Midwest

Trump vs. NABJ: Hostility and questions about journalism

Published

2 years ago

August 4, 2024

Trump vs. NABJ: Hostility and questions about journalism

Trump at NABJ: ‘You invited me under false pretense’

Former President Trump says during his appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago that Vice President Kamala Harris has only promoted one side of her heritage and fires back on a DEI question.

There was a fiery test yesterday, not just for Donald Trump but for the National Association of Black Journalists.

The organization, which has “journalists” in its name, did not fare well in my view.

Nor was it Trump’s finest hour.

VANCE BRANDS HARRIS A ‘COWARD’; TRUMP DINGED FOR ‘ATTACKS AND INSULTS’ AS CAMPAIGNS WAR AFTER FIERY EVENT

But I will say this: I don’t buy the post-game commentary that Trump went to the Chicago gathering to appeal to his MAGA base by picking a fight with Black folks.

Keep in mind that when Joe Biden was still running, Trump drawing Black support in the polls at levels not seen for a Republican in decades. Obviously the passing of the torch to Kamala Harris scrambles that calculation.

Trump’s view, as I see it, was that he was stepping into the lion’s den, knowing he’d get some negative questions but hoping he’d get some credit for showing up and highlighting such initiatives as helping finance historically Black colleges and universities.

Former President Trump’s appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention proved testy for both himself and the organization. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

But on the NABJ side, there was something of a revolt at the opportunity to question a former president who heads the Republican ticket.

The group’s co-chair resigned, in part because of the invitation.

April Ryan, who constantly tangled with Trump and is now a White House reporter for The Grio, tweeted that the invite “is an affront to what this organization stands for and a slap in the face to the Black women journalists (NABJ journalists of the year) who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee who is promoting an authoritarian agenda that plans to destroy this nation.”

TRUMP CLASHES WITH ABC NEWS REPORTER OVER ‘NASTY QUESTION,’ BLASTS ‘FAKE NEWS NETWORK’ DURING HEATED Q&A

No bias there, right?

This is how the panel, which included Fox’s Harris Faulkner, began.

ABC’s Rachel Scott didn’t so much ask a question as deliver an indictment.

Trump’s exchange with Rachel Scott of ABC was less of a Q&A than it was a dressing-down by the senior congressional correspondent. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals,” she said. “From Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told former congresswomen of color who were American citizens, to go back to where they came from. You have used words like animal and rabbit to describe black district attorneys. You’ve attacked black journalists, calling them a loser, saying the questions that they ask are, quote, stupid and racist. You’ve had dinner with a white supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort. So my question sir, now that you are asking black supporters to vote for you. Why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that?”

Trump’s response: “Well first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner. First question. You don’t even say ‘hello, how are you?’ Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible network. And I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the black population of this country.”

Trump also said he was invited under false pretenses because he was told he had to be there in person. But yesterday, after rejecting a virtual appearance by Harris, the group changed its mind and allowed it.

WHITE HOUSE FIRES BACK AFTER TRUMP ANSWERS QUESTION ABOUT HARRIS BEING CALLED A ‘DEI HIRE’

Trump’s biggest misstep came after another question by Rachel Scott.

“Do you believe,” she asked, “that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a black woman?”

Trump’s response: “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black?”

Scott interjected: “She has always identified as Black. She went to a historically Black college.”

“I respect either one,” Trump said, “but she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way. And then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went. She became a Black person.”

Questioning the racial identity of a Black woman who went to Howard University is not the way to win friends in that community.

KAMALA RIDES TSUNAMI OF POSITIVE PRESS, BUT SKEPTICS SEE A RISKY CHOICE

But it was not a great day for NABJ either.

Meanwhile, I was scrolling through X the other day – yes, it’s part of the job – and within a couple of minutes came across plenty of controversial past stances by Harris.

“THE ROOT: ’Should black people get reparations?’

“KAMALA HARRIS: ‘There have to be some form of reparations.’”

“Kamala Harris says mandatory gun confiscation is ‘a great idea’ — then says she’ll do it by executive action within her ‘first 100 days.’”

