John Eligon

But on Wednesday, her commute home was particularly nightmarish, even by Southern California traffic standards. It took more than four hours.

“The GPS kept telling us, ‘Go up into this neighborhood, turn this street, that street, the other street,’” she said. “Oh, I was ready to scream.”

The culprit was the numerous wildfires, spread by powerful wind gusts, that led authorities to shut down major roadways, including a portion of State Route 60 that delivers Harris to Riverside. That closure forced her to detour onto local roads, where she said she was greeted with the occasional middle finger from other frustrated motorists.

Traffic long has been a cause of dread for Californians. But when wildfires hit, the gridlock can be unbearable, if not deadly.

Already this fire season, major highways were shut, causing severe disruptions for commuters and businesses along major arteries where, in normal conditions, traffic can slog like a snail. A portion of Interstate 405, among the nation’s busiest freeways, was shut down for several hours this week as a fire tore through the hills near the Getty Center. Route 101, another busy artery, was also closed near Calabasas because of the Mureau fire.

The closures can be particularly stressful on low-wage workers whose commutes may be upended by the knot of detours and traffic.

“At the end of the day, it’s just added stress,” said Micheal Woods, 58, Harris’ nephew, who rode with her from the appointment. “It’s bottlenecks, people trying to get out. It makes it very, very difficult to get around.”

On Friday, as firefighters continued to battle several blazes up and down the state, the latest fire, named the Maria fire, burned in Ventura County and grew to cover nearly 9,000 acres.

Traffic buildups are inevitable when flames sweep dangerously close to highways, or when hillside areas accessible only by narrow, windy roads have to be quickly evacuated. At best, it is an inconvenience. At worst, it can be fatal. Several people died last year after getting stuck on clogged roads trying to escape the Camp fire, a massive blaze in Paradise, California, that became the deadliest in state history.

“The last thing we want to do is put anybody at an inconvenience,” said Ian Hoey, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, which oversees highway closures during fires. “But human life is going to come first. If somebody is potentially in danger, that’s going to determine whether there’s going to be a closure of a road.”

Fortunately the fires this year have not had the destructive, deadly force of last year, so there have not been as many logjams on roadways. Still, the impact has been felt.

When the Palisades fire hit last week, Donna Marie Marzullo, 55, said the sole road up to the skin care spa she owned was closed.

“You definitely have to go on living your life, but it is fearful,” she said.

As a construction contractor, Justin Corey said he traveled throughout Southern California to do jobs. He has had to plan his routes carefully around closures and detours. A recent commute took an hour longer than usual because drivers were gawking at smoke-filled hills, he said.

Corey, 35, had a much scarier encounter with wildfires on Thursday when he had to evacuate his house in San Bernardino in the early hours of the morning as a blaze came racing down Waterman Canyon. A neighbor banged on his door at 2:30 a.m., and when he looked outside, the hills were red and there were palm trees on fire less than 100 yards from his low-slung home. He and his wife quickly got their three children and three dogs into a car and headed downhill to safety.

“I was sad, stressed, thought I was going to lose everything,” Corey said after he had returned to his home hours later. His house was spared, but he also contemplated another impact of that day’s incident: He had to call off several planned jobs, throwing his busy schedule as a builder into disarray.

If the fires have not disrupted residents’ work routines, they have at least added another level of planning. With the forecast ripe for fires this week, Beth Beal and her husband, Larry, had packed a bag with baby pictures, blankets, birth certificates, their Social Security cards and other important items in the event that they had to evacuate quickly.

That moment came on Thursday morning when the Beals, who live across the street from Corey, also got a knock on their door as the blaze closed in. Larry Beal sprayed down the house for a moment with a green garden hose. They grabbed the bag, their three children, their two dogs and two cats, and raced for safety.

“When the wind blows, you don’t sleep,” said Beal, 35.

Harris, the woman who lives in Riverside, said her sister had been warning her to get all of her important belongings into a suitcase just in case she had to flee. But she had not been heeding the advice.

In the 18 years she had been living in her two-story brown stucco home, fires had never threatened her subdivision. Harris figured she was safe because she did not live in the hills or particularly close to any brush that acts as fuel to the unpredictable fires.

Yet hours after she had returned home from the more than four-hour commute from Long Beach, her nephew’s phone buzzed around 3 a.m. It was an alert that a fire was near. When her nephew, who helps to care for her, initially called the fire department, he was told they did not have to evacuate. But more than an hour later, when he called back, authorities told them to flee.

Harris packed up important keepsakes, photos, her will and other documents before leaving with her nephew. And back she headed onto the roads that had left her frustrated just hours earlier.

