New York Times - 9.9.26

0:00This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture East. It's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture East. It's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. You know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like, OK, hold on. I got a new favorite food. That's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try Cupid Mayon. Yeah, it's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle. You've probably seen it at the grocery store. And this mayo is different. Mm-hmm. Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs. Cupid only uses egg yolks, which gives it this rich umami flavor. It's smoother, deeper, almost buttery. Once people try it, they start putting it on everything. Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers, chefs use it, restaurants use it, people who really care about flavor use it, put it on just about anything. Then you'll understand. Cupid, the original Japanese mayonnaise. This is Ashley Akinetti from the Almost Amos Podcast. You ever notice you and your spouse keep saying, we need to get away, but you never actually plan anything. That was us until we did something fun and spontaneous. We went to resortpass.com. There are hundreds of hotel resorts, pools and spots and private beaches

1:03that you can enjoy. You can spend the day at a luxury resort, pool spa massage, without booking an overnight stay. And listen, I may have only been like 15 minutes from home, but it felt like it was a whole different world. And I'm thinking, this is exactly what I needed. So just go to resortpass.com, choose your resort, choose your day, luxury resort day passes, start at just $25. Once you post your daycation, people are going to ask where you are. Go to resortpass.com, slash almost famous and use the promo code almost famous to get $20 off when you spend $100. That's code almost famous at resortpass.com slash almost famous. Welcome to the reading of The New York Times for Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. As a reminder, radio-wise, a reading service intended for people who are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. Your reader for today is Dawn Flickinger. We'll start today's reading with the Miriam Webster word of the day.

2:06stigma. STIGMA. IGMA. stigma to noun. Stigma refers to a set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something. The organization is animated by a commitment to challenging stigma associated with the condition. tattoos are now common, but not long ago, adorning one's body with ink was frowned upon by much of mainstream society. Even today, tattooed individuals in some communities in context face stigma based on their particular form of self-expression. It turns out that the link between tattoos and stigma is ancient, at least etymologically. The roots stigma trace back all the way to the Greek verb stizing, meaning tattoo, which led to the Latin noun stigma, meaning mark or brand. The earliest English uses of stigma hue close to those of its Latin forebear. The word first referred to a brand left by a hot iron.

3:09In modern use, the scar is figurative. Stigma often refers to a set of negative and often of unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something, as when people talk about the stigma associated with mental illness or the stigma of poverty. Trump announces ban on some Canadian imports. President Trump invoked a 1930 law after Canada imposed new tariffs on US goods, which followed his own recent tariffs in a widening trade war, by Tony Rome. President Trump moved on Tuesday to ban a small set of imports from Canada, including some alcoholic beverages, dairy, byproducts, and molasses, an address to escalation of a bilateral trade war that risked economic flow back on both sides of the border. The limited ban, which is set to take effect in late September, was part of a series of retaliatory measures that the White House announced in the hours

4:10after Canada imposed new tariffs up to 50% on a variety of US goods. While Mr. Trump's move appeared to encompass only a small portion of trade between the countries, it amounted to a remarkable attempt to punish a close US ally. mere weeks after trade talks between the two neighbors collapsed in the Acrimony. It was not clear late Tuesday if for how Canada might respond to Mr. Trump's latest retaliatory actions. Earlier in the day, the president took steps to try to limit the federal government's ability to buy Canadian goods. He wrote on social media that the policy would remain in place unless Canada restores full and fair reciprocity for American farmers and companies. List of Canadian imports that Mr. Trump has moved to ban is heavily weighted toward liquor and wine and also includes alcohol-free beer. A number of milk-byproducts would also be shut out, particularly various forms of way, which is used for protein supplements,

5:11as well as molasses. Under a series of orders signed by the president, the prohibitions would take effect September 29th. In a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, a senior administration official sought to downplay the potential economic fallout from the import ban. The official said it was calibrated narrowly, so it would not cause prices to rise for Americans at a time of elevated inflation. But the policy of carried out could still unleash real damage for the businesses in the United States and Canada, the trade-in affected goods and for the consumers that ultimately purchased the finished products. The spat with Canada offered the latest evidence that Mr. Trump remains his committed as ever to his disruptive strategy of trade brinkmanship. Despite nearly two years of blistering court defeats, vicious international disputes and mounting domestic blowback, tariffs remain the president's preferred tool to try to boost domestic manufacturing and broker better trade deals. This tip for tat retaliation is bad for Canadian businesses

6:15in consumers and bad for American businesses in consumers. Said Brad Wood, the senior director for trade and innovation at the National Foreign Trade Council, a policy advocacy group whose board of directors includes Cata Pillar, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor, and Walmart. Every escalation is one more layer of barriers that ultimately Canada and the United States need to resolve, Mr. Wood added. While he spars with Canada, Mr. Trump and his A's are also putting the final touches on a roster of new tariffs targeting dozens of additional countries that the administration has accused of engaging in unfair trade practices. The latest round is expected to be based on findings that other nations overproduced certain products, that the administration has called excess capacity, leading to large and persistent U.S. trade deficits with those nations. Those taxes, which could arrive as soon as this week, are meant to replace some of the duties that the Supreme Court struck down in February.

