Activists mainly from the political left chanted slogans like “This is what democracy looks like!” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” as they marched from Camden City Hall to the park under sunny but chilly March skies.

Marchers enjoyed DJ dance music on the waterfront, and mingled with volunteers from a wide range of activist projects, including the Democratic Socialist Party of America’s South Jersey branch, citizens working to block the purchase of a Roxbury, NJ, warehouse for use by ICE as a detention facility, and other immigrant rights supporters educating participants about their due process rights.

Here’s a gallery of some of the signage on display at the No Kings Rally.

State and local political leaders also addressed the crowd, which enjoyed basking in the sun on the sloping hill leading down to the Delaware River. US Senator Andy Kim, First Congressional District Rep. Donald Norcross, and Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen spoke, along with Camden County Commissioner Director Louis J. Cappelli, who announced to cheers that Camden County-owned property was off-limits to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

SBN News Director Steve Lubetkin attended the rally and filed this report.

Subscribers to our Substack newsletter, RadioFreeSomewhere.com, can watch a complete recording of the remarks by speakers at the event below this paywall.

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Rolling Stone reported that meMyers of the crew on the Melania documentary have requested that their names be removed from the credits. We now have a frame grab from the film confirming this.

Marie Scherer’s obituary from 24 Mar 1981 Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park, NJ)

From the start of the Trump regime, with the appointment of vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services, the proven science of vaccination efficacy has been under attack.

In place of a federal government that once marshalled resources behind mass vaccination campaigns, we now face a ruthless regime of science denial that will put millions of Americans — and people in other countries — at risk of dying from preventable diseases.

We’ve already seen more measles cases in the US this year than were recorded over the past four decades. This is a direct consequence of a government that is making people doubt what should be crystal clear. Vaccines save lives.

Now, another vaccine denier hand-picked by RFK Jr. to head the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, Kirk Milhoan, is actually raising false doubts about the need for polio vaccines.

In a podcast interview, Milhoan questioned whether the vaccine was needed.

“As you look at polio, we need to not be afraid to consider that we are in a different time now than we were then,” he said. “Our sanitation is different, our risk of disease is different and so that those all play into the evaluation of whether this is worthwhile of taking a risk for a vaccine or not.”

Polio has been all but eradicated in the US today. Almost no one gets polio, because of widespread herd immunity among the virtually 100% vaccinated universe of Americans. What the anti-vaxxers don’t tell you is that if you stop vaccinating, dormant diseases can come roaring back. Ask South Carolina health providers about the measles outbreak there.

If you need to imagine a world without polio vaccines, let me introduce you to Marie Scherer.

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In this week’s episode of SBN Newsmakers, SBN News Director Steve Lubetkin has a conversation with Dr. Essam Hamza, CEO of Rocket Doctor AI, as he delves into the transformative potential of AI in healthcare.

Dr. Hamza discusses the unique capabilities of Rocket Doctor AI, a clinically governed system designed to enhance medical practice by providing accurate, reliable information.

Dr. Hamza explains how this innovative AI has the potential to reshape medical education, improve patient care, and address inefficiencies in the healthcare system. With real-world examples and a vision for the future, Dr. Hamza offers a compelling look at how AI can be a trusted partner in medicine.

You can watch the interview in the player below or on the State Broadcast News Channel on the Roku streaming service.

About the guest

Dr. Essam Hamza, MD
Chief Executive Officer, Rocket Doctor AI Inc.

Dr. Essam Hamza is a physician, entrepreneur, technology innovator, and CEO and Director of Rocket Doctor AI Inc. with more than two decades of experience advancing digital healthcare solutions. He earned his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Alberta, where he also completed his Family Practice training.

A leader in technology-enabled medicine, Dr. Hamza founded HealthVue Ventures Ltd. in 2005, building a network of advanced medical clinics that served over 100,000 patients. In 2018, he founded CloudMD, a pioneer in virtual healthcare technology, and served as CEO and Director until 2022, guiding its growth into a publicly traded company on the TSX Venture Exchange with revenue growing from under $4 million to over $100 million.

Dr. Hamza has also held leadership and advisory roles across the healthcare and biotechnology sectors, including Independent Director at a number of publicly traded companies. With extensive capital markets experience, he has successfully scaled and financed multiple ventures at the intersection of medicine and innovation.

