The New York Times September 10, 2026

0:00Hello, this is Mark Grire. For the next hour, I'll be reading from the September 10th issue of The New York Times and the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service. Okay, first article. Trump's dubious midterm pitch, keep his in power and everyone gets cash. In his convention speech, the president floated a $5,000 Trump divinant for every adult American if Republicans keep control of Congress. The idea, like many others, may not come to pass. President Trump took the stage at his convention on Wednesday and spoke for nearly two hours after or about the need for midterm voters to imagine that it was him, not other Republicans, up for election this fall. Pretend I'm on the ballot, he urged.

1:00I'm on the ballot, just one more time. Facing dwindling weeks until the midterms, deepening unpopularity and darkening political prospects for his party. Mr. Trump interrupted his usual fare by tossing out a new idea. A $5,000 check for every American adult if Republicans keep control of Congress in November. If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, Mr. Trump said, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000. It is not unheard of for politicians to tie the possibility of an economic stimulus to an election outcome. In 2020, Democrats in Georgia pointed to $2,000 coronavirus relief checks if their party

2:02took control of the Senate. But few have been as brazen as Mr. Trump, who often dangles the possibility of free money if it means achieving his political goals. Even as he seeks to undermine public trust and elections. In the same speech, Mr. Trump insisted that he won the presidential election three times. He didn't, and accused Democrats of trying to cheat in elections. In several cases, the money Mr. Trump has promised in the past is not materialized. He has proposed $2,000 checks based on tariff revenues. In an interview with the New York Times in January, he said that money could arrive by the end of this year. He has also floated $5,000 payments from money saved by eliminating thousands of federal jobs and assorted payments to Americans for government health care subsidies.

3:05Republicans did send Americans larger direct payments this year in the form of heftier tax refunds. Mr. Trump and Republicans designed last year's tax cuts so that it would deliver bigger refunds rather than slightly lower their payments over time. The hope was that one larger lump sum could help Republicans win the midterms. But Mr. Trump's latest notion would be extraordinarily expensive. It would cost more than $1.3 trillion to send $5,000 checks to each of the roughly 270 million adults in the US, making such a plan almost prohibitively costly for a country with a $40 trillion national debt. Mr. Trump said that the money would come with just one caveat. It must be spent in the United States.

4:10We don't want you going to Canada to spend the money. He told the crowd, we don't want you going to China to Germany. You got to spend the money in the United States of America. Outside the cost and the complications of carrying out a plan that would track voter spending, Mr. Trump's latest pledge could raise legal questions. Federal laws prohibit expenditures to influence voting, but he has framed his proposal as a promise that will be delivered upon later as an economic incentive. Jessica Levinson, who teaches election law at Loyola Law School in Mariamont University in Los Angeles, said that Mr. Trump's statement did not seem too far afield from a promise to lower taxes. In Richard Hassan, an election law expert at the University of California in Los Angeles

5:10said Mr. Trump's promise was protected speech under the First Amendment, pointing to Brown versus Heartledge. unanimous Supreme Court decision from 1982 that struck down the application of a Kentucky law, preventing candidates from making monetary promises and return for votes. Justice William Brennan wrote in the Court's opinion that so long as the hoped for personal benefit is to be achieved through the normal processes of government and not through some private arrangement, it has always been and remains a reputable basis upon which to cast one's ballot. David Becker, the executive director of the Center of Election Innovation and Research, and nonpartisan group that advises election officials said that Mr. Trump's proposal appeared to be part of a broader effort by the president to sow doubt about the country's

6:13election system. Whether it's legal or not, it seems just like with a lot of his election disinformation, it seems rather desperate. Mr. Becker said in an interview, ultimately it's going to be up to the voters whether or not they trust this man to deliver on his promises. He added, if I were a voter, I would be asking myself, why are you promising to do this in 2027? You control both houses now. Why not deliver on this promise now? The president did not seem particularly concerned about the details of the plan, but he was sure about what he would call it. The $5,000 payments will be known as Trump dividends. Okay, next another article about the convention. Federman has a surprise cameo at Trump's convention.

