the u.s. Military today and what role do you think it plays or should play in protecting American democracy so veterans and active duty service members give us a call at 61735306836173530683 with your answers to those questions well it was constant voters who are joining us today are Randy Schmidt Cassie men and and Alexis Arnold and before we leave. Move forward some other issues and and questions I did just want to. Ask all of you one last thing about race relations in this country. And that is I heard I heard you talking about like it's 2020 why aren't race relations better in the United States and I just wonder in this is where another aspect in which leadership really matters so Randy let me just turn to you I mean. I can't imagine it's helped at all that the president frankly speaking has very frequently either been overtly racist or use race as dog whistle or you know every time he tweets about the suburbs I think we all know we're talking about the right see that as having held not I And as long as we're going there. What the Brawn live matter also I mean we have many Latino Latino x. . Workers on our farm and you know the America eats because of that population they do a lot of the production egg work they work in a lot of the factories that produce food so I eyebrow that you know why aren't we doing Mart to include them I mean they're doing the work why aren't they stand up and being counted. So that's the other side of the equation you know that's what I don't disagree with the current administration we've talked about expanding the needs to a h. H. 2 a visa of for farm workers the guest workers and things so that they will be recognized and we're dropping the ball and it hasn't been just I'm not blaming trump this is but I'm going to scotch incense Reagan was an office and gave amnesty to many people many you know Latino back in 1980 you know and. Why are we doing Martin for relations so we have a path to citizenship does this country needs we need we're not our birth rates are increasing and so we do need to to be the to the leader in this we need people and you know the only way we're going to get that of through immigration Yeah well this administration there I mean Steven Miller basically believes the exact opposite it's pretty well documented he would prefer to bring immigration virtually down to 0 but Alexis and Cathy do you want to chime in here. Yeah I mean I totally I mean it's interesting hearing you know Randy's perspective because you know like he said We know that a lot of you know people helping on the farms you know are immigrants and you know it's not just the farms I mean they they work in the factories the produce the food yes they pick fresh produce I mean it's you know all the way up through the food chain yeah yeah reliable workers Yeah and you know and yeah I agree it's like I think everyone deserves a chance you know people who are who are willing to work who want to work I mean that's kind of what you know makes the United States so great right it's like it gives you an opportunity to grow and Excel and you know really go after those dreams right that whatever they are you become a if you work you become an active consumer I mean you're putting money in the economy I mean they're great spenders I get a I love it when our employees are driving new cars or you know they are there live in the us in the American dream and all through them and I mean I and I encourage that printed and I got I got to ask and you just have to forgive me then I mean in 2016 then candidate Donald Trump began his campaign by time by calling some of those very same immigrants that we're talking about right now he called them murderers and rapists I mean that's how I started I agree I agree I. Yet I still held no I mean prior administrations haven't done anything on immigration and I mean I'm looking at the guest worker visas and those type of things and expansion of them and and if you if you look at. We have to you know I know that and but yes and still doesn't I'm not a one issue candidate you know I I have to look at the overall picture but I think we can do better and you know he has talked about doing when he's saying one thing sometimes doing another thing and and he's talking about expansion of aids to the aids to a v h 2 a visas and such and that's caused by his God in the last 20 years and we have to we have to get this right I mean as I said we don't have an increase in birth rates in those country and if we're going to maintain that's what advantage the other countries do have is they have population. Or manufacturing and stuff we don't have that so we are going to have to rely on immigration some extent so why not. Give a voice to them and thought so they have a voice in our stand up and counted when he just said I know better when you say they're all rape of well I've worked with you know the Latino population for. 25 years so I know better than that again as I'm glad you said because I just wanted to give you a chance to be clear that you do you weren't when you said you agree that you weren't a good you know I don't know that's Ok saying I'm a dad then the community I see I know I see how they live and they they're very you know religious and family oriented and you know sure we have that's ever going back to just you know when you're talking about a lot it's a few it it's it's a few and that's what you hear about but it's not the masses you know Kathy you've been you've been quiet and patient here when you think yeah I think for me one of the most frustrating things about President Trump for me is you know is this divisiveness that we're talking about we've seen him recently you know attack. People of color we've seen of attack women we sail seen attack you know t.q. Plus people so for me when I see new things it's hard to not see them as hard to not imagine them as personal you know so when we talk about these things you know how he has referred to immigrants in the past how is referred to women in the past it's hard for me to see past that at times. Alexis Yeah I mean I think it's hard for all of us to see past it it's it's disappointing that you know we have a leader that speaks the way he does. You know and honestly both of them you know right now as we're heading into also close to election it's like. These are grown men right and they're both like attacking each other and there's name calling and that's just like when are we going to move past that right with politics and you know and I don't know if to be if your vote really matter. What about health care we haven't went there or what about I mean for all important issue of every Fed immigration you know we've talked about trade but we've got issues there are we meeting who is going to me going over there of you know who's going to meet our basic needs but about so let me ask a question to all 3 of you because I think again for folks who have been paying attention to the campaigns for a while they would say well they have you know all the candidates have been talking about the issues and you know whatever their plans might be and they're different visions etc So is it that they're not talking about it in a way that that's reaching you or you're not hearing what you need I mean like what there seems to be a gap between all the effort and the many millions of dollars that are being spent to to to do it this exact messaging versus what you're saying here and so help me understand that I think today they are fed up with a 1000000000 a president crop of raised a 1000000000 dollars from fear and now the real Actually yeah a lot of my Any bought of money I don't actually be a 1000000000 dollar campaign season we've had a couple of those so far but like what is all this money like being like going up in smoke if you guys aren't hearing the policies or the discussions that you need to hear. I mean it feels like a yeah it's you know obviously you know I was saying earlier I'm probably the least political out of all of us to talk right now that are on the air and