Maui Recovery, Georgia Election Interference, Alabama Redistricting
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At least ninety six people are dead, and the city is destroyed by the country's deadliest fire in one hundred years.

That's i've never seen this before.

How does the china recover?

I am Steve scape with later father. And this is up first from N. P. R. new. Remember this phone call?

I just want to find another thousand seven hundred and eighty votes at the center of a case .

that a George grand jury here this week. Does that mean a fourth entitled for Donald truck and judges .

are reviewing alabama ma's a new congressional map? After IT couldn't get the U. S. Supreme court to further week in the voting rights act, they'll decide whether this new map actually represents black voters fairly say with us, we've got the news. You need to start your day.

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the death toll from may's wild fires is now at ninety six people and rising.

That's one of the numbers that gives a sense of the scale of this disaster. And here's another twenty seven hundred homes and buildings we're destroyed. The community of la ha was at the center of the destruction, and access to the burned area has been limited until now.

N. P. S. team. And now we got ta look at the damage for the first.

an empire. Lauren, summer is there now. Good morning, Lawrence.

Good morning.

So we just recounted the death toll, the physical damage from these wild fires, the country's deadliest in the last century. But you're there described for me what that looks like feels like.

yeah, one of the first things that hits you as just the smell I mean, walking around there is a charge smell that kind of turns your nose. And it's fair to say that most of the hana itself is raised to the ground. I mean, producer jaci meta, I drove just above front street, which is the heart of the downtown, and the buildings are are gone without burned out cars, download lines.

It's clear that this fire burned extremely fast and hot IT was fuel by those extreme winds. And the hills of round town that didn't burn are still covered in dry grass. You know about ki high, so it's clear there was a lot of flame ball material.

So for those people who did survive， so much is lost. How they holding up is their power water.

right? There's a number of centers around where residents are gathering to get supplies. We have visited one more resident can get a hot meal. There are stacks of bulk ds bottle, water types, bags and dog food. We talked to folks who said the supply has gotten Better in the last few days, in part because they have spent a network of volunteers, you know, care of ending supplies up here. But there are still neighborhoods without power or drinks .

of the water at this point. Um are people able to go back and assess the damage on their homes, their property?

Yeah we met one resident who lost his home, Chris Arnold, uh, he and his family, including five puppies, escape the fire with just minutes to spare. You know, he said there were embers raining down on them as they left their neighbors. Od is still barracked, but one of his kids return to looks to the remains of their house. He actually showed us a pixel on his phone of what they found. IT was an earn with the actions of his oldest son, who passed away, and a piece of pottery that he made.

Yeah, men, everything in the world, mom, especially that being her favorite, peace and the earns, the actions thought were all on.

oh my gosh, being able to recover that for themselves out of the ashes of this fire. This is just the start of what will be a long recovery for so many people. What do people need as they shift from trying to survive to trying to move forward?

I think a big question is just how fast this community can rebuild right and come back together. Um are not actually works in the insurance industry. And he's concerned that people won't know what they're entitled to from insurance companies with the amount of .

time that is going to take to rebuild this town in the planning, there is going to be a couple years of most people's insurance policies aren't to cover additional living expenses for a couple years. So we need a lot to help.

We were actually talking to arnaldo on the road at about town. The sun was setting, which was a bright orange sky over the gray rubel below us. And when I got dark, IT was black because they were novel lights from the buildings .

below anymore. That's i've never seen this before.

you know. But arnal did spot a few lights below. He called IT a few Sparkles of light and and you know, I think that glimpse is what's keeping people going.

That's npr learn summer in lahn laun. Thank you. I'm sure we will be hearing from you more in the days ahead.

yeah. Thanks so much.

Today, a gandery needs to consider a case of election interference in georgia filton .

county district return y funny wellness is said to be considering charges against more than a dozen people, one of whom is Donald trump, who tried to stay in office after his election defeat twenty twenty. Some of his most blatant efforts centered on georgia, where trump urged officials to, quote, find enough extra votes for him to win the state by exactly one vote. If grand jury and died him, IT would be the fourth criminal case against the x president.

Join us now is georgia public broadcasting, Stephen feller, who has been following the grand jury process. Good morning.

Good morning.

So it's even what do we know about the likely timing of a grand jury decision in georgia?

People have been anticipating this decision for a while. This is the end of a two week period, the district to turny flag, as times where staff would work, promoting judges wouldn't get schedule trials and the courthouse under extra security, even removing chairs in some public waiting areas, along with barricades, street closures and a crush of T, V. Cameras camped outside waiting for action.

So how do we know it's in the next forty eight hours?

Well, there are two separate grand juries that meet, one on mondays and tuesdays, one on thursdays and fridays. Some witnesses, like Georgeous former routine and governor jeff duncan, said they're testifying behind closed doors on tuesday, meaning prosecutors should start presenting their case today. Plus, wills's presented complicated ratee ing cases like this before, and it's taken about two days to get through because of the sheer number of people and ledge crimes that are included.