“Kamala Harris Once Pledged To Keep Transgender Criminals Out Of Prison As President”

“Here’s Kamala bragging about her work to ensure ‘every transgender inmate in the prison system’ has access to taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgeries.”

These were originally posted by the RNC, the Trump campaign or conservative groups – but have drawn remarkably little media attention.

Unlike Vice President Harris, Trump has at least demonstrated a willingness to take on the press. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Now this might surprise you – I don’t think most voters particularly care about flip-flops. After all, Donald Trump used to be a Democrat. He used to be pro-choice. He donated money to Harris when she was a California official.

Most Americans want to know what you’re going to do tomorrow, not what you said four or five years ago.

And while the mainstream media don’t much care, it helps to offer an explanation.

When I interviewed Donald Trump, I asked why he had tried to ban TikTok as president and now supports it. He said it would unfairly help Facebook, which people can buy or not, but at least he had a rationale.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES

Harris has made no attempt to do that, in part because she’s basically taking no questions (though she regularly talks to her traveling press corps off the record). That was a major criticism of the president, for reasons we now more fully understand.

And that gave the Trump campaign an opening to counter her taunts on why he won’t commit to debating her:

“It has been ten days since Kamala’s coup to force Crooked Joe Biden off the ballot, but she hasn’t done a single interview nor press conference…The only logical conclusion is that she’s terrified.

“Is Kamala trying to make history as the first major nominee to take zero questions from the press?”

I really hope that’s not the case.

Howard Kurtz is the host of FOX News Channel’s MediaBuzz (Sundays 11 a.m.-12 p.m. ET). Based in Washington, D.C., he joined the network in July 2013 and regularly appears on Special Report with Bret Baier and other programs.

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Illinois

How a clump of moss helped convict grave robbers in Illinois

Published

1 hour ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

How a clump of moss helped convict grave robbers in Illinois

It was a particularly heinous crime. Four workers at a cemetery near Chicago dug up more than 100 bodies and dumped the remains elsewhere in the grounds, in order to resell the burial plots for profit.

Now, nearly two decades after the scandal broke at Burr Oak cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, scientists have released details of how a tiny clump of moss became crucial forensic evidence that helped convict the grave robbers.

Dr Matt von Konrat, head of botanical collections at the Field Museum in Chicago, was drawn into the case in 2009 when he received a phone call from the FBI. “They asked if I knew about moss and brought the evidence to the museum,” he said.

An investigation by local police had found human remains buried under inches of earth at the cemetery, a site of enormous historical importance. Several prominent African Americans are buried at the cemetery, including Emmett Till, whose murder in 1955 became a catalyst for the civil rights movement, and the blues singer Dinah Washington.

Alongside the re-buried remains, forensic specialists spotted various plants, including a piece of moss about the size of a fingertip. Hoping that it would help them crack the case, the FBI asked von Konrat to work out where the moss came from and how long it had been there.

After examining the moss under a microscope and comparing it with dried specimens in the museum’s collection, the scientists identified it as common pocket moss, or Fissidens taxifolius. A survey at the cemetery found that the species did not grow where the corpses were discovered, but was abundant in a lightly shaded area beneath some trees where police suspected the bodies had been dug up. The moss had evidently been moved with the bodies.

But when was the crime committed? The answer lay in a quirk of moss biology. “This is the cool thing about moss,” von Konrat said. “When we’re dead, we’re dead, but with mosses, it’s bizarre. Even when we might think they’re dead, they can still have an active metabolism.” The metabolism drops slowly over time as cells gradually die off.

Emmett Till is among those whose remains are buried in the cemetery. Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

One way to measure moss metabolism is to bathe it in light and see how much is absorbed by the chlorophyll used to make food through photosynthesis, and how much light is re-emitted. The scientists ran tests on the moss found with the bodies, on a fresh clump from the cemetery, and other specimens from the museum’s collection.

“We concluded that the moss had been buried for less than 12 months and that was important because the accused’s whole line of defence was that the crime took place before their employment. They were arguing that it happened years and years earlier,” said von Konrat. Details are published in Forensic Sciences Research.

