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Go Gulf Yourself (feat. Kelsey Turner)
00:55:31
Thursday, February 13th, 2025 Today, the Army issues guidance that it will not stop gender affirming care for trans active duty service members; the US inflation rate rises drastically in the first report since Trump took office; a federal judge allows the fork in the road resignation program to go forward; the teachers union is suing DOGE over a breach of privacy; an Elon Musk order triggers the firings of SBA employees that were prematurely fired last Friday; election security experts have been placed on administrative leave; two transgender public high school students have sued Trump over his keeping men out of women’s sports executive order; the Treasury Department admits that the DOGE bags had read and write access to the payment systems; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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- [00:00]
Allison Gill
MSW Media. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Thursday, February 13, 2025. Today, the army has issued guidance that it will not stop gender affirming care for transactive duty service members. The US Inflation rate rises drastically in the first report since Trump took office. A federal judge allows the fork in the road resignation program to go forward. The teachers union is suing dodgy over a breach of privacy. An Elon Musk order triggers the firings of SBA employees that were prematurely fired last Friday. Election security experts have been placed on administrative leave. Two transgender public high school students have sued Trump over his keeping men out of women's sports executive order. And the Treasury Department admits that the dogebags had read and write access to the payment systems. I'm Allison Gill.
- [01:09]
Dana Goldberg
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
- [01:13]
Allison Gill
Hey, Dana. Happy Thursday.
- [01:15]
Dana Goldberg
Happy Thursday to you. I don't know if we'll cover it on a different episode, but I wanted to add a little thing because we're talking about transgender kids that are suing Trump, another group of trans individuals suing the administration over the passport exceptions and the fact that they've kept their papers, basically and all their information if they had put in for passports. So there's stuff happening. People are fighting back and there's winning happening. We're going to cover some of that on the episode today.
- [01:44]
Allison Gill
Yeah, and that's a very good point. And I think there are, we're up to now 60 plus lawsuits. You know, like I said, just Security has a really great repository of all of the ones that are going on. And I had heard that, too, Dana. I had heard that people who sent in their old passports to get their new ones with the X gender marker, they kept them all and wouldn't issue their new ones. And so I really hope that they're successful in that lawsuit as well. Later in the show, I'm going to be talking with Kelsey Turner of Investigate west and her incredible story of an SA survivor that went up against the law enforcement apparatus in her town in Washington state. Really interesting story there. And, and I mean, we're going to do our best to cover, to cover everything as it happens. And we have a lot to get to today. But first, we have some quick hits. And to make a long story short, all right, first up, a federal judge is allowing the fork in the road deferred resignation program to go forward. This is U.S. district Court Judge George O'Toole. He had extended the time frame for federal employees to decide whether to take the unusual offer, which gave employees eight months of pay or gives them, promises them eight months of pay and benefits if they wish to depart the government. In a Wednesday ruling, O'Toole found that the unions who had sued over this directive did not have standing to do so. Quote, the unions do not have the required direct stake in the fork directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees. So this is not sufficient. And that's what O'Toole wrote. So basically, Dana, in order to have standing to sue the government, you have to have an actual harm directly to yourself. And since the unions would get like secondary and tertiary harm from, you know, lower membership and things like that, they don't have standing to sue.
- [03:27]
Kelsey Turner
The.
- [03:27]
Allison Gill
The judge also found, though, that the court did not have subject matter jurisdiction because in order to do these like, union employee actions, you have to first go through the administrative law judge process within your agency. And I'm familiar with that. I had to do that. It took me three and a half years to complete that and exhaust that process before I was allowed to sue in federal court. So that's why when people were like, oh, why? Why'd you wait to sue until 2023? It was like, because I had to. I had to exhaust that administrative law judge process first. So we'll see what ends up happening with some of these other lawsuits. Like a bunch of unions that we're going to talk about are suing for privacy breaches from dodgy, and then also some more unions sued today. And so we'll see. We'll see. It depends on, you know, the specific rules within that agency to see whether or not they can file in federal court.