7:13Senator John Federman, who has become alienated from his own party, appeared in a short video on the opening night of President Trump's midterm convention into Ellis. Yes, I'm a Democrat. I'm a Democrat. I'm a Democrat. I'm a Democrat. I'm a Democrat. Midterm convention into Ellis. Yes, I'm a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today, Mr. Federman said in a video filmed in front of a steel mill in Pennsylvania? He introduced himself as a common sense Democrat, who said he is always going to reject the extremes and socialism. Mr. Federman introduced Senator David McCormick, Republican of Pennsylvania, and said that

8:14they would work together and work with President Trump and defend the steel way of life. The appearance of a Democrat at a convention boosting the GOP at a time when its party is claiming that they have made life harder and more expensive for Americans was a boon for Republicans just weeks before critical midterm elections in which they are battling to defend their slim, congressional majorities. And it undercut Democrats' message as they work to focus the final crucial weeks of the midterm campaign on the President, whose approval ratings are sagging and his unpopular policies. Instead, Mr. Federman's brief comments underscored Republicans' main argument in the campaign that Democrats are extremists and socialists who cannot be trusted to govern.

9:15It came amid recent speculation that Mr. Federman could switch parties. A move he has said he would never make, but has appeared more likely as he breaks with his own party, have become more frequent and bitter. His decision to take part in Mr. Trump's convention appeared designed for maximum shock value and served as a boost for Republicans otherwise lackluster gathering, which many of their most vulnerable incumbents and candidates have opted to skip as they work to gain some distance from an unpopular President. At the height of Mr. Federman's popularity with Democrats, he briefly harbored aspirations to run for President in 2028, according to former Aids. Instead, frustrated with his own party and his standing within it and aware of the attention

10:16he garners for criticizing it, he has sought allies on the other side of the political aisle. In recent months, Mr. Federman has amped up his flirtations with Republicans while still vowing that he would never actually switch parties. In July, he set up an unusual joint fundraising committee with Mr. McCormick, who, with whom he has established a close personal bond. He has said that if his party officially turned against Israel, as some of its most progressive voices are urging, it would be the red line that would force him to leave. But he has also been adamant that despite his disagreements with Democrats and his antipathy to party gatherings and caucus meetings, he is less in common with Republicans.

11:16In an interview in July, he told the New York Times he would never leave the party. About 69% of likely Democratic voters in Pennsylvania view Mr. Federman negatively, according to a poll conducted last month by the New York Times, the Philadelphia, and choir, and Sienna University. Most Republicans in his state, however, now hold a positive view of Mr. Federman, who has become a fixture on conservative news outlets bashing the policies of his own party. The progressive working families party announced last year it would recruit and support a primary opponent to challenge him in 2028. As Mr. Federman has evolved into a lawmaker who barely resembles the man he represented to voters on the campaign trail in 2022, a champion of the underdog who highlighted his ties to Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist from Vermont.

12:21Several former staff members have grown incensed and vocal in saying he is advocating his responsibilities. A group of his delusioned former staff members last week threatened to begin revealing private communications from Mr. Federman in which he expressed disdain for the day-to-day duties of being a senator. The former staff member who made their announcement with an anonymous account on X said they would be releasing the material on Monday when the Senate returned from a week's long break. Mr. Federman was elected in 2022 after he had a life-threatening stroke in the middle of the most competitive Senate race in the country. Shortly after being sworn in, he checked himself into the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to be treated for depression for six weeks and appeared to make a remarkable

13:24recovery as he began speaking about the importance of getting help when needed. But then, in 2024, he began retreating from his job, rarely attending committee meetings, Cassie votes, or holding town halls. He has since expressed remorse for speaking openly about his mental health and claimed that the criticism he gets for missing votes and committee hearings is because of it. My doctor warned years ago after its public that you are getting help for depression, people will weaponize that Mr. Federman told the near times in an interview last year. Simple things are turned. That's exactly what happened. Okay, next article. Russian drone incursion. Delayed Zolinsky's flight to Oslo, Moldova says.

