Washington DC News, [BC-MCT-SUNDAY-NEWS-BJT] – Daily Inter Lake
(TNS)
Tribune News Service
News Budget for papers of Sunday, January 19, 2020
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Updated at 9 p.m. EST (0200 UTC).
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These stories are recommended for weekend release, except where embargoes are noted. Please make sure you are adhering to embargoes on our stories in both your print and online operations.
This budget is now available at TribuneNewsService.com, with direct links to stories and art. See details at the end of the budget.
^TOP STORIES<
^A civil war in El Salvador tore them apart. Their high school reunion brought them back together<
ELSALVADOR-REUNION:LA _ They spun around the dance floor, as lighthearted and energetic as teenagers. Classmates sipped mojitos in the sticky heat. Former flames traded private smiles under trees strung with lights. The brains were there, and the athletes, the troublemakers and the do-gooders.
“How young we all look,” Mauro Adan Arce boomed into the microphone, prompting applause and laughter from the lined faces smiling back at him. In a corner, white letters backlit with red were a testament to their age: Promo 1978. Class of 1978.
It was a high school reunion, but the school they all remember is long gone. The revelers were home, but it wasn’t really home anymore.
They were 20 years old when a civil war ripped through El Salvador like an earthquake and tore their lives apart.
They watched death squads riddle bodies with bullets, faced down the National Guard in hope of escape, abandoned dreams to start over in Los Angeles, left behind mothers who would lose multiple sons to immigration. More than 75,000 Salvadorans died; millions more fled.
2350 by Brittny Mejia in Usulutan, El Salvador. MOVED
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^POLITICS<
^As Bernie Sanders rises in Iowa, his 2020 supporters slam establishment warnings he could lose to Donald Trump<
SANDERS-IOWA:TB _ For the last five years, Diane and Joel Franken have been fervent students of the politics of Bernie Sanders and the mechanics of his presidential campaigns.
The couple, dressed in matching blue “Bernie” T-shirts for a recent event in Davenport, have seen the Vermont senator speak at 10 rallies, watched him play softball at the Field of Dreams in Iowa, frequently volunteered for the campaign and even housed Sanders campaign staffers in their home for the last two presidential cycles.
They’ve noticed some differences in 2020 compared with the last go-round: The staff is more diverse and experienced, the campaign is doing a better job of reaching out to black and Latino voters, and the voter contact program is more sophisticated than it was four years ago. Plus, Iowans are far more familiar with Sanders, who now has the benefit of being a household name, with his push for a political revolution well-known to the masses.
2600 by Bill Ruthhart in Davenport, Iowa. MOVED
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^UNITED STATES<
^After a 12-year-old died by suicide, his family scoured their home for signs. Then they learned he researched it at school<
BOY-SUICIDE-SEARCHHISTORY:TB _ In his last school play performance, 12-year-old Gabe Deely played a member of the Lollipop Guild in the “The Wizard of Oz,” waving a giant lollipop while wearing a brightly colored costume topped off with a red hat adorned with a yellow flower.
His family remembers him that night as a happy kid, doing a goofy dance and waving the lollipop.
Months later, just before Thanksgiving 2018, Gabe died of suicide.
His family couldn’t make sense of it, having seen no warning signs. They struggled to even comprehend a child that young contemplating suicide.
Searching for an explanation about their son’s death, Carol Deely and her husband scoured the computers and phones at their Lincoln Park home. They found nothing.
Later, though, they learned he had used a school iPad to research suicide.
1850 (with trims) by Madeline Buckley in Chicago. MOVED
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^Sea lions are cash cows in the Bay Area. Farther south, fishermen say, ‘Shoot ’em'<
ENV-CALIF-SEALIONS:LA _ Sea lions are increasingly living in parallel universes along the California coast, a disparity best observed amid the noisy, stinking spectacle that rolls out daily at San Francisco’s Pier 39 shopping center.
There, hundreds of these enormous, mostly male California sea lions bark, defecate, urinate and regurgitate, but are immensely popular with tourists. As a result, the blubber boys are treated like royalty.