“I don’t want to go through this experience again,” Harris said. “It’s really misery for me.”

This article originally appeared in

California Fires Bring On Traffic Nightmares

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — At 72 years old and ailing, Bunny Jo Harris regularly drives from her home in Riverside to medical appointments in Long Beach, a trip that usually takes about an hour and a half each way.

For years, some black drivers in the St. Louis area have taken those precautions to avoid getting pulled over by the police. And yet it has not seemed to prevent them from getting stopped, ticketed and fined at higher rates than people of other races.

After a police officer killed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown five years ago this month in Ferguson, protests there rocked the nation, leading to a public outcry over race and policing. People were outraged to learn that municipalities throughout St. Louis County had been issuing traffic tickets to finance city services — and jailing drivers who could not afford to pay — with black residents bearing the brunt of those policies.

Five years later, black drivers continue to be stopped at much higher rates than white drivers, a disparity that has actually grown in Ferguson despite changes — including a new state law — that have greatly reduced the number of traffic tickets, fines and arrest warrants issued.

Statewide, black motorists were nearly twice as likely as other motorists to be stopped, based on their share of the driving-age population, according to the Missouri attorney general’s annual report on traffic stops. White drivers were stopped 6% less than would be expected. In Ferguson, the disparity in traffic stops of black drivers has increased by 5 percentage points since 2013, while it has dropped by 11 percentage points for white drivers.

“I can’t say things have gotten better,” said Blake Strode, executive director of ArchCity Defenders, a legal advocacy organization that has fought ticketing practices. “I understand the status quo to be one of structural racism, poverty, over investment in the carceral system, and policing and prosecution. That is as real today in 2019 as it was five years ago in 2014.”

Jason Armstrong, who became Ferguson’s police chief last month after serving at a department in suburban Atlanta, said the data might not tell the entire story, noting that the disparities grew in Ferguson even as the department has transformed from being largely white to more than half black. Since Brown’s death, the number of black officers in the Ferguson department has skyrocketed to 21 from 4.

“At the end of the day, how are people being treated,” Armstrong said. “Does the officer treat you like you are a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a husband, a wife? Do they treat you professionally? That’s the biggest part of it to me.”

While traffic courts in the region may be less crowded than they were several years ago, the makeup of drivers looks largely the same.

During a traffic court session in Ferguson in mid-July, the line stretched out the door. Although the city is two-thirds black, almost everyone appearing before the judge that day was black. African Americans also accounted for the overwhelming majority of drivers appearing in traffic courts recently in the nearby towns of Florissant and St. Ann — both of which have predominantly white populations.

In Ferguson, the dreary routine of traffic court played out over 2 1/2 hours — 90 minutes longer than was scheduled. People filed through a metal detector and had to store their cellphones in manila envelopes to take them into the courtroom.

As a black man driving a 2000 Lexus LS 400 with tinted windows, De’Shaun Bunch said he was a prime target. He said he had been pulled over about eight times in different municipalities in St. Louis County over the course of two years and was in court in Ferguson recently for tickets he had received for speeding and driving without insurance.

“I’m a black man and I’m driving a nice car,” he said. “It’s the same. They were doing it before, they’re still doing it now. It ain’t changed since Mike Brown died.”

Bunch, who works in a shipping and receiving warehouse, said he had skipped previous court dates. He finally decided to show up after getting stopped about a month earlier. There had been a warrant for his arrest because of the delinquent tickets. In the past, he very likely would have been thrown in jail. But Bunch said the officer simply took him to a nearby police station, booked and released him, and told him to go to court.

While that was a better outcome than having to spend time behind bars, Bunch said the underlying racial dynamics of driving while black in St. Louis remained the same as they have for years. When he is pulled over, officers sometimes do not cite a violation for stopping him, he said.

Law enforcement officials in Missouri have argued that black drivers were pulled over at higher rates because they accounted for most of the drivers passing through particular communities. But this was the first year that the state’s report also analyzed instances in which officers pulled people over in the communities in which they resided. Black drivers were still pulled over at higher rates in many places, including Ferguson.

“The overwhelming majority of the pull-overs that I’ve made in my career, I didn’t know who the person was that was driving the car,” Armstrong said. “Do I believe that there are some officers in this country that may see somebody that they don’t like and pull them over for that? Absolutely. But I think that’s more of the anomaly.”

In an effort to curb excessive ticketing, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 5 with broad bipartisan support in 2015., The law capped the percentage of revenue that municipalities were allowed to earn from their courts at 20%, among other things.