Two pairs of individuals suffered grievous harm this past week, three of the four were killed, and there is a through-line in both cases that needs more scrutiny than we apparently want to give it. To paraphrase James Carville, it’s the training, stupid!

Two of the injured (one later died) were National Guard members deployed to Washington, DC, who were victims of a shooting attack allegedly committed by an Afghan national who came to the US after working with Americans in Afghanistan.

Two were Venezuelans whose boat was blown out from under them by a US Navy attack, who were themselves “blown to bits,” according to The Washington Post, in a secondary attack allegedly ordered by an American admiral following a verbal order alleged to have been given by the secretary of defense.

What ties these two attacks together is the chilling idea that the shooter and the admiral have something in common — they were both trained by the US government. And we need to ask ourselves if there is something in that training that alters or damages the way people make decisions after receiving that training.

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In this episode of SBN Newsmakers, Steve Lubetkin chats with Rick Hutto, author of the book, The Countess and the Nazis, which explores the extraordinary life of Muriel White, an American heiress who married a Prussian officer and became a courageous figure in resisting the Nazis during World War II.

Rick shares insights into her life, her marriage, her acts of bravery against the Nazi regime, and the legacy she left behind. The discussion also touches on her connections to royalty and the challenges faced in documenting her story.

You can watch the short version of our interview, produced for Real Good News, in the player below.

Paid subscribers will see an additional player below where they can watch the entire 30-minute interview with Rick Hutto.

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This edition of SBN Newsmakers explores the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses, particularly in the wake of the October 7th attacks on Israel.

Amy Werman, a senior lecturer at Columbia University, shares her experiences with anti-Semitism in her community and the academic environment, detailing how sentiments shifted before and after the attacks. The discussion highlights the protests at Columbia, the university’s response, and the ongoing challenges faced by Jewish faculty and students. Werman emphasizes the importance of education in combating anti-Semitism and shares her efforts to foster understanding through a faculty mission to Israel.

About the Guest: Amy Werman, DSW, LCSW

Amy Werman, DSW, LCSW, recently retired from the Columbia School of Social Work, where she served as a Senior Lecturer in Discipline. Her career has been rich and wide-ranging, spanning medical social work, clinical practice, research, program evaluation, and social work education in both New York and Israel.

In her private practice, Amy works with individuals, couples, and families. She is currently enrolled in a two-year advanced trauma training program and is studying Hebrew in preparation for spending time in Israel, where she hopes to provide therapy to individuals coping with PTSD. Amy is also trained in Canine-Assisted Therapy and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy.

Amy’s connection to Israel dates back to her first visit in 1974. She spent a semester abroad at Tel Aviv University, served as a madricha for an AZYF teen tour, and was an active lay leader with UJA-Federation of New York for twelve years. She continues to visit Israel regularly and maintains a strong relationship with many organizations in Israel.

Since October 7th, Amy has focused her research on interventions that reduce antisemitism and anti-Zionism. She curated the Jewish Identity/Jewish Diversity photo exhibit at the Columbia School of Social Work, which highlighted Jews around the world of varied races, ethnicities, occupations, and socioeconomic backgrounds—helping to dispel the myth of Jewish uniformity.

Amy is currently studying how visiting Israel influences perceptions and understanding of the country. Over the past two years, she has organized fact-finding and educational missions to Israel for Columbia faculty, staff, and administrators who have never been there, offering them firsthand insight into Israeli society and its complex geopolitical realities.

She holds a Doctor of Social Welfare (DSW) from Adelphi University, a Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) from the Columbia School of Social Work, and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from the University of Pennsylvania.

This is the text of a letter I FAXED to Sen. Bill Cassidy this afternoon. I faxed it because it's just too easy for them to ignore a non-constituent email.

The fax information is so that you can consider doing the same.

If nothing else, we will tie up his office fax machine so that he can't get the faxes from rich lobbyists.

