Jeremy T. Ringfield's Blog, page 336

Community College football: Lobos remain undefeated after overtime win in Siskiyous

WEED — A bye week provided time for heeling. Yet, it also created some rust for a program that is off to its best start since the return from the pandemic.

A seven-hour bus ride home will be one to savor Saturday for Monterey Peninsula College, as it persevered under adversity with a 24-17 overtime win at Siskiyous, capping an undefeated non-conference season.

The defending three-time American Golden Coast Conference champion Lobos are one of eight teams in the state of California still undefeated at 4-0.

“We might have underestimated them as a whole,” MPC coach Ronnie Palmer said. “Siskiyous made some huge changes that forced us to make adjustments. We’ll have to look at the tape to see what we can get better at.”

The Lobos, who open conference play next Saturday at San Jose City, have gone 15-1 over the last three years in conference play. Siskiyous’ only setback coming into its meeting with MPC came from San Jose.

“We didn’t travel well,” Palmer said. “Some of that was playing on grass for the first time. Some of it was the opponent. I’ll have to reevaluate that.”

MPC came into the game ranked No. 3 in the state in scoring — thanks in large part to a 72-point uprising in a season opening win over Chabot.

Yet, somewhat overshadowed has been a Lobos defense that held 3-1 Redwoods to seven points two weeks ago, and tamed a high scoring Siskiyous offense to their second lowest point total in five games.

That unit rose to the occasion in overtime when Palma graduate Ryan Sanders intercepted a pass to end the game and create a jubilant celebration on the MPC sidelines.

“That was a good team we faced,” Palmer said. “Give them credit. That’s a well-coached team that had a game plan. We had to make adjustments in the second half to give ourselves a chance.”

The Lobos have actually trailed in both of their road games this season at halftime, as a safety and gadget play staked Siskiyous to a 9-7 halftime advantage.

Part of MPC’s offensive struggles was due to the Eagles ability to control the first 20 minutes of the game with a pair of mythical time-consuming drives that chewed up the clock and kept them off the field.

“We looked up at the clock and there was one minute left in the first quarter and we had one possession,” Palmer said. “I think we ran four or five plays in the first 20 minutes of the game.”

That changed in the second half when MPC turned to its ground game and quarterback Eric Gibson, whose 1-yard touchdown run in overtime put them up for good.

“Our ground game showed up in the second half,” Palmer said. “We had some nice catches, converted in key situational plays. We took care of our business in the second half. We had a better spark.”

Gibson, who transferred from LSU two years ago, connected with Devin Ellison on a touchdown pass. That coupled with a field goal from Joey Fernandez put MPC up by eight before the Eagles (3-2) tied the game with a minute left in regulation.

“We just struggled as a whole today,” Palmer said. “We had some penalties that ruined drives and put us in bad field position. Our turnovers led to points each time for them. It took us a while to get some rhythm on offense.”

MPC had only played one other overtime game in the Palmer era, that occurring in his first season in 2021, when it blocked the extra point in OT in a 27-26 win over De Anza, triggering a run of five straight wins and the first of three conference titles.

The Lobos do have some familiarity with San Jose next week, having seen them on film from having played Siskiyous in Week 3 of the season.

“It’s a big team as always, with talented receivers, an all-conference running back and an aggressive defense,” Palmer said. “We have to get home and get a few kids back. It’s the biggest game of the year because it’s the next game.”

Gavilan 21, Hartnell 17: The growing pains continue for the Panthers, who squandered an early 10-point lead in falling to 0-4 on the season at Rabobank.

Hartnell came into the game having won its last 11 meetings against their conference rival, with the Rams (2-3) last win coming in 2011.

The Panthers, who started last season 6-0, have failed to hold first half leads in their last two games, as 45 freshmen continue to go through growing pains.

The loss of starting quarterback Adam Shaffer to a season ending knee injury has been felt since his departure in the first half of the team’s season opener, as Hartnell’s offense has scored just 35 points in their last 14 quarters.

Points came from the defensive side when Alvarez alum Jacob Pienado intercepted a pass and returned it for a pick six in the first quarter to give Hartnell a 10-0 lead.

Held scoreless in the second half of last week’s loss to Los Medanos, the Panthers didn’t get into the end zone offensively until 11:43 left in the fourth quarter when North Salinas graduate Justin Pascone scored from 2-yards out.

The touchdown snapped a string of five quarters without an offensive touchdown, and halted Gavilan’s run of 21 unanswered points.

Diego Mora added a 28-yard field goal for Hartnell, who visits winless Yuba next Saturday in a non-conference game.

3 takeaways from Warriors’ buzzer-beater win in preseason opener vs. Clippers

After a week of training camp practices full of new set plays and terminology, the Warriors put their progress to the test.

Golden State won the first half — the one in which the starters played — 53 to 49. They ran in transition like they’ve been talking about while trialing different lineup combinations. Both teams struggled from behind the 3-point arc, but the Warriors’ defense was slightly more tuned than that of the Clippers while they played at full-strength.

“I see the identity of this team forming after a week,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters postgame, via The San Francisco Chronicle. “We can feel that we’ve got a chance to be much more impactful defensively than we have been the last couple years. If we can play off of our defense, get out and run…that’s a good formula.”

Golden State scored 22 fast-break points and forced 21 turnovers, although many of each happened with the reserves in.

When the game was on the line, both teams had their non-rostered and two-way players on the court. For the Warriors, that meant rookie center Quinten Post had the ball in his hands, which didn’t work out. Post committed two turnovers while Golden State trailed by a point.

Then, after two failed inbounds plays, Lindy Waters III canned the walk-off 3 as time expired, lifting the Warriors to a 91-90 win in the Stan Sheriff Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Waters hit five 3s, scored a game-high 15 points and was first greeted by a chest-bump from Steph Curry after his game-winner.

Now the Warriors are heading back to the mainland after a week in Hawaii. Here are three takeaways from the Golden State victory.

The starting look

Steve Kerr cautioned reporters not to read too much into lineup combinations, particularly the starters, in the preseason. He said the starting-five in the first preseason game probably won’t be the same as the regular season opener.

But… it might be.

Golden State went with Steph Curry, De’Anthony Melton, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis against Los Angeles. With Andrew Wiggins (illness) out, Kuminga was practically a lock. Melton, a defensive ace with a history of 3-point accuracy, should pair well in the back court with Curry.

The Warriors want to play a center — likely Jackson-Davis — next to Green. The question then becomes how viable Kuminga, a career 34.1%, low-volume 3-point shooter, fits next to them.

Kuminga believes he’s a small forward. It’s the position he’s played his entire life. How well he shoots it from deep could determine how often he plays the position or revert back to a power forward — the spot Kerr considers him best at.

“We’ve got to see,” Kerr told reporters pregame in Honolulu. “Because last year, we didn’t feel comfortable going that route. We would love to play Draymond at the four, Trayce gives us a shot-blocker next to him. We want to play JK. And if he’s ready for the 3, and it works with those guys, then we’ll see. Then we’ll adapt. Now’s the time to try these things and see which combinations work and which ones don’t.”

Kerr gave the group a seven-minute audition to begin the game. Green and Jackson-Davis looked especially strong defensively, forcing turnovers and affecting shots at the rim. The unit also displayed terrific athleticism, getting out on the break several times — a Kuminga dunk and a Jackson-Davis alley-oop were highlights — which is a point of emphasis for the Warriors.

Golden State fell behind early with the starting-five, but went on a 9-0 run fueled by defense and running. The spacing wasn’t great, and the lack of Brandin Podziemski’s playmaking was felt, but the starters generally held their own.

How much can Moody prove in the preseason?

As expected, Moody was the 11th man to play for the Warriors. That means with Wiggins back in the fold, he’s the 12th man. No coach likes to go 12 deep.

That means, once again, Moody is headed for rotational purgatory — through no fault of his own.

When Moody checked in, he instantly made an impact. He blocked a shot then cut backdoor for a dunk off a nice feed from Kuminga in the post. Then he swiped a steal and got fouled on the other end. Moments later, he drilled a pull-up 3 and then a catch-and-shoot triple from the corner. In eight Moody minutes, the Warriors won by 11.

Moody got to the line to open the second half then hit a pull-up jumper, getting his defender to stumble on a drive in isolation. That gave him 12 points in as many minutes. He hunted his 3-point shot and got it off quickly — a priority for him this offseason — and forced a steal that led to a runout.