The results have been stark. Municipal courts statewide collected a total of $60.5 million in fines last year, a 45% decrease from 2013. The number of warrants issued statewide fell by 18% to 545,484 over the same period.

One of the champions of the bill in the senate was Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is now the state’s attorney general. In his new role, Schmitt has attempted to go after municipalities in court. Last month, he reached a settlement with the city of Diamond, in southwestern Missouri, to end its traffic ticket quota.

Yet these changes were not enough to prevent Kylie Malveaux from choosing to give up driving altogether out of fear that she might amass more tickets and fines on top of what she already owed.

She left traffic court in Florissant last month with $230 worth of unpaid fines. On top of that, she was in danger of getting her license suspended because of several other tickets and had hopes of hiring a lawyer to help her avoid that outcome.

Malveaux, 24, now leaves most of the driving to her partner, Akil Poynter, 25, who was also in Florissant traffic court last month for driving with a suspended license and a broken taillight. Both of them needed to return on a later date to settle their tickets. They seemed to take the hassle in stride.

“It’s something you get used to,” Poynter said.

“It’s terrible that you’re used to it,” Malveaux added. “At the end of the day, you can’t tell a cop who to pull over and who not to pull over. They have the freedom to do whatever.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/us/black-drivers-traffic-stops.html" id="5cb7945b-d987-3a62-a1b3-3f2cb4f0aaa0">The New York Times</a>.

Stopped, Ticketed, Fined: The Pitfalls of Driving While Black in Ferguson, Missouri

FERGUSON, Mo. — They avoid main roads. They maintain good posture. Sometimes they choose not to drive at all.

But when the justice system finally came down on an officer in a fatal shooting this week, it was not exactly the victory those activists had been seeking.

Mohamed Noor, who is black, Somali and Muslim, became the first Minnesota police officer convicted of murder in an on-duty killing, when a jury found him guilty Tuesday in the fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk, who was white.

While many in the community said Noor should have been held accountable, they could not help but wonder what the outcome would have been if the races of the officer and the victim had been flipped.

“This is an anomaly based on the race of the officer, and the race and affluence of the victim,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer and activist in Minneapolis. “The system treats African Americans and white people differently, whether they are the victim in a police-involved shooting case or whether they are the police officer. This is absolutely outrageous.”

Even as activists and community leaders said that Ruszczyk deserved justice and expressed their condolences for her family, the verdict raised uncomfortable questions about the racial dynamics of the case.

Some saw a system and a society that was quick to embrace and sympathize with Ruszczyk, a benefit that black victims rarely enjoy. Others felt that Noor did not get the vocal support of the police establishment that they usually see in police-shooting cases and wondered whether this would deter black people from law enforcement careers.

“The only difference is that the officer involved in the shooting in this case happened to be a black Muslim immigrant, and the deceased person is a Caucasian lady,” said Waheid Siraach, a former police officer and a founder of the Somali-American Police Association. “People can put the two and two together.”

Legal action against police officers involved in fatal shootings is exceedingly rare. Since 2005, 101 nonfederal officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter in shootings while they were on duty, according to Philip Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University. About 36% of those officers have been convicted, but only four of them on murder charges; the others were for lesser offenses.

In 2016, a police officer in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, shot and killed Philando Castile, who was black, during a traffic stop. The officer, who was Latino, was charged with manslaughter and acquitted by a jury after saying he had feared for his life.

Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County prosecutor, was criticized by some who said he was holding Noor to a different standard than he has white officers — an accusation that the prosecutor fiercely denied after the verdict was announced.

“I’ve heard a small group in the community make disparaging remarks about me and this office to the effect that I won’t charge white cops who shoot black people, but I’ll charge black cops who shoot white people,” he said during a news conference. “That simply is not true. Race has never been a factor in any of my decisions and never will be.”

In 2016, Freeman chose not to charge officers in the shooting death of Jamar Clark, who was black, saying Clark had grabbed one officer’s holstered gun. Last year, he did not charge the officers who pursued and shot at Thurman Blevins, killing him; Freeman said Blevins, who was also black, had a gun and did not follow the officers’ commands. In the killing of Travis Jordan in January, the prosecutor said the police officers had faced a deadly threat because Jordan, also black, had a knife and was coming toward them.

Freeman argued that the details in those cases were different from those in the shooting of Ruszczyk. Each case is handled on its own merits, he said, and the facts showed that Noor, who was fired from the Minneapolis Police Department after the shooting, had acted unreasonably.