VIA FAX: 202-224-6161

Sen. Bill Cassidy

455 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Cassidy:

I am writing to you to express my extreme concern over the irrational and unscientific decisions being made by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Mr. Kennedy assured you under oath during his confirmation hearing that he would not attack or dismantle the country’s vaccine and communicable disease infrastructure. You took him at his word and despite hundreds of doctors warning you – and even Mr. Kennedy’s own family pleading with you to reject him as unfit for this role – you still voted to confirm him.

His attacks on reputable scientists and responsible public health practices demonstrate that he was misleading you during his testimony and that he has no intention of protecting Americans from preventable diseases because of his obsession with false and dangerous theories that have no basis in science.

You know this is true. The time has come for you to publicly disavow your vote for Mr. Kennedy and work for his immediate removal before thousands of Americans become ill or die because of his failed stewardship of our public health system.

Medical professionals nationwide have been clear about this threat. You are in a position to do something about it. History will remember how you and your senate colleagues respond to this clear and present danger.

Feel free to contact me if you need additional information or assistance. Please write to tell me what you’re doing about this. Thanks.

Some years ago I attended a convention in Minneapolis, and during that conference I purchased books and CDs in the conference exhibit hall. I used a debit card to purchase them.

This was back in the days before chipped cards, even before card-swipe readers. They took an impression of the raised letters and numbers on your card by pressing them into a multipart carbon-paper equipped transaction document. They gave you a copy from the deck of forms and kept the others for processing. The carbon paper got thrown in the trash.

It wasn’t until I returned to the office after this trip that I received a voice mail from the bank’s card security department asking me to confirm some suspicious transactions. It turns out that while I was in Minneapolis, I was also in Paramus, NJ, buying large ticket items at Best Buy.

The bank’s ironclad promise to protect customers was kept, I wasn’t out of pocket any money, and only had the inconvenience of having to get a new card and change recurring payments. The usual post-fraud stuff.

But what has me thinking about this again is the shooting in Minneapolis that took two sweet little children from their families and upended the lives of an entire community.

Banks and credit card companies have an enormous amount of information about our transaction behavior, and they can use it predictively to spot transactions that are unusual. In my case, they knew the card was being used in Minneapolis, so it caught their computers’ interest that it was also being used in Paramus. Someone obviously retrieved the carbon paper from the trash and shared the card information with a collaborator in Paramus.

We’ve all heard the anecdote about Target sending coupons to a young woman because her purchasing pattern suggested that she was pregnant.

Target’s internal analysis of purchasing patterns found a strong correlation between certain purchases and the likelihood that the purchaser was pregnant, so they started sending paper coupons to those shoppers for baby products that they thought the shoppers would appreciate.

The woman’s father came into the store indignant that they sent his teenage daughter coupons for baby products. Two weeks later he came back to apologize because she was pregnant and had been afraid to tell him.

The point is that the purchases she made predicted accurately her pregnancy status.

So why don’t we demand that card processors and law enforcement use this technology to monitor gun and ammunition purchases?

I’m not suggesting regulations. We’ve failed so many times to put minimal restrictions on guns that it almost seems whimsical to try again.

What I’m suggesting is that we use the same predictive technology to monitor the pattern of gun and ammunition purchases to flag unusual patterns for further scrutiny.

If someone who has never purchased a gun is suddenly buying an AR-15 every month, or purchasing a higher amount of ammunition than previously, couldn’t that be used to trigger a request to local law enforcement to just check on the person?

Couldn’t we go back to previous mass shootings and gather information on the shooters’ buying habits and use that to build a predictive model?

I’m not arguing for prosecuting “thought crime.” I’m suggesting that we are failing our children by not using the technology we use to predict what they want to buy to protect them from people who are buying in preparation for a crime.

If someone comes to ask a buyer about their unusual gun/ammo purchases before they use them, maybe they can get the mental health help they need before people are hurt or killed.

This shouldn’t be hard to implement. The technology is already quite advanced (everyone knows how ads show up on Facebook for products you’ve been think about buying but haven’t even Google-searched yet.)

Why aren’t we identifying these potential risks before these shootings happen? What are we afraid of?

CAMDEN, NJ (SBN) — Environmental justice advocates, organized by the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters (NJLCV), kicked off a series of statewide presentations last week in Camden in what the League called an effort "to spark conversation around the environmental, health, and economic future of the Garden State."

