How Ferguson elevated the profile of the Justice Department’s civil rights enforcers

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By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the first images out of Ferguson, Missouri surfaced 10 years ago — the bloodied body of a man left for hours in the street beneath white sheets, protesters smashing car windows and looting stores — it didn’t take long for the federal government to see a role for itself.

Acting with notable haste, the FBI within two days opened a criminal investigation into the killing of Michael Brown at the hands of a police officer, while the Justice Department less than a month later launched a civil rights inquiry culminating in a devastating report that identified abuses by the city’s overwhelmingly white police force and court system.

The investigations catapulted the department’s Civil Rights Division into the spotlight, bringing heightened publicity to a unit whose work since its 1957 creation included fighting for voting rights and prosecuting Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Rodney King. The Ferguson probes became part of a cluster of high-profile investigations into police departments, work that fed a national dialogue on race and law enforcement and formed a legacy item of the Obama administration Justice Department before being largely abandoned under President Donald Trump. Inquiries into big-city police forces returned under President Joe Biden.

“I can’t tell you the number of chiefs I’ve talked to who told me that they had their officers read the Ferguson report, that they did trainings around it,” said Vanita Gupta, who took over the Civil Rights Division two months after Brown’s death and held the position for the remainder of the Obama administration. “It became a document that had a life far beyond Ferguson and really triggered conversations nationwide around justice and policing.”

This story is part of an ongoing series by The Associated Press exploring the impact, legacy and ripple effects of what is widely called the Ferguson uprising, sparked a decade ago by the fatal shooting of Brown.

The public outcry in Ferguson didn’t occur in a vacuum, coming two years after the killing of Black teenager Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida and on the heels of a spate of federal investigations that exposed pervasive problems in police departments in Seattle, Albuquerque and Newark, New Jersey. In Ferguson itself, residents protested not only Brown’s death but also years if not decades of mistreatment by police and city officials.

“It was this constant, daily experience of hostile engagement with law enforcement. People were afraid to go out of their homes. They were afraid to drive because they didn’t want to get stopped. They knew that each one of those encounters would be a negative encounter,” said Jonathan Smith, who headed the Civil Rights Division section that investigated Ferguson and other troubled police forces.

Brown was killed Aug. 9, 2014 in a violent altercation with officer Darren Wilson that began when Wilson ordered the 18-year-old, who was walking with a friend down the middle of a street, onto the sidewalk. The following day, after a candlelight vigil, protesters smashed car windows and carried away stolen items from stores. The night after that, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowd to try to disperse protesters.

As community unrest grew, with protesters clashing with officers in armored vehicles and military-style equipment, President Barack Obama dispatched Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson, where he met with law enforcement and community leaders. In a trip that underscored the administration’s determination to quell the turbulence, Holder appealed for calm in the community and met Brown’s parents, saying later that he had greeted them not only as attorney general but as the father of a teenage son.

Besides the investigation into Brown’s death, the Justice Department separately opened a civil inquiry into the entire police department.

Officials scoured more than 35,000 pages of police records and found city emails containing racist language. They analyzed data on stops, searches, citations, arrests and use-of-force. The team — which included attorneys, an investigator and community engagement specialists — participated in police ride-alongs, attended court proceedings and spent hours in coffeeshops talking to residents.

The result was a scathing March 2015 report documenting eye-popping police abuses. Even though the department didn’t find sufficient evidence for criminal charges in Brown’s death, a decision that disappointed protesters seeking justice, the broader report into the police department resonated across the nation, as many people outside Ferguson recognized similar abuses by their law enforcement.

“There are Fergusons all around the country where attention is needed to rebuild community trust — which, of course, is ultimately key to public safety,” said Chiraag Bains, a former senior counselor in the Civil Rights Division who helped lead the Ferguson investigations.

The report showed how Black residents were disproportionately subjected to excessive force and baseless searches-and-seizures, practices the Justice Department said reflected racial bias within the city. It accused the city of using law enforcement operations to generate revenue rather than for legitimate public safety purposes. Among the examples of abuse it cited: one man was charged with violating the city’s municipal code for purported infractions like not wearing a seatbelt despite sitting in a parked car and for giving the shortened form of his name — “Mike” instead of “Michael.”

The Justice Department and Ferguson in 2016 entered into a consent decree requiring the police department to make significant reforms.

