Note: The News In Depth interview with Andrew Tolman and Philip (Wolf) is appended.
0904 US Tropical Storm to hit Mississippi
The Mississippi cities of Gulfport, Long Beach, and Biloxi have received mandatory evacuation orders for their harbors and marinas.
Additionally, the US Coast Guard has temporarily closed the port of New Orleans along with the ports of Mobile, Alabama, and Pascagoula, Mississippi to prepare for the landfall of Tropical Storm Gordon.
The National Weather Service has issued a hurricane warning from the Mississippi-Louisiana border to the Alabama-Florida border, and schools in the affected area have been closed.
Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi said at a news conference this afternoon that the storm is expected to make landfall around 8 PM, Central Time, near Long Beach, which is located just west of Gulfport on the Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Gordon is expected to weaken after it comes inland, cities along the coast can expect anywhere from 4 to 7 inches of rain with higher amount in some areas.
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0904 WA Hazel Dell police shooting
According to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, a Sheriff’s deputy and a civilian were injured during an incident near Hazel Dell, Washington, in which the deputy fired his gun.
As reported in The Columbian newspaper, the incident began when dispatch received a call about a hit and run.
Deputies were then sent to the Ninety-Seven-Hundred block of Tenny Creek Drive in Hazel Dell North.
As is typically the case in the aftermath of police shootings, the details are hazy and entirely within the hands of law enforcement.
We do know that the vehicle fled from responding deputies, and the chase ended when the civilian crashed.
Further details released today indicate that the civilian’s injuries were due to the crash as well as being bitten by a police dog.
The civilian remains in the hospital.
One of the involved deputies was treated and released, and the dog was evaluated as well but is apparently unaffected.
The nature of the shots fired is unclear.
We do not know how many were fired, why they were fired, or where the bullets wound up.
The deputy is not named at this time, but has been put on paid administrative leave.
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0904 INT Dead Elephants in Botswana
Seventy-eight elephant corpses have been found near a protected sanctuary in Botswana.
All the animals were killed and stripped for their tusks.
The elephants were discovered by Elephants Without Borders, a conservation nonprofit organization.
The elephants were killed near the Okavango Delta Wildlife Sanctuary.
Botswana has the largest elephant population in the world.
However, between 2007 and 2014, the number of elephants in Africa declined by thirty percent.
Although there is a ban on legal sales, ivory demand is high enough to sustain underground black markets.
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0904 INT Japan Typhoon
A typhoon that made landfall in western Japan has caused extensive damage and led to multiple deaths.
At least six people have died, according to Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK.
Thousands of people are stranded at the Kansai International Airport after flooding damaged the bridge leading to the airport.
Based on wind speeds, Typhoon Jebi was classified “very strong” by Japan’s weather agency.
Jebi had wind speeds over 100 miles per hour.
The last typhoon with the same classification that made landfall in Japan was in 1993.
The storm hit Shikoku [SHEE-CO-COO] island around noon local time on Tuesday.
It then moved across Japan’s largest main island of Honshu.
More than 1.6 million people lost power in the storm and some parts of central and western Japan are still under evacuation advisories.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on people to QUOTE “take action to protect your lives, including preparing and evacuating early.”
Japan’s weather agency has also warned of possible landslides, flooding, high tides, lighting, and violent winds in the affected areas.
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0904 INT Spain halts missile sale
The Spanish defense ministry has begun a process to halt the sale of 400 laser guided missiles to Saudi Arabia, due to concerns that they may be used against civilians.
The process will cancel a contract signed in 2015, and will require Spain to pay back 10 million dollars that they had already received from the Saudis.
According to a statement made by the ministry last month, Spain has never sold munitions that could be used against civilians.
They also condemned the killing of Yemeni non-combatants.
The Saudi coalition has been under attack by human rights groups who have denounced western arms sales by the United States and the United Kingdom to the Saudis.
They have also called for restraint in bombing campaigns following an attack which hit a school bus last month killing 51 people including 40 children.
The war in Yemen is now one of the world’s darkest humanitarian crises, with more than 22 million in need of food, clean water, and health care.