Speakers at the Camden event focused on the urgent need for climate action, environmental justice, and community resilience as Camden faces worsening floods, poor air quality, extreme heat, and public health threats due to climate change.

“In Camden, we see firsthand how the climate crisis is not a distant threat but a daily reality. From extreme heat and flooding to poor air quality, communities are already feeling the effects, especially low-income families and communities of color," said Luke Pavlov, campaigns manager, NJLCV, who chaired the meeting. "That’s why transitioning to clean, renewable energy is not just about protecting the planet—it’s about protecting our neighbors, improving public health, and creating good local jobs. Camden deserves a clean energy future that leaves no one behind.”

State Broadcast News covered the entire conference, and you can watch speaker presentations in the players below.

Opening Remarks - Shaneka Boucher, former Camden council member

Former Camden council member Shaneka Boucher opened the program with remarks about the importance of seeking environmental justice for Camden residents and other beleaguered social justice communities.

SBN news director Steve Lubetkin used a clip from Ms. Boucher's presentation in his Radio Jersey newscast on August 13. You can hear that story in this audio player:

Overview of Green and Healthy Cities - Olivia Carpenter Glenn

Olivia Carpenter Glenn of Baobab-Blossom Consulting gave an overview of green and health cities.

Environmental Tour and Actions Taken - Jon Compton and Maggie Broughton, Esq.

Jon Compton, executive director of the Camden-based Center for Environmental Transformation, discussed the specific environmental issues facing Camden and reviewed advocates' efforts to repair some of the environmental risks stemming from heavy industrial activity near Camden's poorest neighborhoods.

Maggie Broughton discussed the Eastern Environmental Law Center's recently filed lawsuit with CFET that aims aim to compel the DEP to fulfill its statutory obligation to regulate facilities like EMR under solid waste law and the Environmental Rights Act to protect all New Jersey residents equally.

SBN news director Steve Lubetkin used an audio comment from Ms. Broughton in his Radio Jersey newscast on August 15. You can hear that news report in the audio player below.

Shaneka Boucher

Shaneka M. Boucher is a dynamic leader with over 25 years of experience in government programs, education leadership, and community development. Known for her strategic vision and ability to create systems that drive success, Shaneka has dedicated her career to empowering underprivileged communities through innovative initiatives and impactful policies.

As a City Council Member for Camden, New Jersey, Shaneka served over 75,000 constituents in the state’s 12th largest city, overseeing a $280 million budget. She sponsored and passed data-driven legislation focusing on public safety, housing, and environmental justice. As Chair of the Legislative Committee, she championed equity within city contracts and advanced mutually beneficial policies through collaboration with stakeholders.

Shaneka’s achievements extend to education, where she has excelled in roles such as Director of Enrollment and Community Relations at Mastery Charter School. There, she increased enrollment by over 50%, secured $60,000 in funding within six months, and forged critical partnerships with community colleges to expand educational opportunities. At CSMI LLC, she founded enrollment and school programs departments, raised $500,000 in funding, and developed childcare programs that grossed $400,000 annually.

Her extensive nonprofit experience includes founding Social Responsibility Through Me, which provides scholarships, internships, and volunteer opportunities for students, and serving on multiple boards, including Heart of Camden and Rising Stars. A dedicated advocate for equity and community revitalization, Shaneka has successfully raised over $25 million for education, public safety, and community development projects in urban areas across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Shaneka holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Hunter College. She is also a certified Business Administrator in New Jersey and a Notary Public. Her affiliations include the Junior League of Philadelphia, Camden City Parking Authority, and various other community-focused organizations.

With expertise in project management, strategic planning, and relationship building, Shaneka continues to drive transformational change, leaving a lasting impact on the communities she serves. She has one daughter Eva who is 18 years old and attending college.

Maggie Broughton, Esq.

Before joining EELC, Maggie worked on zoning and land use cases as a law clerk for Bryan Brice & Associates in Raleigh, NC. Prior to that, Maggie was an extern at the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, NC, where they worked on environmental justice and water quality issues; and a summer intern at Super Law Group, LLC, in New York City, where they worked on Clean Water Act permitting. Maggie graduated from Vermont Law School in 2021 with a J.D. and a Master of Environmental Law and Policy and graduated from Ithaca College in 2018 with a degree in Philosophy/Religion.

