The Excerpt podcast: Rosalynn Carter dies at 96, sticking points in hostage negotiations

On today's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter has died. Sticking points remain amid hostage negotiations in the Israel-Hamas War. Former President Donald Trump is ahead of President Joe Biden in a hypothetical general election matchup among young voters. Cape Cod Times Staff Reporter Jeannette Hinkle breaks down an investigation that found a Massachusetts police practice skews racial profiling stats. Cases around guns continue landing before Supreme Court justices.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. Today is Monday, November 20th, 2023. This is The Excerpt. Today remembering former first lady, Rosalynn Carter. Plus hostage negotiations continue in the Israel-Hamas war, and what new polling means for Trump and Biden.

♦

Former first lady Rosalynnn Carter has died. Rosalynn was married to former President Jimmy Carter for 77 years. They had four children, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. In a statement from The Carter Center, the former president said quote, "Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I already knew somebody loved and supported me," unquote. Throughout Jimmy Carter's political career, Rosalynn campaigned aggressively for him, energizing supporters. After he was elected president in 1976, she transformed the role of first lady into a full-time job. She was the first presidential spouse to set up an office in the East Wing of the White House and hire a full staff. She was a trusted advisor to the president, and a participant in foreign and domestic affairs.

Rosalynnn Carter also traveled the world promoting her own platform of improving mental healthcare and her husband's position on human rights. The couple founded The Carter Center in 1982, a nonprofit that strives to improve the quality of life, alleviate suffering, and advance human rights through its programs. She entered hospice care on Friday after it was revealed she was diagnosed with dementia in May. Rosalynnn Carter was 96.

♦

Hostage negotiations continue aimed at producing a multi-day ceasefire in return for the release of some of the 240 or so hostages taken by Hamas during an attack last month. Talks were progressing yesterday, but a deal remains uncertain, according to officials. Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has been involved in the talks and said at a news briefing that there are logistical sticking points holding up a deal. Reports of various deals to free hostages have been circulating for weeks, but so far, only four hostages have been released and one was rescued. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization led a team into the embattled Shifa Hospital in Gaza yesterday, rescuing 31 sick premature babies, along with other staff.

WHO officials described the hospital as a death zone with staffers struggling amid limited supplies. Israeli forces have been hitting hospitals from the ground and air they say Hamas militants use for cover. Israel has released video showing what it said was a tunnel discovered at the hospital, including a firing hole that could be used by gunman. The claims could not be independently verified.

♦

Former President Donald Trump is ahead of President Joe Biden in a hypothetical general election matchup among young voters, according to an NBC news poll out yesterday. Among voters aged 18 to 34, Trump saw 46% support compared with 42% for Biden. Young voters were a key voting block essential to Biden's victory in 2020. An exit poll from NBC News that year found Biden won voters aged 18 to 29 by more than 20 points. Trump's lead, though among the young voter group, was within the margin of error.

Meanwhile, in a hypothetical general election matchup from NBC News with voters of all ages, Trump narrowly led with 46% of support compared with Biden at 44%. When it comes to the Israel-Hamas war, 56% of voters said they disapprove of Biden's handling of it.

♦

Police across Massachusetts have routinely labeled men with Hispanic surnames as white on traffic citations. That's according to a USA Today Network investigation by the Cape Cod Times, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and USA Today. I spoke with Cape Cod Times staff reporter, Jeannette Hinkle, to learn more. Jeannette, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt.

Jeannette Hinkle:

Thank you so much for having me, Taylor. Really appreciate it.

Taylor Wilson:

Let's just start here. What did your investigation find about how police in Massachusetts skew racial profiling statistics?

Jeannette Hinkle:

In the US census, just under 5% of Americans with the last name Lopez identified as white. But when we looked at the police data from one specific town, we saw that police identified more than 60% of men with the last name Lopez as white. That was a red flag for us that caused us to dig in deeper. Ultimately, we found that in nearly 60 communities, police marked most men with Hispanic surnames as white. There were also some other indications that we found during our reporting that officers might've known these drivers were Hispanic. We found that some police reports said the drivers handed the officers passports from central and South American countries. We also looked at court records to determine that several of these drivers had also requested Spanish interpreters in court.