Moody finished with 12 points in 13 minutes and was a game-high +14. He shot 4-for-9 and added two steals, a block and four rebounds.

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The Warriors did a platoon substitution, putting Brandin Podziemski, Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield, Gary Payton II and Kevon Looney on the floor after the starters.

That group might not see the floor all together for the entire year. But it begs the question: When Curry and Kuminga are off the floor, who is going to put pressure on the rim in the half court?

After a pair of Anderson free throws, the Warriors took five straight 3-pointers. None of them were horrible looks, but there wasn’t a lot of paint touches.

Golden State had no problem getting shots at the rim in transition, but the half court was a different story. Twelve of the team’s first 20 field goal attempts came from behind the arc. Maybe some of the new sets and more structure the team has been working on will help that.

Kerr has said the Warriors want to be a high-volume 3-point shooting team. But there’s always a balance to strike.

Liza Horvath, Senior Advocate: Five estate planning surprises and mishaps

When it comes to estate planning or taking care of a loved one’s estate after they have passed away, surprises are usually unwelcome. The following are five mishaps that arise far too frequently in the estate settlement area. Being aware of these may help when considering your own estate planning and its future administration.

Credit Cards: If your spouse applied for a credit card and added you as an additional signer, should your spouse die before you, the card will be cancelled almost immediately upon his death. Imagine being on the phone with the funeral home making arrangements only to have your credit card payment declined. Absolutely an unwelcome surprise while in the midst of grief. Obtain a credit card in your own name so you can avoid this unpleasant situation.

Safe Deposit Boxes: Bank safe deposit boxes can be tricky. If they are in the name of your trust, once your trustee has copies of your death certificate, they can access the box and gather needed documents. If it is not in your trust name, your trustee or personal representative will need to wait 45 days before the bank will allow them entry to your box. We had a client pass away recently and were aware that she wanted to be cremated. We made the arrangements and paid the cremation fees. Some 40-plus days later, we accessed her safe deposit box only to find a fully paid cremation plan. We are now attempting to get a refund for the prepaid plan.

The same goes for funeral instructions – do not leave them in your box! They need to be immediately available to your personal representative so they can make sure your services or celebration of life is everything you want it to be.

Finally, make sure someone knows you have a safe deposit box. Recently, a woman passed away unexpectedly and at a young age. Her family could not locate a will at her home, nor did they find a safe deposit box key or other evidence indicating the existence of a box. Her estate was administered as though she died without a will. In this case, all her assets were to go to a sibling. The probate proceeded and the administrator of the estate was preparing to distribute everything to the sibling when a notification came from the bank regarding rent due on the box. Yep, you guessed it, her will was “safely” tucked inside her safe deposit box. Her will indicated she wanted everything to go to a charity and the family is now involved in court proceedings to “re-probate” the estate.

If the estate assets had already been distributed, the administrator would have the unwelcome task of demanding assets back from the beneficiary – a sad and sometimes difficult job.

Credit Locks: This is more of a lifetime situation rather then an at death one but worth mentioning. We know that putting a lock on our credit reports is a good idea to us protect from scammers and identity theft. However, it is essential you safeguard the PIN to unlock your credit, if needed. Say you have lost some mental capacity and need to move to a senior home so you can have more support. The home may need to run a credit check and, if your credit is locked, they are barred from doing so. Also, if you lose the PIN or cannot recall it, it is almost impossible to unlock access to your credit reports.

Power of Attorney documents: Did you know that when you die, a power of attorney document is immediately void? Many people believe that the nice person who is helping pay bills or otherwise assisting with finances will be able to “wrap things up” when you die. Not true. The POA is void at death and, absent other documents like a will or a trust, your trusted friend will not have any authority to take care of things.

Surprise Appointments: Finally, if you have put together a beautiful estate plan naming your cousin “Freddy” as your trustee or executor, please tell Freddy. Better yet, discuss your plans with him and make sure he knows where your documents and financial information can be found. A surprise appointment can easily result in delays, unnecessary legal fees and outcomes that are not optimal.

The estate administration field is ever changing due to new laws and bank regulations, so mishaps are not uncommon. Being aware of these five common “surprises” can, hopefully, smooth the waters.

Liza Horvath has over 30 years of experience in the estate planning and trust fields and is the president of Monterey Trust Management, a financial and trust Management Company. This is not intended to be legal or tax advice. If you have a question call (831) 646-5262 or email liza@montereytrust.com

Needing a cold one on a warm day

Genetic tests of farmworkers could reveal avian flu evolution

Federal scientists are closely studying H5N1 genetic sequences from California dairy workers in search of any dangerous mutations that may make the virus, called avian flu or bird flu, more skilled at jumping from animals to people — then spreading.

“It can tell us how the virus is evolving,” said Stanford infectious disease expert Dr. Abraar Karan. “It is a window into what is going on.”

Samples of the virus were obtained by swabbing two patients with the state’s first known human cases of avian flu, confirmed by the California Department of Public Health on Thursday. While the patients’ locations were not disclosed, their illnesses are unrelated to each other. They were sickened independently after exposure to cows, not spread from person-to-person. The risk to the public continues to be low.

Both cases were mild and with little or no respiratory symptoms. The main complaint was a common eye inflammation called conjunctivitis, caused by workers not wearing adequate eye protection while working with infected cattle.  The virus latches onto cells in the membrane that lines the eye.

Samples of the California virus have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which is genetically deciphering them. The work is a challenge, however, because samples often contain very low levels of active viral RNA, the molecule in which flu genomes are written.

By comparing the samples to each other and other samples in the U.S., scientists can detect whether the virus is mutating in a way that will make it more likely to infect other humans.

If so, this increases the risk of it sweeping through the population, potentially triggering a dangerous outbreak.

The same sequencing technology is the key tool in identifying and tracking the emergence of new SARS-CoV2 variants, a realm of work called “genomic epidemiology.” With widespread use during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become easier, quicker and more ubiqutious, proving itself as one of the most important innovations of the 21st century.

H5N1, just like our more familiar flu viruses, constantly changes as it multiplies and diversifies. Viruses are engaged in an evolutionary arms race — as the immune system makes new antibodies, the virus develops new mutations.

Each iteration seeks to offer some sort of advantage, such as an ability to sidestep the immune system or extreme contagiousness.

Viruses shift in small, but sometimes large, ways. It is not yet known which genetic changes would allow H5N1 to better infect humans, or become airborne.

“As this happens, the virus itself gains mutations that can change how dangerous it is,” Karan said. “These changes are ones that we need to be aware of.”

Genetic sequencing will also help ensure that future vaccines and antiviral drugs are a good “fit” and will be protective.

To fend off an outbreak, on Thursday the federal government’s Center for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, announced that it is providing about $72 million to four pharmacuetical companies — CSL Seqirus, Sanofi, and GSK — to take the next steps in H5N1 vaccine manufacturing. The vaccines, now in bulk storage, will be moved into ready-to-use vials or pre-filled syringes for human immunization, so that they are ready for distribution.

“As infections in domesticated animals continue to spread, the risk for human infection could rise,” said BARDA Director Gary Disbrow. “In an abundance of caution, we are taking steps to increase the amount of vaccine that could be immediately available if needed.”

The virus has already significantly changed since first identified in geese in 1996. In 2020, a new, highly pathogenic form emerged in Europe and spread quickly around the world. In the U.S. it has affected more than 100 million farmed birds, the worst bird flu outbreak in the nation’s history.

New mutations have eased its spread from birds into multiple other species, including humans. It has been detected in wild animals like bears, foxes, seals, and skunks, domestic animals like cats and dogs, and zoo animals like tigers and leopards. Even marine mammals, like harbor seals, gray seals, and bottle-nosed dolphins, can become infected.

The climbing case counts among cows on California dairies — jumping from 3 to 56 infected herds in less than a month — worry epidemiologists and health experts, who are monitoring farm workers.

Since March, when the H5N1 virus was first detected in U.S. dairy cattle, there have been more than a dozen cases of human infection that were traced back to contact with infected animals.

An early genomic analysis by the CDC found minor differences between people, cattle and bird versions of the virus.

In humans, there was one genetic change — a mutation called PB2 E67K — that has a known link to virus adaptation to mammalian hosts. Scientists emphasized that this hasn’t been linked to virulence or rapid transmission.

Mutations may explain clinical symptoms — why, for instance, the virus seems to affect a person’s eyes more than the upper respiratory tract, like other flu viruses.

One case, reported in Missouri on Sept. 6, is getting special attention. That’s because investigators found no link to livestock or unprocessed food products, such as raw milk.

