Today is Monday, Sept. 16, the 260th day of 2024. There are 106 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 16, 2013, Aaron Alexis, a former U.S. Navy reservist, went on a shooting rampage inside the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people before being fatally shot police.

Also on this date:

In 1810, Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla called on his parishioners to join him in a rebellion against Spanish rule, marking the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence.

In 1893, the largest land run in U.S. history occurred as more than 100,000 white settlers rushed to claim over more than 6 million acres of land in what is now northern Oklahoma.

In 1908, General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant.

In 1940, Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was first elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; he would hold the post for a record 17 years, spanning three separate terms.

In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera officially opened its new opera house at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra.”

In 1974, President Gerald R. Ford signed a proclamation announcing a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft evaders.

In 1982, the massacre of more than 1,300 Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israeli-allied Christian Phalange militiamen began in west Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

In 2007, O.J. Simpson was arrested in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas. (Simpson was later convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was released in 2017.)

In 2018, at least 17 people were confirmed dead from Hurricane Florence as catastrophic flooding spread across the Carolinas.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor George Chakiris is 92.
• Actor Ed Begley Jr. is 75.
• Author-historian-filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. is 74.
• Country singer David Bellamy (The Bellamy Brothers) is 74.
• Actor Mickey Rourke is 72.
• Jazz musician Earl Klugh is 71.
• TV personality Mark McEwen is 70.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount is 69.
• Magician David Copperfield is 68.
• Actor Jennifer Tilly is 66.
• Retired MLB All-Star pitcher Orel Hershiser is 66.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines is 65.
• Singer Richard Marx is 61.
• Comedian Molly Shannon is 60.
• Singer Marc Anthony is 56.
• News anchor/talk show host Tamron Hall is 54.
• Comedian-actor Amy Poehler is 53.
• Singer-songwriter Musiq Soulchild is 47.
• Rapper Flo Rida is 45.
• Actor Alexis Bledel is 43.
• Actor Madeline Zima is 39.
• Actor Max Minghella is 39.
• Rock singer-musician Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 32.
• Actor Chase Stokes is 32.
• Golfer Bryson Dechambeau is 31.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, COLLEEN LONG, MICHAEL BALSAMO and ZEKE MILLER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI said Donald Trump was the target of “what appears to be an attempted assassination” at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, just nine weeks after the Republican presidential nominee survived another attempt on his life. The former president said he was safe and well.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the U.S. Secret Service agents fired at a man pointing an AK-style rifle with a scope as Trump was on the course. Bradshaw said the gunman also had two backpacks hanging on a fence and a GoPro camera, and that he was about 400 yards to 500 yards away from Trump and hiding in shrubbery while the former president played golf on a nearby hole. The person dropped the weapon and fled in an SUV, and was later taken into custody in a neighboring county.

The man who authorities say pointed the rifle and was arrested is Ryan Wesley Routh, three law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The officials identified the suspect to the AP but spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. Authorities are working to determine a motive.

The incident was the latest jarring moment in a campaign year marked by unprecedented upheaval. It occurred roughly two months after Trump was shot during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania, and a bullet grazed his ear. Only a week later, President Joe Biden withdrew from the race.

In an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!”

“Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!” he said.

The golf course was partially shut down for Trump as he played, and agents were a few holes ahead of him when they noticed the person with the firearm, Bradshaw said. There are several areas around the perimeter of the property where golfers are visible from the fence line. Secret Service agents and officers in golf carts and on ATVs generally secure the area several holes ahead and behind Trump when he golfs. Agents also usually bring an armored vehicle onto the course to quickly shelter Trump should a threat arise.

Trump had returned to Florida this weekend from a West Coast swing that included a Friday night rally in Las Vegas and a Utah fundraiser. His campaign had not advised Trump’s plans for Sunday. He often spends the morning playing golf, before having lunch at the club, one of three he owns in the state.

He has had a stepped-up security footprint since the assassination attempt in July. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, a lineup of dump trucks have parked in a wall outside the building. And at outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind an enclosure of bulletproof glass.

Trump was returned Sunday to his private Mar-a-Lago club, where he resides in neighboring Palm Beach, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The White House said President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, had both been briefed and would be kept updated on the investigation. The White House added they were “relieved” to know Trump is safe.

Harris, in a statement said she was “glad” Trump was safe, adding that “violence has no place in America.”

In an X post, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, one of Trump’s top congressional allies, said he had spoken with Trump after the incident and that Trump was in “good spirits” and was “one of the strongest people I’ve ever known.”

Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said the suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or “be on the lookout” alert” detailing the specific vehicle sought, license plate number and occupant description.

Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line o the north.

“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said, “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody.”

Snyder told WPTV that the suspect “was not armed when we took him out of the car.”

The man had a calm, flat demeanor and showed little emotion when he was stopped by police, Snyder said, saying the suspect did not question why he was being pulled over.

“He never asked, ‘what is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it,” Snyder said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has been briefed on the situation and is receiving regular updates about it, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

The post by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office indicated the suspect was apprehended near Palm City, Florida, about a 45-mile drive north of Trump’s golf course. Northbound lanes of I-95 were shut down, the sheriff’s office said.

A message sent to campaign officials seeking information on the security status and location of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, was not immediately returned.

Max Egusquiza, of Palm Beach, described the emergency response outside Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course.

“From what I saw 5 black unmarked SUVs blocked in a grey Mercedes in front of the golf course. There were about 20 or more cop cars flying from nearby streets,” he said.

Trump is supposed to speak about cryptocurrency live Monday night on the social media site X for the launch of his sons’ crypto platform. He’s expected to do that from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The former president is scheduled to return to the campaign trail on Tuesday for a town hall in Flint, Michigan with his former press secretary, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, followed by a campaign rally in New York on Long Island on Wednesday.

At the end of the week, he’s scheduled to attend and address the Israeli-American Council National Summit in Washington, D.C. and on Saturday hold a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Michael R. Sisak in New York, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

Today is Sunday, Sept. 15, the 259th day of 2024. There are 107 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 15, 1963, four Black girls were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. (Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted for their roles in the blast.)

Also on this date:

In 1835, Charles Darwin reached the Galápagos Islands aboard the HMS Beagle.

In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were enacted in Nazi Germany, depriving German Jews of their citizenship.

In 1940, the tide turned in the Battle of Britain in World War II, as the Royal Air Force inflicted heavy losses upon the Luftwaffe.

In 1958, a commuter train headed for New York City plunged into Newark Bay after missing a stop signal and sliding off the open Newark Bay lift bridge, killing 48 people.

In 1959, Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet head of state to visit the United States as he arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

In 1978, Muhammad Ali became the first boxer to capture the heavyweight title three times, winning by unanimous decision in his rematch with Leon Spinks.

In 2008, as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis, Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 in the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Writer-director Ron Shelton is 79.
• Actor Tommy Lee Jones is 78.
• Film director Oliver Stone is 78.
• Football coach Pete Carroll is 73.
• TV personality Lisa Vanderpump is 64.
• Football Hall of Famer Dan Marino is 63.
• Actor Josh Charles is 53.
• Olympic gold medal swimmer Tom Dolan is 49.
• Actor Tom Hardy is 47.
• Actor Amy Davidson is 45.
• Actor Dave Annable is 45.
• Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is 40.
• TV personality Heidi Montag is 38.

Today is Saturday, Sept. 14, the 258th day of 2024. There are 108 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 14, 1901, President William McKinley died in Buffalo, New York, of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin eight days prior; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him, becoming the youngest-ever U.S. president at age 42.

Also on this date:

In 1847, during the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces under Gen. Winfield Scott took control of Mexico City.

In 1861, the first naval engagement of the Civil War took place as the USS Colorado attacked and sank the Confederate private schooner Judah off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.

In 1927, modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in Nice, France, when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of the sports car in which she was riding.

In 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly film star Grace Kelly, died at age 52 of injuries from a car crash the day before.

In 1991, the government of South Africa, the African National Congress and the Inkatha (in-KAH’-tah) Freedom Party signed a national peace pact.

In 1994, on the 34th day of a strike by players, Acting Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced the 1994 season was over.

In 2001, Americans packed churches and public squares on a day of remembrance for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. President George W. Bush prayed with his Cabinet and attended services at Washington National Cathedral, then flew to New York, where he waded into the ruins of the World Trade Center and addressed rescue workers in a show of resolve.