Such agreements aren’t the “the end all, be all,” said Gupta, since they’re limited to resolving policing problems but don’t necessarily address longstanding race-based disparities. That can be be frustrating, she said, because police-community breakdowns can often be the “tip of the spear to more entrenched societal inequities.”

Even so, she said, one consequence of the department’s policing work in Ferguson was that community leaders and political figures began calling for federal intervention after similar deaths. That’s what happened in Baltimore, for instance, where the Justice Department launched a sweeping investigation into the city police department after Freddie Gray’s death, and in Chicago, where a federal inquiry into the Chicago force was opened after Laquan McDonald was fatally shot by a police officer.

The focus of the Civil Rights Division changed dramatically in the Trump administration. Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced weeks after taking office a review of pattern-or-practice investigations that all but nullified a process he said unduly smeared entire police forces.

But the investigations picked up again early in the Biden administration, with a new Justice Department leadership entering their positions in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis. Since April 2021, the Civil Rights Division says it’s launched 11 pattern-or-practice investigations into law enforcement agencies, including police departments in Minneapolis, Louisville and Phoenix. It’s currently enforcing consent decrees with 12 law enforcement agencies, including Ferguson police.

Christy Lopez, a former Justice Department official who led the team that investigated Ferguson, said that while she was not satisfied with the pace of work, there’s no question “we are in a better place than we were 10 years ago in terms of how we think about and how we are actually working to change policing.”

But much work remains, Lopez said.

“Not only do we still have a long way to go, but it’s not at all clear that we will continue moving forward,” she said. “And it’s very clear that people’s lives are being lost and lives are being destroyed because of our inability to actually be sensible about things, to not politicize everything.”

Eugene and Dan Levy will host the 2024 Emmy Awards

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By Maira Garcia, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Four years ago, Eugene and Dan Levy became the first father-son duo to win Emmys in the same year. This year, they’re embarking on another first: hosting the Emmys.

On Friday, ABC and the Television Academy, the organization that presents the awards, announced that the Levys would host the show, making them the first-ever father and son pair to do so. The ceremony, which celebrates the best of television, will take place Sept. 15 at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles.

“For two Canadians who won our Emmys in a literal quarantine tent, the idea of being asked to host this year in an actual theater was incentive enough,” Eugene and Dan Levy said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be able to raise a glass to this extraordinary season of television and can’t wait to spend the evening with you all on Sept. 15.”

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In announcing the hosts, Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group, said in a statement that the pair’s “comedic intuition and uncanny ability to capture the hearts of viewers will make for a memorable Emmys telecast honoring this year’s best and brightest.”

Television Academy Chair Cris Abrego added that the organization was “thrilled to welcome two generations of comedy genius to the Emmy’s stage as hosts.”

“I cannot wait for Emmy fans to see what they have in store for all of us,” he said in a statement.

In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Levys won multiple Emmys for the sixth and final season of their critically acclaimed comedy “Schitt’s Creek,” which they co-created and starred in. The Canadian sitcom aired on CBC in Canada and on Pop TV in the U.S. before moving to Netflix in 2017, where it experienced a bump in popularity. It also starred Catherine O’Hara and Annie Murphy.

Since “Schitt’s Creek” wrapped, the actors have remained busy. Eugene Levy is host and executive producer of “The Reluctant Traveler,” a travel documentary series on Apple TV+ that was recently renewed for a third season, and he will guest star in the fourth season of Hulu’s hit series “Only Murders in the Building.” Dan Levy launched a film and television production company, Not a Real Production Co., and he made his directorial feature film debut with 2023’s “Good Grief,” which he also wrote and starred in. He also created and hosted the cooking competition series “The Big Brunch” on Max.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Trump reveals $513 million from golf clubs and resorts

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Bill Allison | (TNS) Bloomberg News

Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure showed $513 million in income from U.S. resort and residential properties including his Doral, Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster clubs, as well tens of millions of dollars of liabilities and debts related to his legal troubles.

The figures are from a 265-page filing by the Republican nominee, which depict a sprawling portfolio that includes everything from his primary residence to revenue from crypto and the eponymous media company that owns Truth Social, his networking platform.

Among his biggest sources of income was a Miami-based company that owns golf courses and a resort. It generated $161 million over 16 months starting in January 2023. His Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida, generated $57 million over the same period, while Trump Ruffin Tower near Las Vegas took in $28 million from condominium sales and hotel-related revenue. His Bedminster club in New Jersey earned $37 million.

