Who Said That
Ed Jacobs, the attorney for Atlantic City, N.J., Mayor Marty Small Sr., regarding the indictment of the public official and his wife, La’Quetta, the city’s superintendent of schools, for allegedly beating their teenage daughter on numerous occasions. Small has also been charged with assault and making terroristic threats. (Associated Press — Sept. 18, 2024)
A former cellmate of Patrick Womack, who was found dead in a hot Texas prison cell in August 2023 a day after Womack asked a correctional officer to let him take a cold shower so he could cool down, a request that was denied because there weren't enough guards to watch him. Attorneys for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are trying to dissuade a federal judge from forcing the state to cool its un-air-conditioned prisons, arguing in an ongoing lawsuit that the state already provides incarcerated people with unlimited access to cold showers, ice water and air-conditioned respite areas. From 2001 to 2019, as many as 271 Texas prison inmates may have died because of extreme heat, according to a 2022 study. (The Texas Tribune — Sept. 11, 2024)
U.S. Sen. JD Vance regarding his false claim that Haitian migrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. (NPR — Sept. 15, 2024)
Danny McCormick, a Republican state representative in Louisiana, on a bill enacted by the Legislature repealing a ban on the sale of raw milk. Driven by increasing demand for the product, a number of states have moved to remove bans despite public health officials' warnings that drinking unpasteurized milk could lead to a spike in potentially deadly bacterial and viral infections. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that 143 deaths from various illnesses in the U.S. have been linked to raw milk since 1987. (Yahoo News — June 22, 2024)
Behavioral scientist Jan-Willem van Prooijen on the findings of a study published in Science in which an AI "debunkbot" successfully got conspiracy-minded users to reconsider their beliefs. (Science — Sept. 12, 2024)
Rebecca Wood, a single mother, regarding the $2.49 “program fee” that charged each time she loaded money into her daughter’s school lunch account. Wood noted that the nearly $2.50 fee was the same price as the school lunch. As more and more schools turn to a cashless system, processing companies will charge as much as $3.25 or 4 to 5 percent per transaction, which often disproportionately impacts lower-income families. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reported that 87 percent of sampled districts contract with payment processors. (Associated Press — Sept. 11, 2024)
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, regarding the approximately 15,000 Haitian immigrants that have arrived in Springfield, a city of just about 59,000, since 2020. The governor will send law enforcement and $2.5 million in health-care resources to the city. (Associated Press — Sept. 10, 2024)
Rickey Cole, a farmer and former two-term chair of Mississippi’s Democratic Party, on the Democratic loss of rural voters over the last two decades. In 2001, when Cole first served as party chair, Democrats controlled 7 of 8 statewide offices and both legislative chambers; now Republicans hold all eight statewide offices and large majorities in both legislative chambers. (The Conversation — Sept. 9, 2024)
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who performed the Heimlich maneuver on a contestant at a lobster roll eating competition, giving him several compressions before first responders took over and helped free a piece of lobster stuck in the contestant's windpipe. (WMUR — Sept. 9, 2024)
Larry Camp, a resident of Southeast Boise, Idaho. He was referring to the Plex Fire, which spread to 350 acres overnight, prompting evacuation orders for some Boise residents. The fire is the largest seen in the Boise area so far during this wildfire season. (The Idaho Statesman — Sept. 5, 2024)
North Carolina Special Deputy Attorney General Mary Carla Babb, regarding a state judge’s decision to not take Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name off presidential ballots in the state. 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots had already been printed as of Wednesday, Sept. 4, with the expectation that they would be sent out on Friday, Sept. 6; reprinting ballots without Kennedy’s name and reassembling ballot requests would take at least two weeks, threatening to miss a federal requirement that overseas voters receive their ballots by Sept. 21. (Associated Press — Sept. 5, 2024)
Carlos Leon, a resident of a liveaboard community in Biscayne Bay, Fla., regarding new policies adopted by Miami Beach prohibiting liveaboard boaters from leaving their dinghies or other vessels at city-owned boat launches. The small community of about 100 water residents is anchored in state waters adjacent to Miami Beach and is legal, as long as the dwellings remain 150 feet offshore. However, the residents of Miami Beach are not pleased by the liveaboard community and, in December, Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez, who calls liveaboards “boat squatters,” spearheaded a move to remove a public dock next to the city’s supermarket, driving the liveaboard boaters to start using a city-owned boat launch. (NPR — Sept. 3, 2024)
Promotional language on the website of West Virginia's Ascend program, which offers $12,000 in cash along with a co-working space, a year’s worth of free activities such as whitewater rafting and other perks to employed people willing to relocate from other states to certain areas of West Virginia. (Washington Post — Aug. 30, 2024)