Jürgen Richt, a veterinary virologist at Kansas State University in Manhattan, called it “a mystery case.”

“So you have to throw your net a little wider,” he told the journal Nature. “Maybe they cleaned out a bird feeder in the household. Did they go to a state fair? What kind of food did they consume?”

On Sept. 13, the CDC announced that two people who had close contact with the infected person had also become ill around the same time. One of them was not tested for flu; the other tested negative.

Meanwhile, researchers are combing through that patient’s patchy genome-sequence data from virus samples — and will compare it to the California cases and other samples.

The two California cases “are not, by themselves, a cause for increased concern for pandemic risk,” according to John Korslund, a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian epidemiologist, who studies livestock diseases.

“But each case is still each important on its own,” he said, “because any one of them could signal trends towards viral adaptation for human-to-human spread.”

 

Some California homesellers are letting buyers who can’t get insured pull out of deals

To protect themselves from entering into a deal that could come back to bite them, homebuyers are advised to write contingencies into an offer, so they can pull out of a deal or renegotiate the price if an inspection or appraisal surfaces new issues.

But what if a buyer can’t find insurance?

This summer, the California Association of Realtors began including new language in its standard purchase agreement forms, used in most home sales around the state, to allow a buyer to back out of a deal if they can’t find an affordable insurance policy.

This new standard contingency reflects a harsh reality for most homebuyers: Insurance in California is increasingly more difficult to come by as major insurers leave the state. Both Allstate and State Farm this year stopped writing new insurance policies in California, citing rising construction costs and what they say are overly burdensome regulations from the California Department of Insurance.

Brokers say that even before the California Association of Realtors made the insurance contingency standard, they were advising their buyers to add it to their offers or do research on policies ahead of time.

“This is the first year that I’ve advised my buyers to look into buying insurance even before they write an offer,” said Cara Gamble, an agent with The Agency in Danville. “They have to make sure they’re comfortable with that payment.”

Gamble has worked with buyers who have decided against writing an offer on a house they were excited about after realizing how expensive their yearly insurance payments would be.

In the wealthy town of Woodside up in the hills above Silicon Valley, agent Scott Hayes said he’s noticed less traffic to homes in the last year, as buyers realize the only insurance plan they can get is California’s FAIR plan — the state’s insurer of last resort.

“If you want to buy here, there’s just no other option,” Hayes said. With insurance companies declining to renew thousands of policies for Californians living near wildfire hotspots, the number of policyholders on the FAIR plan has grown from 126,709 to over 350,000 today.

“Insurance really is affecting people’s interest, because it’s such a big unknown cost at the moment,” Hayes said. “People may be thinking there’s no way they can get insurance, so they don’t want to look for a home.”

Hayes has yet to work with any buyers who have pulled out out of a contract because of insurance, but usually it’s because he has prepared them with expectations for the FAIR plan’s price: For a $2 million house in Woodside, Hayes estimates that annual payments run between $15,000 and $20,000.

Under the terms of the insurance contingency included on CAR forms, a buyer that can’t find “acceptable” insurance within 17 days can cancel the contract without forfeiting their earnest money — typically a safety deposit around 2% of the total purchase price.

In the region, buyers are often pressured into waiving most contingencies to make their offer more competitive, anyway. But some agents say they haven’t seen the same of insurance contingencies.

“I really don’t see anybody waiving that,” said Melody Johnson, an agent with The Agency in Danville.

To prevent a sale from getting held up in escrow, agents advise buyers to start looking for insurance options as early as possible in the process.

In Johnson’s office, agents keep a running list of insurance companies still willing to write new homeowners insurance policies.

“They’re not the big insurance companies anymore,” Johnson said. “It’s a bunch of smaller ones with funny sounding names.”

College men’s basketball: Rowland returns to St. Mary’s as an assistant coach

MORAGA >> Engulfed in a playing career overseas that spanned nearly two decades on the hardwood, coaching basketball was never really on EJ Rowland’s radar.

Even at 41, Rowland had suitors in France chasing his services, contracts on the table with at least two professional basketball organizations in Europe.

Yet, as Rowland’s career began to wind down and he found himself playing with players half his age, he began to see himself as not only a role model, but a coach on the court.

“With the age gap and experience, I became more of a hands-on player, helping get points across to the players,” Rowland said. “I wanted individual goals to line up with our team goals.”

So when the former Palma product decided 19 professional seasons was enough, a spirited talk with St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett convinced him to join his staff as an assistant coach.

“I can still play today,” Rowland insisted. “I had offers. I just felt it was time. I feel fulfilled as a player. I’m walking into a great situation.”

It will be a reunion of sorts for Palma grad EJ Rowland, as he returns to St. Mary’s in Moraga as an assistant coach. (Photo by Jacques Cormareche)

It will be a reunion of sorts for Rowland, as he returns to a campus he grew fond of as a player at St. Mary’s in Moraga, as well reuniting with Bennett, his college coach.

“It’s a unique situation that my college coach is still active at the same spot,” Rowland said. “We have always stayed in touch. I told him this might be my last year. He had an opening.”

The hesitation of committing for Rowland stemmed from having retirement thoughts in the past, only to return when receiving an offer he couldn’t refuse.

In fact, the 6-foot-2 point guard was coaxed into signing late last season for a team in France, where he became a teammate of 2024 Atlanta Hawks top pick Zaccharie Risacher.

“There were other paths I could have gone down,” Rowland said. “I considered a position in the NBA. Coach Bennett made an offer. I talked to my wife. St. Mary’s checked so many boxes.”

After living in Madrid, Spain for the last six years, Rowland and his family have returned to the West Coast, where he begins a new era in his basketball life.

“We have a nice circle of friends in Madrid,” Rowland said. “My son was born there. I’m still catching the vibe here. But I’m in a familiar place at St. Mary’s. So it’s also home.”

Rowland will also be closer to his mother in Salinas, where he groomed his skills first at Palma, and later at Hartnell College, becoming an All-American in his one season.

“I was kind of a late bloomer,” said Rowland, who started for two years at Palma. “I grew late. I didn’t even play travel ball back then.”

Rowland’s career soared at St. Mary’s under Bennett, where as the team’s point guard, he helped lead them to the NCAA Tournament in 2005.

Undrafted, Rowland played in the NBA’s Summer League with the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks before taking his dream to Europe.

“Initially I told myself let’s make some money for a year and get back to the NBA,” Rowland said. “I didn’t understand how much money I could make, or how great the leagues were.”

Rowland began to see familiar faces, players he grew up watching such as Dominique Wilkins and Bryon Scott playing in Europe toward the end of their careers.

“I didn’t realize how many NBA players were finishing their careers in Europe,” Rowland said. “They didn’t disappear. Now look at the players in Europe being drafted.”

Had Rowland come around perhaps 10 years later, his path to the NBA likely would have had a different course, as the leagues in Europe are so much more respected by NBA executives.

In fact, the last two No. 1 overall selections in the NBA draft have come from France, with five European players chosen in the first 12 picks of the 2024 draft.

“A lot of times people didn’t know what I was doing in Europe,” Rowland said. “There were a bunch of international stars like Pau Gasol. Then there was EJ Rowland lumped in with them.”

Even as a 39-year-old playmaker in Poland in 2023, Rowland averaged a career high 7.9 assists, while dropping in 15.2 points a night.

“In looking through the lens of a player, I didn’t see myself coaching,” Rowland said. “The standard and what I expect, I didn’t think it was for me. But I became open to the thought as I got older.”

Rowland’s career included stints in Australia, Germany, Turkey, Israel, Spain, France, Russia, Italy, Poland and Latvian.

The VTB United League Most Valuable Player and scoring champion in 2013, Rowland was inducted into the Russian League’s Hall of Fame in 2019.

Rowland’s career – particularly in the postseason and in the Euro Cup, certainly warranted a shot at the NBA. Instead, he kept watching players he outperformed get drafted.

“Maybe my path would have been different with a little more understanding,” Rowland said. “It turned out OK. It’s part of my journey. I went out on my terms. I’m ready to embrace this next chapter.”

There are moments when Rowland feels like he’s turned back the clock with his return to St. Mary’s, particularly with his former coach still achieving milestones.

“It’s crazy at so many different levels,” Rowland said. “I can remember like it was yesterday when I came on campus, wanting to prove myself, the hunger to be good, to find my place.”