you know because I am focusing on a single parent you know raising my daughter you know and also running a business so I'm really focused on that but you know when I have time to check and whether it's picking up news that's coming in on my phone or stuff that's online you know I'm not seeing like you said you know it talks about education or talks about you know how we're going to help small business or health care or whatever those big ticket items are it's like oh so and so is the song so so that and it's just like this kind of bickering back and forth Well look I mean I definitely don't think all of us who are members of this democracy I should at all make our decisions based on those push notifications. That it's never going to be out of so maybe it's maybe it's on all of us to like do a little bit more here but but listen so we've just got about 5 minutes left here and I want to hear a couple of things from all 3 of you one is as I've mentioned several times during this hour the campaigns really are focused on Wisconsin they see it as a must win state whether you're on the Biden camp or the Trump camp. You're going to be seeing those folks in the state a lot vice president Mike Pence and Senator McConnell Harris were there just over the weekend do you think the the Wisconsin they're seeing is the start with you is the Wisconsin that you know I mean is what they're saying are the people they're talking to. Or are those are those people are those the is that the Wisconsin that you know. I mean I guess I think having you know Wisconsin kind of being brought up to this you know national news in the past couple weeks I think that's provided a good opportunity for a lot of people from Wisconsin to you know kind of get their wives heard unlike say what they're really thinking so I think we are being accurately reflected that way by you know people who are choosing to stand up and say what they think. Randi and Alexis what you think. Is going to quote here I was a bit of a muddled question I. Guess what I'm saying is that when campaigns visit places right it's all very scripted and structured it's kind of theater but they also are trying to reach voters directly and the the question is like when the when when both. Senator Harrison vice president pence both go to commercial it's almost like they're speaking to 2 different kind oceans right so so how so how does that help you does it help you at all as a Wisconsin voter in terms of 2 things One is do the rest of us around the nation are we getting a fair view of the state and to does it help you understand at all any better what these campaigns are about. I mean I don't I don't really feel like it doesn't really help me like you said like I think it's just a weird election year I also you know because it seems like maybe you know Biden's camp isn't really out about as much as they normally would be but what's really interesting is Trump seems to be still just going about business as normal so again we have these 2 kind of very separate things that are happening because yes we are still kind of dealing with coal and everything so we have our leader you know current leader that's like oh kind of acting like it's not a big deal right we're seeing all these large groups together but then it seems like Biden is a little bit more kind of still doing a lot of the things remotely and. You know video conference or whatever it is so that's confusing as well I think for a lot of us at least for me because it's like well what's really going on you know well we just got a couple of minutes left here and every single thing that we've talked about we could listen to the 3 of you sort of sort through it for hours on end but I got to we're headed to his end of the show here so let me just ask you finally something we've been asking every voter who's been on this show which is what do you want for this nation for the next 4 years and Randy I'll start with you. I want through him . Well I we have to move through of president today epidemic I mean we know that the world has changed our America and the world has changed forever right now so I think we have to focus finding out how do we move through that get people face the I mean meet meet their basic needs and I mean keep bad keep them sheltered and and. And keep them safe and that's how we're going to get there you we have to keep pushing towards that and let us forget about 30 seconds or so what do you know I mean I definitely agree with Randy it just be really nice and I don't know if you know we'll get to see if this is in my lifetime to see somebody honest in office with good morals you know what I mean it is laughable but isn't that sad that it's like. You know I think we all want to leader that we can look up to someone like we're proud to say hey this is our president and it's just that's not happening you know so yeah that's that's not that's not happening you don't see a difference between the 2 candidates on just that issue alone honestly I don't know and I don't really feel we're learning. Ok I don't we haven't really when I've seen too much on any issue other than you know what we want meat and bones in Wisconsin I mean that's what we're about we're meat Jadar meat and bone meat trade all of you know that's what we want. And we're not seeing that from . The Democratic candidates right now I mean all 33 and of the flop I think. Well you know what Trump have I got to give I got to give Cassy last word here because we're just about out of time can say you're your hopes for the next 4 years I think I agree with Randy and Alexis I think they both have great points I think having a leader that reflected you know a greater majority of America you know from different backgrounds different perspectives I think that would be ideal but I agree with a lot. Well cast the men in awe and Alexis Arnold and Randy Schmidt thank you all so much for joining us today for this Wisconsin roundtable I really appreciate it thank you very much thanks for having me Gerri thank you next week again we're going to be talking with members of the u.s. Military in our next iteration of our weekly voter roundtable So definitely stay tuned for that I may be talking about this is on point. 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Much of generations vote for the 1st time in November and they're not afraid to tell you where they stand when the Democratic Party collapsed around Joe Biden I remember and registering from the Democratic Party that day we hear from 3 gens the voters in Los Angeles about the issues that matter most to them on the next All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. In this afternoon at 4 support comes from arts leadership and cultural management you. Support for arts and culture reporting on Connecticut Public Radio comes from a vital projects funded the Museum of Modern Art New York City wasn't for reports on Morning Edition and All Things Considered This is Connecticut Public Radio n.p.r. And n.p.r. 81 married and 90.5 w p k t w p k t h d one Norwich 89.1. 