7:18Further inflaming tensions, Mr. Trump has even threatened to block all trade involving countries that export more to the United States than they import from it. Currently, the United States has a yawning trade deficit and goods and services involving dozens of trading partners, including many in Europe and Asia. A halt to imports could prove economically cataclysmic. Each of those actions could create new financial pressures on American families and businesses. Terrorists are taxes on imports, meaning products from abroad can become more expensive. To that end, the President's global trade war has only exacerbated policy makers' years long fight with inflation, with the next report of consumer prices set to arrive this week. The trade dispute between the United States and Canada exploded into public view in July, after Mr. Trump accused Canada of discriminating against U.S. industries. In response, he invoked a dormant decades-old law

8:20to impose tariffs of 50 percent on select Canadian goods unless the two sides could reach some sort of deal in 30 days. Hawkes had proceeded for months and at various points in August, Mr. Trump seemed confident that a resolution was within reach. But negotiations collapsed before his deadline, prompting both sides to blame each other for scuggling the negotiations with unreasonable last-minute demands. As a result, Washington imposed duties in August on hundreds of Canadian imports, including wine, cheese, clothing, and hockey sticks. In response, Prime Minister Mark Carney and other Canadians immediately promised to retaliate with their own tariffs on similar products, which took effect as planned after Labor Day. The move reflected Mr. Carney's attempts to position himself as a bulwark against Mr. Trump's trade aggression. The Prime Minister has described the relationship between the countries as being at war

9:21and Canadian officials generally have fledged to respond dollar for dollar to any U.S. duties. In Washington, meanwhile, Mr. Trump and his aides have repeatedly mocked their Canadian counterparts in the size of their allies economy and military. The President has matched the tough talk with a threat to imposed duties on Canada's auto industry while promising to block Bombadier, a plain manufacturer from selling in the United States. And announcing his retaliatory measures on Tuesday, Mr. Trump invoked a little known, legally untested provision of the Tariff Act of 1930. Under Section 338, the President may impose tariff some response to unfair trade practices, and in the event of retaliation, he may also exclude some goods from importation. Mr. Trump became the first President to invoke the statute when he imposed the duties on Canadian goods last month. That raised familiar legal risks for the White House, which has faced repeated court challenges

10:23and defeats over its novel interpretation of trade authority. As part of a series of orders on Tuesday, the President altered some of those tariff rates. Many aluminum products from Canada, for example, now face a 50% tariff on top of the 25% tariff, Mr. Trump imposed last year. At the same time, he removed the duties he had imposed on bed sheets, fishing rods and tissue issued for toilet paper or used for toilet paper. Separately, Mr. Trump posted on Tuesday that he had directed his administration to take steps to remove Canadian origin products from a key government procurement system that guides federal purchasing. The President said he was acting reciprocally, claiming that Canada had banned American small businesses and companies from selling into their government procurement markets. Certain Canadian provinces, most notably Ontario, have barred provincial agencies

11:24from procuring goods or services from US firms. Ontario, for example, withdrew last year from a contract with Starlink, the satellite company tied to Elon Musk. The federal government of Canada has not put such a policy in place, but it has issued a request to all government linked agencies to prefer Canadian goods and services for their contracts. That policy, known as by Canadian, was a sore point during trade talks last month. Officials from both countries said the United States had asked Canada to cancel the program preferring Canadian goods sooner than planned. After 9-11, documents suggest New Yorkers are misled about air quality. The Mamdani administration released more than 170,000 pages of documents related to the air quality around the World Trade Center site in the months after the September 11th attacks. By Sally Goldenberg and Nina Agro, and the harrowing months that followed the attacks

12:26on the World Trade Center, New Yorkers were repeatedly assured that the air around the fallen towers was safe to breathe. But 10 months later, health officials were still finding evidence of asbestos as much as half a mile away, according to a sample of air quality records released on Tuesday. The documents reviewed by the New York Times in advance of their release include more than 170,000 pages of air quality reports, contamination records, and correspondence among city officials. The records were stored in 68 boxes in a city office. Sheilden from public view for more than two decades, and according to city officials discovered only last year. Mayor Zohran Mondani directed his administration to release the records to the public through an online portal, timing it to the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the attacks in Lower Manhattan. Over the course of the next year, his administration intends to review, redact, and publicize many more papers,

13:28found in municipal and insurance offices that relate to the environmental toxins brought about by September 11th. The records released on Tuesday provide a snapshot of the frenzied months after the attacks. When New York City and its leaders were struggling to balance the city's recovery with fears of terrorism and lingering toxins, the documents are limited in scope, offering only a fraction of the air quality reports taken around ground zero, and they also include a smattering of internal memos, including the so-called Harding Memo, in which the city discussed its potential liability stemming from September 11th air quality, many more are presumably absent. But even in a scattershot way, the records seemed to strengthen the notion that New Yorkers were instructed to return to the ground zero area before it was safe to do so, potentially exposing workers and residents to dangerous toxins. On Friday, we will mark 25 years since the worst tragedy ever to befall our city.