Ruszczyk, who sometimes used the last name of her fiancé, Don Damond, had called police late one night in July 2017 to report hearing what sounded like a woman in distress in the alley behind her house. Noor and his partner were in their squad car in the alley investigating when Ruszczyk approached.

Noor, 33, testified during the trial that he had heard a bang and had fired one shot from the passenger’s seat when Ruszczyk appeared at the driver’s side window.

Noor’s explanation did not convince the racially diverse jury, which convicted him of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Prosecutors seemed to imply at one point during the trial that Ruszczyk’s appearance should not have been threatening.

“Her whole blond hair, pink T-shirt and all, that was all threat to you?” Amy Sweasy, an assistant county attorney, asked Noor during cross-examination, according to The Star Tribune.

Minnesota has a large Somali population, and many have expressed their displeasure with what they saw as unfair treatment of Noor. A demonstration in Minneapolis on Wednesday brought together various social justice organizations, including one called Justice for Justine, which advocated for Ruszczyk. Speaking at the demonstration, Drew Rosielle, a member of the group, sympathized with the complicated racial dynamics of the case.

“What Justine has received, we want for everyone,” he said, according to a written statement provided by the organization. “If Justine is the only one to be treated this way, this is not real justice, but another racist wound inflicted on our community.”

Siraach, the Somali American former police officer, said there seemed to be a rush to judgment against Noor. He was upset with statements made by the former Minneapolis police chief that he felt suggested that Noor had acted improperly. He also did not think that the Police Federation of Minneapolis, the union representing officers, was as vocal as they usually were when officers were accused of wrongdoing.

Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the federation, disputed that in an email. “This is a very ignorant statement made by those that are naive about our role and the process, and by those that quickly play the race card without merit,” he wrote.

Kroll said he had been helping Noor and his lawyers throughout the process. He did not speak out because Noor’s legal team had kept mostly quiet, he said, and because his public statements could have been used to make him testify.

Mustafa Diriye, a community organizer working in Minneapolis, said he had advocated vigorously for justice for Ruszczyk, just as he had for black victims of police shootings. He was pleased with the verdict, he said.

Yet he could not help but be bothered that the system had worked so well for a white woman when it had failed so many black people, he said.

“‘I fear for my life’ — that’s what all white cops get away with,” said Diriye, who is originally from Somalia. “That only works for white officers. They can fear for their life. But if you are black, no, no, you cannot be fearful.”

Diriye said he felt that if white people would demand justice for black police-shooting victims the way they did for Ruszczyk, things could be different.

“The hypocrisy is there,” he said. “That is my frustration.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/us/mohamed-noor-guilty.html" id="2f1765e9-df5c-3d0a-a698-3c9d9be02ecc">The New York Times</a>.

The national debate over race and policing has felt particularly close to activists in Minneapolis, who viewed several cases in their region as examples of police officers not being held accountable for killing black civilians.

A Black Officer, a White Woman, a Rare Murder Conviction. Is It 'Hypocrisy,' or Justice?

But just four months into Omar’s first term, that feeling of celebration has taken a sharp turn.

“Watching what Congresswoman Omar is going through will have a lot of young black Muslim women wondering if what she is going through will ultimately be worth it,” said Ali, 29, a producer and co-host of the “Identity Politics” podcast.

Omar, 36, the first congresswoman to wear a hijab, has faced intense opposition over her outspoken, controversial positions on Israel and comments about Jews that many felt played on anti-Semitic tropes about money and dual loyalty.

Leaders of her own party drafted a resolution rebuking her comments. Republicans have threatened to censure her. Things escalated when President Donald Trump accused her of downplaying the events of Sept. 11 after comments she made about the aftermath of the attacks.

And while her choice of words has caused some of her own Muslim constituents to describe her as anti-Semitic, many American Muslims across the country are worried that the ongoing criticism of Omar is being motived by racism and Islamophobia, and they are concerned about the broader consequences for their communities, including a heightened sense that they are not welcome in the halls of power.

“If we start fearing visibility, we’re putting a ceiling on what change we can make in this world,” Ali said.

American Muslims are a small but increasingly significant part of the electorate. During last year’s midterm elections, nearly 100 Muslim candidates ran for office, and some of the largest American Muslim communities are in swing states.

But that momentum could easily be derailed, some say, and the blame for such a setback would lie not just with Omar’s poor choice of words or Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, but also with Democratic leaders who appear reluctant to embrace the diversity they claim to champion.

Maheen Ahmed, a 25-year-old aide in the California Legislature, said it was inspiring to see someone who looked and prayed like her representing Americans at the federal level, but the tepid support for Omar from some Democrats was disheartening.