88.5 w. Our ally Southampton at 91.3 and w n p all dot org. Universities across America are opening and closing and opening again how does anyone live and learn during these hokey pokey times from w.a.m. You and n.p.r. In Washington this is one a. Day a. Lie from n.p.r. News I'm Janine Herbst in a highly unusual move the Justice Department is trying to intervene in a defamation lawsuit against President Trump writer iching Carroll alleges Trump raped her in the 1990 s. In court papers the Justice Department says Trump was acting in his official capacity as president when he denied knowing Carol if the d.o.j. Is move is successful it would mean taxpayers would pay for Trump's legal defense final clinical trials for a promising coronavirus vaccine developed by Astro Zeneca an Oxford University are now on hold after one of the participants fell ill N.P.R.'s Frank Langfitt has more . Astra Zeneca says the pause is routine and comes after an unexplained illness the vaccine has received global attention and is seen as a leading contender among the dozens in development across the globe the trial involves about 30000 people in the u.s. As well as in Brazil the u.k. And South Africa the York Times reports that a volunteer in the u.k. Contract a transverse myelitis which causes inflammation affects the spine Astra Zeneca is investigating the illness to see if it's connected to the vaccine or unrelated It turns out to be coincidental the trial could resume soon Frank Langfitt n.p.r. News London Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is taking his campaign to Michigan today so N.P.R.'s Winsor Johnston reports Biden says if elected he would propose a 10 percent penalty for companies who send jobs overseas in a 10 percent tax cut for companies who are going back fighting will deliver a speech in the city of warrant to tout the nation's manufacturing potential the former vice president back in July unveiled a $400000000000.00 plan to boost manufacturing and he says create $5000000.00 jobs and that would be beyond restoring the millions of jobs lost during the coronavirus pandemic Michigan has reemerged as a key battleground for both campaigns both Biden and President Trump are expected to campaign heavily in the Midwest in the weeks leading up to the November election Winsor Johnston n.p.r. News in California more than 2 dozen major wildfires are burning around the state which has already seen a record 2000000 acres burned this year the state's largest utility has turned off power to some 172000 customers to try to prevent more blazes early tamale with member station k.q.e.d. Has more p.g. And E.'s preemptive power shut off have affected 170000 homes and businesses in 22 California counties the utility set up dozens of resource centers to give people a place to go but fires ravaging the state has forced a few of them to close the company says. Expects nearly all customers who have lost electricity to have it back by the end of the day Milledge Mali reporting Wall Street is trading higher at this hour the Dow is up $493.00 points that's a jump of 1.8 percent yes in p. $500.00 in the Nasdaq both up over 2 percent you're listening to n.p.r. News support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include Carbonite providing secure and encrypted backup of personal devices to protect memories from unforseen circumstances and learn more at Carbonite dot com Carbonite and Open Text company Good morning I met a buyer with these news headlines Hartford Public School students started their school year today after the 1st day was postponed yesterday by a ransomware attack the attack disrupted the school system's ability to send drivers routes to the bus company hard for police and the f.b.i. Are investigating Marilou grown and says sensitive financial information was not accessed Hartford spent about a half a 1000000 dollars on cyber security improvements a year ago children in only some grades are at school today and hard for the rest are learning from home this afternoon high school football players parents and coaches are expected to rally at the state capitol they want student athletes to be allowed to play full contact games this fall even though the State Department of Public Health says there's too much risk of coded $1000.00 transmission and regular football games while I'm in crash into each other and every down players tackle each other and teams usually take part in close huddles some players and coaches dislike the Department of Public Health idea of playing 7 on 7 football instead because some positions are eliminated from that reduced contact game leaving some players on the sideline It's 11 o 5 I'm at a wire This is Connecticut Public Radio. I'm meteorologist Garrett r.g.s. It's another September day that will have the feel of summer time the humidity will be moderate and temperatures will be rather warm reaching above 80 in most areas will see clouds mix with some breaks of sunshine and tonight is going to be warm and humid it will be dry and through dinner time than a few showers are possible later at night lows will be in the sixty's with the Connecticut Public Radio weather report on meteorologist Garrett r.g.s. . Castro and I'm shuffling this weekend season tune in for a conversation with the cooks at Bloodroot a restaurant in Bridgeport run by 2 feminists that's been serving vegetarian meals for more than 20 years plus tips from Melissa Clark for eating more plants beans and tofu and less meat and dairy lentils are your friend lentils are delicious and they cook in 40 minutes joined us. On Thursday afternoon at 3. This is one day I'm Sasha and Simons in for Gen white colleges are back in session and students faculty administrators parents they're all stressed students in North Carolina have faced coronavirus costers instructors in Michigan are striking over coven $1000.00 safety and colleges across the country are opening and closing and opening again as they try to decide what to do today we continue homework higher ed with a view from campus here to tell us what it's like on the quad these days is Christine Bartra She's a junior at the University of South Carolina in Columbia South Carolina she's also news editor at The Daily Gamecock u.s. Sees independent student newspaper She's been reporting on the corona virus outbreak on her campus where this week over a 1000 students and faculty tested positive for coping 19 Christine thank you for joining us thank you for having me Anthony Abraham Jack is an assistant professor of education and junior fellow at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts he's also the author of the privileged poor how elite colleges are failing disadvantaged students Professor Jack welcome back to one day thank you for having me and Ted Mason is an associate provost for diversity equity and inclusion and a professor of English at Kenyon College in Gambhir Ohio Professor Mason Welcome to one day thank you very much I'm looking forward to being in this conversation great Christine I'm going to start with you though because the University of South Carolina has one of the biggest coronavirus outbreaks at a college in the country right now are you on campus and if so how do you feel about the. Yes So I actually live in an off campus apartment but I do go on campus for classes and to do reporting for The Daily Gamecock and personally as far as how I feel I I don't even know if I've had time to really think about it has really caught up with me I've been focused on reporting focused on classes and yeah I don't even know if I've had time to really process all of it in class specifically I feel safe because I haven't had issues with any classmates not wanting to or mass or anything like that so how has the school responded to this outbreak. Definitely they're doing a lot of mitigation strategy is so the largest thing that the university is doing is the saliva testing which is which makes it the largest portion of our testing capacity to do about 60900 tests per day but the problem is that actually on Thursday they had to shut down the slide the testing lab and so Thursday Friday and on Monday Monday was Labor Day So there wasn't supposed to be testing anyway but on Thursday and Friday there was no saliva testing why and they restarted on Tuesday so there was a lot of staff or they got sick and according to a letter from university president has learned it was a key lab staffer that the lab couldn't operate without Ok and so they had to shut down the lab and then they reopen Tuesday but it was at a significantly reduced capacity so previously Like I said they were doing $6900.00 tests per day and on Tuesday they were only able to do $200.00 so what are what are students think of this response. So students definitely aren't a monolith there's a wide diversity of opinions on campus but from the students that I've talked to they definitely want to stay on campus especially the freshman they want to have some semblance of a normal college experience but they're