In 2012, fury over an anti-Muslim film ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad sparked violent clashes across the Muslim world.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Walter Koenig (KAY’-nihg) (“Star Trek”) is 88.
• Architect Renzo Piano is 87.
• Basketball Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown is 84.
• Actor Sam Neill is 77.
• Country singer John Berry is 65.
• Actor Melissa Leo is 64.
• Actor Faith Ford is 60.
• Film director Bong Joon-Ho is 55.
• Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is 54.
• Actor Kimberly Williams-Paisley is 53.
• Actor Andrew Lincoln is 51.
• Rapper Nas is 51.
• Olympic gold medal middle-distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj is 50.
• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is 46.
• Chef/TV personality Katie Lee is 43.
• Actor Jessica Brown Findlay is 37.
• NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler is 35.
• Golfer Tony Finau is 35.
• Actor Emma Kenney is 25.

With Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump officially the nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, they will now face off in a high-stakes debate Tuesday on ABC.

The debate will start at 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST.

This is the only confirmed matchup that the candidates have agreed to after several weeks of uncertainty and wrangling. Trump had originally said he would skip the debate but later said he would do it. Since then, there have been arguments over its terms, including whether to mute their microphones.

The debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia was originally going to feature Trump and President Joe Biden, but when the latter dropped out, Harris took his spot. As for any other additional debates, the former president had proposed two additional contests on Sept. 4 on Fox News and Sept. 25 on NBC, but none of those have been confirmed. Meanwhile, Harris said that the two presidential hopefuls could be on the debate stage in October.

That could refer to the vice presidential debates that will pit Democratic running mate Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota against Trump’s pick, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio. CBS will host their exchange of ideas on Oct. 1.

The only other debate so far was when Trump and Biden shared the stage on June 27. In that contest, Biden had a disastrous performance that ignited calls for him to drop out of the race.

With ABC hosting the Sept. 10 debate, the network has turned to ABC News’ Linsey Davis and David Muir as moderators.

Here’s how to watch the debate:

What time is the debate?

The debate will start at 9 p.m. EST Tuesday and is expected to last 90 minutes. It’s being moderated by “World News Tonight” anchor Muir and “Prime” anchor Davis.

What channel is the debate on?

ABC News is carrying the debate live on its broadcast network as well as its streaming platform ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu. Several networks have also agreed to carry the event live.

Where is the debate?

The second general election debate of this cycle is taking place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As was the case for the June debate, there will be no audience present.

Pennsylvania is perhaps the nation’s premier swing state, and both candidates have spent significant time campaigning across Pennsylvania. Trump was holding a rally in Butler, in western Pennsylvania, in mid-July when he was nearly assassinated by a gunman perched on a nearby rooftop. Harris chose Philadelphia as the spot where she unveiled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in August.

In 2020, it was Pennsylvania’s electoral votes that put Biden over the top and propelled him into the White House, four years after Trump won the state. Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots, and the Trump campaign mounted several legal challenges.

Which candidates will be on stage?

Two candidates — Harris and Trump — will be on stage, and it’ll be the first time that they’ve ever met. It’s also Harris’ first debate since 2020, when she and Trump’s running mate — then-Vice President Mike Pence — debated through plexiglass shields during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What are the presidential debate rules?

The current ABC framework for the second debate has the same rules for mic muting, no live audience or written notes.

Bay Area News Group’s Gieson Cacho and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 10, the 254th day of 2024. There are 112 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 10, 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. The proceedings would become a watershed moment in the discussion of sexual harassment when Anita Hill, a law professor who had previously worked under Thomas, came forward with allegations against him.

Also on this date:

In 1608, John Smith was elected president of the Jamestown colony council in Virginia.

In 1846, Elias Howe received a patent for his sewing machine.

In 1960, running barefoot, Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the Olympic marathon in Rome, becoming the first Black African to win Olympic gold.

In 1960, Hurricane Donna, a dangerous Category 4 storm blamed for 364 deaths, struck the Florida Keys.

In 1963, 20 Black students entered Alabama public schools following a standoff between federal authorities and Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace.

In 1979, four Puerto Rican nationalists imprisoned for a 1954 attack on the U.S. House of Representatives and a 1950 attempted killing of President Harry S. Truman were freed from prison after being granted clemency by President Jimmy Carter.

In 1987, Pope John Paul II arrived in Miami, where he was welcomed by President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan as he began a 10-day tour of the United States.

In 2005, teams of forensic workers and cadaver dogs fanned out across New Orleans to collect the corpses left behind by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2008, the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) was powered up for the first time, successfully firing the first beam of protons through its 17-mile-long (27-kilometer-long) underground ring tunnel.

In 2022, King Charles III was officially proclaimed Britain’s monarch in a pomp-filled ceremony two days after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Scientist-author Jared Diamond is 87.
• Jazz/funk musician Roy Ayers is 84.
• Singer José Feliciano is 79.
• Former Canadian first lady Margaret Trudeau is 76.
• Political commentator Bill O’Reilly is 75.
• Rock musician Joe Perry (Aerosmith) is 74.
• Actor Amy Irving is 71.
• Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., is 70.
• Actor-director Clark Johnson is 70.
• Actor Kate Burton is 67.
• Film director Chris Columbus is 66.
• Actor Colin Firth is 64.
• Cartoonist Alison Bechdel is 64.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Randy Johnson is 61.
• Actor Raymond Cruz is 60.
• Rapper Big Daddy Kane is 56.
• Film director Guy Ritchie is 56.
• Actor Ryan Phillippe (FIHL’-ih-pee) is 50.
• Ballerina Misty Copeland is 42.
• Former MLB All-Star Joey Votto is 41.

Today is Monday, Sept. 9, the 253rd day of 2024. There are 113 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 9, 1957, Althea Gibson became the first Black tennis player to win the U.S. National Championships, which is now known as the U.S. Open.

Also on this date:

In 1776, the second Continental Congress formally adopted the name “United States of America,” replacing the “United Colonies of North America.”

In 1850, California was admitted as the 31st U.S. state.

In 1919, about 1,100 members of Boston’s 1,500-member police force went on strike. The strike was broken by Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge with replacement officers.

In 1948, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was declared.

In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction, a measure primarily concerned with protecting voting rights. It also established a Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 1971, prisoners seized control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York, taking 42 staff members hostage and demanding improvements to inmate treatment and living conditions.

In 2022, King Charles III gave his first speech to Britain as its new monarch, vowing to carry on the “lifelong service” of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who died a day earlier.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Singer Dee Dee Sharp is 79.
• Former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann is 75.
• Actor Angela Cartwright is 72.
• Musician-producer Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) is 72.
• Actor Hugh Grant is 64.
• Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., is 61.
• Actor Constance Marie is 59.
• Actor Adam Sandler is 58.
• Actor Julia Sawalha (suh-WAHL’-hah) is 56.
• Model Rachel Hunter is 55.
• Actor Eric Stonestreet is 53.
• Actor Henry Thomas is 53.
• Actor Goran Visnjic (VEEZ’-nihch) is 52.
• Pop-jazz singer Michael Bublé (boo-BLAY’) is 49.
• Actor Michelle Williams is 44.
• Actor Zoe Kazan is 41.
• Soccer player Luka Modrić is 39.
• Country singer-songwriter Hunter Hayes is 33.

Emma Hall | The Sacramento Bee (TNS)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Pit River Tribe elder Theodore Martinez knows more of death than anyone should.

“I want to acknowledge some of the people that have been murdered from my tribe,” Martinez said. “These are all my people.”

Martinez’s family, close friends and members of his tribe are among the more than 150 documented cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis in California. The state has the fifth most unsolved cases involving Native people in the country, and tribal leaders have urged for the crisis to be declared a state emergency.

Earlier this year as he stood on the west Capitol steps, Martinez, with anguish in his eyes, recalled each person he’s lost in his lifetime.

There was Little George Montgomery, who was like a brother to Martinez. He was killed decades ago, with the tribe finding his body dismembered, Martinez said. All they had left to bury was his skull.

There was his own brother, Victor, who Martinez said was killed in 1992.

There was his cousin who lived on the Fort Bidwell Reservation in Modoc County. Martinez said she was found dead, face down in the water of the tribe’s hot springs.

There was Dewey McGarva. At 36, he went missing for more than a year. When his tribe found him, there wasn’t much left, Martinez said.

And then, there was Milton “Yogi” McGarva, who identified as Two-Spirit, a third gender identity for Indigenous people. McGarva was stabbed and fatally wounded in 2020.

“These are things that have gone on historically, throughout my territory,” Martinez said. “None of these things have been investigated. Nothing has been done.”

As Martinez looked upon a crowd of Native Californians, he knew he wasn’t the only one who had lost relatives.

The deaths and disappearances of his relatives have gone unsolved by law enforcement for decades, Martinez said. It’s a pain many families relate to: the feeling of being let down and left without closure.

“We as Native people, we need to help each other. We need to support this movement,” Martinez said. “Because without that support, it’s not going to go very far.”

After feeling neglected by law enforcement, these families have taken matters into their own hands. They offer monetary rewards for anyone with knowledge of their relatives’ whereabouts, carrying posters with their loved one’s faces and names.

They haven’t given up. They all want justice.