Jon Compton

Jon is the Executive Director of CFET. He has been working and living in Camden for the past seven years and enjoys working in CFET’s garden and beehives.

Olivia Carpenter Green

A longtime advocate of ensuring underserved communities have access to the outdoors, Olivia believes every New Jerseyan has a right to experience and enjoy the benefits of nature.

Olivia previously led the DEP’s Division of Parks and Forestry, serving since 2018 as its director and managing its 450,000 acres of natural and historic resources. From 2003 to 2009, she worked as the Division’s Urban Initiatives and Outreach Coordinator and subsequently served as special assistant to the DEP Deputy
Commissioner. Olivia later was a member of the DEP’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council, leading its efforts in outreach, education and land management.

Olivia also has worked with the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, making outdoor spaces and trails more readily available to Greater Philadelphia residents, especially people living in Camden.

In 2018, the Camden Collaborative Initiative honored her with the Camden Environmental Hero Award. As Deputy Commissioner, Olivia will chair CCI’s Steering Committee and will be responsible for environmental justice, diversity and environmental education.

Olivia earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Dartmouth College. She holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of the Environment, where she wrote her master’s thesis on park revitalization in Camden.

In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors, as well as singing and playing the flute, piano and bassoon. Olivia is married and has three children.

I had a difficult conversation followed by an unsatisfying email exchange with a long-time colleague this week. The premise of his argument centered around a generalized view that “illegal immigrants are invading the US to steal free benefits from hardworking Americans and commit brutal crimes of violence.”

At the same time that he insisted he wasn’t a supporter of Trump, he echoed the typical arguments made by the regime, including several of the news articles you’ve probably seen about terrible crimes being committed by undocumented immigrants with criminal records who somehow have slipped through the law enforcement cracks.

I tried to the best of my ability to create a set of responses that did not rely on emotional appeals to demonize immigrants, which included facts about immigration that the Trump regime doesn’t want to acknowledge.

Needless to say, I couldn’t move him away from the sense that immigrants are evil and are here to take advantage of real Americans.

It’s just not true and deserves to be called out with a factual conversation. So here’s what I tried to get him to look at.

This post reflects the body of the email I sent him. I did make a few edits to remove identifying information so that this is just about the arguments, not about the person making them.

I welcome your thoughts about this approach and what I might have done better.

Immigrant Crime

To start, I want to address the idea that this selection of articles offers any kind of proof for the argument that undocumented immigrants as a group somehow deserve less in terms of their Constitutional rights because of crimes alleged to have been committed by some of them.

I understand why individual cases feel powerful — they’re tragic and deserve justice. But isolated incidents don’t prove a trend.

If we want to talk about public safety, we need to look at overall crime rates, not cherry-picked examples.

• According to a 2024 analysis of Texas crime data by the Cato Institute, undocumented immigrants had a lower homicide conviction rate (3.1 per 100,000) than native-born Americans (4.9 per 100,000).

• Legal immigrants had the lowest rate of all—1.8 per 100,000.

• Stanford’s SIEPR study (2023) found immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born individuals.

An Invasion?

You seem to sympathize with the Trump regime’s terminology in a lot of your commentary, including referring to undocumented immigration as “an invasion.”

Calling immigration an “invasion” isn’t just inaccurate — it’s inflammatory. It turns vulnerable families into enemies and fuels fear instead of solutions.

Besides that, I get that the word “invasion” sounds dramatic, but legally and historically, it means something very specific — like an armed attack by a foreign military. Migration doesn’t fit that.

• Constitutional scholars like Ilya Somin (George Mason University) explain that the Founders defined invasion as “an operation of war”, not peaceful migration.

• Courts have repeatedly rejected attempts to label immigration as invasion. In California v. U.S. (1997), judges ruled that immigration is a political issue, not a military threat.

The Numbers Don’t Support the Rhetoric

If this were an invasion, you’d expect chaos and violence. But border crossings have actually declined — and most migrants are fleeing violence, not causing it.