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0904 US Ruby Slippers Found
According to US authorities, a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The 1939 Wizard of Oz has been found after 13 years.
The shoes were stolen from a Grand Rapids, Minnesota museum in 2005.
The thief broke the glass display case and grabbed the shoes.
No fingerprints were left behind, and the surveillance cameras were not working that night.
Authorities will reveal details of the shoes recovery later this week.
Along with the recovered pair, there are three other pairs of ruby slippers that Garland wore in the film.
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NEWS IN DEPTH: an interview with Philip James and Andrew Tolman
Transcript of audio: Interview with Philip James and Andrew Tolman, Occupy ICE activists, at the KBOO Studio 2, Tuesday September 4th, as broadcast on KBOO News in depth (5:45PM)
Theresa Mitchell: Philip and Andrew are here to talk about the experience of accessibility at Occupy ICE.
Philip: Andrew will be interpreting for both of us, and not just me.
Theresa: You were both at the Occupy ICE camp, the successful, internationally famous occupation at 4310 SW Macadam which expelled, for a brief time, the staff at the ICE detention facility, or ‘The Dungeon,’ as it is known locally. And you encountered your own struggle there, in terms of accessibility of deaf people; can you talk about that?
Philip: Yeah. Absolutely. (So this is Philip speaking.) I did decide to join (the) Occupy ICE movement from the first day. I was a supporter from day one. That support itself came from what I saw of the actions of separating families—detaining children, babies, infants—the abuse, the suffering there. I don’t endorse any sort of violence by any means, but I just wanted to join a movement, and I know that Occupy [ICE] was huge—and in the first few days, there were no interpreters, no accessibility. And I noticed that camp had different tents for different groups, such as the kitchen, safety, accessibility—they were all working in collaboration to try and make sure that everything in camp was running smoothly. The accessibility camp realized upon my arrival that there was no ASL [American Sign Language] interpreter and so they immediately were willing to coordinate that. Of course, I understood that budgetary issues would normally prevent that, but I wanted to put money aside. I knew that there were people who were willing to come and support, and also interpret. So we wanted to figure out a way to find an interpreter who was willing to come down to camp—maybe a few people, even, who could rotate through for the remainder of the Occupation. So that happened right at the beginning. And so the reason that I actually, you know, wanted to make sure that that happened at Camp was not only just for accessibility but also so that deaf people and hard-of-hearing people can feel connected to the communities that they’re in, through the Occupations, through the activism that happens here, especially in Portland, trying to start that and set that up. And so Andrew was involved in that, too, and can probably speak to that.
Theresa: Voice of Andrew, interpreting for Philip. And Andrew, you were also at the camp from the beginning?
Andrew: I was not there from the very beginning, but a few days later; I noticed the call-out on Facebook, and responded. I showed up on maybe Day Four or so, and tried to remain there for the remainder of the Occupation. There were a few days that I myself missed because of work conflicts or otherwise, but I did also coordinate a team of other, amazing community interpreters that were also willing to give up their time, use their skill to provide accessibility at Camp as well. So we had about eight or nine of us that rotated through for the entire Occupation, up until the last few days, right before Camp was officially swept. We moved our interpreters over into other events and other more local involvements, as the Occupation extended outside of just the Camp and the area near the building; we moved our interpreters as well with the movement to keep all of those branches, as they were going out, accessible as well.
Theresa: I had heard something about that, but very little. –And so it is an encouraging thing, I think, to hear about this egalitarian nature being spread further than the hearing community. And I’d like to know more about your experience, Philip.