14:30The darkest day New York City is ever known. Mr. Mom Donnie said on Tuesday, at a news conference to introduce the records. And yet the devastating truth is that the suffering did not end once the smoke cleared and the dust settled. People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them that they were safe to breathe in toxic air. Mr. Mom Donnie added, the release of the documents resolves litigation brought by 9-11 Health Watch and advocacy organization that sued to force the publication of the documents. Ben Chavitt, the group's executive director, said the document showed that the city knew about the toxic chemical danger, even as city officials continue messaging to the public that the air was safe and acceptable. But the documents release may expose the city to new or amended lawsuits. The information could also help those second in the years after September 11 with their applications for federal victim compensation funds. Releasing the documents was both a significant

15:31logistical hurdle for which the mayor budgeted $34 million and an acknowledgement that even after so many years, as fewer Americans remember the attacks, the health effects persist. More people are believed to have died from illnesses related to the attacks than the nearly 3,000 people who were killed on 9-11. They are succumbing to long and blood cancers and heart and respiratory diseases. Records related to 15 John Street, a building less than a mile from the World Trade Center, offered a glimpse into the pro-longed and often chaotic cleanup work that took place around ground zero. On July 13, 2002, with lower Manhattan still blanketed into debris, inspectors were busy collecting dust samples from the buildings. Each report echoed the last, asbestos present on the facade, ledge, asbestos present on the west roof side, asbestos present on the top electrical cable. Some reports show that asbestos levels

16:32appear to stay under limits set by environmental and worker protection agencies, others indicated that they may have been too high, though many of the papers are not accompanied by written analysis. The document showed that the asbestos found at 15 John Street was not an outlier. List of environmental quality measurements taken by city agencies, the environmental protection agency and privately contracted laboratories demonstrate the presence of asbestos and other contaminants, sometimes at levels exceeding acceptable limits. Indust and air in other parts of lower Manhattan after September 11th. They include records preserved by the Giuliani administration, as well as documents related to Seven World Trade Center, which collapsed on the afternoon of September 11th. A letter to the city's Department of Environmental Protection from a New Yorker in February 2002, underscores how isolated and frightened people felt at the time.

17:33A resident of 333 Rector Place, detailed what she viewed as extensive missteps by city officials and her building's property manager and trying to remove asbestos and other contaminants from the premises. September 11th, 2001 felt I had to do something. The resident Marissa Ramirez de Alrieno wrote, describing how she had scooped up dust from a coffee table into a paper bag. Also started to clean the floor with wet paper towels, she wrote, an effort she acknowledged was mostly futile. Reached on Monday, Miss Ramirez de Alrieno, AD, said she had spent several years after the attacks under the care of an allergist and a pulmonologist. She was prescribed steroids and other medications because respiratory tests led doctors to fear she had suffered lung damage, she said. She said she spent several hours in her apartment on September 11th because she didn't realize the very lightweight dust that was coming in

18:34and was bad for human beings as it turned out to be. She left the apartment when firefighters came to evacuate her. By the time she returned several weeks later, officials said the air was safe to breathe, but she had doubts, especially one night when a hazmat team came to dig up the grass from a small roundabout in the neighborhood. A dug several inches down and took it all away and replaced it with new dirt, new sod, new grass. Miss Ramirez de Alrieno said, and I thought if they were thinking the grass is contaminated, then what are we all breathing? A draft document of data collected by the city's DEP listed locations throughout Lower Manhattan where asbestos levels and some dust samples exceeded hazardous limits in the days immediately after the attacks. Another undated document lists ambient samples that were also above acceptable asbestos limits. An audit from November 2001,

19:34prepared by a private firm and submitted to the federal EPA based on data collected by New York City and state agencies showed other troubling findings. That audit demonstrated that air concentration of the carcinogen benzene was still spiking near the tower's footprint. And at the concentration of asbestos and the air at the fresh kills landfill on satin island had increased after the attacks. The uncertainty about the air quality and residential and commercial buildings in Lower Manhattan was already raising concern among public officials like representative Jared Nadler, a Manhattan Democrat whose district included ground zero at the time. Congressman Nadler believed that the EPA hasn't elected its responsibility for monitoring indoor air quality around ground zero according to a memo from a city official, Esther Fuchs sent to six others including the city's top lawyer, Michael Cardozo, on February 28th, 2002.

20:37That was two months after Michael R. Bloomberg took offices mayor replacing Rudolph W. Giuliani. Miss Fuchs noted that Mr. Nadler said that the federal EPA handed over responsibility for measuring indoor air quality to the city without putting in place proper oversight measures, a responsibility the city passed on to property owners. The city's health department instructed citizens to clean their buildings with wet mops and rags. Miss Fuchs said and summarized the agency's position that air quality testing while painting an incomplete picture had not shown results that would indicate long term health impacts. In an interview this week, Mr. Nadler recalled trying to persuade the administrations of Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Bloomberg to release whatever information they had collected on air quality around the side of the attacks. They knew about the air quality and they essentially did nothing about it, Mr. Nadler said. I suspect that they all cared about

21:39was getting Wall Street reopened and they didn't give a damn about the health of people down here. Indeed, city and federal officials, most memorably Christine Todd Whitman, the administrator of the EPA at the time, reassured Americans that the air round ground zero was safe to breathe. Miss Whitman has since apologized. A review of news articles and interview transcripts in the days and weeks after September 11 shows that Mr. Giuliani continued to vouch for the safety of the air quality. I come down here in the morning and sometimes the odor is terrible. You said in late October 2001, according to an article in the New York Daily News, which had reported on toxic chemicals and metals that had been released into the environment around ground zero. You smell it and you fear there must be something wrong with it. But what I'm told is that it is not dangerous to your health. In February 2002, Mr. Bloomberg said, every test that has been done says the air quality was an acceptable limit.