The hunger remains, but in a different capacity, as Rowland is now the teacher instead of the pupil to a bunch of 18 to 20 years.

“Now I want to help our players grow as young men,” Rowland said. “Achieve everything they desire both on and off the court. I want to provide a support system, yet at the same time hold them accountable. I’m someone who has been through it.”

The transition has been a smooth one for Rowland, who admits he gets the itch to suit up and test the waters, yet doesn’t miss the pain and physical therapy sessions.

“I get to listen, learn, be myself and naturally apply my thoughts as they come.” Rowland said. “Coach Bennett is allowing me to find myself as well. With this staff, I can defer to them as I learn. What’s a good college player? I haven’t been around in a while.”

Rowland’s return coincides with St. Mary’s celebrating its 20th anniversary team – which he played on – that made the NCAA tournament.

“The culture here is excellent,” Rowland said. “Coach Bennett recruits a certain type of character to where it’s easy to come to work. The energy is high. Guys want to be good. I can’t imagine something like this is everywhere.”

While it didn’t seem like it at the time, 19 years of playing professional basketball went by in a blink of an eye for Rowland.

“I feel like I remember everything like it was yesterday,” Rowland said. “In the day-do-day life, there was a lot that went into each season. But in looking back, it feels like a flash. All those memories are still clear.”

Changing demographics and the political calculus of anti-immigrant rhetoric in swing states

By Gloria Rebecca Gomez, Stateline

Editor’s note: This series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these “swing states” may decide the future of the country.

As former President Donald Trump worked to scuttle a bipartisan border deal in Congress because it threatened to derail his campaign’s focus on immigration, Republicans in Arizona unveiled a plan to empower local officials to jail and deport migrants, decrying the federal government’s lack of solutions.

“Arizona is in a crisis,” state Senate President Warren Petersen said in late January. “This is directly due to the negligent inaction of the Biden administration.”

What followed were months of GOP lawmakers in Arizona making use of Trump’s border security rhetoric, employing xenophobic language to cast immigrants and asylum-seekers as criminals. But there was strident opposition to the plan, too, from many Latino and immigrant Arizonans who traveled to the state Capitol to protest the legislation.

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris offer starkly different plans for the future of the 11 million people who live in the United States without legal status. Harris, in a bid to stave off accusations that she’s soft on the border, has sought to establish a firm security stance. To that end, she has vowed to bring back and sign the torpedoed bipartisan border deal.

On the campaign trail, Trump has taken a far more hawkish approach, promising mass deportations. He has offered few details, other than that he would be willing to involve the U.S. National Guard. President Joe Biden, Trump and other recent presidents have deployed the National Guard or military troops to support Border Patrol actions, but not in direct law enforcement roles.

Immigration has consistently ranked high among voter concerns nationwide, following heightened political rhetoric and a record-breaking number of unlawful border crossings in late 2023. Those numbers have since plummeted to a three-year low, but the U.S. border with Mexico remains a key talking point for Republican politicians.

But immigration is a far more complex topic than border security alone, and strategists may be miscalculating by failing to consider some key voters and their nuanced perspectives, recent polling shows.

Growing populations of new and first-generation citizens in the swing states — with the power to sway elections — are transforming demographics and voter concerns.

In Arizona, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed the legislation that would have allowed local law enforcement to usurp federal authority on immigration, but Republicans repackaged it as a ballot initiative called the “Secure the Border Act.” In a state that Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes four years ago, and where political strategists anticipate high voter turnout, the ballot measure serves as a test of whether the GOP’s immigration position will drive people to the polls in a swing state.

While many Republicans hope the immigration issue boosts their chances in down-ballot races, progressive organizations are working to mobilize voters in opposition through canvassing and voter registration drives.

Living United for Change in Arizona was established in the aftermath of the state’s controversial “show me your papers” law — SB 1070 — passed 14 years ago by Republican lawmakers. LUCHA Chief of Staff Abril Gallardo derided this year’s Secure the Border Act as the latest iteration of that law.

“Arizonans are sick of Republicans trying to bring back the SB 1070 era of separating families, mass deportations and children in detention centers,” she said. “We’re here to say, ‘Not on our watch.’”

Read more: GOP, Trump build on immigration fears to push voting restrictions in states

The ballot measure has been widely criticized as greenlighting discrimination. Among other provisions, it would make it a state crime for migrants to cross the southern border anywhere except a legal port of entry and punish first-time offenders with six months in jail. Local police officers would be authorized to carry out arrests based on suspicion of illegal entry, and Arizona judges would be empowered to issue orders of deportation, undermining court rulings that have concluded that enforcing immigration law is the sole purview of the federal government.

Gallardo said that LUCHA is focused on engaging with voters to ensure the proposal fails. The organization is part of a coalition of advocacy groups committed to knocking on more than 3 million doors before November.

“They can try to ignore us, but come Election Day and beyond, they will hear us, they will see us, and they will feel the strength of our movement,” she said.

An August UnidosUS and BSP Research survey asked Latino voters in Arizona about their top priorities on several issues related to immigration policy. The results show strong support for protecting longtime residents from deportation and offering them a path to citizenship — along with cracking down on human smugglers and drug traffickers. Policies centered on building a wall or mass deportation ranked near the bottom. In recent years, Latino voters in the state have helped reject virulently anti-immigrant candidates.

Latino voting strength

In 2020, Latinos made up about 20% of the state’s electorate, and they largely favored Biden over Trump. Then, two years later, a record-breaking number of Latinos voted in an election that saw Democrats win statewide offices. Today, 1 in 4 Arizona voters is Latino, and a new poll from Univision estimates that more than 600,000 will cast their ballots in the state’s November election.

The Grand Canyon State is far from the only swing state with both impactful Latino and new-citizen voting blocs.

Still, campaigns might be ignoring these voters. The UnidosUS poll showed 51% of Latino voters in Georgia hadn’t been contacted by either party or any campaign, even though 56% say they’re sure they’ll vote.

“This is, I think, a wake-up call for both parties to reach out into the Latino community,” said BSP senior analyst Stephen Nuño-Perez in a Georgia Recorder story. “There’s still not a lot of education out there on why Latinos should be voting for one party or the other.”

The numbers hovered right around there in other swing states. In Pennsylvania, that was true for 50% of the people polled. In North Carolina, it was 49%. In Nevada, 53%. In each case, a higher percentage said they plan to vote.

Influence grows in dairy country

The number of Latino voters in Wisconsin is a fraction of the electorate that lives in states closer to the U.S.-Mexico border but no less impactful. There are roughly 180,000 eligible Latino voters who call the Badger State home. Biden carried Wisconsin in 2020 by a margin of just 21,000 votes, less than 1 percentage point.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz is the executive director of Voces de la Frontera, a civil and workers rights organization that advocates on behalf of immigrants. She said that over time, the Latino vote has become increasingly sought after by politicians looking to gain office.

“If you don’t get it, you don’t win it,” she said.

Residents leave a polling place after voting in the state’s primary election on April 2, 2024, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images/TNS)

Neumann-Ortiz said that the rise of the Latino electorate has translated into political power. The group has been a longtime backer of driver’s licenses for Wisconsinites without full citizenship status, and occupational licenses for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a federal policy that grants temporary work permits and protection from deportation to people who arrived in the country as minors.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow people without citizenship status to obtain driver’s licenses. And just 12 give DACA recipients the opportunity to obtain medical or legal licenses.

Legislation in Wisconsin to open up access to either license was blocked by the GOP legislative majority, though the movement behind the proposals drew support from top officials, including Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who backed driver’s licenses for all as a policy priority last year. Influential lobbying organizations, such as the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and the Dairy Business Association, both of which lean conservative, also threw their weight behind the push for universal driver’s licenses.

Read more: Though noncitizens can vote in few local elections, GOP goes big to make it illegal

Neumann-Ortiz attributes that support to the fact that immigrants make up a large part of the state’s dairy and agricultural industries. And in rural areas where dairy operations and farms are located, public transportation is sparse. United Migrant Opportunity Services, a Milwaukee-based farmworker advocacy organization, estimates that as much as 40% of the state’s dairy workers are immigrants. Other estimates indicate they contribute 80% of the labor on dairy farms.

Despite being over 1,000 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration and border security are key issues for Wisconsinites, and their positions appear mixed. In a September survey from Marquette University’s Law School, 49% said they agreed with deporting all immigrants who have lived in the country for years, have jobs and no criminal record, while 51% opposed it.