“By allowing for the hate toward Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to go unchecked, many people that are like me, we are pretty discouraged,” said Ahmed, who is Muslim and wears a hijab.

Omar has received hundreds of threats since taking office, she said. A New York man was arrested earlier this month for threatening to kill her. A Florida man was arrested last week for making threatening phone calls to members of Congress, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, with references to Omar.

Tlaib, D-Mich., is also Muslim, but it is Omar who has attracted the most scrutiny because of her outspoken criticism of Israel.

When Omar first came onto the national scene as a blunt-talking freshman congresswoman from Minnesota, Suldan Hagi, who is a Muslim immigrant from Somalia like Omar, understood how her comments and delivery could be perceived as hurtful and offensive.

Still, he felt her unique perspective as an immigrant and refugee made for valuable contributions to Congress. It was just that Omar needed to be more reserved and avoid attention and getting into trouble, he said.

Then came what Hagi saw as unfair charges that Omar was anti-Semitic, and a false insinuation from Trump that she did not understand the severity of Sept. 11. Now Hagi thinks it is not Omar’s politics upsetting people, but her identity.

“There’s many people that are racist,” said Hagi, 38, who owns a trucking business in Kansas City, Mo. “And when you see someone who wears a hijab, although an American, they don’t like it. She’s different. Maybe a lot of people are saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ ”

Others agreed that Omar would have been better off keeping a low profile so early in her tenure.

“Usually when someone is elected to a higher office, I always see that people take it easy in the first term, first year,” said Omar Jamal, a political consultant in St. Paul, Minnesota, who is from Somalia. “They learn. They don’t go around saying whatever comes to their mind.”

Jamal said he believed Omar was paying the price for focusing too heavily on Israel. “I think she’s gone the wrong way in creating controversy and being anti-Semitic,” he said. “She should have focused on her district, housing, education, but she became obsessed with Israel.”

Last month, Omar said during a speech at an event hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations that many Muslims had been mistreated because of the actions of a few on Sept. 11.

After those remarks, Trump shared a video on Twitter that featured four words from Omar’s speech — “some people did something” — against the backdrop of planes hitting the twin towers, suggesting that Omar did not comprehend the gravity of the attacks.

Trump also told a Minneapolis TV station that Omar has “been very disrespectful to this country.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House speaker, acknowledged the video in a statement that criticized the president for using “the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack,” but she failed to mention Omar by name.

That led to accusations that the speaker and Democratic leadership were ambivalent about the continued attacks faced by Omar, who said she had received an increase in threats in the wake of the video.

Several Democrats, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, offered their support for Omar. Pelosi requested a review of the congresswoman’s security.

To Ali, the podcast host, Democratic leadership did not show real solidarity with Omar when she faced threats of violence, underscoring her fears that the congresswoman was being singled out. As a freshman, she said, Omar not only deserved support but also time to learn and grow.

“Give them the same benefit of the doubt we give to white politicians and leaders that say bigoted and racist and horrible things,” Ali said. “Black women have always been held to a different standard.”

Although Omar continues to face political attacks and death threats, she has said she does not plan to slow down, a relief to many of her Muslim supporters and others who feel her criticism of the influence Israel has on Washington is legitimate and justified.

“I think all of us are incredibly inspired by Ilhan’s bravery as she continues to face this hatred and Islamophobia,” said Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., who is also Muslim.

As for Omar’s comments on Israel, Hagi said that he felt Trump had said much worse, and that the president had put Omar in his crosshairs simply to spread fear and score political points.

It would not work, he added. “People are smarter than that.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/ilhan-omar-muslim-reactions.html" id="4c511f8d-fc77-3ddb-ab0d-9307729daaf4">The New York Times</a>.

Trump's Criticism of Rep. Omar Unsettles American Muslims

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Makkah Ali learned that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., had been elected, she could not get enough of the good news — someone like her, a black Muslim woman, was going to Washington to represent Americans.

The discovery at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys came during pollution cleanup at the site last month when a subcontractor found 27 “anomalies” in the ground consistent with possible graves, according to the letter from Gov. Ron DeSantis to the chairman of the board of commissioners in Jackson County, where the school grounds are.

The latest development adds to the grim accounting of the school, where anthropologists have already found 55 graves and unearthed the remains of 51 people from the 1,400-acre campus, which sits amid thick pine forests in the town of Marianna.

In records, the cause of death for the boys was often listed as “unknown” or “accident,” though it is known that a fire in 1914 killed eight boys who had been locked in a room. Others died in flu epidemics. Some runaways were shot.

