The washington post: College newspaper reporters are the journalism heroes for the pandemic era

In New York, it was the Washington Square News that first reported a covid-19 outbreak in a college dorm. In Gainesville, Fla., the Alligator is the newspaper that has been painstakingly updating a map of local cases. And the Daily Gamecock alerted the public to the ways that University of South Carolina officials were withholding information about covid-19 clusters.

While the pandemic economy has devastated the local news business, there remains a cadre of small newspapers that are more energized than ever, producing essential work from the center of the nation’s newest coronavirus hot spots. Those would be college newspapers, whose student journalists have been kept busy breaking news of campus outbreaks, pushing for transparency from administrators and publishing scathing editorials about controversial reopening plans.

“I do feel and I know the staff feels a sense of responsibility,” said Jacob deCastro, editor in chief of the Indiana Daily Student at Indiana University. “We want to make sure people know what’s going on both on-campus and off-campus so they can make informed choices. We also want to hold the university accountable in keeping students safe and making sure they’re using our tuition dollars to keep us safe, to keep the community safe.”

Working for a college newspaper is a rite of passage for many budding journalists, who get hands-on experience in the kind of reporting and editing they learn about in classrooms. But the pandemic has also demonstrated how valuable this brand of journalism is for the broader public. 

Student-run newspapers have been reporting about the prevalence of covid-19 at fraternity and sorority houses, in campus residences halls and among student athletes. Professional media outlets have been crediting them for scoops, like the one at NYU. And student newspaper editorials taking school administrators to task for reopening plans — like Notre Dame’s the Observer’s front-page editorial titled “Don’t make us write obituaries" and the University of North Carolina’s Daily Tar Heel’s f-bomb headline — have made national news.

“If we weren’t covering these efforts and if we weren’t diving deeper into these issues — I shudder to think about it,” said Elizabeth Lawrence, editor in chief of the Michigan Daily, which has extensively covered covid-19 strikes by graduate students and resident advisers at the University of Michigan, where testing is limited. “The fact that we’re able to keep the conversation on this and really bring it to so many people, is part of the reason the university just feels it needs to respond to it.”

UNC-Chapel Hill’s student newspaper sums up school’s coronavirus policy with an f-bomb The Michigan Daily had been the only daily newspaper in Ann Arbor for the past decade, but this semester they’ve cut back to printing a physical newspaper just once a week. It’s a move other college newspapers have made because of pandemic-related declines in ad revenue.

But that doesn’t mean they are cutting back on coverage, as they keep up with issues including anti-racism protests and campus preparations for Election Day. The Alligator at the University of Florida has even added new beats to cover the Gainesville area. While the city has a professional daily newspaper, its staff is relatively small, while the Alligator has nearly 60 people on staff, and “we can fill in a bunch of gaps,” said editor in chief Kyle Wood.

“We’re doing our best to hold the university accountable if and when that’s necessary" he added, as well as disseminating campus covid-19 information. "But one of our focuses this semester is not to sacrifice any coverage of the university and also expand out into the community. We’re trying to become the community newspaper.”

The contracting media industry has left few local outlets with dedicated higher-education reporters, leaving student journalists as “really the best watchdogs” in this moment, said Frank LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida."They’re the ones who are going to get the invites to parties, and they’re the ones whose friends are going to be reporting symptoms, and they’re following all the right people on social media, so they know first when there’s an outbreak or when there are unsafe conditions."

The coronavirus crisis is devastating the news industry. Many newspapers won’t survive it. Readers are responding. College newspaper websites are breaking online readership records with stories for students, faculty — and, increasingly, parents who are "sending their students off and they’re really not getting that many answers from the university,” said the Daily Gamecock editor in chief Erin Slowey.

Her reporters’ biggest challenge is “not being able to get people on the record” for stories about the pandemic. “People are very fearful over their jobs, whether they work in housing or had an experience in the quarantine dorm.”

Indeed, one of the main setbacks facing student journalists is accessing public information about covid-19. Universities have often cited the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law protecting student education records, “as an excuse to not release data that should be released,” said Hadar Harris, executive director of the Student Press Law Association. Her organization is also hearing from student journalists who are “seeing a slowing down, if not complete cessation, to open records requests.” Universities can’t use privacy laws to withhold data on coronavirus outbreaks, experts say

College newspapers have long been filled with journalists who sometimes think of the school newspaper as their actual major. The pandemic has pushed these students to work even harder, as they juggle reporting duties with the same concerns facing the rest of the student body, from navigating the complex maze of in-person and virtual classwork to financial troubles. And then there’s mental and emotional toll of covering a pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 people in the United States. “I’ve been doing a lot of our updates on testing data, and seeing those numbers at times can be overwhelming,” said Matt Cohen, enterprise reporter for the Indiana Daily Student.