Families of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People seek justice

Toni Espinoza, a member of Wilton Rancheria, is the sister of Angel Baby Espinoza, who died on Nov. 18, 2001. Her family believes she was killed.

Toni Espinoza said her sister died following a hit and run on Norwood Avenue in North Sacramento. Her family believes Angel Baby was pushed in front of the car by an ex-partner.

“We want justice. I want to be able to tell her kids who did this to their mom,” Toni Espinoza said, her voice beginning to break. “We have a right to know, everybody has the right to justice.”

Toni Espinoza said she worked with a police detective and allegedly found an eye witness. But the case was deemed manslaughter after three years and not pursued as a murder investigation.

To this day, her family, including Angel Baby’s own five children,still mourn her death. They are left with no answers.

“This is why we do what we can,” Toni Espinoza said. “To spread the word, to say her name, to do marches and hold protests in front of the Capitol so somebody will care.”

Over in Mendocino County, 81-year-old Ronnie Hostler and his family have been searching for his beloved granddaughter, Khadijah Britton, 23, who has been missing for the past seven years. Britton belongs to the Wailaki Round Valley Indian tribes.

Britton was last seen in Covelo, California, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, with an ex-boyfriend forcing her into a car at gunpoint.

While the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was involved in the case, Hostler is unsatisfied. He said Britton’s disappearance wasn’t investigated until two weeks after her family reported her missing. Today, Britton has been deemed a cold case.

Britton’s family is still trying to find herbut at this point, they are looking for her body to bury in the family cemetery.

“We want to find her, wherever she may be, and we want to take care of her,” Hostler said. “That’s what we want right now, and we’re not getting it.”

Tribes face issues with law enforcement

The Sacramento Bee has spoken to, or heard from, 46 families, tribal leaders and experts in Indian Country affected by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis. They identified obstacles preventing cases from getting solved.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases reflect disproportionate rates of violence against Native communities nationwide. Native people are 2.5 times more likely to experience a violent crime, according to the Association on American Indian Affairs.

When cases are reported, there is sometimes no response, little follow through or poor coordination with criminal investigations, said Keely Linton, the operations director for the Strong Hearted Native Women’s Coalition, a nonprofit that supports families with Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases.

Local law enforcement can be slow to respond to calls of crime and are “less attentive to the interests of tribes,” according to the UCLA American Indian Studies Center. Tribal communities also struggle to trust law enforcement.

Erik Apperson, the former Del Norte County sheriff, saw this dynamic firsthand when working on Yurok and Tolowa Dee-ni’ tribal lands. Now retired, he recalled meeting a shocked and grieving mother whose young son was killed by another boy on tribal lands.

Despite the tragedy of a young boy dying that night, the need to bring an offender to justice did not outweigh the absence of ability and desire to pursue the case, Apperson said.

“I believe in my heart that it was a homicide, even if negligence played a part in it,” he said.

Why do Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases go cold?

Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis cases are seven times less likely to be solved than any other ethnic group statewide, according to Sovereign Bodies Institute. As a result, most cases go cold, said Linton, who is Íipay and Cupeno.

Families will often feel stigmatized by law enforcement and are often faced with skepticism due to racist stereotypes. They feel law enforcement is uncaring or that their loved one’s disappearance is minimized.

Racism against Native people can prevent cases from being pursued or taken seriously, said Linton. Officers are not always understanding or trauma-informed about the tribal communities they serve.

As a result, some harbor stereotypical beliefs and prejudices. It’s an issue Greg O’Rourke, the Yurok tribal police chief, faced when he handled a sexual abuse case with his non-Native partner in the his local sheriff’s department.

“I remember very specifically my partner saying ‘do the people on the reservation have kids just so they can molest them?’” said O’Rourke during a hearing on Public Law 280 in March. “This person was a good man, a good cop. But that was the response. How can you provide accurate and humane services when that is the first thing that comes to mind?”

Barriers are also deeply rooted in California’s colonial origins and laws today.

What is Public Law 280?

Enacted in 1953, Public Law 280 requires tribal law enforcement to share criminal jurisdiction with state police agencies, causing overlap and confusion. It’s a law that impeded on Britton’s case being pursued, Hostler said.

“The piece of colonization is still here, embedded with all these laws, all these laws that have moved forward in the state of California,” said Assemblyman James Ramos, D-San Bernardino. “It’s now, recently, that we’re layering back those laws and trying to insert the California Indian voice into it.”

Because of Public Law 280, tribal law enforcement are unable to prosecute non-Native people on tribal land. Tribal police can only arrest and detain non-Natives for “delivery to state and federal authorities,” according to the Department of Justice.

In regards to Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases, it’s often non-Native people perpetrating sexual violence against Native women. Between 86% to 96% of abuse against Native women comes from non-Native offenders, who are rarely punished, the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University found.

How California legislation could help

Tribal police know their communities best, yet they lack the authority of a state officer to investigate murders, said O’Rourke.

This is where Assembly Bill 2138 could provide a solution. This bill, authored by Ramos, would launch a pilot program to grant state peace officer status to tribal police in selected tribal communities from 2025 until 2028.

If passed, this program would go into effect under the Department of Justice. By no later than 2027, the DOJ would submit a report about case clearance rates, including those for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases.

As another way to combat Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases, California passed the Feather Alert in 2022, an emergency notification system similar to the Amber Alert.

But the alert has run into obstacles.

In December, The Bee found that the California Highway Patrol only sent out one Feather Alert. CHP has a history of not issuing alerts tribes requested, either because it did not meet their criteria or for undisclosed reasons. Since then, about 60% of Feather Alert requests have been rejected, according to the Press Democrat.

New amendments have been implemented for the Feather Alert. Law enforcement agencies are now required to respond to requests within 48 hours. If an alert is denied, law enforcement must provide written notice to a government agency or tribe that explains why.

“We’re starting to address and make the alert system stronger,” said Ramos, who is Cahuilla and Serrano.

Tribal leaders have urged more funding toward investigations. In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom awarded almost $20 million in grants to 18 tribes to fund prevention efforts for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases.

Families, meanwhile, called for the convictions of the perpetrators who enact violence against their loved ones. Justice has not been swift for most families, but McGarva’s family did have their call answered. Jarrett Bleu Rucker, the man who killed McGarva, one of Martinez’s relatives, was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison earlier this year.

“The victory and justice for Yogi was not easily won,” said Morning Star Gali, the founder of Indigenous Justice, who assisted McGarva’s family in the criminal justice process. “It was a difficult four years in the making, with his family not knowing when they would be able to breathe a sigh of relief.”

The road to support starts with visibility, priority and mutual respect for California’s first people, Ramos said.

“It’s time that our voices be heard,” Ramos said. “It’s time that our voices and what’s affecting our people doesn’t go in silence.”

The Strong Hearts Native Helpline provides culturally-specific resources for Native Americans experiencing domestic and sexual violence through a helpline 1-844-7NATIVE (762-8483).

©2024 The Sacramento Bee. Visit at sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 3, the 247th day of 2024. There are 119 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 3, 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first person to drive an automobile more than 300 miles-per-hour, speeding across the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Also on this date:

In 1861, during the Civil War, Confederate forces invaded the border state of Kentucky, which had declared its neutrality in the conflict.

In 1894, the United States celebrated the first federal Labor Day holiday.

In 1783, representatives of the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War and recognized U.S. sovereignty.

In 1939, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland; in a radio address, Britain’s King George VI said, “With God’s help, we shall prevail.”

In 1943, Allied forces invaded Italy during World War II, the same day Italian officials signed a secret armistice with the Allies.

In 1976, America’s Viking 2 lander touched down on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the red planet’s surface.

In 1999, a French judge closed a two-year inquiry into the car crash that killed Princess Diana, dismissing all charges against nine photographers and a press motorcyclist, and concluding the accident was caused by an inebriated driver.

In 2019, Walmart said it would stop selling ammunition for handguns and short-barrel rifles, and the store chain requested that customers not openly carry firearms in its stores; the announcement followed a shooting at a Walmart store in Texas that left 22 people dead.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Singer-musician Al Jardine (The Beach Boys) is 81.
• Actor Valerie Perrine is 81.
• Filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet is 71.
• Rock guitarist Steve Jones (The Sex Pistols) is 69.
• Actor Steve Schirripa (TV: “The Sopranos”) is 66.
• Author Malcolm Gladwell is 61.
• Actor Charlie Sheen is 59.
• Filmmaker Noah Baumbach is 55.
• Dance-rock musician Redfoo (LMFAO) is 49.
• Actor Garrett Hedlund is 40.
• Olympic gold medal snowboarder Shaun White is 38.
• Model-actor Kaia Gerber is 23.
• Actor Jack Dylan Grazer is 21.