• As of early 2025, unauthorized border crossings are at their lowest levels since 2000, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

• Most migrants are seeking asylum, which is a legal right under U.S. and international law—not an act of aggression.

Using “Invasion” Language Has Dangerous Consequences

Calling immigrants “invaders” isn’t just inaccurate — it’s harmful. That kind of language has been linked to real-world violence.

• The Anti-Defamation League and America’s Voice have documented how “invasion” rhetoric has fueled hate crimes and mass shootings.

• It’s also been used to justify extreme policies, like mass deportations and military involvement in domestic law enforcement.

• Former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said, “We must not confuse immigration with invasion. That’s not who we are.”

We can talk about policy without dehumanizing people

Let’s talk about border security, sure. But let’s do it with facts and compassion — not fear and conspiracy theories.

• Let’s focus on solutions: visa reform, asylum processing, border technology.

• Let’s not forget cherished American values: safety, compassion, rule of law, welcoming strangers.

The “invasion” rhetoric — describing immigrants as hostile invaders — has been directly linked to real-world violence, especially in the U.S. Here’s how:

• The gunman in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue attack in Pittsburgh killed 11 people after posting online that Jews were helping “invaders” enter the country.

• In El Paso (2019), a shooter targeted Latinos, killing 23 people. His manifesto explicitly referenced a “Hispanic invasion of Texas”.

• The Buffalo shooter (2022) who killed 10 Black Americans also cited “replacement” and “invasion” conspiracies.

These attackers didn’t just echo the rhetoric — they used it to justify their violence.

Mainstreaming the Language Fuels Extremism

• Politicians and media figures have increasingly adopted “invasion” language, normalizing it in public discourse.

• According to America’s Voice, this rhetoric was amplified 786 times in a single year on social media by elected officials and candidates.

This normalization makes violent ideologies seem more acceptable and even patriotic.

It Plays on Psychological Triggers

• Social psychologists call this “threatoric” — language that paints outsiders as existential threats to justify violence.

• It taps into fears about physical safety, cultural identity, and resource scarcity, making violence feel like self-defense.

Experts Warn of Its Lethal Consequences

• DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified in 2023 that invasion rhetoric “fuels the threat landscape” faced by law enforcement.

• Advocacy groups like Bend the Arc and Human Rights First have called on leaders to explicitly reject this language due to its violent impact.

It’s also helpful to remember that, despite the heated and polarizing rhetoric from the government and others, detention is supposed to be civil, not criminal.

• Immigration detention is not a criminal punishment — it's a civil administrative process. Yet many ICE facilities operate like prisons, with punitive conditions that violate constitutional and international law.

• The Fifth Amendment guarantees due process to all persons in the U.S., including immigrants. Arbitrary detention without individualized assessment undermines this protection.

Detention conditions are harmful and often inhumane

• A 2023 study in JAMA Network Open found high rates of medical emergencies in ICE facilities, including mental health crises and pregnancy-related emergencies, often without adequate response.

• ICE’s own data showed more than 14,000 instances of solitary confinement between 2018 and 2023, with some lasting over a year — well beyond the UN’s 15-day threshold for torture.

• Solitary confinement has been linked to lasting psychological damage, especially for vulnerable populations like asylum seekers and survivors of trauma.

Private detention profits from human suffering

Don’t forget that virtually all of these detention camps are being operated by for-profit companies with contracts from ICE.

• As of July 2023, 90% of ICE detainees were held in for-profit facilities, which have been repeatedly criticized for poor oversight and abuse.

• These facilities often prioritize cost-cutting over care, leading to medical neglect, unsafe conditions, and lack of accountability.

Detention is ineffective and unnecessary

• Most immigrants, especially asylum seekers, pose no threat to public safety and attend their court hearings when released under supervision or community-based programs.

• Alternatives to detention — like case management — are more humane, cost-effective, and have high compliance rates.

Historical and Ethical Parallels Matter

I’m especially sensitive to the creation of detention camps in the US, outside the normal standards of Constitutional law and accountability for civil rights and humane treatment of the people who are being put there.

This country has a shameful history of incarcerating people for what can only be described as racist reasons – the Japanese-American detentions during World War II being the most obvious example.

Treatment of Black Americans and indigenous people also are not among shining moments in US history.