“The sea lions are a godsend: a natural attraction that’s phenomenal for business,” Sheila Chandor, Pier 39 harbormaster, said on a recent weekday as tourists snapped selfies against a backdrop of sea lions piled up like cordwood on docks.
Elsewhere in California, sea lions are pariahs. The animals that head south for their summer breeding season are sometimes welcomed with arrows, harpoons, electric cattle prods, gunfire, bombs and fish laced with chemicals.
1600 (with trims) by Louis Sahagun in San Francisco. MOVED
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^SCIENCE, MEDICINE, ENVIRONMENT<
^No shield from X-rays: How science is rethinking lead aprons<
MED-XRAYS-RADIATION:KHN _ Patients have come to expect a technician to drape their torsos with a heavy lead apron when they get an X-ray, but new thinking among radiologists and medical physicists is upending the decades-old practice of shielding patients from radiation.
Some hospitals are ditching the ritual of covering reproductive organs and fetuses during imaging exams after prominent medical and scientific groups have said it’s a feel-good measure that can impair the quality of diagnostic tests and sometimes inadvertently increase a patient’s radiation exposure.
1250 (with trims) by Mary Chris Jaklevic in Chicago. MOVED
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^BEST OF NEWSFEATURES<
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These stories moved earlier in the week and are suitable for weekend publication.
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^The fickle voters who could decide the 2020 Democratic nominee<
DEMOCRATS-2020-UNDECIDED:WA _ Monica Vernon has spent the Democratic presidential race assessing an assortment of candidates from Elizabeth Warren (“sweet and relatable”) to Amy Klobuchar (“down to earth”) to Cory Booker (“impressive”).
But with just weeks before she must make a final decision in her state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, the Iowa resident and founder of a small market-research company is still not close to making up her mind.
Vernon is part of a significant subset of the Democratic electorate _ white, college-educated and suburban _ that has spent the 2020 primary season vacillating among several different White House hopefuls.
With the leadoff February contests fast approaching, these voters _ which make up about one-quarter of the Democratic electorate, and an even larger share in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire _ are on the verge of being forced to pick just one of the candidates.
950 by Alex Roarty in Washington. MOVED
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^In a church of their own, Latino atheists fear no God. But Mom? That’s another matter<
RELIG-LATINO-ATHEISTS:LA _ Once a month, a very particular Sunday service unfolds on a patio outside a Starbucks in El Monte. When jets fly overhead, members of the congregation have to shout across the table at one another.
Some days, there’s a small crowd, and the conversation lasts for hours. On other days, Arlene Rios waits alone.
It’s not easy being an atheist raised in a devoutly Catholic culture. But here in the San Gabriel Valley, you don’t have to doubt God’s existence all alone. You can head to the monthly meetup of secular Latinos and share a latte with Rios.
1750 (with trims) by Brittny Mejia in Los Angeles. MOVED
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^For decades, this city was a haven for refugees. Then residents tried to ban them<
BISMARCK-REFUGEES:LA _ For decades, Bismarck, N.D., a conservative, predominantly white capital city, has played host to refugees from around the world.
Immigrants greet shoppers at Walmart, process beef at the Cloverdale Foods plant, run the register at Arbys, clean the Holiday Inn and drive for Uber.
Nobody used to pay them much mind.
Things started to change with the 2016 election of President Donald Trump, who has suggested that many refugees are criminals and has extolled his belief in putting “America first” by drastically reducing the number allowed to enter the United States.
The rhetoric has trickled down from Washington into smaller, quieter parts of the nation, as citizens and local politicians embrace it and places such as Bismarck start to reassess their relationship with the newcomers.
1900 by Jaweed Kaleem in Bismarck, N.D. MOVED
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^To this man, Islamic State’s ideology ‘just made sense.’ Now, he rejects extremism<
ISLAMICSTATE-SYMPATHIZER:LA _ On a rainy morning, Imran Rabbani returned to the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center so he could reunite with his former keepers.