also scared every time I bring up the numbers people tell me they're scared I've had multiple students tell me that they feel unsafe going to class and being on campus what has been the biggest factor in the spread of covert at u.s.c. So you mentioned mass a moment ago but are people taking the rules seriously here are there still parties . Yes there are definitely still parties the majority of our campus 70 to 80 percent of our campus lives off campus in student apartments and so the university can control like they have partnerships with on campus apartments and with the city of Columbia but it is hard to control what students are doing off campus so a large factor in the spread is students going off campus gatherings and parties we got a voicemail from a listener My name is a little bad I'm calling from Raleigh North Carolina. I'm a senior at North Carolina University and this past year we've only been in school for about 4 weeks now but in that span of 4 weeks we have had so many difficulties classes one for me in person online students got kicked off campus about a week ago and so a lot of didn't have been trying to find alternative to learning I know personally I was recently diagnosed with a.d.d. And it's been such a struggle trying to find scene that works for me. Undergoing so many changes being a senior trying to get my degree wrapped up and then also trying to find alternative housing you know I was one of those he's still living on campus Professor Mason What about Kenyon are you on campus right now and if so what does campus look like yeah I'm I'm in my office actually looking out the window watching students go back and forth to campus we one of the things we did was to do densify our campus we invited 1st and 2nd years to come back so we're about half capacity a little bit slightly over now. Thus far rather 2nd week of class things seem to be running I'm going to use this word really advisedly normally. Folks this is folks are going to campus folks are in class we've made lots of adjustments to how we typically do things. But things are pretty pretty well look pretty normal at this point everybody is complying with masking lots of social distancing going on. And we've done a lot of testing. And we have no student cases up to this point we've tested everybody twice. To continue to test people so we are at this point happy with which with where things are headed but we're cautious. Professor Jack what does Harvard been doing to make sure everybody's safe and do you feel like that's enough . You know some really I am on campus though I live in one of the And one of the houses we also did as if I campus and only invited back there in groups of students. Things are quieter but I do worry about those students who are using resources to come in and live in Cambridge or Somerville or want to surrounding time so they can be close to campus so they can still socialize but for the most part students have been complying you walk around the quad or the square and you see people wearing masks because the city is also enforcing it as well you see people wearing masks sitting outside it luckily fall is beautiful here and that's the only saving grace about people being able to just sit outside socially distance. And you know have some semblance of an experience on campus life Professor Mason you you mentioned because I and I as far as I knew Kenyon College had one positive test you said no cases that we had we have no student cases Ok one positive test was an employee who was working remotely Ok. So I'm sorry go ahead yes that's what measures then are being taken at the school to make sure that students and faculty stay safe Well we've offered their number of things that are going on we've been planning since since March for this eventually among them I think one of the more important things is that the faculty staff and students have had extensive conversations and we are in accord with the idea that we all want to be here and so far as we possibly can and that means. Policing our own behavior we're we're lucky unlike for instance universal South Carolina we're a small college in a small village in a not densely populated rural county of Ohio all of our students are. Residential. You have a deeply and tightly connected community. And saf and faculty and students as well students in particular have been adamant about wanting to find ways of maintaining a healthy culture where we are committed to keeping each other health as healthy as we possibly can Yeah we're talking to Professor. Ted Mason of Kenyon College also with us is Professor Anthony Abraham Jack of Harvard University and student Christine Bartra of the University of South Carolina we're also hearing from you another listener called and left a message about what he's been dealing with I might Amos Christian I'm a instructor at a community college in a game. I teach him a problem area our department which. We still have to meet in person and in the lab to do that instruction. That part has a challenge but the more challenging part has been having our classroom like our management class which are being offered think. Instruction so I have some students that are participating in a room and I have some students who are in the classroom with me and trying to keep those 2 groups how cohesive has been a challenge you know discussion difficult when half of the students. Aren't presents with the other half Professor Mason Do you feel personally safe when you teach your English class in person Oh yes I do actually I taught my class last night and we have. Reengineered all of our classrooms do densified them so for instance a classroom I mean I'm in that normally holds 50 years now so to hold 25. Everyone is spaced appropriately I feel is as safe as. I possibly can. In teaching my class and it's pretty good I like it Professor Jack are you there in person you know we made the decision to go fully. At the Harvard Graduate School of Education for the entire year and then the students here will be online in the fall do you feel about that choice but it was a choice that was that was needed especially given. International students especially given the travel and do and doing different things like that to do to D.D.'s the 5 the campus but also keep learning equitable we decided well the online how do you feel about that. I think it was the right decision especially especially for us what I want to see in aims to do just by the campus I want us to be able to make sure that for every student who needed to be on campus to be fully involved academically there was space for them and also those students who are dealing with invisible inequalities from domestic violence 2 different things I want to be able be on campus Jenny writes to us on Facebook one of my teachers offers him classes or videos of recorded lectures instead I'm given a textbook or a link to a digital textbook and judged by way of grading my ability to teach myself subjects in which I had no experience We're talking with college student Christine Bartra Professor Anthony Abraham Jack and Professor Ted Mason about college life amid the pandemic there's more to come stay with us. This is 18. 