- [04:21]
Dana Goldberg
Sounds good. Thank you for all of that. I learn so much from you on a daily basis. This next one's from Politico. The American Federation of Teachers, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees association, the International association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and the National Federation of Federal Employees all filed suit in a Maryland federal court alleging that the Treasury Department has disclosed the contents of of a government system that includes records on Americans tax refunds and Social Security benefits. That sounds pretty accurate. The labor groups further accused the Education Department of improperly disclosing information in its National Student Loan Data system that carries sensitive financial records for nearly 43 million borrowers. And they accused the federal Office of Personnel Management of allowing Musk's representatives access to information on millions of of current and former federal employees, plus federal job applicants. And this was all intentional. Alison, I know we've talked about, I know you agree, flood the zone, cause the chaos because when you do so many illegal, fucking unconstitutional things at once, it is really hard to figure out what to focus on. People, I think, are starting to catch up. Lawsuits are happening, and granted, a lot of damage has been done, but I think they're trying to triage at this point.
- [05:41]
Allison Gill
Yeah, and we'll see if these unions have standing in this particular case. Also from Politico. Hours after Trump signed an executive order Tuesday requiring federal agencies to work with Musk and his service to cut their current workforce and limit future hiring, the termination notices started hitting the inboxes of a few hundred probationary employees at the Small Business Administration. Elon Musk, joined by his son, spoke at the oval office on February 11th during an event.
- [06:09]
Dana Goldberg
Everyone, we're not being assholes. I don't know if you know this, but his son's name is X, a symbol. A, E, A X, I, I. So please know we're not being assholes. We have zero idea how to pronounce this.
- [06:23]
Allison Gill
Yeah, the, the little human shield. That's it.
- [06:25]
Dana Goldberg
I mean, sometimes we're assholes, but not in that instance.
- [06:28]
Allison Gill
Yeah. So anyway, what was interesting was it wasn't until Monday afternoon that the SBA officials clarified that the termination notices that went out Friday were a mistake. And in an email, those who'd received the unsigned draft letter were informed it was sent in error and not currently in effect. And that explanation was hardly reassuring for the employees who remained in limbo. But then on Tuesday, shortly after Trump signed that executive order giving, you know, Musk and his. His doge bags more authority than it already had, the same people got that email again, but this time it was real. And whereas the draft they received on Friday specified that their termination would take effect February 21, the new email stated that their jobs were ended immediately.
- [07:12]
Dana Goldberg
All right, thank you. And last in this segment, the Treasury Department's officials said Tuesday that the agency last week mistakenly and briefly gave a member of Elon Musk's team the power to alter a sensitive federal payments database, prompting an internal forensic investigation that remains ongoing. The disclosure, made in a series of court filings, undercuts the Trump administration's repeated public claims that Doji's team, that the team's access to the federal payments system was limited to a read only basis. Now, we have conclusive evidence that that was not true.
- [07:46]
Allison Gill
So, yeah, and here you have in court, these Department of Justice employees who were told that they only had read access, told the court they only had read access and then found out that they were wrong. It's got to be really tough to try to be a lawyer in Trump's Department of Justice.
- [08:01]
Dana Goldberg
My God. Yeah.
- [08:02]
Allison Gill
Unless you like being an idiot. Yeah. So I know a lot of people who work at the Department of Justice. I know you do as well. I think we have some mutual friends that work at the Department of Justice, and they're all just sort of. Everything's up in the air right now, and they're trying to do their best. I remember back in the day when the Mueller investigation ended, and it was a surprise to many of the people who were Department of Justice lawyers who were working on it under the Trump Department of Justice who had to, like, you know, apologize and grovel to the court and say, we didn't know. Oh, my gosh. You know, sir. Your honor, we had no idea. We. We were informed by tweet this morning that this. That this was the disposition of this case. We apologize. A thousand pardons. Because when you're DOJ lawyer, you can. You lose your candor and credibility with the court. That's a bad thing. So, anyway, I know that a lot of people are really trying to do their best in some of the worst circumstances. All right, we have more news to get to. Let's hit the hot notes. Hot. Not. All right, first up, the army guidance on implementation of Trump's executive order about transgender troops hit a court docket today, and here are some of the highlights. It says, all service members will be treated with dignity and respect at all times. Commanders must maintain good order and discipline and the safety, dignity, and respect of all of their assigned personnel. Ensure that intimate spaces, including but not limited to latrines, changing facilities, sleeping quarters, and bathing facilities designated for women, girls, or females, or for men, boys, boys or males are designated by biological sex and not gender identity. Biological sex is defined as a biological trait determined by chromosomal pattern. And I just have to break in here and say, can you be more specific? Because, you know, we have some people with XXY and some, you know, like, okay, so what do you. What do you mean? And how are you going to verify that? So they go on to say they must maintain current living conditions pending implementation. Implementation guidance. IAW with current executive orders and existing policies, regulations, and directives, commanders must modify sleeping, changing, and bathing areas upon receipt of implementation guidance at this time, do not initiate any medical board or adverse personnel actions solely related to transgender status. Policy and implementation guidance related to current executive orders will be published when it's available until further guidance is issued. And consistent with the protections of hipaa, which they spelled wrong. By the way, the army got that wrong. They spelled it H I P P A and it's H I P A A. The Privacy act do not access or utilize medical and personnel systems of record specifically to identify transgender soldiers. And any soldier currently under medical care for gender dysphoria or transition will continue to receive medical treatment consistent with the standard of care. So some good news and some bad news in there.