22:42I think some people are just never going to want to believe that. A spokesman from Mr. Bloomberg declined to comment. A spokesman from Mr. Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment. Correspondence between Deutsch Bank located at 130 Liberty Street and the city DEP discusses testing from September 2001 through April 2002 that found itsbestous in dust samples exceeding the 1% threshold for harm throughout the building, as well as the presence of carcinogen, organic contaminants, heavy metals, and bacteria. The bank's experts have recommended a systematic testing program to quantify the hazard and identify appropriate methods for handling and disposing of the materials. The company's managing director for corporate real estate wrote in a June 2002 letter to the DEP Commissioner. The building would eventually be demolished.

23:45Asbestos exposure can cause lung tissue scarring, mesothelioma, and lung cancer. Dust, smoke, and other pollutants from the site have also been associated with lymphoma, leukemia, and other cancers. The mayor and the city's chief lawyer, Stephen Banks, agreed that it was important to make the documents public. Mr. Banks recalled in a recent interview. For four years, family, city workers, and survivors have been crying out for more transparency from their government. Mr. Banks wrote in an introductory letter contained in the document release. In a recent interview, Denise Verci, discussed losing her husband, Michael Verci, a New York City firefighter to lymphoma that was linked to his time working at ground zero. He truly loved being a firefighter. That was his calling, Ms. Verci said, of her husband who died in 2022. All that being said, now years later, we're finding out that there's all of these files. She said her husband and his colleagues

24:46had been assured that the air quality is fine. You can be down there. And while they would have gone to the site regardless, she said, maybe different precautions would have been taken. I don't understand hiding it to begin with, Mr. Verci said. That was horrific, but 25 years in, there's still people that are getting sick. A doctor sued 700 patients for deaths, 81 were arrested. Now he's a senator. Patients sued by Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas were routinely charged 18% interest the times found. Some had bank accounts garnished. I say a cliff. It was Easter weekend in 2007 when a police car pulled up to Joe Vasquez's home in rural Kansas. A doctor filed a lawsuit against him and his wife over an unpaid $4,561 bill from her emergency hysterectomy three years earlier. They had missed a court date and the doctor's lawyers asked the court to issue an arrest warrant. The police took the couple into custody

25:48as their grandchildren prepared for an egg hunt. Mr. Vasquez said, they spent two days in jail before their son could borrow the money to postpone. We had no money to pay, so Mr. Vasquez, now 68. At the time his wife was working at a manufacturing plant and he was on disability, he said. The doctor who sued the couple was Roger Marshall, now a senator from Kansas. Mr. Marshall, a Republican who is seeking re-election this fall, filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients without standing bills during his decades long career as an obstetrician gynecologist, according to a New York Times analysis of Kansas court records. Patients were arrested in 81 of those cases for missing court dates, the record show. In addition, 13 lawsuits, Mr. Marshall's lawyers sought more aunts, but it is unclear whether an arrest occurred. They also garnished patients paychecks and bank accounts. They routinely charged patients and 18% annual interest rate.

26:49The unpaid bills range from several thousand dollars to as little as $101. About half the lawsuits were filed under Mr. Marshall's name and the rest by Hartland Regional OBGYN. The medical practice he solely owned from 1998 to 2012 and then co-owned with another doctor from 2013 to 2019. Some facing lawsuits were new mothers without standing bills from their deliveries. Most lived in Barton County, a rural area with above average uninsured and poverty rates. Some patients the time spoke with lacked insurance. Others had bad health coverage but were responsible for part of their bill. I had every intention to pay. I was just struggling, said Kelly Clutz, who Mr. Marshall sued in 2015 over a $129 bill. Miss Clutz said the charge was from a postpartum visit shortly after her daughter's birth. Mr. Marshall sued Miss Clutz when her baby was nine months old

27:50and eventually garnished her bank account. I was recently divorced trying to do everything on my own, said Miss Clutz, 45. I told them I could make partial payments but it seemed like no matter what I said, they wanted the full amount at once. In response to detailed questions from the times as folks woman from Mr. Marshall said that he spent decades caring for patients regardless of their ability to pay. Judge's issue warns when people repeatedly miscord dates, not doctors. The spokeswoman Peyton Fuller wrote in a statement. Court records show that Mr. Marshall's lawyers repeatedly requested arrest warrants including a Mr. Vesca's case. They filed dozens of briefs arguing that warrants were needed because of the defendant's refusal to obey court orders. Steven Johnson, a lawyer who often represented Mr. Marshall in debt cases, defended the warrants and ensuing arrests as necessary to ensure that debtors attended court dates. If defendants were allowed to appear only

28:50when they wanted to, without any consequences, the court would get no business done. He wrote in a text message. He said that Mr. Marshall was no different than his other clients and allowing his well firm to take the steps they felt were necessary to pursue an outstanding bill. As a client, Mr. Marshall was not involved in decisions about when to seek warrants to arrest your garnishments, Mr. Johnson said, but didn't set the 18% interest rate in a contract he had patient sign. Mr. Marshall's office did not respond to a question from the times about who set the interest rate. Doctors have wide discretion in how to handle unpaid bills. They can decide when to involve a debt collector, file lawsuits or drop the debt entirely if a patient seems unable to pay. There is a lot of variation, said Barack Richmond, the co-director of the Healthflow Program at George Washington University, who has studied medical debt litigation in three states. There are a lot that do bring lawsuits