Still, Cohen and his peers, like their professional journalism colleagues, talk about their sense of duty and drive in covering the biggest news story of their lifetimes. “IU is one of the larger campuses in the United States, and having this many students back in person for classes is a big deal,” Cohen said. “Telling the stories of what’s going on so people can have a sense of this is something that impacts everyone’s lives.”

New York seeks to break up National Rifle Association, alleging financial mismanagement

New York state's attorney general sued to dissolve the National Rifle Association on Thursday, alleging senior leaders of the non-profit group diverted millions of dollars for personal use and to buy the silence and loyalty of former employees.

The lawsuit announced by Attorney General Letitia James alleges NRA leaders paid for family trips to the Bahamas, private jets and expensive meals that contributed to a $64 million (USD) reduction in the NRA's balance sheet in three years, turning a surplus into a deficit. In announcing the lawsuit, James told reporters the NRA "has operated as a breeding ground for greed, abuse and brazen illegality." At the same time, the attorney general for Washington, D.C., filed suit against the NRA and its foundation, alleging the misuse of charitable funds and wasteful spending.

The confrontation pits James, a Democrat, against the largest and most powerful gun organization in the United States, one that is closely aligned with President Donald Trump's Republican Party.

Briefing reporters, James denied the suit was motivated by the NRA's support for Trump. "This was an investigation that started in 2019 until this day. It's based on the facts. We follow the facts and the law and we come to conclusions of law."

The action is certain to further polarize a country where the NRA is revered by conservatives as a champion of the U.S. Constitutional right to keep and bear arms and vilified by liberals as an enabler of rampant gun violence. "The NRA's influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets," James said. "For these years of fraud and misconduct, we are seeking an order to dissolve the NRA in its entirety."

The NRA, which teaches gun safety in addition to advocating laws making it easier for Americans to own guns and ammunition, is subject to New York law because it is registered as a non-profit organization in New York, where it conducts most of its financial transactions. NRA national headquarters are in Fairfax, Virginia, about 20 miles (30 km) west of Washington, D.C.

The NRA branded the lawsuit a "baseless, premeditated attack" and a "power grab" tied to the Nov. 3 U.S. election. "We not only will not shrink from this fight - we will confront it and prevail," NRA President Carolyn Meadows said in a statement. New York state and the NRA have tangled before. The state has taken legal action against NRA-branded insurance policies sold to gun owners, and the NRA is suing the state for closing gun stores under an executive order to halt the spread of COVID-19.

The latest lawsuit names the NRA as a whole and four senior executives of the group including Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president who has been atop the leadership for decades.

It also names former Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Wilson Phillips, former Chief of Staff and Executive Director of General Operations Joshua Powell, and Corporate Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer.

The suit charges the NRA with "awarding contracts to the financial gain of close associates and family, and appearing to dole out lucrative no-show contracts to former employees in order to buy their silence and continued loyalty," James's office said in a statement.

"The failure of the NRA to comply with multiple fiduciary responsibilities and state and federal laws resulted in the NRA seeing substantial losses on its balance sheet: going from a surplus of $27,802,714 in 2015 to a net deficit of $36,276,779 in 2018 - contributing to a total loss of more than $64 million in just three years," the statement said.

In addition to attempting to close down a group that has existed since 1871, James seeks to recover millions of dollars in lost assets and to stop the four executives from serving on he board of any other not-for-profit group in the state. James said, "We've come to the conclusion that the NRA, unfortunately, was serving as a personal piggy bank to four individual defendants."

'We should be able to protect ourselves'- memberships in NY Black gun club on the rise

Monroe, US: At 61-years-old Margaret Powell of El Dorado, Arkansas said she never thought she would want to own a gun...until now.

"At 61 years, I've not needed it, not ever thought of it. I would say 'Get the guns away. no, no no'. But now my views have changed because I guess the world is changing right before our eyes," Powell said just days before she was due to take her first gun safety class. "It's like we're going back in time to maybe the Wild, Wild West or something. Everybody has to have...has a gun. So, you know, It's shocking that at my age, I would be interested in something like this. It's amazing."

Powell is not alone. The insecurity brought by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns combined with the anger following the death of George Floyd in police custody in May has lead to a higher levels of anxiety, fear and gun ownership, especially among African Americas. According to the National African American Gun Association (NAAGA) gun ownership among Black people is growing.

Founded in Atlanta in 2015, NAAGA started with 30 members. The organization now has 75 active chapters and more than 30,000 members, according to its website. NAAGA's founder Philip Smith said more than 2,000 people joined the group in the 36 hours after the death of George Floyd.

Membership also has grown in New York's Hudson Valley. Nubian Gun Club founder Damon Finch said the group started earlier this year with "a couple of people getting together."

"Our membership almost every night is doubling, tripling. It's just amazing how many people are now joining a group," said Finch, a firearms instructor.