DeSantis, a Republican, has asked state officials to work with Jackson County on how to address the new findings, and more testing is needed to determine whether the anomalies are, indeed, unmarked graves. The county plans to develop an industrial center at the site as well as a training center for people with autism.

Almost from the moment the school opened as the Florida State Reform School in 1900, there was a steady stream of reports of abuse, indentured servitude, crowding and neglect. So many children — among them runaways and so-called incorrigibles — were sent to the institution that it became the largest in the country.

Despite continued allegations of mistreatment and harsh conditions, the school remained open until 2011, when the state shuttered it. Advocacy efforts by a group of men known as the White House Boys helped to reveal the horrors that took place at the school. A team of anthropologists from the University of South Florida used radar technology to search beneath the ground and discover dozens of unmarked graves.

The anthropology team has focused largely on Boot Hill, which during the segregation era was a documented cemetery on the African-American side of campus.

The latest findings only add to the catharsis for people like Jerry Cooper, who was at the school from 1960-61 and is president of the White House Boys, whose name is a nod to the small cinder-block building where they say they were viciously flogged for the slightest infraction.

“Does it surprise me about what they located?” Cooper, 74, asked. “No. I’ve always said this is not all the bodies. I experienced that place. I know what went on there. It’s a lot worse than the people know.”

He once received 135 lashes at 2 a.m., he said, and almost died from the beating.

There are untold numbers of stories like that.

Cooper said he was at a ceremony at the Dozier campus earlier this year, and now the thought of what lay in the soil beneath his feet makes him shudder.

“One hundred yards away or so, there’s 27 more anomalies,” he said. “That hits hard.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/us/dozier-school-boys-graves.html" id="a2047c57-7d9f-3001-ab22-2123f8e00cd2">The New York Times</a>.

More than two dozen additional unmarked graves may have been discovered on the grounds of a defunct boys reform school in the Florida Panhandle that was notorious for beatings, abuse, forced labor and neglect, according to a letter sent by the state’s governor this week.

27 More Graves May Have Been Found at a Notorious Florida Boys School

The storm, caused by a low-pressure system moving east from the Pacific Ocean, dropped temperatures by up to 50 degrees in places like Denver, where it was sunny and in the mid-70s Tuesday but reached the mid-20s by Wednesday night.

The low-pressure system was affecting areas from Colorado to Michigan, with heavy snow and thunderstorms, and even down into Texas, where dry conditions and high winds have led to wildfire warnings.

While the whipsawing forecasts drew groans, they did not come as much of a surprise to those familiar with springtime in the Plains and the Rockies.

“In Colorado, that’s not uncommon at all,” said Natalie Sullivan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado, noting that April is historically the state’s second-snowiest month of the year, behind March.

Ahead of the storm Wednesday, Gov. Jared Polis activated the Colorado National Guard, and about 50 soldiers were prepared to respond to stranded drivers. State officials also shut down a highway in the eastern part of the state and part of a highway that cuts through the mountains, citing numerous accidents.

Even before the low-pressure system reached the Rockies, it wreaked havoc on the West Coast, knocking out power in Los Angeles and kicking up dust storms in Nevada, according to AccuWeather.

Officials in states across the Midwest watched anxiously for weather dangers.

Much of the region is still reeling from severe flooding brought on by storms and rising rivers last month. The floods inundated small towns and created a humanitarian crisis on the Pine Ridge Native American reservation.

Officials in Hamburg, Iowa, worked quickly to add a temporary 5-feet-tall levee to the town’s current levee system before the Missouri River crests by Sunday or Monday, as they expect. Floodwaters inundated much of the town of 1,100 people last month after heavy rain accumulated on frozen ground in the region.

More pressing than Hamburg’s weather, said CathyCrain, Hamburg’s mayor, was the snow and rain in cities to the north, such as Yankton, South Dakota. When precipitation hits those areas hard, it swells the Missouri River and flows down into Hamburg.

Meteorologists predicted as much as 2 1/2 feet of snow in parts of eastern South Dakota.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/us/denver-weather.html" id="4d4a811d-aecf-361b-a26a-57c6b4a58733">The New York Times</a>.

Blizzard Hits Central U.S., a Day After States Bask in Spring Sunshine

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nature was showing its fickle side Wednesday, with blizzard conditions, heavy snow and frigid air pounding parts of the Rockies and the Plains, just a day after the weather was sunny and idyllic. Schools and highways were shut down, hundreds of flights were canceled, and some communities braced for floods.