14:26An airspace closure delayed the Ukrainian leader's trip between Moldova and Norway, officials said, they did not confirm a claim by Norway's prime minister that a drone had almost hit the plane. An incursion by a Russian drone into Moldova's airspace this week forced authorities there to temporarily ground several flights, including one carrying President Zelensky of Ukraine. The Moldovan government said on Thursday. The drone flew into Moldovan airspace on Tuesday from the direction of Ukraine as Mr. Zelensky was leaving. Chisnawa, Moldova's capital, for Norway to attend the funeral of King Harold V and to discuss Ukrainian air defenses with Norwegian officials and European defense suppliers. Prime Minister Jonas Garr, store of Norway told reporters on Wednesday that Mr. Zelensky's

15:31plane was almost hit by a drone as it was about to take off from Moldova. But Mr. Stor's claim could not be independently verified. Moldova's government did not say whether the incursion constituted a direct threat to Mr. Zelensky. A spokeswoman for Mr. Store office had said. It was not clear how close the drone that delayed Mr. Zelensky's trip had come to his plane. The Moldovan authorities said that the drone came down about 100 miles from Chesnau to the airport. It was not immediate clear what had caused the drone to fall to the ground. All flights, including President Zelensky's, were able to take off in land once the government had confirmation that the drone had come down. Olga Roska, a foreign policy adviser to President Maya Sandu of Moldova, said in an interview

16:39on Thursday. Mr. Stor's office did not immediately respond to request for comment on Thursday. Mr. Zelensky's office declined to comment. Ukraine's public broadcaster, Suspelin, citing an unnamed official in Mr. Zelensky's office reported that two Russian drones had flown into Moldova at about the time his plane was scheduled to take off for Oslo. Ukraine has extensive radar, excuse me, capabilities and other sensors to detect and track drones. The report did not indicate whether Ukrainian security officials suspected Russia had launched the drones to threaten or delay Mr. Zelensky's flight. Drone's incursions have become increasingly common in Moldova and in other countries neighboring Ukraine or Russia, one of the several ways in which the war between the two

17:42countries has spilled over their borders. Moldova recorded 17 such incursions in August alone. Moldova, a tiny country of three million people, squeezed between NATO and Ukraine, carries outsized importance for President Putin of Russia. Russia has trained foot soldiers to carry out violence during elections or extruded a massive vote-buying scheme to elect pro-Russian candidates and recently targeted critical infrastructure in Ukraine, crucial to Moldova's energy and water needs. The Moldovan authorities said that Mr. Zelensky's flight was one of three departing from Cheznau that had been delayed for arriving flights were also delayed, they said. A Russian drone forced us to close our airspace temporarily. Miss Sandu said on social media Wednesday adding that other Russian drones had struck

18:49a checkpoint between Ukraine and South-Eastern Moldova overnight on Tuesday killing two civilians. Today Russia is striking the points where people cross into Moldova, Miss Sandu said. Russia's front line is moving further west, which is why air defense for Ukraine is urgent. European governments have accused Russia of repeatedly sending drones to disrupt their airspace as part of a campaign of small-scale attacks against countries that support Ukraine. Russia has denied that it is behind such attacks. Last week German officials said that Russia was responsible for an attempted attack involving an explosive laden drone that was found in early August in the freight terminal of the

19:52Leapsig Hail Airport near Ukrainian cargo plane. Mr. Putin said that the German authorities had planted evidence in Leapsig and that Germans' accusations were a grave mistake. Moldova's defense ministers said this week that a drone had been detected on Tuesday afternoon near Cheznau, forcing Moldova authorities to temporarily close airspace in the center of the country before the drone quickly moved west into Romania. It was unclear whether the defense ministry was referring to the drone that delayed Mr. Zelensky's plane. In Oslo, representatives from Norway's defense industry joined Mr. Storz meeting with Mr. Zelensky on Tuesday night to discuss the development of ballistic missile defense capabilities for Ukraine, the Norwegian Prime Minister's office said in a statement.

20:55Ukraine is facing a dire shortage of air defense. Its capital, Kiev, came under renewed bombardment this week after a short pause. Mr. Putin had ordered over the weekend while on-voys from the Trump administration visited Moscow and Kiev in hope of restarting peace talks. You are listening to a reading of articles and features from the New York Times and the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service. Okay, onto the next article. August ties the record for Earth's hottest month on the books. Fulting summer temperatures put last month on par with July 2023 for global warms scientists said more records could be broken in the months ahead. Last month tied July 2023 as the planet's hottest month on record.