Philip: (This is Philip.) Thank you. I’ve been involved in a number of activist opportunities with Black Lives Matter, Me Too, March for Our Lives, all of the recent protests that have happened in the past few years, I’ve been involved in; through those experiences, most of the time, I feel like I’m involved—that I understand what’s going on-- but I feel like that something like Occupy can be scary. Because without accessibility, if there’s a moment when I’m confronted by an officer, it could easily escalate because of communication barriers; and so that was a big concern for me, in terms of public safety, and a lack of accessibility. So when it came to Occupy ICE, it was inspiring; obviously, still scary, because of the experience of having officers with weapons right in your face, the tension and the escalation between us and the DHS officers that were there, trying to navigate all the dynamics and the emotions—it was something that I’ve never really seen. But I have to say, the round-the-clock, twenty-four-hour support and work within the camp was incredible. There was no violence, nothing that escalated to the point where I felt scared to be there. It was a beautiful thing to see; it was powerful. Other occupations and other movements do extreme, but I don’t feel like any of those dynamics happened within the camp.
Theresa: And yet I imagine it would be fraught, with the armed officers there. Of course, there was the famous case of Mr, Mejia-Poot being slain by Portland police only a few years ago, and a great part of that conflict was simply that he was unable to understand the instructions and the commands being shouted at him from start to finish.
Philip: Exactly. And of course, other than the political environment within the country itself, I think that as much accessibility as can be given to politics and activism as possible encourages the deaf and hard-of-hearing community to be part of the progressive fight for change—to be part of the movement that’s happening now, as we see communities coming together in collaboration, we want to be sure that there’s accessibility for all of those communities, for all people within those communities, no matter [whether] deaf [or] hard of hearing, [or] disabled, that they have all kinds of accessibility to be involved in that.
[N.B.: from this point the interview is extracted from a voice-t-text engine. I apologize in advance for the errors, as this is still an experimental procedure here. -ed.]
Theresa: I'm really honored that you would take the effort to come in,Philip and Andrew, to express this to KBOO; and as it happens, actually, we are now entering the the second week of having a text service for the news online, and we hope to expand accessibility in that way. For me, my first reaction to the idea of deaf accessibility to radio was to scoff at the notion-- but the more get into it, the more I see that it's absolutely necessary; so, good synchronicity that you two come in today.
Philip: Absolutely, yeah, thank you for having both of us here-- it's really an honor and a privilege to be able to share a voice and a perspective about this, and you know, really get to the heart of the issue of what's happening in Portland and around the country, things are getting better. We're hoping that Portland is going to continue to be an example of that, and inspire other communities to do the same, and I'm really looking forward to that kind of change.
Andrew: And this is interesting as well; I think that it's really important-- I think that it's important for any interpreter, any translator, anyone with a specific skill set, to be analyzing how we can fit within the movement, because I think everyone has a role, and it doesn't always mean that you are the person in the camp --maybe are offsite making other events accessible, maybe you're talking about it, may be you're involving your deaf and hard of hearing friends in the dialogue about it and sharing what you hear on the radio because it's not always accessible. What you see on the TV news isn't always accessible, you know; we had times even at camp where and Portland's news would show up to interview people, and we would request that they allow the interpreter be on the screen while they recorded, and they would crop us out and leave the interpreter out of the shot on purpose, after we had already asked for the accessibility and reminded them that captioning isn't always enough. Some people prefer just the interpreter, and it's not always for deaf people--- it's people who maybe are learning English. If your captions aren't correct, then that's a disservice. If you're not thinking about every intersection of your community, then you're not fighting for all of it with black lives matter with me too with with occupy with all of these movements who want to see accessibility and equity and interpreters and translators and if you're going to camp you know think about how people with physical or more ability to issues can be there and if not make sure that you're setting up resources for them to be involved where and how they can and not making people feel like they have to like I said be on site but just that they can feel involved however they can and making sure that that information is shared you know pursue deaf and hard of hearing or disability groups on Facebook on Twitter social justice people who are already doing this kind of work with and the deaf and hard of hearing communities you know that's the reason that I was even there it was an honor for me to get to interpret for everyone who was there are people who have been involved in occupied from the beginning people who were at standing rock people who have worked internationally both you know deaf and hearing people I'm speaking of from all intersections of identity and it was. Incredibly moving for me to be able to channel that energy and see real communication happen in something meaningful, and I think that, you know, there's a way to encourage all interpreters and all people in any sort of gate keeping or privileged opportunity to see how we can really be using it--- not for us-- and and unselfishly, but for the people who have already been doing that work for for generations. One statement that they said on camp was that it was an unbroken chain of resistance, and I think that that's an important perspective, to have that --and we are not starting this fight, we're just picking it up where we are right now, and finding new ways to provide a new avenues for that fight to keep pushing forward yet ...
