Newsroom 2/10/25

On Monday February 10th, ThatScarletWitch shared local, national, and global news stories. 

Image from Danville Register and Bee

The Book Lady, a Virginia resident that started a mission to hand out one million books, is changing lives one story at a time. She started with local county schools and a local jail and has now handed out books all across the country. Williams works five jobs to support her goal of handing out one million books and inmates who have met with her have raved about her personality and generosity. The conversation focused on how we can better American jails and their goal to rehabilitate their inmates. It is widely agreed that the prison system does not set up inmates for anything but failure and treats them with little to no respect. Once in jail they are often forgotten about and mistreated, and even when they are released, they are sent back into society with no help or support, leading to possible reincarceration. The discussion also touched on if her being a white lady had anything to do with her story being covered. Unfortunately, it is entirely possible that she got so much publicity because she is a white woman as opposed to her being a black woman who was incarcerated at one point. News outlets have the ability to pick and choose which articles they want to feature, and it is possible that race plays into their decisions. For example, it is way more common to see a news story about a white woman being kidnapped or killed than it is to see a black woman. This happens more than we realize and many women of color are left with their story untold. 

Image from the New York Times

The tragic DC plane crash between a commercial airplane and an army helicopter on January 30th produced no survivors. Both the helicopter and the commercial flight landed in the Potomac River and there is an ongoing recovery team to obtain all pieces of the vehicles. The plane had 60 passengers and four crew members and the army helicopter had three members who were doing a routine retraining of night flights. The crash was a horrible tragedy and there is an investigation to find out what happened to cause it. The first topic of discussion was how Trump’s claims about DEI hiring being a possible cause of the crash was not only a baseless claim but is disrespectful to many people that benefit from DEI. Although Trump was simply stating his opinions, he fails to realize how much power they hold as President of the United States. This is not the first time that he has made claims that had no supporting evidence about tragedies in America. The New York Times notes that after the wildfires in California began, he blamed the Governor’s water management policies with no evidence indicating his claim to be true. Not only do his statements spread misinformation, but they often target minority groups. This discussion also focused on how mainstream media has caused an issue with how we perceive and understand the news. Due to the speed at which news is produced, it’s very common that we are fed misinformation. Media outlets are so focused on quantity rather than quality which is very dangerous when consuming news. If news outlets are not producing factual information, citizens are unable to come to conclusions and opinions that are based on the truth. In addition to the news being produced at a record speed, the media has a pattern of favoring tragic stories over uplifting ones. Most news stories that pop up on one’s phone have a menacing headline and promotes fear. The message that news outlets are promoting is that there is more bad than good in this world, which is not always true, and creates panic. The main focus of this news story should be the victims, not the politics that surround it. Real people lost their lives and lost family members and it is important to respect those affected.  

Image from AP News

AP News reports that Trump announced that federal prisons will now be used to detain illegal immigrants. As of right now, there have been reports of major federal prisons being used in LA, Miami, and Atlanta and ICE has been given the budget of detaining 41,000 illegal immigrants. Since Trump’s inauguration 8,000 people have been detained and ICE arrests around 787 people daily. During Trump’s first term in 2018 he also used federal prisons to detain immigrants at a smaller scale, at around 1,600 detainees. Six people that were detained reported inhumane treatment, including inadequate medical care and recreation time, inedible food and spoiled milk, and sexual and physical abuse. It was such a big issue that The American civil liberties union is suing the Bureau of Prisons and Immigration Authorities for records related to the use of federal prisons to detain immigrants from his first term. Due to the controversy of using federal prisons to detain immigrants the news outlets don’t have much access to what is going on, which led to the discussion regarding why this story is not being talked about. Keeping a story such as this so under wraps begs the question, is there something bad going on that Trump doesn’t want us to know about? Even after the first time Trump did this, there wasn’t that much information about what went on in the prisons, pointing to the idea that these detainees are facing mistreatment. Not only does this plan affect the detainees, but prisons are already underfunded and understaffed. It is unlikely that these federal prisons can handle the strain of thousands of inmates on top of the ones already incarcerated.  It is also important to discuss an issue that goes hand in hand with this story, and that is ICE being able to make arrests in sensitive areas, such as schools, hospitals, and churches. These areas have been protected from ICE for the safety of everyone, and allowing them to enter places that are supposed to be sanctuaries, poses a real threat to public safety. If ICE is allowed in these spaces it affects the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare, education, and the ability to practice religion. In addition, it is preventing people who are threatened by ICE from continuing their daily lives. Adults aren’t going to work and students aren’t going to school, preventing these systems from functioning properly. Trump’s immigration policies are causing a trickle down effect that is harming everyone in America.