Category: 1-HeadlineNews

Note: This episode mentions thoughts of suicide. 

Over the last month, the population of Del Rio, Texas, has jumped by half. The reason: refugees, many of them Haitian, have arrived and set up a tent city under a freeway overpass. They’re hoping for a chance to live in the United States, but the Biden administration isn’t so welcoming.

This isn’t anything new for Haitians. For decades, the U.S. has treated them far differently than other migrants from the Western Hemisphere.

Today, we go to the Del Rio camp and hear from Haitians who are staying there. And we dive into this refugee double standard that has immigration activists comparing President Biden to Donald Trump. Our guest is L.A. Times Houston bureau chief Molly Hennessy-Fiske. 

More reading:

U.S. begins removing Haitian migrants, but they continue to flock to Texas border

Confined to U.S. border camp, Haitian migrants wade to Mexico for supplies

Haitian migrants pour out of U.S. into Mexico to avoid being sent back to Haiti

Latinos have long hidden in plain sight in U.S. society. Some do it to lessen the racism they might face from non-Latinos. But there’s another type of whitewashing that’s even more disturbing. It’s when Latinos downplay their distinct identities among themselves or suppress the visibility of fellow Latinos.

Today we talk about the phenomenon of Latino erasure, who does it, why it happens and how it persists. We’ll focus on Culture Clash, the pioneering Chicano comedy troupe. This summer, two of its members “came out” as Salvadoran, not Mexican. 

Our guests:  L.A. Times arts columnist Carolina A. Miranda and Culture Clash members Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza. 

More reading:

Watch “The Salvi Chronicles”

For me, being Latino means living between two worlds

Op-Ed: Why did so few Latinos identify themselves as white in the 2020 census?

Right now, migrant camps are popping up on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. They’re filled with people who escaped dire circumstances in their home countries and seek a chance at officially living in the United States. But the Biden administration is telling these people, much like in the Trump years: Better luck next time.

Today, we launch the first in a two-part series on these camps. We start in Reynosa, Mexico, where about 2,000 Central Americans wait for their U.S. amnesty cases to be heard. Later this week, we’ll head to Del Rio, Texas, where more than 16,000 Haitians have gathered — and are currently getting deported. L.A. Times Houston bureau chief Molly Hennessy-Fiske explains the situation. 

More reading:

Biden vowed to close a border migrant camp, then a worse one emerged under his watch

Supreme Court rules Biden may not end Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy

What’s next for the ‘Remain in Mexico’ immigration policy?

This month, Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in the country. Argentina legalized abortion last December, becoming one of just three countries in Latin America to fully allow it.

Today, we talk about the slow liberalization of abortion rights in Latin America at a time that state governments in the United States have chipped away at access. It’s a dramatic flip of circumstances. L.A. Times Mexico City bureau chief Patrick McConnell and L.A. Times Latin America correspondent Kate Linthicum discuss what we can learn from the situation. 

More reading:

Across Latin America, abortion restrictions are being loosened

Mexico Supreme Court rules abortion is not a crime

Argentina legalizes abortion, a move likely to reverberate across Latin America

No state has lost as much as California in the war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; 776 men and women who called the Golden State home have died — that’s 11% of the nation’s total casualties from the war. Nearly 20% of those Californians who perished were old enough to die for their country but too young to buy a drink. They left behind 453 children. 

For the families — and the state — the loss from the war on terror is incalculable. We spoke to three families about loss, grief and the years that have passed since their loved ones were killed in April 2004.

More reading:

What did California lose in the war on terror?

 More than any other state in the U.S. With prayers and promises, a California city remembers a fallen 

Marine The young Marines wanted to help. They were the last Americans to die in the Afghanistan war

We're delving into the term “Latinx.” Whom does it refer to? Who uses it? And why do people on both the left and the right, Latino and not, get so worked up about it?

Fidel Martinez, who writes the Latinx Files newsletter for the L.A. Times, breaks it down. We’ll also hear from folks who identify as Latinx, and from L.A. Times columnist Jean Guerrero. She used “Latinx” in a tweet recently and has been weathering a backlash ever since.

More reading:

Sign up for our Latinx Files newsletter

Why we chose the name Latinx Files for our new newsletter

Latinx Files: The story behind the name, and why Latinx voters are exhausted

The polls have closed, and even though the votes are still being counted, but the California gubernatorial recall election results seem decisive: Voters said no to recalling Gov. Gavin Newsom.

If the results hold — and it sure looks like they will — Gov. Gavin Newsom will remain in office. Voters rejected the idea that his progressive policies on COVID-19, on climate change, on everything, were ruining the California dream and that someone else on the ballot could do a better job. So ... what’s next for the Golden State? L.A. Times politics reporter Seema Mehta and Sacramento bureau chief John Meyers fill us in. 

More reading:

Newsom soundly defeats California recall attempt

5 takeaways from Newsom’s big win in California’s recall election

Column: The recall was a colossal waste. But don’t expect California’s GOP to learn from it

Over the past couple of years, a slew of weather disasters afflicting the United States have shown how fragile our energy system truly is, from electrical grids to solar panels, wind farms to coal. Add aging infrastructure and a clapback by Mother Nature, and zap: No power. For days.

Today, we convene our monthly Masters of Disasters panel — earthquake and COVID-19 reporter Ron Lin, wildfire reporter Alex Wigglesworth and energy reporter Sammy Roth — to talk about the future of energy in a rapidly warming world.

More reading:

Sign up for our Boiling Point newsletter

Will blackouts be Gavin Newsom’s downfall? A former governor weighs in

Ridgecrest earthquake packed the power of 45 nuclear bombs, but its impact was muted

Packed stadiums. Hard-fought games. Boisterous, mostly maskless fans. The National Football League kicked off its season this past weekend almost as if the coronavirus had never existed. But it didn’t get to this point by ignoring the pandemic — far from it. With careful planning and close attention to who in the league was getting sick, the NFL helped advance science and show us all how to live in a world with COVID-19.

Today, as the 2021 football season begins, L.A. Times reporter Sam Farmer delves into the NFL’s coronavirus experiment: its successes, its failures and lessons for the rest of us.

More reading:

The NFL had a secret COVID-19 plan. Here’s why the league didn’t need it

Five things we learned from behind-the-scenes look at the NFL’s COVID-19 season in 2020

Column: The NFL discovers how to trounce vaccine hesitancy

Twenty years ago, the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on United Airlines Flight 93 killed nearly 3,000 people. It’s a day that launched wars and shifted politics in the United States forever.

It’s also the day that pushed the U.S. Muslim community under a microscope — and has kept them there ever since.

Today, we focus on how 9/11 and its aftermath continue to loom over their lives.

More reading:

20 years after 9/11, an American Muslim recalls the costs of war you didn’t see on TV

Muslim youth in America: A generation shadowed by the aftermath of 9/11

Former Rep. Keith Ellison recalls how political opponents attacked his Muslim faith after 9/11