• Scholars have drawn comparisons between ICE detention centers and historical concentration camps—not to equate them, but to highlight patterns of dehumanization and indifference.

• As Elie Wiesel Center director Michael Zank put it: “Indifference allowed Jews to be systematically deprived of their rights… Worse than hatred is indifference”.

Confirmation Bias Is Real

Editor’s note: I’m redacting some information here to keep this conversation generic.

[A professional certification program that I once participated in] spends a lot of study time teaching candidates about the importance of conducting unbiased survey research, and understanding the biases that can influence interpretation of the results. The same is true for the anti-immigrant rhetoric that currently pollutes our national discourse.

If someone believes immigrants are dangerous, they’ll notice every crime involving one. But they’ll ignore the thousands of crimes committed by native-born citizens every day.

• This is a classic case of availability bias—where dramatic examples distort our perception of reality.

Policy Should Be Based on Patterns, Not Exceptions

We shouldn’t build policy around the worst-case scenario. We should build it around what’s most likely to happen.

• Just as we don’t ban all drivers because some cause accidents, we shouldn’t generalize about millions of immigrants based on a few tragic cases.

One of the most comprehensive studies comes from Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky and colleagues, published in a 2023 working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research. They analyzed 170 years of U.S. Census data and found that immigrants are significantly less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born individuals.

Here’s the key finding:

“Today, immigrants are 30% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born white individuals, and 60% less likely than the broader U.S.-born population when including Black Americans.”

This study debunks the myth by showing that, across generations and regions, immigrants have consistently had equal or lower incarceration rates than native-born Americans. It also corrects for common data issues—like conflating immigration-related detention with criminal incarceration.

California Minimum Wage

You cited a story critical of California’s new minimum wage. Here’s a broader perspective on the issue.

While it’s true that some fast-food businesses have reported job losses — like the 18,000 estimated by NBER — other analyses paint a more complex picture.

UC Berkeley’s research shows no significant decline in overall employment, and they highlight an 18% wage increase for workers with only modest price changes.

Meanwhile, the Economic Policy Institute found that similar wage hikes nationwide could inject $86 billion into the economy, benefiting nearly 28 million workers. Job losses, where they occur, often reflect deeper trends like automation and shifting market dynamics — not simply the wage law itself.

It’s worth asking how we can design labor policies that uplift workers without stifling innovation.

I really do think that framing immigration as an “invasion” not only misrepresents the reality on the ground, but also runs the real risk of fueling real-world violence.

It may not be the way you look at things, but most migrants are seeking protection, not posing a threat — and I do believe inflammatory and anecdotal news stories distract us from genuine policy solutions.

I hope this provides a helpful lens for moving the conversation forward with compassion and clarity.

WASHINGTON, DC (SBN) — Voice of America’s chief national correspondent, Steve Herman, is fighting back against efforts by the Trump administration to close the 83-year-old news and cultural broadcasting hub that has fed unbiased objective reporting of news about the United States to authoritarian countries around the world since the early days of World War II.

Herman and hundreds of other VOA employees and contractors have been summarily fired by the Trump administration amid unproven charges of corruption and espionage. In this exclusive interview with SBN news director Steve Lubetkin, Herman expresses frustration at the administration’s continued refusal to support the charges with any kind of evidence of wrongdoing.

Herman’s most recent book, Behind the White House Curtain: A Senior Journalist’s Story of Covering the President―and Why It Matters, gives readers a rare glimpse into the historic and current relationship between the president and the press.

You can watch a free preview of our interview with Steve Herman here:

About the guest

Steven L Herman is the chief national correspondent for the Voice of America. From 2017 to 2021, Steve was senior White House correspondent and subsequently VOA’s White House bureau chief. From July, he will become the inaugural executive director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation at the University of Mississippi.

Steve is the author of five books. His latest, Behind the White House Curtain: A Senior Journalist’s Story of Covering the President — and Why It Matters, is a 2024 release from Kent State University Press.

Steve spent more than a quarter of a century in Asia, including years of reporting from Tokyo and subsequently as a VOA correspondent and bureau chief in India, South Korea and Thailand. Steve also served in 2016 as VOA’s senior diplomatic correspondent, based at the State Department and traveling to numerous countries with Secretary of State John Kerry.