Today is Monday, Sept. 2, the 246th day of 2024. There are 120 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 2, 2013, on her fifth attempt, U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage.

Also on this date:

In 1666, the Great Fire of London began, which would destroy more than 13,000 homes and hundreds of additional structures, including St Paul’s Cathedral, over the ensuing three days.

In 1789, the United States Treasury Department was established.

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces occupied Atlanta.

In 1935, a Category 5 hurricane slammed into the Florida Keys on Labor Day, claiming more than 400 lives.

In 1945, Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II.

In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, which provided aid to public and private education to promote learning in such fields as math and science.

In 1963, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers.

In 1969, in what some regard as the birth of the Internet, two connected computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, passed test data through a 15-foot cable.

In 1998, a Swissair MD-11 jetliner crashed off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard.

In 2005, a National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled into New Orleans four days after Hurricane Katrina.

In 2018, a huge fire engulfed Brazil’s 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, as firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics.

In 2019, a fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers that was anchored near an island off the Southern California coast; the captain and four other crew members were able to escape the flames, but 34 people who were trapped below died.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Former Sen. Alan K. Simpson, R-Wyo., is 93.
• Horse trainer D. Wayne Lukas is 89.
• Former United States Olympic Committee Chairman and former Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth is 87.
• Football Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw is 76.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Nate Archibald is 76.
• Actor Mark Harmon is 73.
• Tennis Hall of Famer Jimmy Connors is 72.
• Football Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson is 64.
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is 62.
• Actor Keanu Reeves is 60.
• Boxing Hall of Famer Lennox Lewis is 59.
• Actor Salma Hayek is 58.
• R&B singer K-Ci is 55.
• Electronic music DJ/producer Zedd is 35.

Today is Sunday, Sept. 1, the 245th day of 2024. There are 121 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 1, 1985, a U.S.-French expedition located the wreckage of the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean roughly 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

Also on this date:

In 1715, following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days before his 77th birthday; he was succeeded by his five year-old great-grandson, Louis XV.

In 1897, the first section of Boston’s new subway was opened, creating the first underground rapid transit system in North America.

In 1914, the passenger pigeon, once one of the most abundant bird species on earth, went extinct as the last known example, named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.

In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.

In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, an event regarded as the start of World War II.

In 1964, pitcher Masanori Murakami of the San Francisco Giants became the first Japanese baseball player to play in a Major League Baseball game.

In 1969, a coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.

In 1972, American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, as Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigned before the resumption of their 21st and final game.

In 1983, 269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.

In 2004, Islamic terrorists took more than a thousand people hostage in a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia; the siege would end three days later in gunfire and explosions, leaving 334 people dead — more than half of them children.

In 2015, invoking “God’s authority,” Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis denied marriage licenses to gay couples again in direct defiance of the federal courts and vowed not to resign, even under the pressure of steep fines or jail. (Davis would spend five days in jail as a result, and is currently appealing a ruling ordering her to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in related legal fees.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz is 86.
• Comedian-actor Lily Tomlin is 85.
• Singer Barry Gibb is 78.
• Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is 74.
• Singer Gloria Estefan is 67.
• TV host-author Padma Lakshmi is 54.
• Actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira is 53.
• Fashion designer Rachel Zoe is 53.
• Actor Scott Speedman is 49.
• Composer-producer Ludwig Göransson is 40.
• Actor-singer Zendaya is 28.

Fred Clasen-Kelly, Renuka Rayasam | KFF Health News (TNS)

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Blocks from where tourists stroll along the cobblestoned riverfront in this racially divided city, Detraya Gilliard made her way down the dark, ruptured sidewalks of Yamacraw Village, looking for her missing 15-year-old daughter.

Like most other people living in one of the nation’s oldest public housing projects, Gilliard endured the boarded-up buildings and mold-filled apartments because it was the only place she could afford.

Without working streetlights in parts of Yamacraw, Gilliard relied on the crescent moon’s glow to search for her daughter Desaray in May 2022. She passed yards dotted with clotheslines and power lines, and a broken-down playground littered with juice boxes and red Solo cups.

“I happened to look down, and I knew it was her by her feet, by the shoes she had on,” Gilliard said. She was “barely hanging on and she was covered in blood.”

The year before Desaray died, President Joe Biden called for the federal government to spend tens of billions of dollars to fix dilapidated public housing that he said posed “critical life-safety concerns.” The repairs, Biden said, would mostly help people of color, single mothers like Gilliard who work in low-income jobs, and people with disabilities.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that $115 billion is needed to fund a backlog of public housing repairs. But, two years ago, money to fund those repairs became a casualty of negotiations between the Biden administration and congressional lawmakers over the Inflation Reduction Act. Republicans also have blocked efforts to lift 25-year-old legislation that effectively prohibits the construction of additional public housing, despite the catastrophic public health consequences.

Tenants living in derelict housing face conditions that contribute to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, asthma, violence, and other life-threatening risks.

The federal government has a long history of discriminatory practices in public housing. In cities across the country after World War II, Black families were barred from many public housing complexes even as the government induced white people to leave them by offering single-family homes in the suburbs subsidized by the Federal Housing Administration. Starting with the Nixon administration, lawmakers slowed investing in new public housing as more Black families and other people of color became tenants.

Today “residents are facing really terrible choices, or terrible options about their future,” said Sarah Saadian, senior vice president of policy for the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “We got here from Congress really failing to live up to its responsibilities of ensuring that people have access to an affordable, stable home.”

In 2022, an art deco luxury apartment building opened down the street. But little has changed in Yamacraw, which is filled with Black families.

Current and former tenants say the Housing Authority of Savannah, the agency that oversees Yamacraw, has ignored the mold, rats, and roaches that infest the units and sicken residents, and the bullet holes in windows and gunshots that ring through the night. Now they fear the city is using the poor state of Yamacraw as justification to push residents out.

In April, an inspection of Yamacraw apartments conducted by HUD, which oversees taxpayer-supported public housing nationwide, found 29 “life-threatening” deficiencies that pose a high risk of death to residents, according to a preliminary report.

The inspection cited 28 deficiencies it called “severe,” meaning they present a high risk of permanent disability, serious injury, or illness. An additional 195 deficiencies were cited as “moderate” because they could cause temporary harm or prompt a visit to a doctor.

Research links structural racism and disinvestment to chronic gun violence, which has taken a heavy toll on Black neighborhoods and kids such as Desaray. A study of gun injuries in four large cities at the height of the covid-19 pandemic found that Black children were 100 times as likely as white youths to suffer a firearm assault.

Study co-author Jonathan Jay, an assistant professor of community health sciences at Boston University, said most of the country’s gun violence stems from disputes in neighborhoods that lack investment in housing and other public services

“This is about white privilege,” Jay said. “The result is driven by racist policymaking.”

Desaray Gilliard was a high school freshman when she was killed. She loved clothes, music, dancing, and the color pink, her mother said. She planned to go to Italy with her art class. She was excited about learning to drive and getting a job. Desaray had her sights set on attending Ohio State University.

They’d lived in Yamacraw for seven years. The teen’s shooting death remains unsolved.

Gilliard has struggled with thoughts of self-harm, she said. She maintains a memorial with pictures, stuffed animals, and flowers near the spot where she found Desaray’s body.

“I have to remember this is for her,” she said of her middle child’s death, “because nobody else is doing these things for her to keep her memory alive.”

A Broken Promise?

Federally funded public housing must be kept in “decent, safe and sanitary” condition, according to HUD. In 2013, the agency’s then secretary, Shaun Donovan, visited Savannah to announce a program that could give the local housing authority millions of dollars to rehab four public housing complexes, including Yamacraw, which has been among the lowest-rated public housing complexes in Georgia.

The Rental Assistance Demonstration program touted by Donovan did not provide new public money. Instead, it loosened rules to allow local officials to work with private lenders and developers to pay for repairs, transforming public housing complexes into mixed-income developments with Section 8 project-based rental assistance.

Last year, a consultants’ report found a host of problems in Yamacraw, including water leaks and faulty wiring. “The Remaining Useful Life of the Property is estimated to be 0 years,” the consultants wrote. The housing authority wants to demolish Yamacraw and replace it with homes that are “healthier, more energy efficient and accessible,” the report said.

Yamacraw never saw the windfall Donovan promised, current and former tenants said. Even with a housing assistance waitlist of more than 3,000 families in Savannah, records show most of the 315 apartments in Yamacraw sit empty, many with boarded-up doors and windows. Some other public housing developments in the area have been repaired or rebuilt, but except for new roofing added in 2019, Yamacraw has not had a significant renovation in years, according to the consultants’ report.

Rather than repair the units, local officials started a process to tear down the complex, threatening to displace residents who have nowhere else to go in a city where the average two-bedroom apartment rents for more than $1,600 monthly.