- [11:08]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, as per usual. This one's from Travis Geddes at Raw Story. A pair of teenagers from New Hampshire. They have filed what appears to be the first legal challenge to one of Donald Trump's executive orders. Two transgender public high school students asked a federal court Wednesday to add the president and members of the administration as defendants in a lawsuit they filed last summer. Last summer over their eligibility for girls sports after the state barred transgender athletes in grades five through 12 from participating. This is reported by the New York Times and I quote, their court filing on Wednesday appears to be the first time that the constitutionality of Mr. Trump's executive order titled Keeping Men out of Women's Sports has been challenged in court. Trump's order effectively bans trans athletes from taking part in girls and women's sports. It directs the Department of Education to investigate schools that don't comply and withdraws federal funding from schools that fail to do so. And the teens lawsuit calls his actions, quote, a broad intention to deny transgender people legal protections and to purge transgender people from society. A federal judge issued an injunction in September allowing 16 year old Parker Terrell and 15 year old Iris Turmell to play on girls teams while their suit was pending. But their filing states that Trump's order puts that at risk. Quote, I play soccer. Nothing bad happened. This is from Parker, a sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School. Not everyone was happy about it, but it seems like the people I was playing against weren't overly concerned. But when she got home from school last Wednesday, she said, quote, my mom told me that Trump had signed an executive order banning trans girls from playing sports. The amount of effort he's going through to stop me from playing sports seems extraordinarily high, she added, for not a very good reason. And she would be correct. Iris, a freshman at Pembroke Academy, took part in a middle school program called Girls on the Run. And while she wasn't crazy about the running, she wants to preserve her right to choose any sport she wishes, which right now includes her hope to try out for tennis and track at her school. Quote, other girls have that, she said. Why shouldn't I? U.S. district Judge Landia McCafferty found last summer that the state had not demonstrated concerns about fairness and safety beyond the hypothetical. And her opinion noted that both students knew the themselves to be girls at an early age, were diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and began taking puberty suppressing medication to prevent physical changes that would have given them an athletic advantage. Quote, Parker's soccer team had a winless season last year and Iris did not make the cut for middle school softball. This is, by the way, what the judge who was appointed by Barack Obama said. You know, I know another trans girl that she just wanted to run track and field. And she, she literally said, and every time I've heard her speak for Lambda Legal, I suck. I'm not fast, I'm not a good runner. I just want to play with my friends.
- [14:06]
Allison Gill
Yeah, I love this judge. I love this judge. The soccer team had a winless season and Iris didn't make the cut for middle school softball. So I'm not sure what advantages you're talking about and I'm really glad that the judge acknowledged that when, you know, you take puberty blockers at a young age, you were prevented from getting that athletic advantage. Anyway, thanks for that story and I love these brave, these brave girls. That's incredible.
- [14:31]
Dana Goldberg
Thank you.