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Station I'm Sasha and Simons we're discussing what it's like to go back to college during a pandemic with Christine Bartra a junior at the University of South Carolina and news editor at The Daily Gamecock U.S.C.'s independent student newspaper She's been reporting on the corona virus outbreak on her campus Anthony Abraham Jack is the assistant professor of education and a junior fellow at Harvard University is also the author of the privileged poor how elite colleges are failing disadvantaged students and Ted Mason is an associate provost for diversity equity and inclusion and professor of English at Kenyon College and we're here with you are you a college student or a Professor how are you handling school right now you can comment on our Facebook page you can also tweet us at one a or send us an e-mail one day at w.a.m. You org Christine can you talk to us about some of the conversations that you've had with students over the last few weeks what sorts of things have you been hearing from people I know you said earlier it sort of runs the gamut. It absolutely does students like I said earlier especially freshman they they do want to stay on campus but they also talk about how their experience is diminished because the community aspect isn't is there I had one student talk about how no one leaves their doors open in the dorms of course because of. Precautions and then I've had students tell me that they were choosing to do their classes online because they don't feel safe coming to class on campus and I've had other students think that the university is doing a really good job and they instead shift the blame onto the students who aren't following regulations who are going to off campus gatherings. That hearing to city of Columbia and us. Student left us a voicemail yesterday talking about how they have been impacted by in my name and they I'm calling from crime lab Pennsylvania I work full time and then I'm also a part time on it and I work during the day and go at night so it's been very tricky with working from home and then having class. 5 hours a day in front of the computer or of those hours or and this is the kind of war that is not very conducive. With the way that a try and the interaction and you need that interaction with your mate so it has been very very tricky Michael Dunn about a good they can do but I'm very hopeful bring that we can go back in person because it is hard Professor Jack how have the students that you've been advising been handling this time and has it changed your advising methods in any way. Oh yeah I mean there's definite change the way I reach out to students I mean as I show in our what I study I worry about who feels comfortable reaching out the faculty and office hours and different in different methods that way and so I'm very clear be extra clear on the way in which we interact over zone 2 extra office hours and and doing different and not just their activities but different approaches to make sure our students feel comfortable using that time to x. Questions but also making sure that falling through the cracks and not receiving the resources they need whether it's mental health appointments whether it's a different kind of access to the resources that students are having for trying to find work to try to find jobs on campus jobs that rather don't have to be on campus or do it work with faculty and different things like that all of the ways in which people have fallen through the cracks for not not be comfortable always speaking up 1st is ways in which that we are trying to adapt to the mentoring system that we have but to answer questions on a bigger scale a lot of students are are trying to adjust but trying to find the balance between being in class and and not being and not having to be able to do study groups and do different that that was one of the biggest challenges that we are trying to figure out how do we address in a way that we can actually be together Professor Mason Here's a question from one of our listeners Maureen e-mailed and says you know there's a lot of talk about the students and how they should socially distance and try to keep safe. She says that you mentioned how all students live on campus but what about the faculty she says they come in go. What about the faculty you know how how have they responded it what are you hearing from professors and administrators you know I'm hearing the following we've been pretty insistent that the faculty and staff and students have a sort of maximal degree of choice so for instance our faculty who wish to teach remotely are allowed to teach remotely those who wish to teach in person are allowed to teach in person those who wish to do a combination are allowed to do that what we want to do is try to find a way of of making everybody as comfortable as possible with the tissue situation they're in we've worked really closely with our Teaching and Learning Center to train faculty since last March on how to do the kinds of teaching they will they they feel most comfortable doing Professor Jack when people think of Harvard they immediately think of extremely privileged people but there are a lot of scholarship students and students that come from lower income families with less privilege than their wealthier classmates that are really hurting from this how is economic status impacting the education of some Harvard students. I mean that's one of the biggest dividing factors that we see in and who is able to fully participate in the academic experience I mean I think what we're going to see is a widening of the gap between performance between lower income students and those from more privileged backgrounds I mean think about what we're what the difference is that we're doing right now is who is able to come to have a room commit it to them being a student in who's sharing a space that with other people who who's doing extra work who has access to broadband Internet who has access to food and housing and who secure food and housing during this time we know that the social economic that lower income families are disproportionately feeling the brunt of this work of covert 19 they are so many of them are getting furlough or fact trying to find other jobs many people are taking on additional responsibilities of care work which is also highly gendered So you know there are a lot of issues that covert exacerbated that many students are having to deal with and that's one of the reasons why I was pushing universities that if you were to reach out and have those like campus prioritize those who need to be on camera be fully involved and fully involved in academic enterprise because if we don't we run the risk of students having to go to Starbucks or our McDonald's and sit in the parking lot to be able to log into his own classes which we have seen reports of and so who is able to have the space to be fully fully involved students versus who is borrowing little glimpses of time in free space in an overcrowded home because everyone is trying to consolidate resources those are 2 very different learning learning spaces right so when you think of all of that is that something that you guys are factoring into grading or assessments. I think we have to I mean anyone who has not taken it has taken into consideration might the times that we are involved in that we have to understand what is the point what is. What we really want to get want to do is to get out of this time right and if we don't pay it and to the fact that a lot of our students are not able to log in the same way we're going to let these inequalities be writ into g p A's and it's already it's already there but now it's going to get even worse so we have to be able to think critically about what are the obstacles our students are facing because if we don't we don't hurt them we don't know if we're going to end up hurting them in the long run Professor Mason you you're hearing Professor Jack talk about his concerns that students essentially from a lower income background could fall behind wealthier more privileged students is there a similar situation brewing at your school good certainly something we've been a tune to from the very beginning when you think about it and this is a quote from one of my colleagues who were reengineering an institution from the ground up. And when you're doing that one of the challenges is what are our central values and one of our central values is providing as equitable an education and we can't as we can for for everyone and as Professor Jack was describing this goes from how do I act how does the student access to materials to how does how students work or valuated particularly when we're tuned to things like learning differences this means really starting from scratch and opening up these questions and in a way that I think is very very important as as