22:01European scientists said on Thursday as human caused warming pushes the northern hemisphere's muggiest, most uncomfortable time of year into new realms of stickiness and discomfort. Dangerous heat hammered Europe for the fifth time since May. Temperatures soared into triple digits across the southern United States from California to Texas. South Korea recorded its highest temperature reading in modern history, 108.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the southern city of Yankstan, on August 2. August tied the record for the oceans hottest month in history as well. Scientists said as El Nino conditions caused warm water to accumulate at the surface of the tropical Pacific. This extra warmth was spread to the rest of the planet in the months ahead, making the

23:06globe's average temperatures likely to break more records through the end of the year and into 2027. These observations show how climate change is driving extremes across both the atmosphere and the oceans. The climate scientists at the European Union's Climate Monitoring Service published the analysis of August temperatures. The impacts of these conditions are increasingly being felt by communities, economies and ecosystems across the world. Most sweltering temperatures kept the warmest summer on record for both Western Europe and the continuous United States across the lower 48 states. The average temperature last month was 75.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The highest on record for August and 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average.

24:14The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in Wednesday. Summer in the northern hemisphere is also the warmest time of the year for the planet as a whole. The reason is that the sun's energy heats the air above land more than it does the air above water, and most of Earth's land lies north of the equator. According to Conipras, the average air temperature at the planet's surface last month was 1.65 degrees Celsius or roughly 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Higher than it was at the start of the industrial age when large-scale burning of fossil fuels began raising global temperatures. That made August the first month since last November when global warming exceeded 1.5 degrees

25:14Celsius. An important number of in humanity's efforts to curb climate change. More than a decade ago nearly all nations agreed at a global summit in Paris to try to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius and ideally to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In a report last week the United Nations declared that the world would not achieve that second more ambitious goal and predicted that within the next few years average global warming would surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius. By 2100 warming could peak at 1.8 degrees Celsius if governments are highly successful at slowing warming or at 2.6 degrees Celsius or higher if they aren't.

26:17The goal now the UN report said should be to bring temperatures back down as quickly as possible. Both by slashing greenhouse gas emissions and by developing novel technologies to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The world also needs to learn to cope more effectively with the elevated risks of intense hot spells, downpours, wildfires and coastal floods that a warmer planet has created the UN said. This is the spiraling price of humanity's fossil fuel addiction and the global climate crisis it is fueling said Simon Steele the head of the UN, entity that supports the international response to climate change. Okay next article. European Central Bank raises rates and bid to quell inflation.

27:21The bank fighting price pressures spurred by the war in the Middle East raised its benchmark rate to 2.5%. The European Central Bank raised interest rates on Thursday to the highest level in more than a year as officials tried to quell inflation driven by the war in the Middle East. Policy makers at the bank which set rates for the 21 countries that used the euro lifted their key rate a quarter of an appointment to 2.5%. It was the second rate increase since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February, starting a war that has sent global energy prices sharply higher. This week the price of Brent Crude the international benchmark climbed above $100 of barrel and European natural gas prices are more than double what they were before the war. The bank also said that inflation would be moderately higher than it previously expected

28:22next year by that economic growth would be stronger than their earlier forecast because of better than expected economic resilience. The outlook remains highly uncertain the bank said in a statement on Thursday adding that the rate setting council remains well positioned to navigate the uncertainty caused by the conflict. The world's major central banks have come under pressure to respond to raising inflation with higher interest rates amid jitters in the bond market where investors are alert to rising debt and widening deficits by some of the world's richest nations. In recent weeks government bond yields have risen to levels not seen in more than a decade. Next week policy makers at the Federal Reserve the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan will meet to set interest rates. In the United States traders have increased bets that the Fed will lift rates this year,