So when you say retiring for me, that evokes images of the mafia and other large criminal enterprises. How would this apply to the failed effort to overturn georgia's elections?

Good question. George's reactor influence and corrupt organizations act, a similar to the federal act that was designed to go up to organized crime. There's a narrow list of these things called predicate acts that show a pattern of a tearing activity that's things like theft, homicide and kidnapping, but also actions like witness intimidation, fault statements and forgery that can lead to a rk of violation that could apply here.

And georgia law is more expensive than federal law, meaning attempting, asking or intimidating someone to do one of those activities can also get you charged. So instead of multiple charges against multiple people and multiple trials independently, rego allows A D A to paint this road narrative and show how things are connected and create this criminal enterprise narrative. In this case, that hinges around Donald trump pressuring officials to vert election results.

So remind us, what are some of the plot points in the aftermath of twenty twenty that prosecutors could argue broke the law?

Well, there are a few main buckets based on public court documents in the work of a previous special investigative jury, lila, we've got hearings where trump allies falsely told lawmakers they could pick their own presidential electors, a plan that saw sixteen republicans balti claimed to be the state's official electors. The effort to unlovely copy election data from a rural George account and a pressure campaign against sitting officials to change the outcome, including the informal call between trump and Georgeous republican secretary of state brad reference burger, where the thin president said this.

So look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find. One thousand seven hundred and eighty votes, which is one more than we have because we want to say there are a .

lot of things that happen in the months twenty, twenty, and we should know more later this week.

Georgia public broadcasting, Steven, follow. Thank you, Steven.

Thank you.

A court hearing that begins today could help determine which party controlled congress after next year's election.

Judges are reviewing whether obama is republican controlled legislature, deluded the power of black voters with a new rational map from a state legislature that is persistent. This case follows alabama's failed effort to persuade the supreme court to further week in the landmark voting rights act embers.

Hangzhou wang has been covering the story.

Android is now good morning.

Good morning. So remind us what alabama is congressional p has to do with the voting rights .

of black people. Will the map alabama used for last year's mitchum elections a penal through fit al judges? Will that map needs to be replaced to get in line with section two of the voting rate? G the judges said obama needs to increase the number voting districts where black voters have a realistic opportunity to like their preferred U.

S. House candidates instead of one. There should be two of those opportunity districts, the judges said. And this week's hearing is focusing on the new map passed by the republican and control legislature just last month. IT has one district where a black alamito were old enough to vote, make up just over fifty percent of eligible voters. And another district that's about forty percent black.

okay? So one district that's just over fifty percent black. Another that's about forty percent. How's the court likely to have you .

that likely not. Well, because the ruling by the three judge panel, which I should note was upheld by the U. S. Supreme court, says, because voting and alabama is so racially polar ized, if you want to have two opportunity districts for black voters, they will need to be two districts, or black eligible voters make up the majority or something quite close to IT. And about eighty percent is not close enough based on what the cord has found earlier in this case.

So does that earlier ruling then give us a preview to how the court .

might rule this time? Yes, very likely. So i've been following court filings before the hearing, and they show this three judge panel probably going to strike down this latest map, and the judges will likely assign experts appointed by the court to draw a new map instead.

Know what's unusual is that obama said it's not planning to bring any evidence or try to make any arguments that the legislature map has two districts that are in lying with the court's order. No, it's instead, it's been signal that it's plan to appeal this case and try to get IT back in front of the U. S. Supreme court.

Okay, but hasn't the supreme court ari rule on this case?

IT has and IT basically said the lower courts ruling is right. But l mean, republicans seem to think their new map can maybe flip at least one justices vote to get a different ruling from the supreme court. But you, I ve been talking to voting rights experts, and they think this is really unlikely to happen. I talked to paint mercury, a former storing in the justice department civil rights division, who now teaches at the George washing university. And the way micro sees IT, what alama is doing here is continuing a long history of the state, just looking for every possible way not to follow a federal courts order when he comes to the voting rights of people of color.

Alabama has been wasting people's time for decades trying to doing things that are unlikely to prevail, and it's going so yet again. okay. So whatever .

this new voting map in IBM and a looking leg IT will have a big impact on the next congress, right?

Yeah you we're talking about majority black districts that are likely to vote for democrats candidates. So alama could end up with two democrats in the U. S. House and there could be more democratic pickup in house races in lousianner and georgia, depending on how similar redistricting lawsuits in those states pan out and .

his hands illa one.

Thank you.

And that's the first for monday, August fifteenth. I'm lila foldin .

and i'm Stephen and scape up first just produced by MC corona and clear oshima. Our editors to Christian dev calamo, Kevin drew, ali swizz are been suzy and Alice wolf ly. Our director is lily, our technical directories. Is that common with engineering? Help from carly strange?

Join us tomorrow and thanks for listening to up. First, you can find more in depth coverage of the stories we talked about today and much more on this morning edition. That's the radio show. I st. Stephen, skip the shell Martin and a Martinis by morning edition and your N, P, R stations at stations dot N, P, R, dot org, or turn on your radio.

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