- [14:32]
Allison Gill
Next up from democracy docket employees tasked with helping to secure elections from foreign threats and disinformation within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency known as cisa, have been placed on administrative leave. This move puts the security and integrity of elections in the United States, especially at the state level, where local election officials rely on CISA resources to securely run elections, at risk. According to multiple reports, at least 17 employees of CISA, which is housed within the U.S. department of Homeland Security, were recently put on leave. The employees, according to the Associated Press, worked specifically within CISA's election efforts, helping state and local election officials secure their elections from cyber attacks and handle foreign and domestic based disinformation and influence campaigns. So they might as well say these people worked within CISA to help state and local election officials secure their elections against Elon Musk and his friends. Is what it is. What this should say it is no surprise that President Donald Trump's administration is making drastic cuts to CISA. One of many proposals in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 is a call to completely gut the nation's cybersecurity agency. Quote, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is a DHS component that the left has weaponized to censor speech and affect elections at the expense of securing the cyber domain and critical infrastructure which are threatened daily. Yeah. By Elon Musk. That's what Ken Cuccinelli wrote, Trump's former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security in the DHS chapter of Project 2025, quote, a conservative administration should return CISA to its statutory and important but narrow mission. During DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's confirmation hearing, she criticized cisa, saying that CISA needs to be much more effective, smaller, more nimble, and to really fulfill their mission, they have to be smaller.
- [16:25]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. Also all of vague, vague terms, by the way.
- [16:30]
Allison Gill
Yeah. Okay. So though CISA is a relatively new agency, it was formed in 2018 during the first Trump administration. It quickly became a crucial resource for the nation's cybersecurity, and it became even more integral to election security. There was really no federal agency before CISA that was providing any sort of comprehensive election security support to state and local election officials. That's Derek Tisler, a counsel at the Brennan Center Elections and Government Program, who explained this to Democracy Docket and went on to say, and it obviously has become more important as the election security threat environment has changed so much, especially since 2016, when we really started to see the potential for interference in our elections. CISA's election security efforts earned bipartisan praise even after Trump went after the agency's first Christopher Krebs. In the Aftermath of the 2020 election, it's unclear what happens next for CISA and its elections operations, but Tisler previously told Democracy Docket that he would anticipate pushback if it eliminates election resources, quote, especially among state and local election officials from both parties who understand the value of this agency, understand how much the agency support has put them in a better position to run secure elections. So that's frightening to me.
- [17:44]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, there's so much. So much of this is frightening to me.
- [17:47]
Allison Gill
Well, yeah, because, you know, everyone's like, well, what makes you think we're going to have elections in 2026? I'm like, but because the states run them, Right?
- [17:53]
Dana Goldberg
Right.
- [17:54]
Allison Gill
And now if you're taking away one of their huge resources to make sure our elections are secure.
- [18:01]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah, I fall in the boat. And I know I don't want to spread conspiracy theories. I'm not going to. I'm just saying I fall in the boat, if that. I don't think everything was on board in the last election.
- [18:10]
Allison Gill
So 2024 was. What, weird.
- [18:12]
Dana Goldberg
Yep, it is weird. Now from CNN. Many commonly purchased goods and services got more expensive in January, driving inflation in the wrong direction at its highest rate since June of last year. I know. We're all shocked. No, I know.
- [18:27]
Allison Gill
So wait, wait, wait, wait. Dismantling the Inflation Reduction act has caused inflation to rise?
- [18:33]
Dana Goldberg
And banning trans girls from playing badminton didn't make their eggs cheaper, but what?
- [18:38]
Allison Gill
I know, dude.
- [18:40]
Dana Goldberg
I know. Let me tell you more. Consumer prices rose 0.5% from December, the fastest pace since August of 2023, resulting in an annual inflation rate of 3% for the last 12 months that ended in January. That's according to the latest Consumer Price Index data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists were expecting Wednesday's report to be fairly unexciting, with barely any change from December's data. Instead, the January report came in pretty hot, much across the board.
- [19:09]
Allison Gill
Wait, wait, wait. How. How were economists not expecting this? I was expecting this. And I haven't taken Anything Beyond Economics 101.
- [19:17]
Dana Goldberg
Oh no, I'm sure economists were. They just silenced those voices.
- [19:20]
Allison Gill
Oh. Oh, well, I mean, I guess at least the Bureau of Labor Statistics isn't coming out and saying that it's better and amazing.