29:51but also a whole lot that don't. It's not because they're in a different position, they've just decided they're not going to do it. Some hospitals and doctors have increasingly relied on litigation as insurance deductibles have risen, leaving patients responsible for a great share of their bills. Even so, wage garnishments and arrests of patients are definitely on the extreme side, Mr. Richmond said. Neil Mahoney and economist at Stanford University has conducted research in one state finding that lawsuits against patients are relatively rare, with about 1.7% of hospital stays resulting in litigation. It's not surprising there are outliers, but this does seem to be an extreme case in terms of how far a doctor went to pursue debt, Mr. Mahoney said. Federal law made debtors prisons illegal centuries ago, but many states laws allow for arrests when the defendant in a debt lawsuit misses a court date. The Times interviewed eight people Mr. Marshall sued

30:51between 2003 and 2015. Most describe themselves as living paycheck to paycheck, often deciding between paying medical bills or buying groceries. Two said that the bills Mr. Marshall pursued in court stemmed from late miscarriages that required surgery. Mr. Marshall stopped practicing medicine after winding election to Congress in 2016. But some of his collection work continued during his time serving in the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2021, the Times found. Doc Marshall, Mr. Marshall spent more than 25 years practicing obstetrics before running for Congress in 2016. In campaign materials, the frequently trump trumpeted his work delivering babies and the financial success of his medical practice, both his Senate and his campaign website referred to him as Doc Marshall. For 5,000 Kansas life began here and the trusted hands of Dr. Marshall

31:53and ad during his 2020 campaign for Senate said, showing the Senator holding two newborns. His current campaign website says that he was often the only OBGYN in the area and his largely rural region of the state. He has also highlighted his care of low-income patients. Sometimes he said in 2017, women drove over 100 miles to see him because he accepted Medicaid, the Public Health Benefits Program for the Poor. In 1998, he and eight other doctors opened a four-bed surgical center and great bend. It steadily grew into a full service hospital generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue. He served as the hospital's board chairman and his family maintained co-owners of the hospital until March 2017, two months after he was sworn into office. Mr. Marshall earned salaries from both his obstetrics practice and the hospital. In 2015, his combined earnings from the two

32:54was about $780,000. His 2016 financial disclosure report shows. His current worth is between $3 million and $9.8 million, according to his most recent financial disclosure report. Great Bend Regional Medical Center also filed hundreds of lawsuits against patients during the years. Mr. Marshall was either an investor or board chair. Or then a dozen of those lawsuits occurred while Mr. Marshall served in Congress. And before he sold his ownership stake in the hospital, according to Kansas court records and Mr. Marshall's financial disclosures. Ms. Fuller, Mr. Marshall spokeswoman said that the hospital provided millions in compensated care and used the exact same billing and outside collection procedures as every other business or hospital in Kansas. She added 60 days before an election, the New York Times has decided that a role doctor keeping the hospital's lights on is some scandal, some kind of scandal.

33:55Kansas, Kansas, no better. When Mr. Marshall was elected to Congress, he quickly parlayed his experience as a doctor and healthcare investor into a central role in Republicans 2017 attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping healthcare law enacted under President Barack Obama. I may be the only physician in Congress to help run a hospital, he said. In July 2025, he introduced legislation that would prohibit hospitals from suing patients if they did not publicly post their medical prices. One patient, three arrests. The first time Misha Zimmerman was arrested for missing a court date related to a C-section bill for Mr. Marshall was in 2011. She was home with her two-year-old and eight months pregnant. I asked them quietly, can you not handcuff me in front of my daughter, said Ms. Zimmerman 44. I explained to my daughter I was going for a ride. Ms. Zimmerman was arrested twice more in 2013 and 2016,

35:00each time posting $200 bonds that would go toward paying down her debt according to receipts the times reviewed. Court records indicate that she was hand-delivered notices of the hearings she needed to attend, but Ms. Zimmerman said she did not receive such documents. Her last arrest occurred the week after Mr. Marshall won his first congressional election. Ms. Zimmerman was uninsured during the earlier pregnancy in 2009 but had explored and rolling in Medicaid. All states offer Medicaid coverage to low-income women during pregnancy and for a short period after, but states set their own income caps and Kansas has long had one of the lowest in the country, limiting the benefit to women who earn less than 150% of the poverty line. Ms. Zimmerman was not working at the time and thought she might qualify. She made an interview appointment at her local Medicaid office but went into labor the night before. She didn't show up and never completed the paperwork.

36:00Five months later, with her $3,596 bill for the delivery still unpaid, Mr. Marshall sued her. I had to choose whether I'd pay my electricity or pay $50 to a doctor who didn't need it, she said. Ms. Zimmerman said she set up a $50 monthly payment plan in 2010, but sometimes could not keep up. Mr. Marshall's law firm was charging 18% interest on her bill and she recalls being told that it had ballooned over $7,000 with interest. Ms. Zimmerman is among 81 patients whose court records indicate that an arrest occurred. Their debts ranged from $114 to $4,683. In some cases, efforts to collect a debt would continue for over a decade and lasted into Mr. Marshall's congressional career. Most patients did not attend their original court date which led to a default judgment. Four of the eight patients, the Times Interviewed, said they never received their summons which court records indicate were typically delivered by mail.