Nature was showing its fickle side Wednesday, with blizzard conditions, heavy snow and frigid air expected to pound parts of the Rockies and the Plains, just a day after the weather was sunny and idyllic. Schools and highways were shut down, hundreds of flights were canceled, and some communities braced for possible floods.

The storm, caused by a low-pressure system moving east from the Pacific Ocean, was expected to drop temperatures by up to 50 degrees in places like Denver, where it was sunny and in the mid-70s Tuesday but could be in the mid-20s by Wednesday night, with 55-mph wind gusts and up to 10 inches of snow. Whiteout conditions could make driving nearly impossible, forecasters said.

“In Colorado, that’s not uncommon at all,” said Natalie Sullivan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado, noting that April is historically the state’s second-snowiest month of the year, behind March. “We have warm conditions, and then a weather system will come through and bring cold air from a different region, and then — boom — you have snow coming down.”

“Reopening is up to Mother Nature,” the Colorado State Patrol said on Twitter.

Officials in states across the Midwest were watching anxiously for weather dangers.

Much of the region is still reeling from severe flooding brought on by storms and rising rivers last month. The floods inundated small towns and created a humanitarian crisis on the Pine Ridge Native American reservation, where tribe members found themselves trapped in their homes with little access to food.

Officials in Hamburg, Iowa, were working quickly to add a temporary 5-feet-tall levee to the town’s current levee system before the Missouri River crests by Sunday or Monday, as they expect. Floodwaters inundated much of the town of 1,100 people last month after heavy rain accumulated on frozen ground in the region.

“We’ll build that levee and vigilantly watch throughout the night in case flood does come,” said Cathy Crain, the Hamburg mayor.

More pressing than Hamburg’s weather, Crain said, was the snow and rain in cities to the north, such as Yankton, South Dakota. When precipitation hits those areas hard, it swells the Missouri River and flows down into Hamburg.

“We are so busy we don’t have emotions,” she said. “We are just moving to recover and to protect our town.”

Forecasters were hoping that the long-term effects of this storm would not be as severe as those that set off the flooding last month. A heavy snowfall takes time to melt and run off into rivers and streams, reducing the chance of flooding, meteorologists say, while heavy rain brings faster runoff and greater danger. Warmer temperatures in recent days have also thawed the ground, meaning it should better absorb moisture.

Still, Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota ordered state offices closed Wednesday. Schools also closed in Rapid City, South Dakota, where several inches of snow fell and the streets became icy. State officials closed a roughly 125-mile stretch of Interstate 29 on Wednesday, from Brookings to the North Dakota border.

It was not all that unusual to have a heavy snowfall in Rapid City in April, said Domico Rodriguez, the general manager of Hotel Alex Johnson. But this was different, he said, because the 2-degree wind chills sweeping through the city came just three days after he was out playing softball in 70-degree weather.

“It’s disheartening,” he said, adding that it was difficult to believe the forecast.

In downtown Minneapolis, where snow was falling at a brisk pace, Chameera Ekanayake spent his lunch break huddled beneath a small ledge, trying without much success to keep the flakes out of his hair.

The snow was an unwelcome development in a weather-weary city. After a harsh winter, he said Minnesotans had “been sick of it for a while” and hopeful that the snow was done for the season.

“We had some pretty good days in the last couple weeks and so were like, ‘Yeah, this is the end of it,’” said Ekanayake, 32, who works in local government.

He said he planned to work from home Thursday, when conditions were expected to worsen.

In Denver, the storm canceled more than 700 flights into and out of the city, postponed baseball games and sent businesses into shelter mode.

The turn in the weather had Mitchell Carroll, the general manager at a Denver restaurant called Illegal Pete’s, longing for the sunny skies last week that had helped put the restaurant far ahead of its sales totals from a year ago.

Prospects were not looking good for Illegal Pete’s 130-seat patio this week. “You’re not really sure because Coloradans aren’t really fazed by weather,” Carroll said.

“But if it’s a blizzard warning,” he added, they might stay in.

Denver Braces for a Blizzard, a Day After Basking in Spring Sunshine

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pack away the sidewalk tables and flip-flops; break out the boots and shovels.

Nature was showing its fickle side on Wednesday, with blizzard conditions, heavy snow and frigid air expected to pound parts of the Rockies and the Plains, just a day after the weather was sunny and idyllic. Schools and highways were shut down, hundreds of flights were canceled, and some communities braced for possible floods.

Even before the low-pressure system reached the heartland, it wreaked havoc on the West Coast, knocking out power in Los Angeles and kicking up dust storms in Nevada, according to AccuWeather.

He said he planned to work from home on Thursday, when conditions were expected to worsen.