29:28potentially as soon as next week. In Japan officials are widely expected to increase rates next week. In Britain traders are betting on a rate increase by the end of the year. The inflation rate in the Eurozone climbed to 3.3% in August, the fastest pace of price growth in nearly three years. It was mostly caused by higher energy prices which have kept inflation above the central banks 2% target for most of the year. The bank forecasted inflation would average 3% this year and slow to 2.5% next year but the policy makers have said recently that there was huge uncertainty about war and its impact on the economy. The unpredictable nature of the conflict could cause energy prices to rise faster. While the European economy has so far proved surprisingly resilient to the energy shock,

30:33there are growing concerns about the coming winter. The continent has relatively low levels of gas storage for this time of year and it could be very expensive to warm homes and run industrial businesses if lots more gas needs to be brought in at higher prices. The Eurozone economy grew 0.6% in the second quarter of this year compared with the previous quarter. The banks said the economy would grow 0.9% this year and 1.4% in 2027 both modest upgrades from forecast made in June. Although the ECB rate increase announced on Thursday was widely expected, investors are hunting for clues about where the banks will go next. Rates are betting that it will keep rates steady for much of the rest of the year and

31:36then raise them twice by the middle of 2027. But some economists are skeptical that rates will need to rise much further than they were or whether they are now. One reason is that policymakers said there is limited evidence that inflation is becoming deeply embedded in the economy, particularly through higher ranges. In 2025, interest rates are at the top end of the so-called neutral range, where policy neither boosts nor suppresses the economy. And so the bar to raise interest rates further is quite high. From here, higher rates would more actively tamp down on economy, on economic activity to slow inflation. Next article. The DOJ escalates threats to states in battle for election records.

32:40The department sent letters to at least 30 states demanding they retain election records and the outgrowth of President Trump's baseless claims of widespread election fraud. The department of justice sent threatening letters to at least 30 top election officials across the country, expanding its efforts to gain access to private voter data and election records. The letters warned states not to destroy any records related to the 2021 for election, explaining that their chief election officials are currently under investigation and subject to ongoing litigation. The notices come amid a barrage of efforts by President Trump and his administration, which have been fruitless so far, to find evidence of widespread voter fraud. It is not clear whether the department is investigating, nor whether its probe is criminal or civil in nature.

33:41The letters do not cite any criminal statutes. Instead, they point to some of the same claims made previously as part of the administration's ongoing effort to identify fraud in the nation's elections, including machine anomalies and non-citizen voting. In court, the Justice Department has tried to force states to hand over unredacted voter lists, including personal information like drivers, license numbers, and partial social security numbers. The Justice Department has sued 30 different states for this data. They have lost 23 of those cases and have won none. Decisions are pending on the rest. Mr. Trump has falsely claimed for years that millions of non-citizens are illegally registered to vote or have actually cast ballots. Multiple studies have shown the practice is exceedingly rare.

34:42Kirsten Pell's, the spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, confirmed that the department sent the letters to the states we are in active litigation against regarding their failures provide the full statewide registered voter list. Ms. Pell's did not respond to questions about unspecified criminal investigations. Kelly Jones, the spokeswoman for the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, said the office would comply with what the law requires, regardless of any request from the Justice Department. Our office and our counties follow state document retention laws. His Jones said in an interview, and to imply otherwise is an insult to the work that election administrators do in Arizona. While the states, the Justice Department has sued our largely controlled by Democrats, a number of Republican states, including Kentucky, Idaho, West Virginia, and Georgia, have

35:48also been targeted. Examples in some of the states being sued, including Maine and Georgia, said they had not yet received a letter from the Department. The new letters come as election officials across the country have faced increasingly hostile rhetoric and threats from the upper echelons of the Trump administration. Harmeet D. Lin, the head of the Justice Department Civil Rights Division, sent letters in July to the top election officials in all 50 states, threatening criminal prosecution, if non-citizens cast a ballot that was counted in the midterm elections. Later that month, Mark Wayne Mullin, the Homeland Security Secretary, threatened election officials in a speech, saying they could face prison time if they do not comply with the Trump administration's efforts to change election policies. The Trump administration is also actively pleading with the Supreme Court to allow its plans