Newly minted citizens stand to break new electoral ground

Laila Martin Garcia moved to the United States with her husband and infant son eight years ago. November will be the first time she casts her ballot for a U.S. presidential candidate since she became a naturalized citizen two years ago in Pennsylvania, and she’s elated.

“The main reason for me to become a citizen was to vote,” she said. “You know, this is home. This is where my husband is, where my son is being raised, and I wanted to make sure that I was using my voice in any way possible.”

She’s part of another segment of the electorate that will have a chance to respond in the voting booth to the election-year emphasis on immigration: newly naturalized voters. In fiscal year 2023, just over 878,000 immigrants became naturalized U.S. citizens, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. That number represents a slight decline from the previous fiscal year, when a little more than 969,000 people achieved naturalization — the highest number of new citizens in a decade.

Newly naturalized voters can close the gaps in swing state races, according to Nancy Flores, who serves as the deputy director of the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of immigrant and refugee rights organizations.

Every presidential election year, the coalition partners with local organizations to assist eligible immigrants as they embark on the naturalization process and help newly naturalized citizens register to vote. New citizens, Flores said, are a great investment, because once they’ve made a commitment to vote, they will likely continue to do so. And naturalized voters appear to cast their ballots at higher rates than U.S.-born citizens. In the 2020 election, about 66% of the general electorate turned out to vote, compared with nearly 87% of naturalized voters surveyed by the organization.

This year appears on track to repeat that trend: As many as 97.3% of naturalized voters residing in states polled by the National Partnership for New Americans — including in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania — reported that they plan to vote this fall.

“For a lot of folks, reaching the point of citizenship is really a lifetime achievement,” Flores said. “And we see that folks really don’t take that lightly.”

And while Flores noted that naturalized citizens don’t fit one single voter profile, most of them do share an immigrant background and so are sympathetic on the issue.

“New American voters are not a monolith,” she said. “Folks that are naturalized are doctors, professors. We have folks that are naturalized that are picking the fruit that we eat. It really runs the gamut, but the common thread is the immigrant experience.”

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A poll conducted by the organization found that naturalized voters share many of the same concerns as other U.S. voters, including worries about inflation and the economy. But, Flores added, candidates who are looking to attract naturalized voters are likely to be most successful with the demographic group when they present a positive view of immigration.

“Looking at immigration as an asset to our country, looking at how it can benefit the economy, looking at how we can provide pathways [to citizenship] that are humane — those things resonated with voters,” she said.

Similarly, Martin Garcia’s experiences as an immigrant have colored her views as a voter. Immigration reform, she said, is at the top of her priorities. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, Martin Garcia arrived in the U.S. in the middle of Trump’s first campaign, and she said she saw firsthand what his anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies wrought.

In her work as an advocate, she frequently helped families torn apart by deportations, and in her personal life, while trying to share her language and culture with her son, she dealt with nativist hostility. During one incident at the grocery store, while she was helping her toddler identify items in Spanish, a stranger accosted her.

“I remember he came up to me and said, ‘We’re in America, speak American,’” she recalled. “Now that I think of that moment, I have so many things to say to that person. But at that moment, I was so scared. I just took my child, left my cart there with half of my groceries, and left the shop.”

Today, she recalls that incident, and the rallies and protests during Trump’s presidency, as catalysts for her civic engagement. Martin Garcia said she views the 2024 election as an opportunity to look out for the immigrant community’s needs.

“We deserve to thrive, and we will be thinking about that,” she said. “We have to make sure that our communities have the right to thrive in this election.”

What’s on the table at the federal level?

The failed $118 billion bipartisan border plan set aside $20 billion to pay for more border barriers, expanded detention facilities, more officers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, and legal counsel for unaccompanied children. The bill also included more than $80 billion destined for aid and humanitarian assistance overseas.

The deal would also have overhauled the asylum system and eliminated the “catch-and-release” system. It would have narrowed the criteria under which people can apply for asylum, fast-tracked the processing of existing claims and given migrants work authorizations while their claims reached resolution. The president would have been granted the power to shut down asylum claims processing altogether, once a certain number of claims had come through, resulting in more migrants being automatically deported during periods when there are a lot of border crossings.

For Vice President Kamala Harris to be able to sign the deal if she’s elected president, it would have to clear both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, which appears unlikely unless Democrats win a majority in both chambers in November.

Former President Donald Trump has said that if he’s voted back into the White House for a second term, he will oversee mass deportations in the style of President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Operation W*tback.” The 1954 policy only succeeded in removing about 300,000 people, despite government claims that more than 1 million people were deported. Discriminatory tactics led to an unknown number of U.S. citizens being deported, too.

While it might at first sound feasible and draw support from some voters, adding context quickly turns them away, said Douglas Rivlin, a spokesperson for America’s Voice, a national immigration reform advocacy organization.

“You start talking about the number of jobs we’re going to lose, and the spike to inflation, and the hit to the U.S. economy contracting that way, and a lot of people turn against mass deportation,” he said.

A May 2024 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that immigrants made up 18.6% of the U.S. labor force — about 1 in 5 workers.

Rivlin warned that mass deportation would necessarily result in the breaking up of families, and leave millions of U.S. citizen children in the lurch. As many as 4.4 million children who are citizens in the U.S. live with at least one parent who does not have full citizenship status.

“You can’t deport 11 million people and not rip apart families, especially because 4 or 5 million children live in those families,” he said. “Are you going to deport them, too? Or are they going into foster care?”

One of the most notorious policies enacted during Trump’s presidency was his “zero tolerance” immigration initiative, which separated thousands of migrant children and babies from their parents at the country’s southern border. The policy ended after broad public backlash and federal lawsuits. More than 1,000 children remained separated from their families as of this spring, according to the most recent data available from the Department of Homeland Security’s task force on reunification.

The majority of American voters, Rivlin said, don’t want overly punitive immigration policies. Most favor opening up legal pathways to citizenship for the millions of people who’ve made their home in the U.S. A June Pew Research survey estimated that 59% of American voters believe that “undocumented immigrants” living in the country should be allowed to remain legally. And while there’s been an uptick in voters who oppose offering citizenship to people without legal status, they remain in the minority, with 37% supporting a national deportation effort.

Gloria Rebecca Gomez is a reporter for the Arizona Mirror.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

Will abortion swing the first post-Roe presidential election?

By Sofia Resnick, Stateline

Editor’s note: This series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these “swing states” may decide the future of the country.

Dr. Kristin Lyerly’s placenta detached from her uterus when she was 17 weeks pregnant with her fourth son in 2007. Her doctor in Madison, Wisconsin, gave the devastated recent medical school graduate one option: to deliver and bury her dead child. But she requested a dilation and evacuation abortion procedure, knowing it would be less invasive and risky than being induced. And she couldn’t fathom the agony of holding her tiny dead baby.

But Lyerly’s doctor declined, giving her a direct window into the many ways Americans lack real choice when it comes to their reproductive health decisions. At the time of this miscarriage, Lyerly was getting a master’s degree in public health before beginning her residency. She was able to get a D&E at the same hospital by a different doctor. As an OB-GYN, she soon would learn how much abortion is stigmatized and limited throughout the country, but also regularly sought after and sometimes medically necessary, including among her many conservative Catholic patients in northeastern Wisconsin.

And then, on June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion rights, prompting states such as Wisconsin to resurrect dormant abortion bans from the 19th and 20th centuries. Lyerly’s job changed overnight. She stopped working as an OB-GYN in Sheboygan and moved her practice to Minnesota. She became a plaintiff in a lawsuit over an 1849 Wisconsin feticide law being interpreted as an abortion ban, which has since been blocked.

When a congressional seat opened up in a competitive Wisconsin district this year, the 54-year-old mother of four joined the post-Dobbs wave of women running for office to restore reproductive rights, which this election cycle includes another OB-GYN and a patient denied abortion care. Lyerly’s decision to run is emblematic of the nationwide backlash against the Dobbs decision, which altered the reproductive health care landscape, with providers, patients and advocates turning to the ballot box to change the laws to restore and broaden access.

Wisconsin is among seven swing states expected to determine the country’s next president and federal leaders. And in many ways they’re being viewed as referendums on how much the right to have an abortion can move the needle in a tight presidential election.

“What we’ve seen in every election since the Dobbs decision is that abortion is at top of mind for voters — and it’s not just helping voters decide who or what to vote for. It’s actually a turnout driver,” said Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations at national lobbying group Reproductive Freedom for All. The group is investing in down-ballot races in conservative districts such as Lyerly’s, buoyed by cash and momentum from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ reproductive-rights-focused campaign.