- [19:27]
Dana Goldberg
I mean, I guess that's one good thing. January report came in, like I said, pretty hot, much across the board, which was an unwelcome surprise. Very unwelcome surprise at the when the cost of living continues to weigh on Americans, the Federal Reserve is wanting to see inflation slow and uncertainty is brewing as to how Donald Trump's heavy handed tariffs and other policies could affect prices. Quote, the long national nightmare of inflation isn't over yet for consumers, businesses and investors. This is Chris Rupke. He's the chief economist at Forward Bonds. He wrote that in commentary issued Wednesday morning. Quote there could be some seasonality that pushes prices up at a faster clip in January, but today the news for Federal Reserve officials, it's all bad. U.S. stocks dropped Wednesday, with investors concerned that inflation has reversed its recent progress and could lead to higher interest rates. The dow was around 395 points lower at the opening bell, with the S&P 500 down. That's 1% and the Nasdaq Composite declining by 1.1%. The 10 year treasury yield surged to 4.6% on the hotter than expected data. I guess one thing happened there. Energy and food costs continued to bite. That's particularly true for eggs, which have seen prices soar and widespread shortages as a result of the deadly avian flu. We'd know more about that if they hadn't stopped information coming from the CDC. Egg prices, which are up 53% year over year shot up to 15.2% from December to January. That's the biggest monthly increase that index has seen since June of 2015, when prices skyrocketed 18.3% as a highly pathogenic avian. Oh, another bird flu outbreak intensified. So that's what happened last time.
- [21:15]
Allison Gill
So, wow, Biggest jump in egg prices in a decade.
- [21:19]
Dana Goldberg
I know. Okay, someone's making the birds sick. Grocery prices jumped 0.5% from December, the fastest they've risen on a monthly basis in more than two years. The egg index accounted for two thirds of that, by the way. Now, economists were expecting inflation to pick up 0.3% from December, keeping the annual rate at 2.9% according to fact set consensus estimates. Food and energy can be quite volatile and influenced heavily by circumstances such as weather, disease, supply chain challenges, global strife. So economists took a, quote, core interest index of cpi, which strips out food and energy as a way to gauge progress on underlying inflation. Even core moved higher in January. It jumped 0.4% on a monthly basis, bringing the annual rate up to 3.3% from 3.2%.
- [22:11]
Allison Gill
So when you strip out energy and food and eggs, it's still skyrocketing.
- [22:15]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah. While data can be volatile on a monthly basis, economists caution that the current trajectory could keep the central bank on the sidelines this year. That would mean interest rates remaining high for consumers and businesses, which makes it harder to get loans for people that want to buy houses and other things.
- [22:35]
Allison Gill
Weird. Weird. When you dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act. I know inflation goes up. Hey, you know what? We're preaching to the choir. I think every single person listening to this program is like, yeah, we told them. We told him, and here we are. All right, everybody, it's time for some good trouble. What are you guys doing? All right, everybody, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to call, is to write, is to contact speaker of the House Mike Johnson and tell him to hang the January 6th plaque, as is required by law. A law passed in 2023 and signed by President Joe Biden. It's been languishing. It's been sitting there. There's even an account, I think, on social media called the January 6th plaque. And he's just like, I'm lonely. I'm in the closet. Nobody's hanging me up. It's to honor all of the amazing sacrifices and the bravery and the courage of all the people who protected the Capitol that day. And it's just sitting in a box. So everybody contact Speaker Mike Johnson and tell him to Hang it up.
- [23:41]
Dana Goldberg
Do it, do it, do it.
- [23:44]
Allison Gill
And by the way, if we haven't mentioned this already, you should download that five Calls app. That thing is so cool.
- [23:50]
Dana Goldberg
Absolutely.
- [23:51]
Allison Gill
I love it. All right, everybody, we have a great interview coming up about an incredible story that really just blew me away when I read it. Some really great investigative journalism. And then we'll have the good news. So stick around. We'll be right back after.
- [24:04]
Dana Goldberg
These messages will derive.
- [24:09]
Allison Gill
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- [27:22]
Kelsey Turner
Thanks so much for having me.
- [27:23]
Allison Gill
It's really great to talk to you. This piece, first of all incredibly written, but give us a little background on this story and what went into it. It.