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, admitting to incorrectly stating on a 2006 White House fellowship application that he received the prestigious Bronze Star. Moore served in the Army Reserve from 1996 to 2014 and deployed to Afghanistan from August 2005 to March 2006. (The Hill — Aug. 30, 2024)
Lyrics from a Jimmy Buffett song. Aug. 30, 2024 is officially recognized as "Jimmy Buffett Day" in Florida to celebrate the life and music of the singer, “whose free-spirited life and significant contributions to national and state culture are commended and celebrated.” (Florida Senate — Aug. 28, 2024)
Ryan Craddock, the father of a 13-year-old football player in West Virginia who died over the weekend after receiving a head injury at practice. Craddock says he plans to work toward getting other players soft-shelled helmet covers known as Guardian Caps to prevent future injuries and deaths. (Associated Press — Aug. 27, 2024)
The city of Kalamazoo, Mich., on X, regarding how some residents have been opening fire hydrants across the city in hopes of gaining some relief from the second day of a heatwave that is scorching the Midwest. Temperatures were expected to reach 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the state’s southwestern city. (Associated Press — Aug. 27, 2024)
Lynn Castle, manager of The Meadows frozen custard shop in Hollidaysburg, Pa., regarding a groundhog that was found inside of a mechanical claw arcade game two weeks ago. The groundhog, named Colonel Custard, was eventually released by the Pennsylvania Game Commission into a nearby field. (Associated Press — Aug. 14, 2024)
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Watley, regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow Arizona to enforce, for now, a voting law that requires election officials to reject state voter registration forms that are submitted without an applicant’s proof of citizenship. The ruling will remain in effect while an appeal proceeds. (NPR — Aug. 23, 2024)
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, concluding that while some signatures for independent presidential candidate Cornel West were gathered fraudulently or included inaccurate, incomplete or illegible information, West still submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures to appear on Maine’s presidential ballot. (Maine Morning Star — Aug. 21, 2024)
Lindsey Miller, director of strategic research at Informing Democracy, a nonprofit that focuses on vote counting and certification, on a plan by five Pennsylvania Republicans who joined an alternate slate of electors for Donald Trump in 2020 to serve as presidential electors in this year’s contest. (Vote Beat — Aug. 16, 2024)
Sheep farmer JR Howard has a booming business selling sheep to do “lawn maintenance” at solar farms in Texas. His biggest sale yet is 6,000 sheep for a single “agrivoltaics” project. (Canary Media — Aug. 16, 2024)
A resident of Cheyenne, Wyo., at a mayoral campaign meet-and-greet, asking a question of “VIC,” an artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot that mayoral candidate Victor Miller vows he would use exclusively to run the city, making use of what he sees as the untapped potential of AI in government. AI experts say Miller’s pledge is a first for U.S. political campaigns. (Washington Post — Aug. 19, 2024)
Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, regarding the power that names, like Scattered Spider and Midnight Blizzard, can give to threat groups and criminals, while simultaneously undermining strategic priorities. Bad actors don’t have superpowers, Easterly told attendees. “Most of the time they are using the same old vulnerabilities, and sometimes they just get lucky.” (Cybersecurity Drive — Aug. 15, 2024)
Krysten Copeland, a resident of Washington, D.C., who says she's planning to leave town, possibly to a cabin in West Virginia, during the November elections because she's worried about her safety, especially as a Black woman, after seeing far-right extremist groups in D.C. during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. (Axios — Aug. 13, 2024)
Alex Mahadevan, of the Poynter Institute, regarding the discovery that the Cody Enterprise, a Wyoming newspaper, published stories that included fake quotes that were generated by artificial intelligence. (Associated Press — Aug. 14, 2024)
Al Palacio, a Florida police officer and official with the state Fraternal Order of Police, referring to people who record videos of officers. Palacio praised a bill passed by the legislature this year that allows officers to require onlookers to keep a distance of at least 25 feet. Indiana and Louisiana have also enacted laws that allow citizens to witness and record police activity but require them to maintain a distance. (NPR – Aug. 13, 2024)
Sally Mathess, director of the Gilmer County Senior Center in West Virginia. Due to low Medicaid reimbursement rates, caregivers in homes and at senior centers in the state generally make about $11 an hour. Advocates are hoping lawmakers will increase funding, arguing that it will ultimately cost the state more if seniors have to leave their homes due to lack of care. (West Virginia Watch – Aug. 12, 2024)
Douglas County, Neb., Sheriff Aaron Hanson, citing what he described as the impact of the legalization and taxation of marijuana in Missouri. In testimony before Nebraska’s Judiciary Committee, Hanson expressed his opposition to proposed legislation to legalize and tax cannabis. (Nebraska Examiner — Aug. 2, 2024)
South Carolina resident Adrienne LeBlanc after counting eight alligators swimming in her flooded Bluffton backyard. Tropical Storm Debby has brought over a foot of rain to parts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. (CNN — Aug. 8, 2024)