The storm, caused by a low-pressure system moving east from the Pacific Ocean, is expected to bring temperature drops of about 50 degrees to places like Denver, where it was in the mid-70s and sunny Tuesday but could drop to the mid-20s by Wednesday night, with 55 mph wind gusts and up to 10 inches of snow. Whiteout conditions could make driving nearly impossible, forecasters said.

The effects of the low-pressure system will be felt from Colorado through Michigan, with heavy snow and thunderstorms, and even down into Texas, where dry conditions and high winds have led to fire warnings.

While the whiplash from pleasant to grim conditions might draw a collective groan, it should not come as much of a surprise to those familiar with springtime in the Plains.

Much of the region is still reeling from severe flooding brought on by storms and rising rivers last month. The floods inundated small towns and created a humanitarian crisis on the Pine Ridge Native American reservation, where tribal members found themselves trapped in their homes with little access to food.

Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota ordered state offices closed Wednesday. In Nebraska, officials announced the closing of some public aid offices and encouraged residents to be cautious when driving.

Forecasters were hoping that the long-term effects of this storm will not be as severe as those from the storm last month that set off the flooding.

Nature was showing its fickle side Wednesday, with blizzard conditions, heavy snow and frigid air expected to pound parts of the Rockies and the Plains, just a day after the weather was sunny and idyllic in some of those same places.

Nature was showing its fickle side Wednesday, with blizzard conditions, heavy snow and frigid air expected to pound parts of the Rockies and the Plains, just a day after the weather was sunny and idyllic in some of those same places.

Officials in states across the Midwest were bracing for the dangers that come with severe weather.

Forecasters were hoping that the long-term effects of this storm will not be as severe as those from the storm last month that set off the flooding. A heavy snowfall takes time to melt and run off into rivers and streams, reducing the chance of flooding, meteorologists say, while heavy rain leads to faster runoff, presenting a greater danger.

“Snowfall will delay the amount of water coming in, and that could be a real benefit,” David Pearson, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Omaha, Nebraska, said earlier this week. “The snow just takes the edge off.”

Pack away the sidewalk tables and flip-flops; break out the boots and shovels.

A year later, as she walked home from school, two boys forced her into a Victorian house and raped her. She was in the second grade. How could she tell anyone, she wondered? She didn’t even know who the boys were.

Kim Foxx, 46, carried those traumas with her when she stepped to a podium earlier this month and made an extraordinary request in her first term as Chicago’s top prosecutor: She wanted anyone with sexual abuse allegations against R&amp;B; artist R. Kelly to come forward.

The plea came in the wake of a six-hour television documentary, “Surviving R. Kelly,” in which several women accused him of abuse, including keeping them in a house and controlling them with fear and intimidation.

Tensions in Kelly’s hometown Chicago have long simmered over rumors about his behavior, and a widespread belief that serious allegations were played down over the years because of his talent and because his accusers were black women.

Kelly has repeatedly denied the allegations. His lawyer, Steve Greenberg, did not respond to requests for comment. But he told The Chicago Sun-Times that Foxx was unfairly prejudicing his client.

“The lead prosecutor should be silent until there’s evidence,” he said.

Foxx, the first black woman to serve as the Cook County state’s attorney, was in high school in Chicago when Kelly began to make a name for himself in the city — and not just for his music. Local residents say he also had a reputation for hanging out with young girls.

Chicago prosecutors tried Kelly on child pornography charges in 2008 when Foxx was a sex crimes prosecutor in the office. In her circles, Kelly’s “Step In the Name of Love” was always on the barbecue playlist, and his song “I Believe I Can Fly” a staple at graduations.

“This is about, for me, opening the doors,” Foxx said of her request that people with abuse allegations come forward. “We should allow people to have the opportunity to tell their stories and then vet them.”

In a city where Kelly has become part of the cultural fabric, the suggestion was explosive. Public sentiment has been tilting against Kelly since the documentary, but support for him is still easy to find in Chicago.

After the documentary aired, Kelly celebrated his birthday at a Southside nightclub, singing powerfully as adoring fans cheered him on.

Anaya Frazier, a 17-year-old junior at Gwendolyn Brooks Preparatory Academy in Chicago, said two boys recently blasted R. Kelly songs in the cafeteria. When she asked a security guard to get them to turn it off, she said the guard told her to “get over it,” and that the music was not hurting her.

She remembered her older cousin urging her to keep it a secret. He had said she would get in trouble if she told anyone that he had touched her. How her grandmother would be upset.

John Eligon

Articles written by the author

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