Anti-abortion money is also flowing through the swing states, led by lobbying groups Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Women Speak Out PAC. Some of their messaging, adopted by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and many GOP candidates, often paints Democrats as champions of infanticide, focusing on the rarest and most controversial type of abortions, those performed in the third trimester.

But aside from that rhetoric, many Republican candidates have been quiet on an issue that for years motivated their staunchest supporters.

SBA Pro-Life America declined an interview for this story but shared a press release outlining the organization’s strategy trying to reach 10 million voters in Montana, Ohio and all of the battleground states except for Nevada. The group endorsed 28 House candidates total this cycle, and six of them are in North Carolina. One of North Carolina’s endorsed candidates in a toss-up race is Republican GOP challenger Laurie Buckhout, who does not mention her abortion stance on her campaign website and did not return a request for comment.

“Our field team is talking to persuadable and low propensity pro-life voters to urge them to cast their votes against the party that endorses abortion in the seventh, eighth and ninth months,” said SBA national field team director Patricia Miles in the press statement.

But throughout this election cycle, polls in the swing states have shown bipartisan support for abortion rights, especially when voters are educated about what abortion bans do. Voters in more than half of the states expected to determine the presidential winner have, to varying degrees, lost access to abortion. And abortion-rights activists across these states told States Newsroom they are determined to protect that access, or to get it back.

Arizona sees backlash after GOP upholds Civil War-era abortion ban

In Arizona, the Dobbs decision resurrected a Civil War-era ban that allowed abortions only to save a pregnant patient’s life.

Legislators repealed the law, but abortion-rights supporters fought for more certainty. This fall, Arizonans will vote on a proposed ballot measure that would protect access until fetal viability, around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Pro-abortion rights demonstrators rally in Scottsdale, Arizona on April 15, 2024. Fallout from a resurrected Civil War-era abortion ban and a citizen-led abortion-rights ballot measure have put the issue at the center of many critical races in Arizona. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Now, two of the judges who upheld the abortion ban — Justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn King — are up for reelection, in races infused with national cash by groups such as RFA and Planned Parenthood. Also on the ballot is Proposition 137, which would give lifetime appointments to state judges. The Republican-initiated measure has garnered controversy in part because it is retroactive to this year’s election, so if approved, any retention bids would be nullified even if the majority votes to unseat the judge.

Ballot organizers turned in more than 800,000 signatures, double the required number, and overcame opponents’ legal challenges to qualify the abortion-rights ballot measure, Proposition 139. Abortion is legal up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, but there are many state restrictions that the Arizona Abortion Access Act would eliminate, such as a ban on any abortions sought for fetal genetic abnormalities and a blocked law from 2021 granting personhood status to fertilized eggs.

Recent deaths reignite controversy over Georgia’s abortion ban

This month, ProPublica reported on the deaths in 2022 of two Georgia women who suffered rare complications after they obtained mifepristone and misoprostol for early-term medication abortions. Both were trying to navigate a new state law that banned abortions at about six weeks of pregnancy and threatened medical providers with up to a decade in prison.

In one case, doctors at an Atlanta-area hospital refused for 20 hours to perform a routine dilation and curettage, a D&C, to clear the patient’s uterus when her body hadn’t expelled all the fetal tissue. In the other, a woman who had ordered the pills online suffered days of pain at home, fearful of seeking medical care. Both women left children behind.

Georgia’s law permits abortion if the patient’s life is at risk, but medical providers have said the law’s language is unclear, tying their hands and threatening the health of patients who have high-risk pregnancies.

Their cases, which a state medical review committee found to be “preventable,” have galvanized activists in the state.

Harris spoke at length about the women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, at a recent campaign event in Atlanta. She blamed their deaths on Georgia’s law, calling it “the Trump abortion ban,” because the former president appointed three justices he’d promised would overturn Roe v. Wade.

“This is a health care crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of this crisis,” Harris said. “Understand what a law like this means: Doctors have to wait until the patient is at death’s door before they take action. … You’re saying that good policy, logical policy, moral policy, humane policy is about saying that a health care provider will only start providing that care when you’re about to die?”

Read more: Abortion rights opponents try to derail ballot initiatives

Trump has not commented on the deaths. He has repeatedly said this year that abortion access should be left to the states. He has dismissed the idea of a federal abortion ban, but during the presidential debate, he refused to say whether he would veto such legislation.

At a recent rally in North Carolina, Trump addressed “our great women” (a demographic he’s trailing among), saying, “you will no longer be thinking about abortion, because it is now where it always had to be, with the states, and with the vote of the people.”

Abortion was a driving concern in this spring’s qualifying process for Georgia’s 2024 legislative elections — the first opportunity for aspiring state lawmakers to jump on the ballot in response to their state’s severe abortion restrictions.

Melita Easters, the executive director and founding chair of Georgia WIN List, which endorses Democratic women who support abortion rights, was already calling this year’s general election “Roevember” back when President Joe Biden was still the party’s presumptive nominee.

But Easters told States Newsroom that having Harris on the ticket instead has elevated the issue of reproductive freedom even more and “has breathed new life into down-ballot campaigns.” Easters said she is especially encouraged after a Democratic state House candidate in Alabama who ran on abortion rights flipped a Huntsville seat during a special election in March.

Michigan Democrats continue betting on abortion after 2022 successes

Michigan was one of the earliest states post-Dobbs to show that abortion rights could be a strong election-winning issue.

Months after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Michiganders overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to protect abortion rights in the state constitution; reelected Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who vowed to prioritize reproductive freedom; and voted for Democratic majorities in both chambers, giving the party a legislative trifecta for the first time in 40 years. In 2023, the legislature repealed a 1931 abortion ban that was still on the books and passed the Reproductive Health Act, expanding abortion access in the state.

This year, state and national abortion-rights groups have campaigned in toss-up congressional districts across Michigan, warning that a federal ban would supersede the state’s protections.

State judicial races, meanwhile, have attracted millions of dollars, as they could determine partisan control of the Michigan Supreme Court. Democrats secured a slim 4-3 majority on the state Supreme Court in 2020 after Republican-nominated justices controlled the court for most of the last few decades.

Nevada reproductive rights activists hope ballot initiative improves turnout

In Nevada, abortion remains legal through 24 weeks and beyond for specific health reasons. In 2023, the state’s Democratic-led legislature passed a law shielding patients and providers from out-of-state investigations related to abortion care; it was signed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.

Read more: Helping a minor travel for an abortion? Some states have made it a crime.

Seeking to cement these rights in the state constitution, reproductive health advocates mobilized a ballot initiative campaign, which they hope will drive voter turnout that would affect the presidential and down-ballot races. Constitutional amendments proposed through an initiative petition must be passed by voters twice, so if voters approve Question 6 in November, they will have to approve it again in 2026.

In the state’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen currently edges Republican Sam Brown, who has had inconsistent positions on abortion and reproductive rights but opposes the abortion-rights measure.

National anti-abortion groups Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Students for Life of America have notably not focused on Nevada in their campaign strategies.

Growing Latinx voting bloc in North Carolina

In North Carolina many Democrats are campaigning in opposition to a 12-week abortion ban that the Republican-majority legislature passed last year after overriding Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.

In a high-profile race for governor, Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein faces Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has previously said he believes “there is no compromise on abortion,” according to NC Newsline. The lieutenant governor is now facing calls to withdraw from the race over comments made on a pornography website years ago, and Stein has started racking up endorsements from prominent state Republicans.

Iliana Santillan, a political organizer who supports abortion rights, has focused on mobilizing Latinos, a growing voting bloc in the state. The executive director of progressive nonprofit El Pueblo and its political sister group La Fuerza NC told States Newsroom she’s talked to many young women motivated to secure their own reproductive rights, including her college-age daughter. She said the Latinx community faces additional reproductive care barriers such as language and transportation, with immigrants in the country without legal authorization scared to cross state lines without a driver’s license.

Santillan also said there’s a misconception that all Latinos are against abortion because they’re Catholic, when in reality opposition to abortion skews among older voters.

“With older folks, the messaging that we’ve tested that has worked is: ‘We don’t want politicians to have a say in what we do with our bodies,’” Santillan said.

Motivated voters in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes, is the largest swing state and considered essential to win the White House.

In a poll conducted this month by Spotlight PA and MassINC Polling Group, abortion ranked as the fifth most-important concern in the presidential race for likely voters, with 49% naming it as among their top issues.