Congress has provided less money than was needed over the past 20 years to fix Yamacraw and other public housing complexes nationwide, leaving local agencies in a tough spot, said Earline Davis, executive director of the Housing Authority of Savannah.

The housing authority still plans to demolish Yamacraw and redevelop the property with new affordable housing, she said. Residents fear that they will be pushed out, and that because of its prime location, the redevelopment plans would prioritize apartments that attract people who can afford higher rents.

“Anytime you want to do something to make money — go destroy the historic Black community,” said Georgia Benton, who grew up in Yamacraw. “But ain’t nobody hollerin’ ‘Stop.’”

She and her son LaRay Benton have been fighting the housing authority’s redevelopment plans, which they say could also disrupt the two-century-old First Bryan Baptist Church. Rev. Andrew Bryan, a former enslaved person and ordained minister, founded the church in 1788. He later bought his freedom.

The Bentons and three City Council members went door to door observing the condition of residents’ units. They said plumbing issues caused sewage overflows and leaky faucets, mold tracked across the ceilings, and there were insect and rodent infestations.

Many families said they developed respiratory problems, such as bronchitis and asthma, after they moved in. “It is an unhealthy situation,” LaRay Benton said.

About seven years ago, after his previous Savannah landlord raised the rent, Paris Snead, his wife, and two children found themselves homeless. A nonprofit helped them get into Yamacraw, where rent was $750 a month.

It’s been years since they left. Snead said he still takes a daily allergy pill because he believes he was exposed to mold in his unit, which caused allergy-like symptoms.

“The walls sweat like working men,” Snead said of his former apartment. “The walls will, literally, from the top to the bottom, leak water.”

“When you’re homeless, and you want to be able to have a place for your kids, I mean, you’ll make a home wherever you can,” he said.

Snead said he showed Yamacraw’s management the leaking walls, but they didn’t act.

“The management team there did more to evict people and cause problems than they did to help families and ensure they had a place to stay,” Snead said.

HUD, which conducts periodic inspections at public housing complexes, declined an interview request. The agency referred questions to the Housing Authority of Savannah.

The housing authority’s redevelopment plans have been delayed by HUD’s lengthy approval process, said Savannah Mayor Van R. Johnson II, who appoints people to a five-member board of commissioners that helps oversee the city’s public housing.

He said he met with HUD acting Secretary Adrianne Todman and other HUD officials about housing issues in Savannah.

“People don’t deserve to live like that,” Johnson said.

If Yamacraw is demolished and rebuilt, he said, current tenants will have a chance to return because the homes will be affordable to people with low incomes.

Nobody else is doing these things for her to keep her memory alive.

‘The Worst Experience of My Life’

Yamacraw’s struggles are rooted in century-old policies that have made it difficult for many Black neighborhoods to thrive.

In the 1930s, the federal government’s Home Owners’ Loan Corp. made color-coded maps for Savannah and 238 other cities and labeled redlined areas — usually places where Black people, Jews, immigrants, and Catholics lived — as undesirable for investment.

“The houses are occupied by the lowest class negro tenants,” a government surveyor wrote.

Yamacraw was opened in 1941 as segregated public housing for Black people. Today a health clinic occupies the original administrative building, designed to look like a plantation house.

Despite its problems, Johnson said, some of the city’s most prominent doctors, lawyers, and ministers grew up in Yamacraw.

Former and current tenants said the apartments slowly descended into disrepair.

Each year more than 10,000 public housing apartments across the U.S. become uninhabitable.

Some lawmakers have used the poor state of public housing as justification to refuse lifting a moratorium passed during the Clinton administration that prohibits the construction of additional units, even as the nation’s rental prices — and evictions — soar.

The argument that public housing “doesn’t work” is disingenuous, said Saadian, with the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

“The federal government really failed to invest in public housing, to keep it in good condition, and to keep those communities thriving,” Saadian said, “and in many cases, actively contributed to those communities declining.”

Instead of repairing public housing and building more high-quality units, federal lawmakers promised to provide housing vouchers, commonly known as Section 8, which helps people with low incomes rent privately owned homes. But most people who qualify for vouchers never receive them. Those who do often struggle to find landlords who will accept them, rendering them sometimes worthless.

Three years ago, LaTonya Atterbury was living in hotels north of Atlanta when she was offered a unit in Yamacraw for $511 a month. In August 2021, she moved in with her niece, now 29, and her niece’s son, now 8, relieved to have more stable housing.

But within the first week, she said, a neighbor’s son broke her window and the housing authority charged her $60 to fix it. She said her bathroom is covered in mold and mildew. One day, months after she moved in, Atterbury noticed a hole in her second-story window and saw a bullet on the floor, and realized there had been a shooting overnight. No one was injured, she said, but the bullet hole was only recently fixed — about 2½ years after the incident.

“It’s been the worst experience of my life,” Atterbury said. “Sitting here will make you very depressed.”

Atterbury said she and other residents remain in Yamacraw at least in part because the housing authority has promised vouchers to move elsewhere. Three years later, she is still waiting.

Demolishing and rebuilding Yamacraw could take years.

Davis, the housing authority’s executive director, said her agency has repeatedly told tenants they would be relocated to other public housing complexes or given a Section 8 voucher during construction if they have no lease violations. But residents say they routinely receive lease violations for harmless acts such as broken blinds. LaRay Benton said one resident was cited and fined $75 for leaving a stroller on her front porch while she took her baby inside.

A Mother’s Search

Researchers said that the presence of abandoned buildings can contribute to violent crime by making people feel unsafe and creating a sense of disorder. Studies suggest that razing abandoned buildings and improving green space can reduce it.

“No gun policy is going to work if we don’t fix social infrastructure,” said Jonathan Metzl, director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. “We need investments to make sure communities feel safe. This is not just a public health problem. This is a race problem. This is a democracy problem.”

In recent years, shooting victims or their relatives, including Desaray’s mother, have filed at least three lawsuits against the Housing Authority of Savannah. Those ongoing lawsuits allege the agency failed to take added security measures in its public housing complexes — some of which had fallen into disrepair — despite gun violence and other crimes.

“I don’t know how we can prevent shootings,” Davis said.

Davis declined to comment on the lawsuits. She would say only that her agency has installed cameras in Yamacraw, worked with police, and asked residents to report crime. The actions came after Desaray’s death.

Johnson, Savannah’s mayor, said police have investigated the Desaray Gilliard case, but there are people “who know what happened” and will not talk to officers.

Around 9 p.m. on a Friday night two years ago, Gilliard went looking for her daughter for the second time that night. Desaray missed an 8 p.m. curfew and wasn’t answering her phone.

Gilliard waited for about 30 minutes at a bench near a park in the middle of the complex, hoping Desaray would find her. Then she started to retrace her steps.

Gilliard called 911 after she saw her daughter’s body.

When the police arrived, they made their way through the darkened complex with flashlights, Gilliard said. An officer pulled up Desaray’s shirt and saw a bullet hole in her chest. Gilliard said she later learned from a funeral director that her daughter had been shot three times. She has yet to receive an autopsy report from the police.

Gilliard said “nothing has changed before, since, or after” her daughter’s death.

“It’s been very difficult,” she said. “Sometimes I wanted to give up. I even thought about committing suicide.”

About a month after Desaray died, Gilliard said someone tried to break into her apartment. A couple of weeks later, her request to move to a new complex was finally granted and Gilliard left Yamacraw.

(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Today is Saturday, Aug. 31, the 244th day of 2024. There are 122 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed as the car she was riding in crashed on the Pont de l’Alma bridge in Paris; her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul (who was found to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident) also died.

Also on this date:

In 1881, the first U.S. tennis championships (for men only) began in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1886, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of up to 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people.

In 1962, the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent of British colonial rule.

In 1980, Poland’s Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk (guh-DANSK’) that ended a 17-day-old strike.

In 1992, white separatist Randy Weaver surrendered to authorities in Naples, Idaho, ending an 11-day siege by federal agents that had claimed the lives of Weaver’s wife, son and a deputy U.S. marshal.

In 1994, Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after half a century.

In 2006, Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” was recovered by Norwegian authorities after being stolen nine days earlier.

In 2010, President Barack Obama announced the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, declaring no victory after seven years of bloodshed and telling those divided over the war in his country and around the world: “it’s time to turn the page.”

In 2019, a gunman carried out a shooting rampage that stretched ten miles between the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa, leaving seven people dead before police killed the gunman outside a movie theater in Odessa.