Trump valued each of the four holdings at “over $50 million” on the disclosure, the highest amount that candidates can assign an asset. Candidates disclose some types of income, including dividends, capital gains and royalties, in broad ranges. Other types, like salaries and speaking fees, must be reported in exact sums.

The former president’s holdings in Trump Media & Technology Group, worth $2.7 billion and accounting for more than half of his $5.3 billion net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, were also listed as more than $50 million on the disclosure. Trump reported that he owns 114.8 million shares, 64.9% of those issued.

Trump also disclosed that the shares are subject to a “lock-up period,” preventing him from selling them. It’s set to expire in September. The company had $5.3 million in business income and earned about $563,000 in advertising.

The former president’s CIC Digital LLC, which earned $7.2 million through licensing his image on nonfungible tokens, held a crypto wallet with at least $1 million in Ethereum. Trump has courted the industry’s leaders, whose hostility to the Biden administration has led some, including venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, to endorse him.

Trump also made $5.3 million from selling books, including $300,000 for the Greenwood Bible endorsement deal from LMA Productions.

Trump had to revise the first two disclosures he filed as a 2024 presidential candidate with the Office of Government Ethics, in some cases providing exact amounts for his income from his hotels and other businesses. The new disclosure will similarly be reviewed by the ethics office. It was originally due in on May 15 but Trump requested and was granted two 45-day extensions.

He listed a dozen outstanding liabilities, including two incurred in 2024 of more than $50 million, one to the New York attorney general related to the civil fraud case against him. Trump secured a $175.3 million bond issued by Los Angeles-based Knight Specialty Insurance Co. in April to put the $454 million judgment against him in the case on hold while he appeals it.

He also listed a debt of more than $50 million to writer E. Jean Carroll, who was awarded $83 million in a defamation suit against Trump, which is also bonded. He’s also appealing that ruling.

Though he has mounting legal fees that he’s using money raised through his leadership political action committee to pay for, Trump did not disclose any personal debt to lawyers or law firms on the disclosure. He listed seven outstanding loans totaling at least $165 million, and two that were paid off during the disclosure period.

His disclosure shows that his businesses continue to generate substantial income he could use to finance his campaign, but Trump has instead relied on his fundraising prowess.

He’s raised about $635 million since beginning his third bid for the White House, less than the $1 billion that Vice President Kamala Harris and her predecessor atop the Democratic ticket, President Joe Biden, have raised. One of Trump’s political action committees has paid more than $67 million for legal fees and related expenses since January 2023.

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©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Social media bans could deny teenagers mental health help

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By Daniel Chang, KFF Health News

Social media’s effects on the mental health of young people are not well understood. That hasn’t stopped Congress, state legislatures, and the U.S. surgeon general from moving ahead with age bans and warning labels for YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

But the emphasis on fears about social media may cause policymakers to miss the mental health benefits it provides teenagers, say researchers, pediatricians, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

In June, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the nation’s top doctor, called for warning labels on social media platforms. The Senate approved the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act and a companion bill, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, on July 30. And at least 30 states have pending legislation relating to children and social media — from age bans and parental consent requirements to new digital and media literacy courses for K-12 students.

Most research suggests that some features of social media can be harmful: Algorithmically driven content can distort reality and spread misinformation; incessant notifications distract attention and disrupt sleep; and the anonymity that sites offer can embolden cyberbullies.

But social media can also be helpful for some young people, said Linda Charmaraman, a research scientist and director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab at Wellesley Centers for Women.

For children of color and LGBTQ+ young people — and others who may not see themselves represented broadly in society — social media can reduce isolation, according to Charmaraman’s research, which was published in the Handbook of Adolescent Digital Media Use and Mental Health. Age bans, she said, could disproportionately affect these marginalized groups, who also spend more time on the platforms.

“You think at first, ‘That’s terrible. We need to get them off it,’” she said. “But when you find out why they’re doing it, it’s because it helps bring them a sense of identity affirmation when there’s something lacking in real life.”

Arianne McCullough, 17, said she uses Instagram to connect with Black students like herself at Willamette University, where about 2% of students are Black.