Four years before, Rabbani had arrived at the facility in shackles after being swept up in an Islamic State-inspired plot to set off a pressure-cooker bomb in New York. He was 17.
Now, just starting his third semester at New York University, the 22-year-old Rabbani wanted to give thanks to the people who guided him away from Islamist extremism. As he waited in the library last summer, glancing at books that had proved crucial to his transformation, the room slowly filled with city officials, staff and guards.
2550 by Melissa Etehad in Newark, N.J. MOVED
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^In a lifetime on the border, this agent has seen it transform<
BORDERPATROL-AGENT:SD _ Fresh out of the academy yet still very much an agent-in-training, Chancy Arnold was finally being given a little range.
He and his partner were told to drive on the border road east, familiarize themselves with the rolling hills and unmarked trails that would become their new office.
As they approached the base of Otay Mountain in San Diego County, they came upon a man lying face down in the dirt. About 50 yards to the south, a flimsy barbed wire fence denoted the U.S.-Mexico border.
Strange, Arnold thought, does he really think he’s hiding from us?
The agents yelled at the man: “Get up, we can see you!”
He remained still.
Closer inspection revealed the grisly truth: Someone had driven the migrant through the border, ordered him to the ground and put a bullet in the back of his head.
That was 1985, and Arnold is now nearing 35 years with the agency, making him the longest-serving Border Patrol agent in the nation.
2100 by Kristina Davis in San Diego. MOVED
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^Pete Buttigieg’s legacy as mayor of South Bend? The reviews are mixed<
BUTTIGIEG-SOUTHBEND:LA _ On Jan. 1, Pete Buttigieg’s second term ended, and the “Mayor Pete” era in South Bend was over. In the Democratic presidential candidate’s telling, he presided over a Rust Belt comeback story in Indiana’s fourth-largest city, a metaphor for what is possible elsewhere in America.
Before Buttigieg took office in 2012, downtown had been moribund for decades. Aging, abandoned homes dragged down spirits in poorer neighborhoods. Unemployment was high, wages low, evictions common. White residents were fleeing by the thousands.
Today, unemployment in the greater South Bend area is less than 4%, down from nearly 10%, development has accelerated in the city’s downtown, and the population has stopped shrinking.
That’s the resume that Buttigieg is promoting to make the jump from mayor to president. It’s a part of his appeal to Democrats who are anxious to win back Rust Belt voters who defected from the party in 2016.
But there’s a hitch.
1500 by Matt Pearce in South Bend, Ind. MOVED
PHOTOS
^Huge Michigan voter turnout could turn into national embarrassment<
MICH-ELECTION-TURNOUT:DE _ Two Michigan elections experts have some record-breaking predictions for 2020 that could end up putting Michigan in a potentially embarrassing national spotlight.
Chris Thomas, the former Michigan director of elections at the Secretary of State’s Office, said Michigan is on track for a record-breaking turnout in 2020, reaching up to 5.3 million voters. The last time Michigan came anywhere close to that total was 2008 when 5 million Michiganders cast ballots.
Mark Grebner, the founder of the East Lansing-based Practical Political Consulting, which tracks voters and voting trends in Michigan, had an even more eye-popping prediction of 6 million votes in November.
Adding hundreds of thousands of voters, many of whom will now be able to cast their ballots by voting absentee, will overwhelm local clerks with ballots that they can’t begin counting until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
And that could translate into Michigan not being able to tally and announce the results of the 2020 election until a day or two after the polls close on Nov. 3, said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
1150 (with trims) by Kathleen Gray in Detroit. MOVED
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^SPECIAL REPORT: A DECADE OF AFTERSHOCKS IN HAITI<
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On Jan. 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake. The disaster claimed 316,000 lives, left 1.5 million homeless and another 1.5 million injured. The Miami Herald, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, examines the aid and rebuilding over the past decade.
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^10 years after Haiti’s earthquake: A decade of aftershocks and unkept promises<
HAITI-QUAKE-10YEARS:MI _ For nearly three years after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, Haiti’s main public square was a densely crowded tent city packed with makeshift huts made from cardboard, plywood and bedsheets in the shadow of a ruined presidential palace.