The issue is far more important to Democrats, however, with 85% calling it a top issue compared with 17% of Republicans. Among those who aren’t registered with either major party, 49% called it a top issue.

In this file photo, Joanna McClinton, Pennsylvania House of Representives democratic leader, speaks at a “Bans Off Our Bodies” abortion rights rally at Old Bucks County Courthouse in Doylestown, Pennsylvania on September 29, 2022. The Dobbs decision ended federal abortion rights and spurred voters to the polls in 2022, sending enough Democrats to the Pennsylvania House to flip it blue, says Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2022, voters surprised pundits by sending enough Democrats to the state House to flip it blue. Voters were responding to the Dobbs decision, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro told Pennsylvania Capital-Star at a recent Harris campaign event.

Shapiro also won in 2022, and so far his administration has supported over-the-counter birth control pills and ended the state’s contract with a network of anti-abortion counseling centers. He said his administration would not defend a current state law that prohibits state Medicaid funding from being used for abortions.

Abortion isn’t protected under Pennsylvania’s state constitution, but it remains legal up to 24 weeks’ gestation, and clinics there have seen an influx of out-of-state patients.

Wisconsin abortion services resume

After more than a year without abortion access, reproductive health clinics in Wisconsin resumed abortion services in September 2023, shortly after a judge ruled that the 1849 state law that had widely been interpreted as an abortion ban applied to feticide and not abortion. A state Supreme Court race a few months earlier saw Justice Janet Protasiewicz win in a landslide after campaigning on reproductive freedom.

Seven months later when Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher announced his resignation, Lyerly threw her hat in the ring, running as the only Democrat in the 8th District. She now faces businessman Tony Wied. Although in the past it was considered a swing district, it has leaned conservative in recent election cycles. With the redrawn maps and national support, Lyerly said it’s a competitive race.

“We have the potential to really fix, not just reproductive health care, but health care,” Lyerly told States Newsroom. “Bring the stories of our patients forward and help our colleagues understand, build those coalitions and help to gain consensus that’s going to drive forward health care reform in this country.”

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Wied’s campaign website does not mention abortion or his policy proposals related to health care, though the words “Trump-endorsed” appear prominently and abundantly throughout the site. Wied hasn’t said much about the issue beyond it should be a state issue, but the two are scheduled to debate this Friday night. His campaign declined an interview.

Currently the only OB-GYNs who serve in Congress oppose abortion. If Lyerly wins in November, she would not only change that (potentially alongside Minnesota Sen. Kelly Morrison) but also could help flip party control in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Most Wisconsin voters oppose criminalizing abortion before fetal viability, according to a poll this year by the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation.

Patricia McFarland, 76, knows what it’s like to live without abortion access. For more than 50 years, the retired college teacher kept her pre-Roe abortion a secret, having grown up in a conservative Irish Catholic family like many of her suburban Milwaukee neighbors.

McFarland told States Newsroom she has been politically active most of her life, but the Dobbs ruling dredged up the physical and emotional trauma from the illegal procedure she had alone in Mexico City. Now, McFarland rarely leaves home without her “Roe Roe Roe Your Vote” button, engaging anyone who will talk to her about the dangers of criminalizing pregnancy.

The mother and grandmother said she’s been canvassing and doing informational sessions with her activist group the PERSISTers, as well as the League of Women Voters. As she has warned fellow Wisconsities about the federal power over their reproductive freedom, she said the enthusiasm for abortion rights in her state is palpable.

“For women my age,” McFarland said, “we don’t want our grandchildren to lose their ability to decide when to become a mother.”

Sofia Resnick is a national reproductive rights reporter for States Newsroom, based in Washington, D.C. She has reported on reproductive-health politics and justice issues for more than a decade. Georgia Recorder’s Jill Nolin contributed to this report.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

When business is booming but daily living is a struggle

By Kevin Hardy and Casey Quinlan, Stateline

Editor’s note: This series explores the priorities of voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election. With the outcome expected to be close, these “swing states” may decide the future of the country.

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — The signs on the empty historic buildings envision an urban utopia of sorts, complete with street cafes, bustling bike lanes and a grocery co-op.

“IMAGINE What Could Be Here,” gushes one sign outside the empty, Neoclassical post office. “IMAGINE! A Vibrant Downtown,” reads another mounted on the glass front of a long-ago closed drug store.

In a place like Rocky Mount, North Carolina, it’s not such a stretch: Just across the street, white-collar workers peck away at laptops and sip lattes at a bright coffee bar lined with dozens of potted tropical plants. A few blocks away, a mammoth events center routinely brings in thousands of visitors from across the country. And alongside a quiet river nearby, a meticulously redeveloped cotton mill would be the envy of any American city, with its modern breweries, restaurants and loft living.

An industrial community long in decline, Rocky Mount is slowly building itself back. But in this city of about 54,000, sharply divided by race and class, many residents struggle to cover the basic costs of groceries, housing and child care.

North Carolina reflects the duality of the American economy: Unemployment is low, jobs are increasing and businesses are opening new factories. But high housing and food costs have squeezed middle-class residents despite the gains of rising wages.

“The economy stinks,” said Tameika Horne, who owns an ice cream and dessert shop in Rocky Mount.

Her ingredient prices have skyrocketed, she said, but she can’t continuously raise prices on ice cream cones or funnel cakes. She said last month was her slowest ever, with only $2,000 in sales.

It’s not just the slow sales at her store: Only a few years ago, she paid $700 a month to rent a three-bedroom apartment. Now, her similarly sized rental home costs her $1,350 a month.

Aside from the ice cream shop, Horne also runs a cleaning business with her family and just started a job delivering packages for FedEx.

“It’s just hard right now,” she said.

The economy, a top issue for voters during any election, is particularly important this presidential cycle: Prices of necessities such as groceries aren’t rising as fast as they were, but years of post-pandemic inflation have soured voter attitudes.

It’s just hard right now. – Tameika Horne, ice cream shop owner in Rocky Mount, N.C.

And across the country, millions of families are struggling with rising housing costs. In four of the seven swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada — more than half of tenant families spend 30% or more of their income on rent and utilities, according to the 2023 American Community Survey.

In North Carolina, voter anxiety about the soaring rents and grocery bills could tip the scales.

“In terms of its political influence, it’s not actually your personal financial situation that is important, it’s your vision of the national economy,” said Matt Grossmann, a political science professor at Michigan State University. “So if I get a raise, I tend to credit myself. If I see higher prices, I tend to blame the government or the current situation.”

Around the corner from Horne’s ice cream store in downtown Rocky Mount, Kristie Hilliard greets a steady flow of customers to her new shop, Kristie Kandies. An armed cop, a nurse in scrubs and waist-high kids trickle in to grab a sweet treat.

After getting tired of her manufacturing job at the local Pfizer plant, Hilliard started making confections at home. As her following grew, she got a concession trailer and now has a storefront selling candied grapes, plums, kiwis and pickles.

Hilliard’s treats have attracted attention on social media, causing some buyers to drive in from as far away as Pennsylvania, she said.

A Democrat, she said she still hadn’t made up her mind on the presidential race. But she doesn’t believe either a Harris or a Trump administration would drastically change much for her business.

“They ain’t doing nothing for me now,” she said. “So, what would change?”

A community divided looks to the future

About 60 miles northeast of the state capital, Rocky Mount lies between the prosperous Research Triangle area and North Carolina’s scenic beach communities.

Railroad tracks and a county line slice through the middle of downtown. On the one side is the majority Black and lower-income Edgecombe County. On the other, the more prosperous and whiter Nash County.

The setting sun’s glow reflects off a building near the intersection of SW Main Street and Sunset Avenue in Rocky Mount, N.C. The railroad tracks that run down the center of Main Street also serve as a dividing line between Nash and Edgecombe counties, and have historically split the city by race and class. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)

While some officials say long-standing attitudes centered on division are fading, the county line has for decades provided a clear delineation of class, race and politics.

Edgecombe County is a Democratic stronghold, but the more populous Nash County is a bellwether of sorts. It was among the 10 closest of North Carolina’s 100 counties in the last presidential election, and one being closely watched this cycle. With 51,774 ballots cast, President Joe Biden took Nash County by 120 votes.

Around Rocky Mount’s downtown area, stately red brick churches and banks line the wide streets. But just a few blocks away, weeds overtake vacant lots, glass is smashed out of abandoned buildings, and razor wire tops the fencing of no-credit-needed car lots and used tire shops.