Doug Seccombe, a former FBI agent who worked on the case and a co-author of the study, said the plant material from the cemetery was “key” to securing the convictions when the case went to trial.

Von Konrat, who is a fan of the BBC forensic science drama Silent Witness, never expected to be working on a criminal case, but now wants to highlight how important mosses might be for forensic investigations. “I had no idea we’d be using our science, our collections, in this manner,” he said. “It underscores how important natural history collections are. We never know how we might apply them in the future.”

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Indiana

Watch Indiana basketball’s Lamar Wilkerson give his mom a Cadillac

Published

1 hour ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Watch Indiana basketball’s Lamar Wilkerson give his mom a Cadillac

Indiana basketball sharpshooter Lamar Wilkerson is known for his generosity.

Upon joining the Hoosiers, he gave a tidy sum of his NIL earnings to his previous program, Sam Houston State.

“I was blessed to be able go from that, from not having a lot, to being here, having a lot more than I even knew what to do with,” Wilkerson said at the time. “I just thought, I can give them this.”

He upped the ante on IU’s Senior Night, giving his mother a Cadillac after the Hoosiers throttled Minnesota.

You could imagine her reaction.

Want more Hoosiers coverage? Sign up for IndyStar’s Hoosiers newsletter. Listen to Mind Your Banners, our IU Athletics-centric podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the latest on IndyStar TV: Hoosiers.

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Iowa

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Published

2 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Iowans who commit multiple serious crimes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a “three strikes” bill passed by House lawmakers.
Republicans said the bill would keep Iowans safe and “prioritize victims and public safety over criminals.”
A nonpartisan state agency says the bill would disproportionately impact Black Iowans and could require the state to spend millions to build a new prison.

Repeat offenders convicted of multiple serious crimes would receive a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a bill passed by House lawmakers.

House lawmakers debated for more than an hour about high costs, lack of prison space and the bill’s impact on Black Iowans before voting 68-23 to pass House File 2542, sending it to the Iowa Senate.

Seven Democrats, including Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.

“It will put public safety first,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “It will ensure that the debt to victims and society is paid. It will prioritize victims and public safety over criminals. It will establish real and effective deterrence that is nonexistent in our current system. It will reduce chaos and violence in our society.”

Here’s what to know about the bill.

What would the House Republican three strikes bill do?

Iowans who accumulate three strikes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, with no parole, under the bill.

That would replace Iowa’s current law that says habitual offenders must serve a minimum three-year prison sentence before they are eligible for parole.

All felonies, as well as aggravated misdemeanors involving sexual abuse, domestic abuse, assault and organized retail theft would be considered level-one offenses that are worth one full strike.

Other aggravated misdemeanors, as well as serious misdemeanors involving assault, domestic abuse and criminal mischief would be considered level-two offenses worth half a strike each.

Lawmakers amended the bill to remove theft, harassment and possession of a controlled substance from the crimes that would count toward a person’s strikes.

And the amendment specifies that the bill would only apply to convictions that occur beginning July 1, 2026.

If someone is arrested and convicted of multiple offenses, only the most serious charge would count towards the defendant’s strikes.

Convictions would not count toward someone’s total if more than 20 years passes between a prior conviction and their current conviction.

Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that only a violent crime would qualify as someone’s third strike, but Republicans rejected the amendment.

“The bill still scores murder, felony embezzlement and felony theft the same, even though they are very different crimes,” Wilburn said. “One point is one point and three gets you 20 years with no ability for parole or judicial discretion.”

Holt said the legislation leaves room for judicial and prosecutorial discretion.

“There are deferred sentences, there are plea bargains,” he said. “There is plenty of opportunity for grace and judicial discretion in the legislation that we are proposing.”

Bill could cost millions, require Iowa to build a new prison, agency says

A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it could cost Iowa nearly $165 million more per year by 2031 based on the cost of housing inmates for longer prison stays.