Philip: This is Philip speaking. One thing that I really wanted to emphasize as well other than supporting just the movement I think that it's important that we really educate herself on the issues you know when we have accessibility than all communities have the ability to educate themselves sell me as a you know a deaf person I know that when I'm there people can see that I'm there if I'm live streaming you know Facebook life doesn't have captions so I'll be signing the information things that I see things that I am aware of so that the deaf community in their language from a deaf person that they know can get the information that they need so I think that providing that kind of accessible information and having that. At all times is very important thank you
Theresa: I am reminded of what in the nineteen-sixties was called solidarity, and these days is called intersectionality-- something so powerful that the powers that be are really quite frightened of it. I'm thinking of Judy Bari, who got bombed by an FBI stooge shortly after she put the mill workers and the timber struggle together to fight for the preservation of the forest. It's about defeating that dominant culture, which centers around whiteness, but includes so many other forms of exclusion, rather than merely along race lines, and it's fascinating that you two have come in to expand the power of the campaign to break that barrier.
Philip: This is Philip speaking... Now we have-- I could list any number of marginalized groups, but I think that, you know, we don't always have accessibility, and and at camp you know we didn't have 100 percent accessibility, but I think that we tried our very best to include as many people as possible-- and I think that you know there's always going to be a communication barrier,there's always going to be some piece of accessibility missing when you're kind of working on the fly, and when you're in the middle of a fight when you're doing a lot of things. I think that number one though, that double and triple hope layered barrier of communication access is is what should be focused on first finding ways to really effectively communicate with your community so that you can make sure that people are involved in this is just a public safety concern when things aren't accessible than things aren't safe and then it's an increased risk for people yeah people I just I just really want to raise awareness I really want to raise voices I really want to spread out the message to as many people as possible you know now is the time for that thank you and for you for you both.
Was there a burning issue in your mind when you when you came in through the doors at KBOO, that we haven't addressed yet?
Andrew: Philip says I'll probably turn that to answer first of all, I'm thinking, have an answer. Yeah, this is a major-- I think-- I just wanted to let people know that accessibility is possible. And we see all of you out there fighting, occupying, winning, making progress; we in Portland at in the interpreting hearing deaf signing heart of hearing deaf blind communities are here with you, and we're making the fight accessible here in Portland, and we hope that that will spread into all of your into your cities as well because it will increase your power it will increase your visibility it will increase our solidarity are camaraderie and it will really spread out the message more than you think I think that you'll be surprised at how much power can really be drawn from chest simple accessibility captioning videos bring interpreters and you have events going on in your sitting contact agencies let them know what's going on I'm sure that there are interpreters on their lists you know they have less and less and less of interpreters I'm sure at least one person is willing to be out there to make it happen we have allies in every community so I just encourage you all to actively seek them like I said before find them on social media don't wait for the the deaf people to tell you how to do it and go and find them go and say "Hey how can I help you;" --be involved, don't wait go be activ,e show that you want that involvement. I think that that's you know number one and I really just appreciate the opportunity to get to talk about that and get that message out to people and encourage them to reignite this fire, because the fight is not over; we have a long way to go, and now is the time to to vamp things up, and make it accessible for people who have been waiting to put their energy to something like this.
Philip: The thing I'd love to emphasize is ( ) of the message of accessibility being provided, not only that we have accessibility to the vigils, or to the small events, but you know at occupy we had almost all day and almost all night accessibility where we could go and talk to people from different organizations different walks of life, different ideas, different backgrounds, and engage with them --that kind of opportunity was was incredible' when we had a team of interpreters who were willing to rotate themselves throughout the day to make something like that happen. It's a beautiful example of what it could and should be.
For KBOO Portland, I'm Theresa Mitchell.