Today’s Birthdays:

• World Golf Hall of Famer Isao Aoki is 82.
• Violinist Itzhak Perlman is 79.
• Singer Van Morrison is 79.
• Rock musician Rudolf Schenker (The Scorpions) is 76.
• Actor Richard Gere is 75.
• Actor Stephen McKinley Henderson is 75.
• Attorney and author Marcia Clark is 71.
• Olympic gold medal hurdler Edwin Moses is 69.
• Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) is 67.
• Rock musician Gina Schock (The Go-Go’s) is 67.
• Singer-composer Deborah Gibson is 54.
• Queen Rania of Jordan is 54.
• Golfer Padraig (PAH’-drig) Harrington is 53.
• Actor Chris Tucker is 53.
• Actor Sara Ramirez is 49.
• Former NFL wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is 41.
• NBA All-Star Jalen Brunson is 28.

The CTA has begun testing technology that uses artificial intelligence to identify guns in its “L” stations.

The technology, from company ZeroEyes, automatically detects guns that have been brandished. Images are sent to a ZeroEyes operations center where they are reviewed by staffers who determine what the object is, then alert relevant authorities like police, CTA officials and Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

The goal, CTA officials said, is to alert police quickly to any situation arising at the transit agency’s stations. Often the alert can be made in under a minute, they said.

The test program comes as the CTA has grappled with concerns about personal safety, both real and perceived, in recent years, and as the use of different types of technology to address public safety concerns has grown. ZeroEyes technology has at times been used on other public transit systems, and the company touts the use of its program in schools, businesses and other places.

But a separate gunshot detection technology used in Chicago, ShotSpotter, became a political flashpoint earlier this year. Supporters have said the technology — which uses audio sensors to determine the location of potential outdoor gunfire, while ZeroEyes relies on images — helps police arrive quicker at crime scenes and helps critical aid reach gunshot victims more quickly. Opponents, including Mayor Brandon Johnson, labeled it a costly impetus for overpolicing, and the mayor has nodded to studies questioning its effectiveness as a tool to curb crime and catch criminals.

ACLU Illinois spokesman Ed Yohnka said technology like ZeroEyes demands transparency from the CTA, and could lay the groundwork for further intrusive technologies to be used. CTA cameras were marketed as a way to make the system safer, but now another technology needs to be added, he said.

“There are solutions to security issues. I’m not sure that an opaque system being marketed by a company to make money, and not done with sort of citizen input as to how it should work and where people want it to work, I’m not sure any of that is the answer,” he said.

On the CTA, information about the prevalence of specifically gun-related crimes, such as the type that could be detected by ZeroEyes, was not immediately available. The CTA referred questions about crime statistics to Chicago police, and the Police Department said Wednesday it could not immediately provide gun-specific statistics.

The department did say 626 instances of violent crime had been reported on the CTA this year through Aug. 27, up from 547 through the same time period last year.

“One gun on the system is too many, which is why we’re interested in exploring ways to increase our safety on top of the measures that are already in place,” CTA spokeswoman Maddie Kilgannon said.

The technology will join the CTA’s use of unarmed security, K-9 teams and Chicago police to patrol the system. The agency has boosted its security spending in recent years as it has added guards and dog teams, budgeting nearly $65.2 million to purchase security services in 2024. Security service spending was running overbudget through June.

The $200,000 ZeroEyes test run, which has been in place for about a month, will run through summer 2025 to start, CTA Vice President of Security Kevin Ryan said. The program uses the CTA’s existing cameras to detect guns once they have been exposed, and is now installed on more than 250 of the agency’s roughly 30,000 cameras, he said.

ZeroEyes is now being used in CTA train stations across the system, though Ryan declined to specify which stations or train lines have the technology, citing security concerns. He anticipates the program will expand if the test run goes well, which will be determined based on whether the technology works as expected, if law enforcement can respond to any gun reports quickly enough to intervene, or if it works as a deterrent to would-be gun carriers.

So far, the program has detected guns carried openly by law enforcement officers and toy guns, including large electronic water guns, he said. ZeroEyes alerted Chicago and CTA officials to the toy guns, noting they were not believed to be lethal weapons, and then it was up to local officials to determine how to respond, Ryan said.

“One of the reasons I really like ZeroEyes is it has a human component to it,” he said. “It’s not relying on AI or computers to completely do the work.”

Ryan, who once worked for the Chicago Police Department, said officers responding to a call of a person with a gun almost always want more information about what they’re heading to. A picture of the person helps them know what to expect, and helps managers know how best to direct their resources, he said.

“Stuff like that, weapons, it doesn’t happen everyday,” Ryan said. “But when it happens, it has big repercussions to public transit for obvious reasons, so I want a way to mitigate that to the quickest extent possible.”

The technology has been used by other transit agencies, including Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which operates a metro, along with buses and regional rail.

But the agency ended a yearlong pilot program with ZeroEyes. The technology wasn’t compatible with SEPTA’s analog cameras, and the agency decided to reallocate funding toward other needs, according to reporting from the Philadelphia Inquirer and the local ABC TV station.

Kilgannon said CTA did not anticipate the same issues. The Chicago agency uses a different camera system that so far has been high-enough quality to be effective, she said.

Jon Healey | Los Angeles Times (TNS)

When news broke that AI-generated nude pictures of students were popping up at a Beverly Hills Middle School in February, many district officials and parents were horrified.

But others said no one should have been blindsided by the spread of AI-powered “undressing” programs. “The only thing shocking about this story,” one Carlsbad parent said his 14-year-old told him, “is that people are shocked.”

Now, a newly released report by Thorn, a tech company that works to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material, shows how common deepfake abuse has become. The proliferation coincides with the wide availability of cheap “undressing” apps and other easy-to-use, AI-powered programs to create deepfake nudes.

But the report also shows that other forms of abuse involving digital imagery remain bigger problems for school-age kids.

To measure the experiences and attitudes of middle- and high-school students with sexual material online, Thorn surveyed 1,040 9- to 17-year-olds across the country from Nov. 3 to Dec. 1, 2023. Well more than half of the group were Black, Latino, Asian or Native American students; Thorn said the resulting data were weighted to make the sample representative of U.S. school-age children.

According to Thorn, 11% of the students surveyed said they knew of friends or classmates who had used artificial intelligence to generate nudes of other students; an additional 10% declined to say. Some 80% said they did not know anyone who’d done that.

In other words, at least 1 in 9 students, and as many as 1 in 5, knew of classmates who used AI to create deepfake nudes of people without their consent.

Stefan Turkheimer, vice president of public policy for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the country’s largest anti-sexual-violence organization, said that Thorn’s results are consistent with the anecdotal evidence from RAINN’s online hotline. A lot more children have been reaching out to the hotline about being victims of deepfake nudes, as well as the nonconsensual sharing of real images, he said.

Compared with a year ago or even six months ago, he said, “the numbers are certainly up, and up significantly.”

Technology is amplifying both kinds of abuse, Turkheimer said. Not only is picture quality improving, he said, but “video distribution has really expanded.”

The Thorn survey found that almost 1 in 4 youths ages 13 to 17 said they’d been sent or shown an actual nude photo or video of a classmate or peer without that person’s knowledge. But that number, at least, is lower than it was in 2022 and 2019, when 29% of the surveyed students in that age group said they’d seen nonconsensually shared nudes.

Not surprisingly, only 7% of the students surveyed admitted that they had personally shared a nude photo or video without that person’s knowledge.

The study found that sharing of real nudes is widespread among students, with 31% of the 13- to 17-year-olds agreeing with the statement that “It’s normal for people my age to share nudes with each other.” That’s about the same level overall as in 2022, the report says, although it’s notably lower than in 2019, when nearly 40% agreed with that statement.

Only 17% of that age group admitted to sharing nude selfies themselves. An additional 15% of 9- to 17-year-olds said they had considered sharing a nude photo but decided not to.

Turkheimer wondered whether some of the perceived decline in sexual interactions online stemmed from the shutdown last year of Omegle, a site where people could have video chats with random strangers. Although Omegle’s rules banned nudity and the sharing of explicit content, more than a third of the students who reported using Omegle said they’d experienced some form of sexual interaction there.

He also noted that the study didn’t explore how frequently students experienced the interactions that the survey tracked, such as sharing nudes with an adult.

According to Thorn, 6% of the students surveyed said they’d been victims of sextortion — someone had threatened to reveal a sexual image of them unless they agreed to pay money, send more sexual pictures or take some other action. And when asked whom to blame when a nude selfie goes public, 28% said it was solely the victim’s fault, compared with 51% blaming the person who leaked it.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 27, the 240th day of 2024. There are 126 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 27, 1883, the island volcano Krakatoa erupted with a series of cataclysmic explosions. The explosions (which could be heard 3,000 miles away) and resulting tsunamis in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait claimed some 36,000 lives in Java and Sumatra.

Also on this date:

In 1894, Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, which contained a provision for a graduated income tax that was later struck down by the Supreme Court.

In 1964, the film “Mary Poppins” had its world premiere in Los Angeles, California.

In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three other people, including his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas, were killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion claimed by the Irish Republican Army.

