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--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, September 9th.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. A new national poll of likely voters from The Times and Siena College shows Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are neck and neck. Trump's sitting at 48 percent to Harris's 47, with a three-point margin of error. That leaves them in an incredibly tight race with only eight weeks to go until election day.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And the poll highlights some potential weaknesses for Harris, who had been riding a wave of enthusiasm since she entered the race earlier this summer. What it shows for Kamala Harris is that there are still a lot of voters, about 28%, who say they don't know enough about her. And a lot of those say they don't really know what her policies are.
--:-- Jonathan Weissman: This is already the shortest presidential campaign in modern American history. There isn't a lot of time for voters to feel more comfortable about what they know regarding Kamala Harris. But remember, there's a debate on Tuesday night. And what this poll really shows is that this is a moment for her to get her points across, to get herself better known to the voters.
--:-- Jonathan Weissman: So I think the pressure is really on her, and she has to win people over and win people over fast. Donald Trump, on the other hand, he's a very known commodity, and only a small percentage of voters say they need to know more about Trump before they can decide who to vote for in November.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For more on the new poll numbers, you can listen to today's episode of The Daily. Meanwhile, Trump's entering this week on the back of a significant legal victory. On Friday, the judge in his Manhattan hush money case postponed sentencing for his 34 felony convictions until after the election.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Citing the unique time frame this matter currently finds itself in, Justice Juan Mershon rescheduled it for November 26th. In Tennessee a federal trial over the death of Tyree Nichols after a traffic stop starts today.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Footage of Memphis police officers chasing, kicking, and punching Nichols, a Black man, horrified the city and the country when it came out last January. The unit the officers belonged to was disbanded, and five officers were fired. Three of them will now be on trial on charges of depriving Nichols of his civil rights. They also face second-degree murder charges at the state level.
--:-- Emily Cochran: I spoke with Tyree's mother and stepfather, and for them, this is going to be a really emotional few weeks. Mrs. Wells, Tyree's mother, still hasn't watched the footage of what happened to her son that night. It's really agonizing and painful moments, especially when he calls out for her.
--:-- Emily Cochran: They're also looking for answers. Namely, it's still not entirely clear why he was stopped that night, and they're hoping to finally get an answer to that question.
--:-- Emily Cochran: Even though officers were fired and charged, there's a feeling that other efforts at police accountability in Memphis have stalled. She says one reform that Nichols' family supported would have prevented police from stopping cars for minor traffic infractions. But that was repealed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A manhunt is still underway in rural Kentucky, after authorities say a man shot at drivers traveling along Interstate 75 on Saturday, hitting 12 vehicles and seriously injuring five people.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You know, we recovered a weapon, but who's to say that he doesn't have another weapon? It seems like he planned numerous parts of this anyway, so we have to anticipate that.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The suspect, a 32-year-old Kentucky native who previously served in the National Guard, had been arrested earlier this year on a terroristic threatening charge but it was later dismissed.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: On Saturday, authorities say he bought an AR-15 rifle and 1,000 rounds of ammunition, then opened fire on the interstate from a cliff ledge before disappearing into the dense woods.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Authorities established a perimeter around the area, but had to call off the search on Saturday and Sunday nights when it got dark. They plan to resume the manhunt this morning with dogs, a helicopter, and a drone with an infrared scanner.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Venezuela's opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez fled to Spain over the weekend, as the Venezuelan government continues its brutal post-election crackdown.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Gonzalez had been widely expected to win the presidential election in July, and voting data released by his party showed that he did. But, despite protests and international outcry, the authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro has held onto power.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Thousands of demonstrators have been arrested, and security forces have now surrounded a diplomatic residence in the country's capital, where top opposition leaders have been sheltering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, efforts by Brazil, Mexico, and other countries in the region to broker a resolution to the crisis have failed. And there are fears that the political turmoil will drive even more of Venezuela's population out of the country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: More than a quarter of Venezuelans have left in recent years. Times reporter Frances Robles has been reporting from the country's second largest city, which she says has been completely hollowed out.
--:-- Frances Robles: Maracaibo used to be this thriving oil town. And now you see a completely different city. You see a place where the houses have literally been stripped for parts. People take the windows and roofs off and sell them before they leave.
--:-- Frances Robles: Everybody talks about how there used to be so much traffic, and now the streets are really, really quiet. And it's kind of a sad place, to be honest.
--:-- Frances Robles: Frances says that the city was decimated by the collapse of the state oil company about a decade ago and hit hard by U sanctions on Venezuela.
--:-- Frances Robles: Half a million people have left. We know that most of the people who have left are kind of that working age, 18 to 45 years old. And a lot of them left their little kids behind with their parents while they get situated in whatever country they landed in.
--:-- Frances Robles: They've gone to Chile, they've gone to Colombia, they've gone to the United States. So you have a lot of retirees making, you know, $3 a month and their pensions, really struggling to make ends meet.
--:-- Frances Robles: They talk a lot about how everywhere you go, you see that everybody's gone. So the doctor's office, the doctors are gone, the nurses are gone, the bus drivers are gone, the police officers.
--:-- Frances Robles: And meanwhile, the power goes out every week or so. The water goes out every week or so. It's really a struggle for people.
--:-- Frances Robles: In fact, one older woman who was taking care of her grandchildren, who I interviewed, she's already gone. You know, by the time the story published, she had already hit the road and trekked through the Darien Gap jungle in order to get to the United States.
--:-- Frances Robles: And so far, she made it to Mexico. And I think there's going to be a lot more people behind her.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, The 2024 NFL regular season just started last week, but the Super Bowl already has a headliner.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: What the deal, everybody? I'm named Kendrick Lamar, and I'll be performing at Super Bowl 59. The rapper Kendrick Lamar announced yesterday that he'll perform at the halftime show this February in New Orleans.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Lamar already performed at the Super Bowl in 2022, when hip-hop was showcased for the first time ever there, kind of belatedly, with superstars Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and more.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Super Bowl's organizers have been accused of overlooking hip-hop in the past. And Lamar said, quote, Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date, and I'll be there to remind the world why.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
