--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. Today's Tuesday, June 10th.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: The standoff between the Trump administration and the state of California escalated on Monday as the president ramped up deployments of federal troops in response to immigration protests.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Trump mobilized a battalion of 700 Marines and an additional 2,000 members of the California National Guard yesterday over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Federal officials described it as a limited mission to protect federal property and agents in Los Angeles.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: The move especially worried state and city officials and legal experts who say active-duty Marines should not be carrying out domestic law enforcement except in extreme and rare cases and that this is not one of them.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Trump had already deployed 2,000 National Guard troops over the weekend.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: And on Monday, there appeared to be fewer clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Thank goodness we sent out some wonderful National Guard. They've really helped and a lot of problems they were having out there.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: At the White House, Trump described the situation as, quote, very well under control.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: That mixed messaging, claiming early success while flexing additional military power, has frustrated local officials who say they don't need or want federal help.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Do you know what the National Guard is doing now? They are guarding two buildings. That's what they're doing.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: So they need Marines on top of it? I don't understand that.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said it's Trump who's provoking the unrest.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: And on Monday, the state pushed back. With this order, Trump and Hegseth ignored law enforcement's expertise and guidance and trampled over our state's sovereignty.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the state was suing the administration, alleging that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated federal law and the Constitution when they took control of the state's National Guard.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: The complaint sought a judicial order to return control of the National Guard to Newsom.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: In an interview with the Times, Newsom warned that there's no reason the administration couldn't do the same thing in other states, regardless of whether they have Democratic or Republican governors.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Meanwhile, you're saying these operations, the ICE operations in the Los Angeles area, are continuing right now.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Yes, absolutely. They continue every day not only in California and Los Angeles. They're going to continue every city across the country.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: White House Borders are Tom Homan said last night that the immigration operations that prompted the protests in the first place will continue.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Recent immigration raids have started targeting workplaces and are part of a broader strategy to boost the administration's deportation numbers.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: In the past few weeks, those raids have happened at a construction site for student housing in Tallahassee, a flood control project in New Orleans, and a landscaping site in western Massachusetts.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: My colleague Ernesto Londoño has been reporting on the administration's crackdown.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Initially, they said the priority was going to be to go after people who were hardened criminals who had formal deportation orders.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: So that requires a lot of manpower and knocking on doors and trying to find people, which is very labor-intensive.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Later, we saw federal agents going very aggressively after international students and revoking hundreds of visas.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Now, the clampdown on illegal immigration is entering a new stage as work sites become a major focus.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: You have many people working illegally in just a handful of industries. We're talking things like construction, farms, food production, warehouses.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: So the government has long known that these sectors rely very heavily on people who do not have papers.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: And if you send agents to, for instance, a meatpacking plant or a construction site, there's a good bet you're going to find a good number of people who don't have permission to be here.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: So that means that overnight you can really boost the number of people you put into the deportation pipeline.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: In Washington, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of a federal vaccine panel.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: The group was made up of experts who review vaccine data, debate evidence, and wield enormous influence, voting on vaccine recommendations for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Those decisions inform insurance companies and programs like Medicaid, which are required to cover those vaccine shots.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Kennedy noted that two-thirds of the panel had been appointed by Biden during his final year in office, and he said the move would restore the public trust in vaccines.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Kennedy alleged that members of the panel had conflicts of interest which drove decision a claim experts said was unfounded.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: The health secretary is a longtime vaccine skeptic and, in just a few months, has dismantled decades of policy standards around immunizations.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Public health experts called the firings reckless and extreme.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: The chair of the Infectious Disease Committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics said the firings will only drive up mistrust in vaccines, calling the action a, quote, unmitigated public health disaster.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: The Times has been looking into how the so-called AI arms race is playing out on college campuses.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is actively working to integrate its artificial intelligence tools into nearly every aspect of college life, from tutoring to career training.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: And some schools, rather than fight the oncoming AI tidal wave, are deciding to lean in.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Earlier this month, Duke University began offering unlimited ChatGPT access to students and staff, and rolled out DukeGPT, a school-specific interface.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: OpenAI has been courting schools across the country with similar offers.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: It's a significant pivot, given that AI has been associated with a surge in chatbot-fueled cheating over the past few years.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: And it comes as other tech giants like Google and Microsoft are vying to embed their chatbots into universities, cultivate future customers, and prepare young people for what some schools are calling a, quote, future AI-driven economy.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: But the widespread adoption of AI is also essentially a massive national experiment with unknown long-term consequences for students.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Early studies suggest that offloading tasks to chatbots could diminish critical thinking skills.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Some critics are concerned that colleges are overlooking societal risks, AI labor issues, and its huge environmental costs.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Not to mention that it's still unclear how trustworthy or reliable large language models actually are.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: They can still make significant mistakes and confidently state false information as true.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: But some schools are charging ahead anyway.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: One official from the California State University System defended the adoption of AI, saying, quote, you're worried about the ecological concerns, you're worried about misinformation and bias? Well, join in. Help us shape the future.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: We should note, the New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner Microsoft over copyright infringement.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Both companies have denied wrongdoing.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: And finally, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and pioneering band leader Sly Stone died yesterday from lung disease.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: He was 82 years old.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Stone led the mixed-race, mixed-gender band Sly and the Family Stone, who had a string of soul and funk hits in the 60s and 70s, including Everyday People and Dance to the Music.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Stone's music had a massive influence on later major artists, ranging from Prince and Michael Jackson to George Clinton and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Born Sylvester Stewart, Stone grew up immersed in the gospel music of his Bay Area Pentecostal church.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: And as a child, he sang in a gospel group with three of his siblings
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: I promised him that I would serve him until I die. You know that I'm all about to heal my soul.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: As a young man, he became a radio DJ in San Francisco.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: On and on and on, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cats and kitties, hippies and squares, 17 fair sets with sly.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: And he eventually formed another band with his siblings and a few others, the Family Stone, with an overarching message of acceptance.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: But increasing drug use and erratic behavior led him to essentially shut himself off from the world by the 1980s.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: For several years, he lived out of an RV.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Stone published an autobiography a few years ago where he responded to the question of what people can take away from his life.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: He said, quote, Music. Just music. I don't want to get in people's way, and I don't want them to get in my way.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: I just want to play my songs.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: Today on The Daily, why the U.S. is so dependent on rare earth metals from China and how the growing trade war is cutting off access.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: That's next in the New York Times audio app or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Michael Simon Johnson: I'm Michael Simon Johnson. We'll be back tomorrow.