Taylor Wilson:

Wow. What do criminal defense experts say about how this practice really makes it harder for drivers to challenge charges that they allege come out of discrimination?

Jeannette Hinkle:

I'm so glad you asked about that, Taylor, because this is a really important point. Traffic stops are a major pipeline into the Massachusetts criminal system. Across the nation, traffic stops are considered the most common interaction that police have with the public. It's no different here. When a driver gets pulled over and charged with a crime, if they think that race played a role in that stop, an unconstitutional role, then they can argue that evidence that police got during the stop should be thrown out. The best way to do that, according to defense attorneys that we spoke to, is through statistical analysis of stop data. The defense hires an expert to look at the officer or the department's stop numbers to see if they see any patterns that could indicate potential bias. Even unconscious bias. But if that expert is looking at data where a significant number of Hispanic drivers have been marked as white, then they aren't looking at good numbers. That would skew their analysis, thereby affecting that person's ability to defend themselves in court.

Taylor Wilson:

Jeannette, how are police responding to this investigation?

Jeannette Hinkle:

I would say that law enforcement we talked to had varying responses to our findings on this. Some said that the lack of an ethnicity field on the citation is a really big contributor to the problem. Folks who are listening to this might be like, "Oh, I thought Hispanic was an ethnicity, not a race." That is how the US census categorizes it as an ethnicity, not a race. But in Massachusetts, police don't have the option to mark a driver's race and ethnicity. There's one box, it's listed as race and Hispanic is one of the options. So is white. Police argue that not having an ethnicity box makes it really difficult for officers to accurately mark their perception of a driver.

Taylor Wilson:

Jeannette, a lot of what we've been talking about, the crux of your investigation, focuses on Massachusetts where you're based. Have we seen this happen anywhere else in the country specifically where police identify Hispanic drivers as white?

Jeannette Hinkle:

We are definitely not the first to spot this pattern. In 2015, I believe Texas news station, KXAN, was the first to identify that troopers there were recording the race of a large number of people of color, mostly Hispanic, as white. In 2021, ProPublica did a report. They found that of almost 80,000 tickets Louisiana State Police handed out in Jefferson Parish, not one was issued to a person labeled as Hispanic despite the fact that Hispanic people made up 18% of the population. There have been a few other examples across the country, so this is an issue that could be affecting traffic stop data in other states too.

Taylor Wilson:

Has there been any movement on the legislative front to tackle this issue or bias in traffic stops as a whole?

Jeannette Hinkle:

Lawmakers of color in Massachusetts have for decades tried to fix these problems that we've been going over with the state's traffic stop data because they have racial profiling concerns. They filed bills almost every single session since 1999 that would've required police to document all stops, and also other really important information that Massachusetts doesn't collect like the reason for the stop. All of those proposals though have been rejected by the most powerful lawmakers in the legislature. We found that part of the reason for that is police chief associations have really opposed requiring officers to document all the traffic stops they make.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Jeannette Hinkle from the Cape Cod Times, part of the USA Today Network. Fantastic insight and a great investigation here. Thanks for coming on and talking about it.

Jeannette Hinkle:

Thank you so much, Taylor. I really appreciate it.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Nearly 30 years ago, a Pennsylvania man falsified his income on an application for food stamps. Because of it, he lost his ability to own a gun for the rest of his life. Last year in Mississippi, another man was pulled over for driving without a license plate. Police discovered marijuana and a loaded rifle in his car, and he was charged with violating a law that bars drug users from owning guns. Both cases are now in front of the Supreme Court with major implications for the Second Amendment. These are part of several major gun cases justices are weighing, and they're closely tied to one of the most significant disputes already before the high court focused on whether domestic abusers can be barred from owning guns.

This is a moment of uncertainty about just how far the court's six to three conservative majority is willing to go to roll over controversial gun laws. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

♦

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's a time to honor and remember transgender people killed as a result of anti-transgender hate. Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.