36:52to restrict mail-in voting before the midterms. The Department of Homeland Security is in the midst of a week's long hunt for non-citizens among the nation's registered voters, despite an absence of evidence of widespread fraud. Francisco Aguilar, the Democratic Secretary of State of Nevada, sent that the letters followed a pattern of threats coming from the administration. It's the constant flood the zone of harassment and intimidation and threats of legal action, hoping we'd fold at some point, Mr. Aguilar said. He added, we're going to continue to follow the law and do what's in the best interests of our voters. Those are allowed to destroy voting records 22 months after election day. That day was September 5th. The Department sent the letters a day prior. Election officials are well-first in policies regarding document retention, explained David

37:57Becker, a former voting rights lawyer for the Justice Department, and such threatening letters are unnecessary. Mr. Becker said the Justice Department may be seeking to pressure the states for more information than is legally necessary. Sending what is effectively a sternly worded reminder to states two months before an election is completely meaningless. Mr. Becker said, there's only two reason to send that letter. Either the lawyers who sent it don't understand litigation obligations, or their hope in that states will misinterpret it and retain more than are legally required. Okay, moving on next article, more on voting. Denver sues to block armed ICE agents at voting sites. The City of Denver and Civil Rights groups argued that sightings of ICE agents at polling

38:58places are having a chilling effect. The City of Denver, Latino Civil Rights organizations, and government watch groups asked the federal judge on Thursday to block the Trump administration from allowing armed federal immigration agents to serve warrants at polling sites. The lawsuit filed in court in Washington, D.C. asserts that Mark Wayne Mullin, the Homeland Security Secretary, and David Venturella, the acting head of immigration and customs enforcement are allowing federal agents to enforce civil immigration laws at polling locations as a matter of policy. The plaintiffs argue that the practice violates federal laws protecting free and fair elections. The presence of federal force at the polling at the polls interferes with the smooth administration of elections at the local level, the lawsuit states.

39:59It distrups voting and makes it more difficult for state and local election officials and law enforcement to do their jobs by making polling places space of confrontation. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to request for comment. Speaking to reporters last week in New York, Mr. Mullin said that Democrats were fear mongering and that ICE was not patrolling polling places. The only reason why we would be at a polling place is if there is a threat to that polling place, he said, or we're serving a warrant. The groups that brought the suit argue that such actions violate federal law, which bans military personnel or other armed agents from being at any place where a general or special election is held, unless force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.

41:01There are cases the first lawsuit against the administration over such actions. Civil rights and government watch groups say they have chronicled several encounters at polling sites nationwide since the spring that they said failed to meet that bar. In May, they alleged armed agents swarmed the parking lot of an active polling site in San Antonio to detain a person in plain view of voters until the county sheriff ordered them to leave. In June, ICE agents entered a polling site in Syracuse, New York to interrogate an election volunteer over a social media post that she made five months earlier regarding the fatal ice shooting of a woman in Minneapolis, according to the lawsuit. The possibility of federal agents at the polling box has intensified concerns of election

42:02day chaos in an already volatile campaign season. Ahead of the 2026 midterms in November, the Trump administration has sought to impose restrictions on male voting, prompting or which prompted a congressional redistricting race and escalated efforts to identify and deport non-citizens who registered to vote, even with no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Fears that the Trump administration might send armed federal agents or troops to polling places or election offices have simmered among Democrats, voting rights groups and immigration rights networks for months. Mr. Trump has long repeated unfounded assertions of election fraud and has called the Republican officials to take over elections in parts of the country. Trump administration officials said there is no plan to deploy armed agents or troops

43:06in the upcoming elections, but they have also not ruled out the possibility that armed agents could be present at polling locations or involved in elections. In the lawsuit filed in Thursday, City and county officials in Denver said the area is home to a large immigrant population, making it a likely target for all. They are high-soperations during the midterm elections. The presence of armed officers could deter residents from casting votes or dropping off male and ballots and could fuel anxiety among election workers and volunteers. They said in the lawsuit, election officials in Denver have already scheduled training for election workers on how to identify federal agents in plain clothes, document their presence and de-escalate interactions according to the lawsuit.