FY 2027: $33 million
FY 2028: $66 million
FY 2029: $99 million
FY 2030: $132 million
FY 2031: $164.9 million

The agency said if the bill had been in effect between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2025, there would have been 5,373 people who qualified for the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.

“An increase in the prison population due to increased (length of stay) will require the DOC to build additional prison(s),” the agency states. “The size, security and other features that a future prison may require cannot be determined, but costs would be significant.”

The analysis noted that South Dakota appropriated $650 million last fall to build a 1,500-bed prison.

As of March 1, the Iowa Department of Corrections’ website describes the state’s prison system as being overcrowded by 25%, with 8,705 inmates compared to a capacity of 6,990.

The Office of the State Public Defender could see a projected cost increase of $1.6 million due to an increased number of trials resulting from the legislation.

But the agency’s estimates come with a caveat — the Department of Corrections did not respond to its requests for data.

“The LSA has not received a response to multiple requests for information from the DOC,” the note states. “Without additional information, the LSA cannot estimate the total fiscal impact of the bill.”

Holt called the fiscal note “an embarrassment to the Department of Corrections” and “an agenda masquerading as math.”

“It is clear, in my judgment, that because they did not like the legislation they went all out and extreme to create a fiscal note that cannot be taken seriously in its assumptions,” he said. “It assumes that nothing will change, that there will be no deterrent factor and that the numbers will continue as usual.”

Black Iowans would be disproportionately impacted by the law

The Legislative Services Agency analysis says the bill “may disproportionately impact Black individuals if trends remain constant.”

Of the 29,438 people convicted in fiscal year 2025 of felonies and aggravated misdemeanors that constitute a level one offense under the bill, the agency said about 70% were White, 22% were Black and 9% were other races.

Iowa’s overall population is 83% White, 4% Black and 13% other races, the agency said.

It’s not clear how the bill’s impact would change to account for the House amendment removing some crimes from counting towards the three strikes.

“Expanding three-strike laws will intensify disparities — and that’s what this statement shows — by mandating longer sentences, limiting judicial discretion,” Wilburn said. “We already have a habitual offender statute. We already have one in place. We have a 10-year low in recidivism in our correctional system.”

Rep. Angel Ramirez, D-Cedar Rapids, said California’s three strikes law, passed in the 1990s, worsened racial disparities, and “Iowa is about to repeat the same mistake.”

“I urge every member here, do not pass legislation that our own minority impact statement tells us will deepen inequality in our state,” Ramirez said.

Holt said minority communities in Iowa are impacted by crime and that the legislation “will make citizens of all colors safer.”

And he said the minority impact statement “tells only one side of the story, doesn’t it? It tells the criminal’s story. What about the victim’s story?”

“What about the mother who will continue to tuck her kids in at night and read them Bible stories because she never became the next victim of a violent career criminal?” he said. “Where is that data point in the minority impact statement?”

House lawmakers also approved separate legislation that would increase Iowa’s statewide bond schedule, Senate File 2399.

That bill passed on a vote of 74-19.

Iowans could see more information on judges’ rulings

Iowans would have access to more information about judges’ rulings ahead of the state’s judicial retention elections under a separate measure, House File 2719, which passed on a 73-19 vote.

The Iowa secretary of state’s office would be required to publish information including:

The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the state’s bond schedule
The frequency that the judge releases someone on their own recognizance for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense
The frequency that the judge’s final sentence is lower than statutory recommendations or a prosecutor’s recommendations
The number of times the judge issues a deferred judgement, deferred sentence or suspended sentence
The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed on appeal due to abuse of discretion or error of law
The average time it takes the judge to rule on a motion or case
The number of cases the judge has resolved compared to the number of cases on the judge’s docket

The data would have to be displayed with a five-year trend line beginning five years after the bill takes effect.

The Secretary of State’s Office would also be required to maintain a searchable database of all judicial opinions and orders for the judge’s current term and the preceding six years. The decisions would be redacted when appropriate.

And judges would have the opportunity to write a 2,000-word personal statement on their judicial philosophy or data trends present in their rulings.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.

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