He added, "When asking people why did you join a club, the common denominator that we're hearing is obviously safety, improve the ability to shoot, but also with what's going on in the world, they just want to at least have a game plan for them to protect their families." African Americas are not the only ones considering gun ownership.

Gun sales in June were the highest on record with 3.9 million firearms sold, according to calculations from the Brookings Institution. And gun retailers report about 40% of purchases coming from first-time buyers, according to the trade group the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

According to FBI statistics, the first spike in gun sales came in March after U.S. President Trump declared a national COVID-19 emergency. The week of March 16 saw the highest ever number of background checks for people wanting to purchase a firearm since the government began compiling statistics in 1998. The second highest week for background checks started June 1, following the death of George Floyd. "There's a lot of racial tension. There's a lot of divide in almost every arena that you can think of," said Powell in Arkansas.

Such tensions have galvanized groups such as Black Guns Matter which advocated for African American gun ownership in Minneapolis during recent protests, and the newly formed black militia, the Not Fucking Around Coalition which made its first public appearance in May to protest the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger shot by two white men in Georgia. NFAC recently rallied in Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police officers who burst into her apartment.

Every gun club is different. While NAAGA has grown into a political force, the Hudson Valley Nubian Gun Club's offers camaraderie, safety and weapons training. "I feel a little more prepared," said registered nurse and Hudson Valley Nubian Gun Club member Maliuqka (pronounced Maliqua) Burton.

"Self-preservation is universal law. We should be able to protect ourselves,' added gun club member Gahiji (pronounced Gah-ee-jee) Manderson who works in law enforcement. "We're not looking for trouble, but to be able to protect ourselves if trouble comes towards our way," Powell also said her aim is self defense. "My goal to be able to stop a person from getting into my space that is trying to cause me harm."

UN: For 1st time in 75 years, world leaders won't travel to NY for UNGA as session goes virtual

United Nations: World leaders will submit pre-recorded video statements for the United Nations General Assembly session in September, the 193-member organisation has decided, as heads of state and government will not be physically attending the annual gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic and the high-level session goes virtual for the first time in the UN's 75-year history.

The landmark 75th session of the UN General Assembly will begin on September 15. The General Debate is held at the beginning of each session of the General Assembly and usually runs for over a week when leaders and ministers from the 193 UN member states address the world from the iconic lectern in the General Assembly hall.

The General Assembly adopted a decision on Wednesday that "each Member State, observer State and the European Union can submit a pre-recorded statement of its Head of State, Vice-President, Crown Prince or Princess, Head of Government, Minister or Vice-Minister, which will be played in the General Assembly Hall during the general debate of the Assembly at its seventy-fifth session, the high-level meeting to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations and the high-level meetings...after introduction by their representative who is physically present in the Assembly Hall."

While taking the decision, the General Assembly noted "with concern" the situation regarding the coronavirus pandemic and the "limitations recommended on meetings within the United Nations premises as precautionary measures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19".

The new format will mean that it will be for the first time in the world organisation's 75-year history that global leaders will not gather here for the high-level week that annually brings thousands of diplomats, government officials, civil society members and media persons from around the world to New York City.

Telecommuting arrangements have been in place at the UN headquarters here since mid-March as coronavirus spread rapidly across New York, making the state the epicentre of the pandemic in the US.

The UN headquarters began its first phase of re-opening on July 20, under which no more than 400 people will be allowed to be present at the premises on any given day, in order to minimise the risk of exposure to the virus and to allow for physical distancing. Those present in the premises will have to follow strict social distancing guidelines.

The UN has said that given the evolving nature of the situation and the many remaining uncertainties regarding COVID-19, the transition from one phase to another may not be linear and at any time could revert to a previous phase. In phase 2, the UNHQ occupancy will gradually increase from 10 to 40 per cent, while phase 3 or the "new normal" is being designed and will draw on lessons learned from the earlier phases.

The General Assembly meeting to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations will take place on September 21 and the Declaration will be formally adopted at the meeting. The General Debate of the 75th session of the Assembly will commence from September 22. Along with the General Debate and 75th anniversary commemoration, key sessions will also be held virtually at the UN, the Assembly decided.

The summit on bio-diversity will be held on September 30, meeting of the General Assembly on the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women on October 1 and the meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on October 2.

Member states will submit their pre-recorded video statements for these meetings as well. Each country would be encouraged to observe the time limit of 15 minutes in the General Debate that would include remarks in the Assembly Hall to introduce the pre-recorded video and the video itself.

General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande told member states that with a view to limit the footprint and the number of people into the UN building, physical access and presence will be limited to one or, if the situation allows, two delegates in the General Assembly hall.