44:06In a statement, Mayor Mike Johnston of Denver, a Democrat who has spired with Trump administration over its mass deportation efforts, said his city would fight tooth and nail to prevent the stationing of ICE agents near polling sites. Our right to vote is powerful and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Code. Paul Lopez, the Denver clerk and recorder set in a statement. The group's involvement in the lawsuit, Common Cost, the League of United Latin American Citizens, or L-U-L-A-C, and UNIDOS-US, said recent ICE activity at polling locations was already chilling voter registration drives, canvassing efforts, and civil and civic participation in the electoral process. The organizations have also diverted funding, staff time, and add space away from standard

45:11voter mobilization efforts toward establishing rapid response safety networks, vote safe from ICE, educational material, and de-escalating training. In a statement, Janet Margua, the president of the chief executive of UNIDOS-US, said sending officers into polling locations was not immigration enforcement, but voter suppression, plain and simple. Juan Proano, the chief executive of L-U-L-A-C, called the actions part of the administration's attempts to weaken the very institutions it is entrusted to protect. Okay, next article. The man who approved 9-11 victims checks paid a price. Janet Feinberg says the nearly three years he spent running the September 11th Compensation

46:13Fund changed his life view forever. The lawyer who became the public face of the September 11th victims Compensation Fund will not be attending any memorials on the 25th anniversary of the attacks. He has kept his calendar clear deliberately. He was a singularly moment in time, said Kenneth Feinberg, who was nearly nearing the end of a half-century law career. He was very deliberating and very debilitating and very difficult, and I'm simply not comfortable with any public demonstration. I would rather honor the memory privately. I would rather reflect. Reflecting on the events of the days, what Mr. Feinberg has done pretty much every day for the past quarter century. That could make talking to him somewhat akin to engaging with an ancient stoic philosopher.

47:15Excuse me, albeit one prone to proclaiming about the vagaries of fate and fortune and pronounced Massachusetts accent. I look in the mirror and I say, bad things happen to good people every day, he says. That is a common refrain now for Mr. Feinberg, who became intimately acquainted with death, disaster, and loss in his role as special master of the federal fund set up to compensate victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. He spent nearly three years talking to grieving family members, people whose lives had changed irrevocably in an instant. It profoundly transformed his personal understanding of existence. He recounted over the course of several interviews in Washington and the York between December and August.

48:18You learn one very important lesson at least. Time is the enemy, he says. You cannot outfox time, and you better live for every day like it may be your last. Nearly 3,000 people were killed and about 2,400 others wounded on the day of the attack. When terrorists from Al Qaeda hijacked four planes, they crashed two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in the York and one into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Like many people around the world, Mr. Feinberg had watched on television as the towers fell. Excuse me, and the Pentagon burned, but his view from afar did not last long. Less than two weeks after the attacks, Congress approved a fund to compensate victims, and Mr. Feinberg was asked to oversee it. He took on the job voluntarily, seeing as an opportunity to be of service in a time

49:22of national need, he said. The compensation fund was created to stave off lawsuits against the airlines whose planes had been hijacked. Litigation could have bankrupted them. If the airlines had not lobbied, the fund might not have been created, Mr. Feinberg concedes, but he believes that the government was also moved by a desire to do right by the victims. Excuse me, and in a country where death and injury claims are generally worked out in torts litigation that can take many years and result in uncertain outcomes, he argues that the fund, which had an unlimited budget, helped ensure that the injured and the families of the dead would not struggle financially. Mr. Feinberg met with hundreds of grieving families, including relatives of victims from nearly 60 countries. They told him about their pain and anger, showed him photos and home movies, and shared

50:28their memories. But many rejected that he was there to offer them, at least initially. The emotional response to loss was universal, Mr. Feinberg says, but the response to the offer of compensation was not always well received. Abra, the idea that the US government would compensate families for their losses, a peculiarly American approach in Mr. Feinberg's view, was met with suspicion. Some families were flamoxed when they met with them in London and some were wary, certain that there were strings attached, or that there could be unforeseen consequences to taking the money, he says. At home, he noted, the offer of money incensed some people who seemed to believe that their government wanted to buy their silence, or that it was dismissive in their pain.