unfortunate as the circumstances are that have raised this it's also an opportunity for us to rethink questions of of educational equity and access Christine is this dynamic playing out at your school how are the lower income students doing. I could definitely see the same dynamic playing out on us these campuses especially I mean considering the economy right now a lot of our students have lost jobs or are trying to find new jobs and Sons the majority of our students live off campus a lot of students are trying to make rent every month and so adding those stressors on top of having to adapt to all my learning which I've had many students tell me is a really. Hard transition for them to go from having someone in person who's there to help them to having to go on line and being self guided and self taught all of those things compounding is making things harder for lower income students now Christine you yourself you've been taking online classes this semester too so tell me how you think it compares to getting education in person it's definitely it's definitely different I do want to come and like my professors especially they've been trying very hard to deliver the same quality of education but there are some things that are sort of unavoidable like if there are tech issues or if some students have have Wi-Fi issues don't have proper broadband access especially in the hybrid classes which I believe someone spoke about earlier you have half of your students on Zoom and then half of your students in person and sometimes the students on Zoom can't hear their professor or their audio doesn't come through so that they can't participate in class fully So there are definitely. The professors are trying to deliver the same quality but there are definitely barriers as far as the technology goes so we've been hearing this a lot in part one of our series homework Higher Ed we heard from a student who attributed some of the difficulties with online learning just like you Christine to a lack of training for professors Professor Mason What's been your experience. You know our experience has been pretty Going from the very beginning of our teaching and learning center on our faculty have been working together throughout the throughout the spring because we say we went remote beginning spring break last academic year. Just for Ingham throughout the summer and continuing now offering. Training sessions and you know if I'm going to teach my class remotely that I've been teaching in person for let's say 20 years what do I do how do I do that how does how do I change so it's been a primary in our minds about how do we reengineer ourselves as instructors in order to offer the best kind of education we possibly can. I'm Sasha and Simons You're listening to one day. And we're talking to student Christine Barr Trev of the University of South Carolina professor Anthony Abraham Jack of Harvard University and Professor Ted Mason Kenyon College Professor Jack you know what new challenges come with remote learning for professors I'm thinking of you how long did you take to prepare for remote classes this fall. To be honest I'm still preparing. I mean this is going to be this is going to be a learning experience a learning experience for the rest of the year I fortunate to have some you know receipts and trains and think about how to read draft because I must you know I'm a qualitative research or so and I teach qualitative you know altered methods courses and things like that it's kind of hard to do it you know online especially when you're used to a 3 hour seminar I'm not one to make my students sit through a 3 hour class by so even trying to figure out both what are you know making sure that we're understanding what people are what people's band was are but then my breaking up classes into smaller sections joined different things and that was the simple which is the you know trait for part but I also want to make sure that we think about that other more invisible inequalities and how we reengineer That's why I said how we how we structure our line making sure that we are paying attention to a number of different things like learning environments and in different ways that students can connect with each with each other but this is going to be a learning experience I mean how do we keep students in a gauge and not rely on the same tricks of the trade that we did when we were teaching in person but also not just one new thing to our repertoire while we are online so those are just different question but how do we fully engage people and get people and get our students to be able to have conversation and prove it and also provide them with the opportunity to still have a voice in the class which is one thing I am prioritizing and my mentor means my part meetings my advising is how do we make sure that students have a voice because we're able to give them a voice even in this online environment the learning the the learning becomes exponentially greater Christine I wonder if there's an issue over a generation divide like you know students who've grown up all digital being touched by analog or like old school professors. Yeah I could definitely see that because just as do those who are just into online learning they are more equipped to deal with the digital age to deal with the new technology right and then some professors this is maybe their 1st time teaching online class and online classes I've professors tell me usually take months and months to prepare last semester they had to flip almost within a week right and then this semester they had a bit more time to prepare but it's still a large jump and then we're coping with all this during a pandemic during a public health crisis so yeah I could see the generational gap being about being I think yeah we've got a voicemail from Will in Louisiana about what he wants his college to do I've been an adjunct professor for 6 years now. Doing Online Courses and I do record everything students have definitely benefited. But I've been doing it for half pay so now that people understand that it takes a team and it takes all this preparation how about boosting my paid up for pay per class and I'm good to go is this an issue at your University Professor Mason adjuncts not getting paid as much actually Actually no it's not we don't have very many adjuncts and. People who are we treat well for display folks who are here on non-tenure line appointments are in the minority and also report that their compensation is really good they we tend to treat them just as we do tenure line faculty in part because our faculties relatively small we have only roughly let's say 200 faculty members all told how about your school professor Jack. For the most part kind of similar to what's going on at Kenyon but I think the callers speak out on to a larger a larger problem within higher education even as a new book The Advent underclass where a number of universities are relying more and more on content in faculty they teach more they advise more but the pay isn't the same as tenure track but the tenure track numbers at those institutions are getting lower and lower I think the caller also speaking to a larger issue where people were saying you know what's the value of going to assume university if you're going to be on Zoom you can go anywhere well. Actually not the case because the level of preparation and you still getting Who are you still getting access to. But the point the. Point the college brings up is that you are still getting a lot of work going into creating an online course and the kind of intentionality and the research behind transforming of course should not be taken lightly. Professor of Education fellow at Harvard University also with us was Christine a junior at the University of South Carolina and news editor at The Daily. Associate provost for diversity and inclusion and professor of English. Thanks. We've heard from students and professors but what about the parents we bring in. A college professor and a nurse in grad school who also have children in college right now and. This is one . On the next fresh air we talk with ya Jesse whose 1st novel poem going about the legacy of slavery want to National Book Critics Circle award her new novel transcendent Kingdom is about science religion depression addiction and race in America Jesse was born in Ghana and raised in the u.s. Mostly in Huntsville Alabama joined us. Listen today at noon. 