37:03Some sent in handwritten letters asking for leniency. One who Mr. Marshall sued in $2,000 for $1200 asked that she not be held liable for care she received. For me and my twins who I lost, she was still found responsible for the bill. Another hire to lawyer who wrote a brief protesting a $520 bill for a surgery to remove placenta that remained in a patient's uterus after childbirth. The service that the plaintiff seeks payment for should have been part of the original birthing services for which the plaintiff has already been paid, the lawyer argued, that case was dismissed. Mr. Vesca has said he did not recall receiving the summons for his lawsuit or a notice of his court date in 2007. Court records indicate both documents were delivered. The couple had health insurance, he said, but believe something went wrong with the billing. Mr. Vesca's recalls Mr. Marshall's office offering a $250 monthly payment plan that he could not afford.

38:06Every little bit of money we were getting went for rent and bills, he said. Mr. Vesca's was recovering from surgery with fresh stitches in his arm when the police arrived at his house. Because of that, he was not handcuffed and he was kept in a solitary cell. It was just me in that itty bitty room, he said. After they arrest the Vesca's work with the law firm to roll this and other debts into a payment plan. A year later, 11 years after the emergency surgery, in November 2015, Mr. Marshall's lawyers filed a letter with the court releasing the judgment against them. One school districts fight against Trump's anti-transgender push. Jefferson County, Colorado is one of a few public school systems to sue the Trump administration over demands that it revoke transgender protections or face funding cuts. By Michael C. Bender, Rob Stein had been in term school superintendent in Jefferson County, Colorado

39:07for 22 days when he sued the Trump administration in the summer, over demands to change their transgender inclusive policies. Dr. Stein and other district officials that they had no choice. The cash drop district, Jeff Co. Public Schools, risked losing all $50 million of its federal funding for school meals and special education if they refused. But if they acquiesce, they concluded they would violate state laws that protect transgender students from discrimination. This has been just an enormous distraction. Dr. Stein said in an interview from the district's foothill framed headquarters. It has added a lot of stress to the system and to the kids who are being targeted here. What the district cast as a practical decision is viewed as a rare counterstrike from public schools, universities and hospitals, and support of a transgender rights movement that has been on its heels under President Trump after a decade of hard fought successes in school boardrooms and courts.

40:08Z Williams, an advocate for transgender rights and co-director of the Bread and Rose's Legal Center in Denver, said most institutions facing pressure have opted for voluntary capitulation. Some schools targeted by the Trump administration have agreed to settlements or change the policies based on Mr. Trump's executive orders that forbid the government from recognizing gender identity instead of biological sex. Bard, transgender athletes and female sports enrolled back prior administrative guidance that sex discrimination laws protected gender identity. I'm incredibly proud of this school board. Z Williams said, trans people are being more and more villainized and more and more marginalized. So it's really impressive for Jeff codify on these issues. The dispute has thrust the school district into the center of the mushrooming culture war that Mr. Trump has led against transgender Americans. It encapsulates virtually every flash

41:08point of the political struggle between gender identity and biological sex that has become central to Mr. Trump's efforts to reassert conservative social values into public schools and universities. The legal battle has also put a spotlight on an impossible squeeze facing educators across the country. Caught between state laws or court orders, protecting transgender students and the executive decrease from the White House aimed at undercutting those safeguards. Jeff co is testing the limits of federal pressure versus local governance. The education department where Linda McMahon, the education secretary, received a summons in the lawsuit on August 13th has not yet filed its formal response with the court. In a statement, a spokeswoman said the agency had referred to the Kate, had referred the case to the Justice Department because the district had taken no steps to protect women and girls. The investigation into Jeff co is one of more than five dozen. The administration has opened into school districts

42:08in universities since 2025 over potential violations of anti-discrimination protections for female students, widely known as Title IX. The administration argues that allowing those assigned as male at birth access to girl sports teams and bathrooms violates Title IX and risks these stressing girls or distressing girls. In March, the administration announced that Jeff co had violated federal dawn discrimination laws by allowing students access to restrooms, locker rooms and sports teams based on their gender identity instead of biological sex. A key data point was that 61 boys were participating on girls athletic teams. The figure startled even district officials, mostly because they said there were no transgender girls competing on girls teams. The district said the Trump administration had misinterpreted the information. Though the records show male participants on girls teams, they were team managers and mascots, not athletes.

43:12District officials said the government, the federal government also may have confused across country roster in which the same coach oversees separate programs for boys and girls. Asked about the discrepancy in education department Bugsperson repeated that federal investigators determined male participants had at least 61 roster spots on girls sports teams. The lead, it's defense and court, the district has enlisted the law firm of Jack Smith, the former special counsel who directed a pair of criminal investigations against Mr. Trump, resulting in grand jury indictments. The firm also represents other districts facing similar investigations, including Shawnee Mission Kansas, Montgomery County, Maryland and Fairfax County, Virginia. The Jeffka lawsuit accuses the administration of failing to follow proper procedures in threatening the funding cuts and of misinterpreting Title IX to mean that schools must separate students by their biological sex and restrooms

44:13and athletic facilities. No court has so held according to the lawsuit, no properly issued regulations so require, and the Supreme Court expressly left that question open. Federal laws typically override conflicting state statutes with the district argues that state law outweighs White House decrees. The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, first enacted in 1957, was updated in 2007, and in the year since, to extend protections to transgender people. The dispute was drawn key Washington figures to Colorado. Early last month, Harmeet Dylan, the government's top civil rights lawyer, was the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for Jeffka Kids First, a local parents rights group. The group has filed multiple complaints with the federal government about the school district's gender policies. Since last year, Lindsey Datco, the head of Jeffka Kids First, said in an interview.