Arianne McCullough, left, and her mother, Rayvn, of Sacramento, California, support social media legislation that would require platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to be more transparent about the effects of their products on adolescent mental health. (Rayvn McCullough/KFF Health News/TNS)

“I know how isolating it can be feeling like you’re the only Black person, or any minority, in one space,” said McCullough, a freshman from Sacramento, California. “So, having someone I can text real quick and just say, ‘Let’s go hang out,’ is important.”

After about a month at Willamette, which is in Salem, Oregon, McCullough assembled a social network with other Black students. “We’re all in a little group chat,” she said. “We talk and make plans.”

Social media hasn’t always been this useful for McCullough. After California schools closed during the pandemic, McCullough said, she stopped competing in soccer and track. She gained weight, she said, and her social media feed was constantly promoting at-home workouts and fasting diets.

“That’s where the body comparisons came in,” McCullough said, noting that she felt more irritable, distracted, and sad. “I was comparing myself to other people and things that I wasn’t self-conscious of before.”

When her mother tried to take away the smartphone, McCullough responded with an emotional outburst. “It was definitely addictive,” said her mother, Rayvn McCullough, 38, of Sacramento.

Arianne said she eventually felt happier and more like herself once she cut back on her use of social media.

But the fear of missing out eventually crept back in, Arianne said. “I missed seeing what my friends were doing and having easy, fast communication with them.”

For a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic triggered what the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups declared “a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health ,” greater numbers of young people had been struggling with their mental health.

More young people were reporting feelings of hopelessness and sadness, as well as suicidal thoughts and behavior, according to behavioral surveys of students in grades nine through 12 conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The greater use of immersive social media — like the never-ending scroll of videos on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram — has been blamed for contributing to the crisis. But a committee of the national academies found that the relationship between social media and youth mental health is complex, with potential benefits as well as harms. Evidence of social media’s effect on child well-being remains limited, the committee reported this year, while calling on the National Institutes of Health and other research groups to prioritize funding such studies.

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In its report, the committee cited legislation in Utah last year that places age and time limits on young people’s use of social media and warned that the policy could backfire.

“The legislators’ intent to protect time for sleep and schoolwork and to prevent at least some compulsive use could just as easily have unintended consequences, perhaps isolating young people from their support systems when they need them,” the report said.

Some states have considered policies that echo the national academies’ recommendations. For instance, Virginia and Maryland have adopted legislation that prohibits social media companies from selling or disclosing children’s personal data and requires platforms to default to privacy settings. Other states, including Colorado, Georgia, and West Virginia, have created curricula about the mental health effects of using social media for students in public schools, which the national academies also recommended.

The Kids Online Safety Act, which is now before the House of Representatives, would require parental consent for social media users younger than 13 and impose on companies a “duty of care” to protect users younger than 17 from harm, including anxiety, depression, and suicidal behavior. The second bill, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, would ban platforms from targeting ads toward minors and collecting personal data on young people.

Attorneys general in California, Louisiana, Minnesota, and dozens of other states have filed lawsuits in federal and state courts alleging that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, misled the public about the dangers of social media for young people and ignored the potential damage to their mental health.

Most social media companies require users to be at least 13, and the sites often include safety features, like blocking adults from messaging minors and defaulting minors’ accounts to privacy settings.

Despite existing policies, the Department of Justice says some social media companies don’t follow their own rules. On Aug. 2, it sued the parent company of TikTok for allegedly violating child privacy laws, saying the company knowingly let children younger than 13 on the platform, and collected data on their use.

Surveys show that age restrictions and parental consent requirements have popular support among adults.

NetChoice, an industry group whose members include Meta and Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube, has filed lawsuits against at least eight states, seeking to stop or overturn laws that impose age limits, verification requirements, and other policies aimed at protecting children.

Much of social media’s effect can depend on the content children consume and the features that keep them engaged with a platform, said Jenny Radesky, a physician and a co-director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health.

Age bans, parental consent requirements, and other proposals may be well-meaning, she said, but they do not address what she considers to be “the real mechanism of harm”: business models that aim to keep young people posting, scrolling, and purchasing.

“We’ve kind of created this system that’s not well designed to promote youth mental health,” Radesky said. “It’s designed to make lots of money for these platforms.”

Chaseedaw Giles, KFF Health News’ digital strategy & audience engagement editor, contributed to this report.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.