While the nearby Raleigh metro area has experienced explosive suburban growth, Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson said his community has seen an erosion of its middle class with the loss of corporate headquarters and factory jobs.

But he’s optimistic.

Young business owners are investing in downtown. Industries with operations in the Raleigh area are moving east. And both Republicans and Democrats just celebrated the news that Natron Energy plans to build a $1.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant nearby that will employ more than 1,000 people.

“We’ve got a lot of great things that are happening,” the mayor said. “But the key is, how do you build and retain a middle class? Because that’s who does the living and the dying and the investing in a community.”

The mayor’s position is nonpartisan, but Roberson is a Republican who in 2022 ran in the Republican primary for a congressional seat here. This election, however, is a difficult one for him.

Roberson said the economy and his financial position were unquestionably better during former President Donald Trump’s term, but the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and the chaos of the last Trump presidency make him hard to support. At the same time, Roberson worries about Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic policies; he believes the current administration has accelerated inflation by pumping too much money into the economy.

“At some levels, it feels like I’m voting for somebody who wants to either be a dictator or somebody who wants to create a socialist state,” Roberson said. “And I’m not in either place.”

A former cotton mill built and once operated by slave labor, Rocky Mount Mills closed in 1996, reopened in 2015, and is now home to breweries, restaurants and dozens of high-end apartments. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)‘Nobody is immune’

In North Carolina and other swing states, Trump’s television ads hammer the vice president over high prices and “Bidenomics.”

Nash County Republican Party volunteer Yvonne McLeod said the economy, along with immigration, are the top concerns locally. Businesses still struggle to hire, rents have soared and food prices are still up, she said.

“Economically, we’re hurting,” she said.

Democrats must be honest about the financial pressures facing voters, said Cassandra Conover, a former Virginia prosecutor who now leads the Nash County Democratic Party. She noted that Harris ads running in North Carolina speak directly to middle-class concerns.

“Nobody is immune from what’s going on,” Conover said. “She’s telling all of us who are hurting, ‘I know, and we’re working for you.’”

Read more: Low-wage states with cheap housing dominated the post-pandemic jobs boom

Polling has shown voters are sour on the economy, with 63% saying the economy was on the wrong track in a Harvard-CAPS-Harris poll released this month. Republicans take a far dimmer view than Democrats.

“From past experience, we would expect Harris to inherit some of the blame or credit for the current economy, but so far in the polls, I would say there has been a surprising willingness of voters to not extend the blame for inflation that they had for Joe Biden onto Kamala Harris,” said Grossmann, the Michigan State University professor.

Housing anxiety

Housing costs have outstripped income gains in the past two decades, but those challenges have intensified since the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand increased, construction costs soared and interest rates spiked.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a buyer or a renter,” said Molly Boesel, an economist at CoreLogic, a financial services information company. “You’re seeing your housing costs increase.”

Affordability is “the No. 1 issue” among voters in Nevada this year, said Mario Arias, the Nevada director of the Forward Party, a centrist political party founded by former Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang.

A resident of the Las Vegas area, 30-year-old Arias said housing is his biggest financial concern. Throngs of Californians have moved into Nevada to lower their housing costs, but it’s driven up costs for everyone else, he said.

“If you want to get out of being a renter, you have to be in not just a good financial situation, but in a very stable financial situation,” he said.

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week for the first time in four years, which could open the housing market to more homebuyers as mortgage rates ease in the coming months.

Tameika Horne, who owns an ice cream and dessert shop in Rocky Mount, N.C., says the costs of her ingredients have skyrocketed with inflation. “The economy stinks,” she said. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)

“IMAGINE! A Vibrant Downtown,” reads a sign mounted on the glass front of a long-ago closed drug store on the Edgecombe County side of Rocky Mount, N.C. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)

A historical marker notes that Rocky Mount Mills was the second cotton mill built in North Carolina. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)

American flags hang from the porches of cotton mill factory worker houses that have been renovated near Rocky Mount Mills in Rocky Mount, N.C. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)

A group of customers chats after lunching at Books and Beans, a coffee shop that occupies the former canteen for workers at Rocky Mount Mills, a historic cotton mill that has been transformed into a lively campus of restaurants, offices and homes in Rocky Mount, N.C. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)

Railroad tracks and a county line slice through the middle of downtown Rocky Mount, N.C. On the one side is the majority-Black and lower-income Edgecombe County. On the other, the more prosperous and whiter Nash County. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)

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Tameika Horne, who owns an ice cream and dessert shop in Rocky Mount, N.C., says the costs of her ingredients have skyrocketed with inflation. “The economy stinks,” she said. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)

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The Biden administration has proposed several housing-related policies, including incentives to loosen zoning regulations and capping rent increases from corporate landlords. Harris has announced a proposal to provide up to $25,000 in housing assistance for a down payment to some potential first-time homeowners and promised tax incentives that she say’s would lead to 3 million more housing units by the end of her first term, if she’s elected.

Trump has not waded far into the details of how he would address the affordability issue in a second term. He has said he plans to bring down prices by barring immigrants in the country without legal authorization from getting mortgages. But his proposed immigration policies could further reduce the labor force for building homes. Previously, Trump’s administration talked about trying to cut state and local housing regulations, and it suspended federal regulations on fair housing.

If I get a raise, I tend to credit myself. If I see higher prices, I tend to blame the government or the current situation. – Matt Grossmann, a political science professor at Michigan State University

In North Carolina, more than a quarter of the state’s households are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs. It’s particularly challenging for renters, nearly half of which are cost burdened, according to the North Carolina Housing Coalition, a nonprofit affordable housing organization.

Stephanie Watkins-Cruz, housing policy director at the coalition, noted that the federal government’s calculation of fair market rent in North Carolina has shot up 14% in just one year — and 38% over the past five years.

“So unless everybody and their mama’s getting 14 to 20 to 38% raises, the math begins to not math,” she said.

It’s a familiar challenge in every swing state.

Read more: Rent is eating up a greater share of tenants’ income in almost every state

Wendy Winston, a middle school math teacher in Grand Rapids Michigan, said that though no one political candidate is responsible for the state of the economy, the cost of groceries and housing is hard to ignore.

“I don’t think the economy is terrible. It is sometimes difficult to make ends meet,” Winston said. “I don’t believe that it’s the fault of the government or policies of the government. I feel like it’s the individual corporations trying to make profit off the backs of the middle class.”

The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Grand Rapids is about $1,550 a month, according to rental site Apartments.com. Though Michigan ranks fairly average compared with other states for rent prices, the state saw some of the steepest rent increases in the country in recent years, and wages have not kept up. Residents unable to rent new, “luxury” apartments find themselves short of options for places they can afford.

“It’s not just cost, it’s availability,” Winston said. “There are a lot of new housing developments. Apartments and condos and things are being built, but I’m priced out of them. And I have a college degree, so I don’t think that’s helping our families.”

Hoping for revival

Back in North Carolina, near the banks of the Tar River, Rocky Mount Mills has a healthy waiting list for the apartments and the revamped homes it rents.

A former cotton mill built and once operated by slave labor, the campus closed in 1996, reopened in 2015 after a $75 million renovation, and is now home to breweries, restaurants and dozens of high-end apartments.

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Chapel Hill native and entrepreneur Cameron Schulz never had Rocky Mount on his radar. But the development’s brewery incubator helped him launch HopFly Brewing Co., now one of the state’s largest self-distributing breweries.

After outgrowing its original space, HopFly relocated to Charlotte, but still operates a taproom in Rocky Mount. The Mills project has reinvigorated the city, Schulz said.

“Rocky Mount’s got one of the most beautiful, quintessential downtown strips that I’ve ever seen anywhere,” he said. “We’ve just got to fill it up with cool places to go, and people to go into those places.”

Main Street suffered for decades after the arrival of malls and a highway bypass. Over at Davis Furniture Company, two employees keep watch over an empty storeroom of sofas, beds and home decor.

Co-owner Melanie Davis said business has been good, though she believes customers are anxious about the presidential election. Pointing down the sidewalk to new restaurants and some loft apartments overlooking the railroad tracks, Davis said she’s bullish on the trajectory of downtown.

“I do feel like we’re on an upswing,” she said.

Kevin Hardy covers business, labor and rural issues for Stateline from the Midwest. Casey Quinlan is an economy reporter for States Newsroom, based in Washington, D.C.  Michigan Advance’s Anna Liz Nichols contributed reporting.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.