51:29Mr. Feinberg was chosen to administer the fund because he had become known as a mediator skilled at resolving complex disputes. In 1984, he handled the $180 million settlement between Vietnam war veterans and manufacturers of the toxic herbicide agent, Orange. But in a country so traumatized by the attacks, Mr. Feinberg was unprepared for what lie ahead. Some of the tensions came with the territory. It was Mr. Feinberg's job to make decisions about how much people would be compensated. The amounts were based on how much they would have earned working in a lifetime. But some families felt the message of that calculus was that some lives were worth more to society than others, and some found Mr. Feinberg unfeeling, even arrogant.

52:30He himself now says that he made mistakes and that he has some regrets. He quickly discovered his own limitations, he says. He recalls one morning father who dismissed his words of sympathy as pretentious platitudes. Then there was the widow who had only weeks to arrange for her children's future because she had been diagnosed with a deadly disease. He talks about the litany of rebukes he got from victims' families as if they were yesterday. They were going to give me $4 million, Mr. Feinberg. He recalls one husband telling him, I got a better idea. Bring my wife back. The moment he said was chilling. A spiritual leader might have been better equipped for the meetings with the families he said. They could have offered the kind of solace a lawyer could not. The survivors he said needed someone to urge them to stay strong.

53:34All they had to offer were dollars. For the fund to succeed in preventing lawsuits it had to persuade a majority of eligible claimants to accept compensation. To accomplish that over time Mr. Feinberg says he learned to stop talking as much and to start listening more. Ultimately about 97% of the relatives of the dead and many of those injured on September 7th agreed to sign on. Mr. Feinberg distributed more than $7 billion. He said, and after nearly three years of working hard on the fund, his work was done. But his own life was never the same again. Though he has managed to make it to 80 and will retire this year, he has become acutely aware of life's fickled nature. Tiny decisions mean the difference between life and death.

54:34Like ordering a second cup of coffee instead of heading for work in a doomed office building. Now when people confidently share their plans, he sometimes has to restrain himself. Mr. Feinberg says in a book about the fund, what is life worth? It has been reissued for the 25th anniversary of September 11th. I listen and nod and smile. And I wonder whether any of this will come to pass, Mr. Feinberg says, where is it written that life will be so accommodating? Okay, I can only fit in one more short article. At least five dead and dozens missing after fairy fire in the Philippines. The June Aster was sailing from Manila to Karan. A popular tourist destination when a fire broke out aboard the vessel. At least five people died and more than 80 were missing after a fire on a passenger ferry

55:37in the western Philippines on Wednesday. The Coast Guard said. The June Aster was carrying 134 people, including 17 crew members from Manila to Karan, an island, in Pallawan Province. The Coast Guard spokeswoman, the fire broke out around 6.45 pm near the village of Marcila on Karan. As of Thursday morning, 43 people had been rescued, the captain said, adding that the Coast Guard was working to extinguish the fire as a search for the 86 remaining people. The dead have not yet been identified in the cause of fire still under investigation. There were bodies floating in the water. One of the survivors said by telephone from a hospital in Karan. The rescuer said, let's focus on those who are alive so we can take them to the hospital.

56:41Rescue efforts were hampered by the conditions of sea. The captain, the vessel, had drifted nearly eight nautical miles away from its initial distress location. That was our challenge last night. She said in a radio interview with local media, the weather was bad and the waves were strong. For Mr. Indick, a 60-year-old fisherman, the fire-compounded personal tragedy. Traveling with his daughter and son-in-law, he was aboard the Cuban Asker to take his wife's body home to Karan for burial. He believed that her coffin, which had been in the cargo area, had been burned in the fire. His daughter, 29, who was two months pregnant with her first child, is among those missing. Mr. Indick said, her husband, the mingo sooner, is in the hospital fighting for his life.

57:42When my wife died in Manila, I let go of the pain and did not carry it back with me to Palawan, Mr. Indick said. But now with this fire, it has happened to us all over again. That's why it hurts so much. I still cannot find my daughter. We've been listening to reading of articles and features from the September 10th issue with The New York Times. Your reader today has been Mark Reyer. Thank you so much for listening.