45:18During the event held in a hotel ballroom across the street from the school district offices, Miss Dylan gave credit to Jeffka Kids First and other conservative leaning parents groups, which the administration has increasingly relied on to identify targets for civil rights investigations. passionate community members, like all of you in this room, are part of the reason why this Department of Justice, perhaps for the first time ever, is taking the side of parents as vigorously as you're seeing in this administration, she said. A Justice Department spokeswoman said that Miss Dylan left before fund raising activity started and that her appearance was approved by the agency's ethics team. Miss Datco, a former teacher with four children enrolled in Jeffka Schools, said she formed Jeffka Kids First in 2020 in response to restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic. The group's attention has since turned to other issues, including gender policies, which she said

46:19had become so expansive that they were hurting and broader student body. If those policies are meant to give equal opportunities to everyone, isn't it now doing the opposite, she said? Policies that accommodate a transgender child can accommodate other children as well. At a back to school meeting in August with school principals and other senior staff, district officials were walked through recent changes about how to talk with students about gender identity. Teachers, for example, no longer give students surveys that ask if it's okay to use their pronouns when teachers call home. Dr. Stein, the interim superintendent, said the language was aimed at being more mindful to concerns in the community while balancing student needs. We also don't want to squelch inquiry and suppress kids as they develop their own means of expression, he said. But that expression can at times be more difficult at home than at school for students like Olly Parlett, 14, who came out as non-binary two years ago

47:20to their mother and stepfather but feared their biological father's reaction. The private turmoil in their household over gender identity was thrust into the public square when Olly's father, Destin Gonzalez, stood at the lectern of a school board meeting last year and blamed district policies for his lack of awareness about his child's preferred name and pronouns. Mr. Gonzalez had not been part of meetings about the changes with Olly and their mother, Barlett, with a school counselor. The moment went viral on social media as Elon Musk and conservative influencers reposted the clip to suggest woke local school districts were brainwashing the nation's children. Mr. Gonzalez said in an interview that he had lost some of his custody rights during the past year and had been estranged from his oldest child since May. He has pulled his two younger children both from his second marriage out of public schools and warned fellow parents to be as involved as humanly possible with their children.

48:23Mr. Gonzalez criticized the county for suing the government. This all started with them, all of it, he said. Sitting in a diner, picking at a breakfast of eggs and toast, Olly spoke about the series of extraordinary highs and lows already logged on their short journey, including feeling targeted and dismissed by the president of the United States. They also recalled the strict science teacher known to inspire fear and students who showed them unexpected empathy. But Olly appeared torn about whether lawsuits would help change any minds about gender identity issues. People hate what they don't understand, Olly said. But if they would just hang out with someone who is trans or go do a drag show, they would see the healing joy and in about 10 minutes their preconceived notions will not be there. Lindsay Glancy's ex-husband complains of relentless harassment. Patrick Glancy's lawyer said that he would seek help from authorities in response to conspiracy theorists

49:23who have accused him of killing his children and feigning me misclancy by Jenna Russell. The ex-husband of Lindsay Glancy, whose trial for strangling their three children ended in a mistrial, said through his lawyer on Tuesday that he plans legal action against co-so-called influencers and outright conspiracy theorists. Who have accused him of the killings in affirming misclancy? Patrick Glancy's lawyer Howard Cooper said in a statement that a relentless escalating and destructive defamation campaign has threatened Mr. Glancy's reputation, livelihood, and life, leaving him no option but to address the issue and involve law enforcement. And that is enough, this spread of blatant and baseless falsehood must stop the statement said. Ms. Glancy 36 killed her three children at their home in Massachusetts in January 2023. She acknowledged strangling Korra five, Dawson three, and Callan eight months, but pleaded not guilty to three counts of first degree murder.

50:25She said that she had been experiencing postpartum psychosis and had heard a voice commanding her to kill the children in herself. The trial that began in July and at last week when the jury deadlocked. The prosecutor has not yet said whether he intends to retry misclancy. Ms. Glancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said on Tuesday that he would be open to talking with the prosecutor, Timothy Cruz, to try and work something out that would be acceptable to both sides. Mr. Reddington also said that he intends to ask President Trump to pardon Ms. Glancy, who has not been convicted of anything. Mr. President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady the type of person she is, what she's been through and consider a pardon. Mr. Reddington said in an interview on Good Morning America, but a pardon appears unlikely according to the American Bar Association. There is strong consensus among legal experts that a president cannot pardon someone for his state offense because the Constitution reserves presidential pardons

51:25for offenses against the United States. Days after the loss of his children, Mr. Clancy publicly urged forgiveness for Ms. Clancy, who had struggled for months to find effective treatment for her postpartum mental illness. He has since divorced Ms. Clancy and remarried. The case drew intense media attention and Ms. Clancy attracted a legion of followers and detractors inside and outside the courtroom. Among her supporters were women who had faced similar roadblocks to healthcare while navigating their own postpartum mental illness. It also was a sensation among online conspiracy theorists who combed through evidence crafting alternative theories. In his statement on Tuesday, Mr. Clancy's lawyers said that Mr. Clancy had hoped to address the false claims so he can return his attention to what matters, preserving the memory of Korra, Dawson, and Kalen Clancy and supporting other women facing perinatal mental health challenges.