In 1982, Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A’s stole his 119th base of the season, breaking Lou Brock’s single-season stolen base record. (Henderson would finish the season with a still-unmatched 130 stolen bases.)

In 1990, blues musician Stevie Ray Vaughn and four others were killed in a helicopter crash near East Troy, Wisconsin.

In 2001, Israeli helicopters fired a pair of rockets through office windows, killing senior PLO leader Mustafa Zibri.

In 2005, coastal residents jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to avoid Hurricane Katrina, which was headed toward New Orleans.

In 2008, Barack Obama was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Denver, becoming the first Black presidential nominee from a major political party.

In 2011, Hurricane Irene made landfall in the United States; the storm would be responsible for 49 total deaths and more than $14 billion in damage.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Author William Least Heat-Moon is 85.
• Actor Tuesday Weld is 81.
• Former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., is 81.
• Actor G.W. Bailey is 80.
• Rock musician Alex Lifeson (Rush) is 71.
• Actor Peter Stormare is 71.
• Rock musician Glen Matlock (The Sex Pistols) is 68.
• Golfer Bernhard Langer is 67.
• Gospel singer Yolanda Adams is 63.
• Fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford is 63.
• U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines is 55.
• Actor Chandra Wilson is 55.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Thome is 54.
• Rapper Mase is 49.
• Actor Sarah Chalke is 48.
• Actor Aaron Paul is 45.
• Actor Patrick J. Adams (TV: “Suits”) is 43.
• Singer Mario is 38.
• Actor Alexa PenaVega is 36.
• Singer-songwriter Kim Petras is 32.
• U.S. Olympic and WNBA basketball star Breanna Stewart is 30.
• Rapper/singer-songwriter Rod Wave is 26.

Today is Monday, Aug. 26, the 239th day of 2024. There are 127 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 26, 1944, French Gen. Charles de Gaulle braved the threat of German snipers as he led a victory march in Paris, which had just been liberated by the Allies from Nazi occupation.

Also on this date:

In 1939, the first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS: a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The Reds won the first game, 5-2, the Dodgers the second, 6-1.

In 1958, Alaskans went to the polls to overwhelmingly vote in favor of statehood.

In 1968, the Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago; the four-day event that resulted in the nomination of Hubert H. Humphrey for president was marked by a bloody police crackdown on antiwar protesters in the streets.

In 1972, the summer Olympics opened in Munich, West Germany.

In 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani (al-BEE’-noh loo-CHYAH’-nee) of Venice was elected pope following the death of Paul VI. The new pontiff, who took the name Pope John Paul I, died just over a month later.

In 1980, the FBI inadvertently detonated a bomb planted at Harvey’s Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada while attempting to disarm it. (The hotel had been evacuated and no injuries were reported.)

In 1985, 13-year-old AIDS patient Ryan White began “attending” classes at Western Middle School in Kokomo, Indiana via a telephone hook-up at his home, as school officials had barred White from attending classes in person due to his illness.

In 2009, kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard was discovered alive in California after being missing for more than 18 years.

In 2022, an affidavit released by the FBI showed that 14 of the 15 boxes recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate contained classified documents, many of them top secret, mixed in with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence.

Today’s Birthdays:

• John Tinniswood, the world’s oldest verified living man, is 112.
• Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is 79.
• R&B singer Valerie Simpson (Ashford & Simpson) is 78.
• Broadcast journalist Bill Whitaker is 73.
• Puzzle creator/editor Will Shortz is 72.
• Jazz musician Branford Marsalis is 64.
• Actor-singer Shirley Manson (Garbage) is 58.
• Actor Melissa McCarthy is 54.
• Latin pop singer Thalia is 53.
• Actor Macaulay Culkin is 44.
• Actor Chris Pine is 44.
• Comedian/actor/writer John Mulaney is 42.
• Country musician Brian Kelley (Florida Georgia Line) is 39.
• NBA guard James Harden is 35.
• Actor Dylan O’Brien is 33.
• Actor Keke Palmer is 31.

Today is Sunday, Aug. 25, the 238th day of 2024. There are 128 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On August 25, 1916, Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act, establishing the National Park Service as an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior to maintain the country’s natural and historic wonders and “leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

Also on this date:

In 1875, Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, crossing from Dover, England, to Calais (ka-LAY’), France, in under 22 hours.

In 1928, an expedition led by Richard E. Byrd set sail from Hoboken, N.J., on its journey to Antarctica.

In 1944, Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation during World War II.

1948 – In the House Un-American Activities Committee’s first televised congressional hearing, Alger Hiss denied charges by Whittaker Chambers that Hiss was a communist involved in espionage. (Hiss was later charged with perjury and sentenced to five years in prison, but maintained his innocence until his death in 1996.)

In 1981, the U.S. spacecraft Voyager 2 came within 63,000 miles of Saturn’s cloud cover, sending back pictures of and data about the ringed planet.

In 2001, R&B singer Aaliyah (ah-LEE’-yah) was killed with eight others in a plane crash in the Bahamas; she was 22.

In 2012, Neil Armstrong, 82, who commanded the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing and was the first man to set foot on the moon in July 1969, died in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, made landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, with 130 mph sustained winds; the storm would deliver five days of rain totaling close to 52 inches, the heaviest tropical downpour that had ever been recorded in the continental U.S.

In 2020, two people were shot to death and a third was wounded as 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle during a third night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake. (Rittenhouse, who was taken into custody in Illinois the next day, said he was defending himself after the three men attacked him as he tried to protect businesses from protesters; he was acquitted on all charges, including homicide.)

In 2022, regulators approved California’s plans to require all new cars, trucks and SUVs to run on electricity or hydrogen by 2035.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Tom Skerritt is 91.
• Former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Wright is 89.
• Author Frederick Forsyth is 86.
• Film director John Badham is 85.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers is 78.
• Rock musician Gene Simmons (Kiss) is 75.
• Rock singer Rob Halford (Judas Priest) is 73.
• Musician Elvis Costello is 70.
• Film director Tim Burton is 66.
• Country musician Billy Ray Cyrus is 63.
• Actor Blair Underwood is 60.
• NFL Hall of Famer Cornelius Bennett is 59.
• DJ Terminator X (Public Enemy) is 57.
• Singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) is 57.
• Television chef Rachael Ray is 56.
• Country singer Jo Dee Messina is 54.
• Model Claudia Schiffer is 54.
• NFL Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison is 52.
• Actor Alexander Skarsgard is 48.
• Actor Kel Mitchell is 46.
• Actor Rachel Bilson is 43.
• Actor Blake Lively is 37.
• Actor China Anne McClain is 26.

CHICAGO — For University of Illinois Chicago visiting senior research specialist T. Chedgzsey Smith-McKeever, creating a path to higher education became a road to debt.

Her San Diego beginnings led to stints at the University of California at Irvine and the University of Southern California, and ended with a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. But Smith-McKeever, who had been diagnosed with diabetes at age 13, had to juggle school debt with paying out of pocket for her preexisting condition.

In between her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, she defaulted on her student loans.

“I got out of undergrad owing around $15,000,” she said. Then Smith-McKeever became pregnant. “That was my great motivator. What killed me was getting my master’s degree because I’m paying for me to survive, for my daughter to survive. The tuition was outrageous. I went from owing $15,000 to $120,000.”

She remembers being in and out of homelessness even with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. “I knew I had to get more education,” she said, “otherwise there is no way I’m going to be able to take care of this child.”

Smith-McKeever got lucky when a friend offered her late mother’s home as a place for her to stay. Without having to pay rent, she saved enough money to get out of default to continue her education. Once she got her master’s degree, a job at the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services adoption division allowed Smith-McKeever to be able to afford rent for a studio apartment and child care.

Although she was able to manage things, her student loan payments were $1,200 a month. It was a number that she didn’t even share with her spouse.

“It was killing me,” said the social work educator and researcher, who moved to Chicago in 2002.

She managed to get that number down to $560 per month by negotiating with her lender and demonstrating with her income tax returns that much of her income was consumed by medical expenses.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m paying $560 if I owe over $200,000,” the Evergreen Park resident said. “You’re not paying as much, but you’re seeing that interest accumulate. It’s terrifying because it’s just getting bigger and bigger.”

So she Googled “help with managing my student loan debt” and was pointed to the Chicago law firm of Rae Kaplan. Smith-McKeever had spent nearly 20 years working at public universities and struggling to get her loans forgiven. But after working with Kaplan for a few years, Smith-McKeever finally received a letter in the mail saying, “your debt of $274,000 is forgiven.”

“I have an autoimmune disease; I don’t have a strong immune system,” Smith-McKeever said. “Between the end of COVID and now, like a year ago, I lost my right leg. I’ve had setback after setback. However, I believe the weight that retiring that student loan debt took off me, the psychological emotional stress that it removed from me really helped me be able to get through this challenge of losing my leg.”