During the first Trump administration, Steve was the designated radio reporter on dozens of Air Force One domestic and international trips, including the 45th president’s final flight to Florida. He continued as VOA’s White House bureau chief during the first eight months of the Biden administration.

Steve has been an adjunct associate professor at Shenandoah University, an adjunct lecturer in the journalism department at the University of Richmond and a Council on Foreign Relations Higher Education Ambassador. In 2024, he also taught a media literacy course for Johns Hopkins University/OLLI.

Steve was a JURIST Journalist in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a Kiplinger Fellow at Ohio University

Steve is on the board of governors of the National Press Club and is a former president and life member of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. He also served as president of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club and the Japan-America Club of The American University and is a former vice president of the DC chapter of AAJA. Steve was on the board of governors of the Overseas Press Club of America and the American Foreign Service Association.

Steve is on the board of directors of JURIST and is a member of the Stafford County Telecommunications Commission.

Steve has also presented lectures or been a classroom guest speaker in numerous countries, as well as domestically at: Chautauqua, Claremont McKenna College, Fordham University, Georgetown University, Harvard University Asia Center, Indiana University, Kent State University, National Intelligence University, Ohio State University, George Mason University, Penn State-Lehigh Valley, Seattle Central College, University of Mary Washington and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

Paid subscribers can watch our complete interview with Steve Herman at the link below:

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With President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis making headlines nationwide, experts are urging the public to consider the lesser known but critical factor in many cancer cases: inherited genetic risk.

Roughly 5–10% of prostate cancers are hereditary, and for many families, knowing your genetic makeup could be the difference between early intervention and late-stage detection.

Jscreen.org, a nonprofit public health initiative, is urging men and their familiesto consider the critical role of genetic screening in understanding prostate cancer risk.

jscreen offers at-home access to genetic testing for cancer and reproductive risk. jscreen combines state-of-the-art screening with expert counseling to help people make informed, proactive decisions about their health.

Joining us to talk about prostate cancer screening is Karen Grinzaid. Karen discusses the role of genetic screening in understanding inherited cancer risks, the process of getting tested, and the significance of genetic counseling. The discussion emphasizes the need for early detection and intervention, as well as the affordability and accessibility of genetic testing services.

Karen Grinzaid is Assistant Professor of Human Genetics and Executive Director of jscreen, a national online genetic disease screening program. She has extensive experience in genetic counseling and testing, clinical care and clinical research. Karen is proud of jscreen’s success in helping couples across the U.S. have healthy babies and in giving people the information they need to help prevent the devastating effects of hereditary cancer.

Karen received a B.A. in Psychology from Northwestern University and an M.S. in Human Genetics from Sarah Lawrence College. She is certified in Genetic Counseling by the American Board of Medical Genetics/American Board of Genetic Counseling and as a Clinical Research Coordinator through the Association of Clinical Research Professionals.

Free preview of the interview is here.

Subscribers can watch the complete interview with Karen in the player below.

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In this conversation with Radio Free Somewhere host Steve Lubetkin, Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, discusses the recent actions taken by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) in response to rising electric costs.

He explains the reasons behind the cost increases, including the failure to connect…

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Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill each spoke about their plans for state government and took audience questions for about 25 minutes each at the event, which bills itself as a traditional “first stop” for gubernatorial candidates after the primary elections.

State Broadcast News was at the event and recorded the candidates’ remarks in full.

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The protesters marched nearly two miles from the Westmont PATCO Hi-Speed Line rail station to the parking lot of the Collingswood PATCO station, where they gathered for songs, chants, and speeches from event organizers and a special appearance by Muhammed Emanet, the co-owner of Jersey Kebab, whose father and mother were recently arrested by ICE, even after being in the US for more than 20 years. Muhammed Emanet faces an immigration hearing August 8 in Newark, and says he could be deported.

Here’s a clip from Muhammed’s remarks:

https://vimeo.com/1093497795

Protest highlights

You can see highlights of the protest march in the video player below.

https://vimeo.com/1093494769

Still Images from No Kings Protest

See photos from the protest in our Flickr.com album.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lubetkin/albums/72177720326870311/