Walk through the Champ de Mars today and the displaced survivors of the quake who once called it home are long gone _ replaced by ice cream vendors, novice student drivers and a new government administrative corridor in the center of the city.
As a disaster-prone Haiti marks the 10th anniversary of an unimaginable catastrophe, Haitians and the international community that pledged to help the country rebuild can point to a few signs of progress.
But a decade of political and economic aftershocks and billions of dollars in mismanaged and unaccounted-for aid have left the country struggling with its recovery, and no more ready today to withstand another massive tremor than it was the day the 7.0 magnitude quake struck.
3550 (with trims) by Jacqueline Charles in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. MOVED
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^A decade after the earthquake, Haiti’s church bells are starting to ring again<
HAITI-QUAKE-10YEARS-CHURCHES:MI _ The imposing concrete facade of St. G rard Catholic Church sits on top of a steep hill in the historic Carrefour-Feuilles neighborhood overlooking the Haitian capital, its unfinished bell tower rising toward the heavens, its uncovered dome roof partially obscured from view by royal poincianas not yet in bloom.
Construction came to a grinding halt three months ago.
One of Haiti’s largest and hardest hit institutions in the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, the Catholic Church was brought to its knees 10 years ago this month when the massive quake caused an estimated $200 million worth of damage to church buildings in this predominantly Catholic nation.
But where foreign and Haitian governments have struggled to make progress after the quake, the Catholic Church has been largely successful.
2350 (with trims) by Jacqueline Charles in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. MOVED
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^Millions went to rebuild Haiti’s churches. So why is Notre-Dame Cathedral still in ruins?<
HAITI-QUAKE-10YERS-NOTREDAME:MI _ In its day, it was one of the most iconic buildings in Haiti, a symbol of artistry, religious fervor and God’s grace.
Today, the earthquake ruins of Port-au-Prince’s collapsed cathedral stand as a powerful reminder of not just the catastrophic disaster that struck Haiti 10 years ago this month, but of the slow pace of the recovery, waning interests from donors who once rushed to help and the cycle of political, economic and security aftershocks that have followed since.
700 by Jacqueline Charles in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. MOVED
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^Bill Clinton once enjoyed a bright legacy in Haiti. Then the 2010 earthquake struck<
HAITI-QUAKE-10YEARS-CLINTON:MI _ A decade after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, the former U.S. secretary of state, are routinely portrayed in some quarters as the prime villains in the Caribbean nation’s continuing struggles to recover and the failed promise of donor assistance to help lift the ravaged country out of poverty.
It’s almost an article of faith among many Haitians that the Clintons somehow siphoned off billions of dollars meant to help clean up and rebuild.
The narrative _ coupled with claims that the Clinton Foundation cashed in off development projects in the aftermath of the Jan. 12, 2010, disaster _ has been peddled by anti-corruption lawyers in Haiti demanding an audit by government auditors.
Now, as the world marks the 10th anniversary, Bill Clinton for the first time opened up about the setbacks in Haiti _ a stain on the bright legacy of a former president who had championed democracy there and was the face of the international recovery efforts as he pledged to help Haiti “build back better.”
3350 by Jacqueline Charles. MOVED
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^Clinton can’t escape blame in Haiti’s failed recovery from the earthquake, critics say<
HAITI-QUAKE-10YEARS-CLINTON-CRITICS:MI _ The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, backed by the United States government and co-chaired by former President Bill Clinton, was supposed to be Haiti’s chance to “build back better” after its cataclysmic Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.
But a decade after the commission’s formation in the wake of the disaster and its eventual dissolution under Haitian President Michel Martelly, Haiti is no better off, its multibillion-dollar recovery effort a dismal failure, according to critics. They say blame lies with the Haitian government, which missed an opportunity, foreign donors who didn’t make good on their billion dollar pledges _ and Clinton.
900 by Jacqueline Charles in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. MOVED
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