52:27Why stocks are defying gravity and what could bring them down? Investors are focused on strong corporate earnings and AI while looking past the war in Iran. But rising interest rates are increasing risk to the rally by Arunas Omni. Investors in the stock market are facing a protracted war in Iran, rising oil prices and a bond sell-off that could elevate borrowing across, borrowing costs across the economy. And yet they are unfazed. The Benchmark S&P 500 index is up nearly 13% this year and some analysts expect the market to end the year even higher. What's propping up investor optimism right now is a strong earning season and enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, helping to overcome fears of inflation and the impact of rising interest rates. But those gains may waver as markets wade through September, a month when historically stocks fall. There are also risks in the rally as interest rates keep rising

53:29and concerns about runaway spending on AI data centers mount. What's driving the market? AI and earnings. The exuberance around AI has been an omnipresent force in the market for more than a year and it's still delivering. Low-out financial results, hosted by tech behemoths like Nvidia, have only pumped stocks higher by showing that the demand for AI remains strong. While investors have become more selective, paying close attention to how much large tech companies or hyper-schellers are spending on AI, they are still betting that this costly build-out and computing infrastructure will eventually pay off. The NASDAQ index, which is concentrated heavily in technology companies, is up around 14% this year. The market's optimism goes beyond AI across the board. Portally earnings reported by companies in recent weeks are passed investors' expectations, often by a wide margin.

54:29Roughly 88% of the companies in the S&P 500 that had reported results for their most recent quarter by August 31st meet expectations on their earnings per share according to Scott Rubner, a set of Dell securities analyst, and those that missed expectations did not miss by much. The S&P 500 is weighted by the market value of the companies in the index. That means the index's performance is heavily skewed by a handful of technology companies that have the largest market values. But even when equal weight is given to non-technology companies in the index, the returns have been strong. The equal weighted S&P 500 is up more than 13% this year, slightly higher than the returns on the standard index. What explains this broad strength? Some sectors like energy have been boosted by high oil prices, helping them rake in bigger profits.

55:29There's also a tariff-related tailwind. Since the US Supreme Court struck down a slew of tariffs on imported goods in February, the Trump administration has had to refund tens of billions of dollars collected from American companies. The refunds provided a huge boost to some companies in the second quarter. Holes received a tariff refund, totaling about $100 million, according to analyst at Goldman Sachs. Lows and smuckers were others that benefited significantly from the refunds. And then there were earnings that were lifted by AI. You're starting to see the broadening out now, said Antony Guy, head of equity investments for the Chief Investment Office at Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank. Early on in the cycle, it was certainly a lot about hyper-scalers. But now we're starting to see a lot of companies who are implementing AI into their processes. Barclays analysts estimated that 46% of all companies

56:32had discussed AI substantially on their second quarter earnings calls, and that 30% had done so in the context of revenue impacts. Cost reductions, dollar value benefits or operational efficiencies. What could derail the rally? Rising rates. Rates on government bonds have been ticking higher. And if they keep rising, they could cast a cloud over the stock market. Higher yielding bonds offer investors a strong return, but with fewer risks than stocks. That's one reason rising bond rates often push down stock values as investors rethink the risk reward of stock versus bonds. When the yields are high, stocks look relatively unattractive all of a sudden, especially stocks where most of the earnings are in the future, said Barry Wisman, a fixed income and rate strategies for migwari group. As rates on government bonds go up, they also increase borrowing costs for companies

57:32that use debt to keep growing. Currently, the 10-year Treasury note, a benchmark for interest rates across the economy, is at 4.78%. The greatest near-term concern for stocks is if you start seeing the sustained push above 5%. Mr. GE of Bank of America said, that's when you should start seeing some concerns around corporate earnings being impacted. Investors have also become more touchy about anything, about anything's going awry in the AI story. That means becoming more perceptive to how much companies are spending on AI projects. And whether those investments will translate into profits. When Google released a solid earnings report in July, for example, it's stock dipped after a higher than expected spending forecast. Higher Treasury yields play into the AI sensitivity as well. Treasury rates are rising as the government seeks to entice investors to look past the federal deficits

58:34and keep buying its debt. But that could drive up rates the AI companies have to pay their investors in order to get them to continue buying the bonds and companies or selling to finance their growth. If the deficit does not get reduced, the deficit will crowd out bond issuance by corporations that will crowd out investment in AI. Mr. Wisman said, in a recent note, strategist at Evercore called 5% yields on the 10-year Treasury a threat to the structural AI revolution bull market. The stock market faces other challenges in the coming months. As the boost from the Tara-Free Funds wear off the underlying picture from some companies, especially those exposed to the American consumer looks more muddled. Walmart and Coles, for example, said their customers were under pressure from higher gas prices, but both companies raised their earnings out looks for the rest of the year.

59:35This concludes the reading of the New York Times for today. Your reader for today has been on flakinger. Do you have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program? Please feel free to call us at area code 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Y. This is Ashley Akinetti from the Almost Amos Podcast. You ever notice you and your spouse keep saying, we need to get away, but you never actually plan anything. That was us until we did something fun and spontaneous. We went to resortpass.com. There are hundreds of hotel resorts, pools and spots and private beaches that you can enjoy. You can spend the day at a luxury resort, pool, spa, massage, without booking an overnight stay. And listen, I may have only been like 15 minutes from home, but it felt like it was a whole different world. And I'm thinking, this is exactly what I needed. So just go to resortpass.com, choose your resort, choose your day, luxury, resort, day passes,

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