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Back to talking about what's happening on campus in a moment but 1st our series homework higher ed wraps up tomorrow and there's one group of people we really want to hear from if your livelihood depends on a university and you're not a tenured professor or an administrator how are you coping right now maybe you work in the cafeteria or are a custodian Are you an adjunct or a teacher's assistant perhaps you don't work at a university but you run a coffee house near campus that's usually bustling and is a little less busy these days tell us how you're handling the pandemic call us that 855-236-1212 What challenges are you facing what workarounds have you come up with Tell us your story at 855236181 day you can also leave a message on our app one a vox pop and we'll share some of your stories tomorrow here on one day now let's get back to our series homework higher ed all this week we're turning a spotlight on those most impacted by the coronavirus crisis in higher education that includes the parents we asked you to reach out to us if you have children in college and we got a lot of responses including 2 from Sarah Graham an associate professor of music at Louis Clark State College in Idaho she's the parent of a college freshman who is a student at the same school Thanks for joining us Sarah Hi Thanks for having me and Nancy Koskie is a nurse practitioner and a graduate student at Frontier nursing University in Kentucky her daughter is a graduate student at the University of Arizona welcome to the program Nancy. Hi and thank you for having me on now Professor Graham your son is a college freshman would he have chosen to attend the same school you work at if covert never happened. You know in fact if it wasn't his 1st choice it was sort of my idea. Because things were. Kind of up in the air and so it just felt like a safer thing to do at the time so he's here how has that worked out so far. I think it's been pretty good. I mean for me obviously it's nice to have him still. I also know he's getting you know a good education he can you know fulfill some general ed requirements and then potentially transfer later if he wants to which was part of part of the deal to kind of I think help him feel a little bit better about about that so yeah Nancy would have you and your daughter been been doing for classes. Well my coursework we're both in Tucson Arizona she's living off campus in her own a permanent She attends the University of Arizona she's in the what's called the High School which is. Where she's studying for a master's in library science I'm studying for a secondary certification as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Through frontier nursing University which is in Kentucky both of our programs are remote learning platforms so Ok And Professor Graham your son has been doing this hybrid correct. Yeah some of his courses are hybrid and some are online now how's he adjusting to that. He likes that he's he's a kid who rather your prefers to be online rather than having having to be made to engage with people but I spoke with him about this a little bit last night and he said that unlike classes really they're a lot more work they require more time. For him as a student and I mean I know as a professor they require a lot more time but it was interesting to hear that perspective from him as a student as well well I want to get your perspective on this comment here from Julia as she left it on our Facebook she says my son's school has in person classes but his classes are all remote in the spring instructors recorded their own class presentations now his teachers send them to youtube links of other instructors were paying out of state tuition for this sub optimal effort on their part how do you feel about that well that's interesting that's not something I'd heard previously I know at our school we've we've been working pretty hard over the summer in fact many of us were working over the summer with you know collaboratively with other faculty to do our own things and so I don't know that that's that that's happening here but I. Act as a professor and it's a little bit scary yeah right to think that my you know my work could be outsourced or I could be doing it and then I wouldn't be needed anymore and then that intellectual property could be continued to be used by you know my institution that's what I mean as a teacher that's a little bit scary right sending them to You Tube wings I hadn't heard that one either and I'm thinking with my mom hat now is any of this Ok just even just just being on line you being being remote for college my kids are a little younger they're in middle school so we're not quite there yet but Nancy would you prefer your daughter had taken a year off and waited for this pandemic to pass when you thought well she actually did take your off between her undergrad and grad. And I'm actually glad that she's not taking time off and the reason I'm glad is because her program is pretty much remote she does have a hybrid option and I believe she's opting not to do the hybrid if she was going to do a hybrid I would have a very different opinion on that I would say you know take time off because it's remote it's Ok there's a little difference I think in our programs and what other people been experiencing weird institutions that have a history of having successful online platforms a lot of her undergraduate was sort of a hybrid so this is a format that's not so unfamiliar to us and it's one that's in institutions it's sort of been tried and tried tried and tested over time. So I think that. You know in terms of there is concern about you know hey this is a sub optimal experience I I agree I don't think putting videos of prior courses on You Tube yet anything like an optimal experience and I would be pretty upset if I was paying tuition for that our situation is very different. You know our classes are a combination of some synchronous and asynchronous presentations which means. Sometimes everybody calls and at the same time is listening to same lecturers you know Linked In by his room or an on line platform 1st same lecture other times we're listening to stuff that has been pretty recorded. But. You know there's a good mix of it there's also a mix of group projects that we've been doing. So there's a lot of activity in interchange interaction between students there there's a lot of an online discussion posting which while it's not the same as you know your standard classroom Socratic you know exchange it doesn't feel the same way a lot of times you do get a lot of the same end result and learning which is the collaborative learning piece which I think is really missing from something like a static presentation Yeah Don wrote to us on Facebook and said I don't feel great about sending my 818 year old off to his 1st year at college I expect he will return soon with news of larger campuses and positive cases growing I encouraged him to take a gap year but like many of us he wanted to be off to the next phase of life I don't blame him I'm thinking of you here professor Graham your son's just a freshman was it ever a thought to just have him wait it out. I know and I think mainly I mean it is a I mean it is a privilege that where we have an institution very very close to where we live so he was able to to change those plans quickly and do that so that was actually was not something that we had considered at all you know Nancy Howell on line learning effect things that you won't be able to do remotely like your clinical. Oh that one is the wild card and we've