Further, he said member states "are encouraged to move all side events to virtual platforms to limit the footprint and number of people in the UN building". Addressing a virtual press conference in June, Muhammad-Bande had said that world leaders cannot come to New York for the annual UN General Assembly session in September because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"World leaders cannot come to New York because they cannot come as single individuals. A president doesn't travel alone. We don't expect therefore to have presidents here," Muhammad-Bande had said. The General Assembly session had particular significance this year as it would have commemorated 75 years of the existence of the United Nations and would have seen tremendous participation from leaders of the 193 member states to mark the anniversary.

New York power-washes dismantled City Hall protest encampment site

New York police officers power-washed the site of a month-long protest site outside City Hall Wednesday, July 22. Just hours earlier, New York Police Department (NYPD) officers cleared out all those present at the encampment.

The cleanup in lower Manhattan came after a protest against the NYPD and in support of "Black Lives Matter". The organized protest site was known as the "City Hall Autonomous Zone." The demonstrators were calling for a U$1 billion cut from the NYPD budget. Last month, the city passed its 2021 with a cut of nearly $484 million from the New York Police Department's $6 billion operating budget.

Activists on hand made clear their mission hasn't been realized."This is about Black lives and the demand for Black lives being erased. And it's not OK," Jawanza James Williams, a New York activist, told Reuters about the clearing. Chief Raymond Spinella of the New York Police Department told reporters several hundred officers moved in to remove the protesters at 3.40 a.m local time (0740 GMT). Seven arrests were made.

Spinella said a brick was allegedly thrown that struck an an officer but did not injure him. The protesters received a 10 minute warning before police moved in, Spinella told reporters. Spinella said the site of the encampment would be on lockdown for several weeks to be cleaned. 

"This morning, the city of New York has just decided to tear it down like it ain't nothing," activist Jonathan Lykes told Reuters. "And that's a problem. But it's OK because we know the power of the people is the power of the people and the power the people won't stop."

US Shooting: Anti-feminist lawyer, sole suspect in killing of judge's son, kills himself

New York, US: A self-described anti-feminist lawyer, reported dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was the sole suspect in the fatal shooting of a federal judge's son in New Jersey and the wounding of her husband, a law enforcement source said on Monday, July 20.

Roy Den Hollander, an attorney who previously had a case in front of the judge, Esther Salas, was found dead earlier on Monday in an apparent suicide about 90 miles north of New York City, the Daily Beast and other media reported.

Hollander was under investigation as the sole gunman in Sunday's attack on Salas' home in North Brunswick, New Jersey. Salas was not injured, but her 20-year-old son Daniel Anderl was killed and her husband suffered gunshot wounds. Mark Anderl, 63, was in stable condition after undergoing surgery, North Brunswick Mayor Francis Womack told.

Salas, 51, was nominated to her seat by President Barack Obama in 2010 and in the following year became the first Latina to serve on the District Court of New Jersey. Steven Nevel, a spokesman for the New York state police, confirmed an investigation of a death in Sullivan County was underway but declined to provide further details. The FBI said earlier on Monday it was looking for one suspect in the case.

Salas oversaw a number of high-proflie cases, including the sentencing of members of the Grape Street Crips, a gang charged with selling drugs and other crimes in 2015, and the convictions of co-stars of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" TV show.

She also presided over a 2015 case brought by a New Jersey woman, Elizabeth Kyle-Labell, challenging the male-only military draft. In 2019 Salas ruled that her lawsuit can go forward.

Hollander had appeared in that case, court records show.

Investigators said someone dressed as a FedEx driver arrived at the family home at about 5 p.m. (2100 GMT), ABC News reported on Sunday, citing multiple law enforcement sources.

Salas' husband was an assistant prosecutor in Essex County before becoming a defense attorney. He and his partner, David Oakley, handle a variety of felonies, including homicide, sexual assault and fraud cases, according to their website. Neither Anderl nor Oakley could be reached for comment.

Daniel Anderl, an aspiring lawyer, was shot as he came down the stairs of the home to help his father, who had opened the door to the gunman, according to media reports

New York: Police officers clash with protesters on Brooklyn Bridge

New York, US: Pro-police and anti-police protesters clashed on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Wednesday, with at least four police officers injured and 37 protesters arrested, according to the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Video showed a woman being forcefully arrested after anti-police protesters sat down on the roadway in an attempt to counter a pro-police group.

"We were sitting on the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge in order to stand up for abolition, to counter the Blue Lives Matter white supremacist protest contingent," said a witness who provided video and declined to be named. "The police started snatching and attacking us from the ground." Police said that Terence Monahan - a top cop in charge of uniformed officers in the NYPD - was among the injured.

Marches and demonstrations have continued throughout the U.S. over police violence against Black people prompted by the May killing of George Floyd. Protesters have called for public funding for the police to be reduced, and for police officers involved in deadly incidents to be dismissed and charged.