Kaplan Law Firm was solely working on bankruptcies until 2014, when Kaplan decided to focus on helping people with student loan debt.

“We still practice bankruptcy law, but our student loan practice has eclipsed what the bankruptcy practice ever was. There are so many more people who need answers on their student loans and don’t need a bankruptcy,” Kaplan said. “If you forgive $40,000 or $50,000, for a middle-class family, that’s life-changing.”

The Kaplan Law Firm helps individuals and families understand the educational loan process before and after they sign the loan papers. Kaplan and her team help determine the best course of action for limiting and eliminating student loan debt. In most cases, Kaplan said, the federal loan monies taken out will be eligible for a type of income-driven repayment plan provided by the United States Department of Education.

Kaplan analyzes each client’s loans, federal and private, and if they are private, Kaplan goes over best strategies to reduce payments and get maximum loan forgiveness.

“For private loans, we’re looking at whether or not the best options are refinancing because in many cases, the borrower will have taken out a high interest loan that really just needs to be refinanced and that will do a lot to lower their payments and reduce the amount that they pay back overall on that loan,” Kaplan said. “If those private loans are already in default, then we can negotiate a reduced balance settlement. Very often you can get the creditor to agree to a 50% settlement. That’s a big money saver.”

Whether it’s a parent curious about taking out Parent Plus Loans for their child, a high school student who has plans for their major and career, or a person who has been paying their student loan for 10 to 25 years, Kaplan said she can be of assistance.

She said the student loan process is confusing. Kaplan spoke of an attorney who owed six figures in student loans but got confused by the information and misinformation about student loan debt. So she came to Kaplan, who got her enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan, an initiative of President Joe Biden’s administration that went into effect this year. It is an income-driven repayment plan that calculates a monthly payment based on income and family size. The attorney is now paying $180 per month under the repayment plan and Kaplan said the woman is going to wind up paying back about $25,000 of her loans and then the remaining balance will be forgiven.

“If you know what you’re doing when it comes to your student loans, you can save so much money, but the key is you have to know the system and understand how it was set up and how it works and how that applies to you and to your loans because it’s a very fact-specific situation,” Kaplan said. “There is a lot of information out there, but it’s still confusing because there are different types of loans and the law applies to them differently depending on your circumstances. Some people are going to have to pay back their loans in full. Those are usually high-income earners … but you might still be able to get some forgiveness of the interest that accrues. The interest is a killer, because it starts accruing as soon as the loans are disbursed to your school. Most people don’t know that and they’re shocked when they come out of school … and then they see the balance has doubled and tripled.”

Kaplan said having a servicer provide incorrect information can add to the frustration. She has been on the phone with servicers for hours on behalf of her clients and then the call drops; she’s also had servicers incorrectly calculate monthly payments.

“The servicers are not there to help you,” she said. “They’re just there to keep track of your payments and keep your loans out of default. So they very often will tell people, OK, you’re having trouble making payments, let’s put the loans into forbearance when that’s very often the wrong thing to do because interest is then accruing and capitalizing, so it’s increasing the balance. And during that time, maybe that person was eligible for a $10 monthly payment plan that would get them further on track for forgiveness.”

Despite a recent federal stay on the SAVE plan, Kaplan is a big proponent of the plan because most people will have their payments reduced by 50% just by enrolling, she said. The plan also has a 100% interest subsidy, which means any interest that accrues gets waived by the Department of Education. Before July, over 5,500 Illinoisans were identified for loan forgiveness with the SAVE plan, amounting to $43.8 million.

Even though there is litigation challenging whether the Biden administration had authority to create the plan under the Higher Education Act, Kaplan said she thinks SAVE will survive. But in the interim, there are other income-driven plans that are “very reasonable and based on a percentage of the borrower’s income … usually 10% to 20%,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan counsels borrowers before they take out loans so they don’t upend their financial futures. “For student loans, it requires careful planning and knowledge so that you pay what you’re supposed to pay, but again, not more than you’re supposed to pay. And there is tremendous relief available; you just have to know how to access it,” Kaplan said.

After a 45-year career in the shoe industry, Homewood resident Marc Atkins endured a deep vein thrombosis in his left leg in 2020. When the world was reopening after lockdown and the possibility of going back to his job at Nordstrom in women’s shoes was an option, he opted to take early retirement. But student loans in the amount of $232,195 loomed for the DeVry graduate. He, too, Googled student loan attorneys and found Rae Kaplan.

“That was the only thing on my credit report … two loans that came to about $165,000 or something like that collectively, but the interest is what shot it up,” said Atkins, 66. “Interest alone was soaking up any payments I was able to make. I knew there was no way I was gonna be able to take on (student loan payments) dealing with my monthly living expense. … I’m retired and on a fixed income; it was not feasible that I could deal with that included.”

Within months of touching base with Kaplan, Atkins had all of his student loans forgiven. “My stress level is pretty much zero. … I’m at peace … living life, being comfortable,” the 66-year-old said.

Since then, Atkins has referred former co-workers and residents in his building to Kaplan, whose fees start at $350 for a consultation. After that, the range depends on how much work is involved in the case, which can start at $1,500 and go up to $3,500. But Kaplan says she does many pro bono cases when a client isn’t in a position to pay.

Education used to be the great equalizer, said Smith-McKeever, whose daughter signed up for the SAVE Plan. “But the cost of education has gone so far out that it seems a trap,” Smith-McKeever said. “It’s crazy how expensive it’s gotten, but there’s an out, there’s a secret: It’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness and income-driven repayment plans.”

The educator has since told many students about Kaplan’s expertise. Her rationale: A cost of hundreds now is better than thousands of dollars down the road. Kaplan is trying to line up free seminars at area schools and institutions so more people are privy to the details of debt relief.

“Every Black, brown and Indigenous person needs to know not to let the cost of college be a barrier, because there’s a way out of the debt,” Smith-McKeever said. “Our lives are overwhelming. Having somebody to send you the paperwork, so you don’t get caught up, and you get out of (debt) and live your life in the process … that’s the drum that I’ve been beating.”

It’s also a drum that a number of other services have been beating for years. The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, the state’s college access and financial aid agency, offers free help with college planning and financial aid.

The Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Northern Illinois, a nonprofit credit counseling agency, has been helping with debt management for over 40 years. And the nonprofit Institute of Student Loan Advisors was started in 2018 by Betsy Mayotte, a former compliance officer at a nonprofit student loan organization, because she wanted an avenue for people who needed help with their student loans.

“I’ve researched the Higher Education Act and the history of student loans back to the ‘70s, and I can say unequivocally that I’ve never seen a period of time in student loans like this, sort of chaotic,” said Mayotte, who is based in Massachusetts. “It’s become really difficult to try to advise someone what to do because this is uncharted territory.”

Donna Rasmussen, executive director at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Northern Illinois, said that when people think they’re getting in trouble with their student loans, they should contact their loan servicer to work out feasible options for repayment. She also recommends families seek out a counselor’s help at a nonprofit credit counseling agency when their child is in high school to start planning their higher education goals and how much in loans one needs.

“What we try and put in their head is that whatever you think you might be making your first year at your career out of college — that entire year of your income — that’s about the amount of student loan debt that we recommend people take,” Rasmussen said. “Don’t take more.”

She added that although occasionally there’s assistance for loan repayment or forgiveness, it’s not always an option. So if you’re taking on debt, you want to make sure that you have the capacity to pay it back. That’s why her firm helps people with budgeting plans to make sure they can do that.

Ana Moya, an ISAC professional development specialist, recommends not taking out the maximum amount of loans, even if they’re offered to you. Take only what you need, she said. And figure out how much you need by filling out the FAFSA, the application for federal, state and institutional aid, or if you are an eligible undocumented student, the Alternative Application for Illinois Financial Aid. The FAFSA is not just for loans, but also scholarships and grants. And check student loan forgiveness programs for certain professions prior to enrolling in higher education as it could affect your college planning.

“On our website, we have a ton of information,” Moya said. “If you go to any of our webinars, and you’re like ‘Would I qualify for this program?’ we can ask you a set of questions to see if you’re on the right track and what questions you should be asking the servicer, since we don’t have direct access to your loans.”

Smith-McKeever said she had planned to go into the Navy and have that pay for her education, but the diabetes diagnosis derailed that plan. While paying her student loans, her living expenses and health care expenses, she hasn’t been able to accumulate wealth, but she’s looking forward to breathing a bit easier without the suffocating debt.

Kaplan said that although the Biden administration has done a lot to make the student loan process easier, there’s still a long way to go in terms of educating borrowers. “I have a lot of clients who are doctors, lawyers, financial planners, and none of them have any idea how to approach student loans,” Kaplan said. “I like being able to help people and take that stressor off their shoulders.”