had we've had a lot of meetings you know group synchronous meetings with our. Administration from school talking about the clinical situation in the bottom line is that it's an evolving situation nobody can tell you for sure what's going to happen. You know I'm hoping that by the time it comes time for me to do clinical Zz we will have a vaccine we will have a better control on the situation and that things will be more open. And that's that's pretty much what I can say there is the possibility of doing some clinical is through Tell us health and to tell us a tie a treat you know which is an option but you can't do all of your clinical hours that way nor should you it's not an appropriate learning environment for a full clinical experience so I'm hopeful you know a lot of health care is still open I mean it's the difference with an essential service it's still open the question is are clinical sides and preceptors and patients for that matter going to be willing to take the risk of introducing another person into it with everything else going on pandemic ways or clinical sites prepared to take students I've been hearing from some of my cohorts that they're not having too much trouble finding clinical side so that people are we're just sort of waiting to see what happens and Professor Graeme you are a music teacher I just imagine that to be a little bit difficult what new challenges are you facing while teaching. All of them that you think about the about I mean yeah I mean this whole thing has turned the music world upside down particularly the vocal music world and that's my specialty choral director and a vocal teacher and. You know we've heard of all these super spreader events you know that happened you know with choir's and things like that. And so. You know hearing that and kind of knowing the research you know aerosols and droplets that's made our profession rather difficult. And so there's a lot of things we have to do you know take some precautions was thinking many schools just are not doing any singing at all. We are doing some but we're outside where spaced 10 to 12 feet apart people are wearing masks we take breaks you know every 30 minutes or so. And that's only until you know so the weather gets too cold or too dark for us to rehearse because we were in the evening and so it's really changed to the way that we do things we're not doing any performances you know this semester because then you have audience considerations as well and so there's really a lot to think about in the music in the performance world yeah I'm Sasha and Simon's You're listening to one. And we're talking to one a listeners Sara Graham and Nancy Koskie both our parents 2 college students we're also hearing from you we got a comment from a mother who wants to remain anonymous and she says my daughter tested positive but she is asymptomatic she's not even sure if she really has it because she can't go get another test she's in isolation and her roommates are quarantined for 2 weeks it's hell in addition to the mental toll they have endured additional expenses for food delivery snarky comments by professors and misinformation spread in their college community as a parent and a human someone from the school could have contacted her and asked Are you Ok. Professor Graham is that something you've had to deal with it all at your school any positive cases in. The room yeah we we have had 3 that we know of on campus only one of those has been somebody that that lives on campus and that's been fairly well isolated so we haven't had a huge issue here although we're 40 minutes away from you which is and Pullman which if you're following who is the number one hot spot right now you know so you know I think a lot of us think it may be coming but our you know our institution was really good about being on top of this very very early and installing technology to help us you know make the safe protocols to make things as safe as possible of course there's nothing that's 100 percent safe but you know we sanitize between classes we have a mask mandate on our campus which is a big deal because we live in a town where they couldn't pass a mass mandate in the town because too many people revolted against it. So I mean it's we've done a really really good job as far as that goes so I've been really. Pleased and I feel safe on my campus just because of the precautions that we've taken but like I said. You don't you never know you know I mean you don't know when you're going to have a super spreader event or something's going to happen and coming out of a holiday weekend you know get away have wait a couple weeks and see what happens though so given all that you know what you just mentioned it was happening on campus and in the town what advice were you able to share with your son if any about what to expect this year he's brand new to this right or are you just kind of learning along with him how do you feel at this point I mean it's a little bit of both I've been following. Current research trends I mean really religiously because because because of the music element and so I've had to stay really on top of that they also do church music inside the. Doing some trainings on you know how how do we how do we do this in this new situation so I think I you know I share that information with my kids you know as as I learn it and so I think that that really helps He's also working he got a job this summer working at McDonald's and their protocol is very strict and I think that that's also sort of helped him you know really figure out taking things seriously he's always wearing a mask and sanitizing So I think he's gotten used to that rhythm excellent Nancy you know I wonder if you think that this gives you a new level of understanding with your daughter since you're both kind of in the same position. In terms of the on line learning aspect here in terms of the on line learning I'm going through this pandemic together students Yeah I mean. We have a we definitely have a lot more in common Ok more to talk about well we've always had a lot to talk about but you know we are both in the same kind of programs we have a lot more empathy for each other in terms of schedule crunches in terms of balancing work and school. And so that part of it has been good the part that's that's hard is that because of the code pandemic. You know we've been each isolating and because I work in health care and until very recently I was working in an urgent care. My take on this was I was a person of high risk and I told her early on you won't see a lot of me in person we're not going to be spending a lot of time with each other in person because I care about you and I care about stopping the spread of this and I'm seeing sick people every day and very likely I could I could become ill and I don't want to pass it on so I think we've seen each other in person masks pretty much socially distant distance from each other 3 times in the last 6 months but even at that distance it sounds like you brought you guys closer together. In that respect yeah I mean we've always been close and that's that part of it has opened up a new understanding I have gained a new appreciation for her technical skills she works and our public library Yeah and one of her skills is social media and so she knows a lot about computer technology and when I was upgrading my system to go back to an on line platform many a time I called her and said You've got to help me and I have no clue what I'm doing I had to upgrade all my hardware we. Both have commiserated about having a crooner heard we're you know I'll end with this and that's the well Nancy calls he thank you so much for your time also with us was Sara Graham one day listeners our homework series continues tomorrow with a look at college survival in 2022 days producer was Katie Cline with help from Hector Alexander our snotty this program comes to you from w.a.m. Part of American University in Washington distributed by n.p.r. 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