- [27:33]
Kelsey Turner
Yeah, so this story took a lot of reporting. It relied very heavily on police records and court records and documents and emails and all sorts of public records. I had originally been looking into it to see if there was proof that her case had been mishandled. And it ended up that the article focused more on the city's response to the case rather than the mishandling of the case itself because that was kind of what stood out more in terms of the potential violations of the survivor's rights. So it was a lot to sift through.
- [28:20]
Dana Goldberg
Yeah.
- [28:21]
Allison Gill
So basic background here. This woman woke up one morning with injuries and not a lot of memory about what happened. She was drugged and sexually assaulted. And she went and got a rape kit done. I think semen was found, but no male DNA was found. And she tried to report this, but felt that the authorities weren't doing. They didn't follow up on leads. Right. And lost some evidence. And so she responded by doggedly going after the city. And then the city actually sued her. Or did they file criminal charges for harassment?
- [29:06]
Kelsey Turner
Yeah. So they first. Basically what happened is, is the city clerk, who was in charge of responding to the public records requests, ended up taking her to court for harassment. And it seemed to the survivor, Sherilyn, that it was. Even though the protection order. So it was a protection order for anti harassment due to the, like, the many, many emails that Charlyn was sending the city clerk.
- [29:38]
Allison Gill
Right. The volume was, I think it was over 17,000 emails she sent and called law enforcement 93 times, but also made multiple records requests. Which is what you're talking about, the clerk that actually brought the RESTRA training order motion.
- [29:53]
Kelsey Turner
Exactly. The city claimed that it was an anti harassment order by this individual against Charilyn, the survivor basically saying, like, it's not the city that's doing this protection order, it's just this individual, it's just the city clerk. But in reality, it seemed that it was the city that was behind it because the clerk was represented by an attorney that represents the city. And the mayor also showed up to the protection order hearing, as did the police chief, and they were all kind of like, backing the clerk. And the protection order itself ended up having restraints against her, filing public records, and contacting other city employees as well. So it really was this more targeted way of getting Sherilyn to stop contacting the city, kind of under the guise of this protection order that was, like, portrayed as being for only one individual. But that's where it started. And then later, the city also ended up passing a new ordinance that made misuse of the 911 system a misdemeanor crime. And they didn't say by name that it was because of Sherilyn, but there were a lot of indications that it was. The police chief made a presentation to the city council that explained how there was one prolific caller that was like, tying up the 911 system and then shared a recording of the caller, and it was Sherilyn's voice. And so the city passed this ordinance and then ended up charging Sherilyn with this crime. And. Yeah. So that's how she ended up with. With a criminal charge.
- [31:42]
Allison Gill
Yeah. And let's Talk a little bit more broadly about the town because, you know, when I was in the military, they, the base I was on prided themselves on being a low crime, low incidence base. And that's because when you tried to report a sexual assault, for example, they would tell you, oh, well, that sounds like a false report. We're going to kick you out of the military. We're going to charge you with adultery because your rapist was married. You know, like, they really scare you out of reporting. So no reporting then. Yeah, low crime rate. It kind of reminded me of when Donald Trump didn't want to report the number of people with COVID because it just, it looked bad. Oh, look, we're doing great on Covid because we aren't talking about the numbers. And those are the kinds of things that came to mind when I read your piece, piece about this town. Supposedly a very low crime area, but it seems like there is sort of a pattern of sexual assaults in this, in this area.
- [32:43]
Kelsey Turner
Yeah, it's. It's hard to tell because obviously, like, you don't have numbers when it's about un. Underreporting. But from what I have seen, like, yes, the, the official numbers for sexual assault in the town are very low. But from looking at police records and also talking to some other survivors, there was this overarching sense that when people did report assaults or domestic violence, they felt kind of like their reports were brushed off. There was one police officer in particular who was like, really the only female officer in the department who was often responsible for responding to sexual assault and domestic violence calls. And she ended up getting just very overwhelmed with the work. And there was an internal investigation that showed that she had not written up reports for potentially hundreds of incidents, some of which potentially included sexual assaults and domestic violence calls. So it's hard to tell how many exactly have not gone reported. But it does seem like the, the numbers that the city gives probably doesn't reflect the full extent of the, the violence that people are experiencing.
- [34:12]
Allison Gill
And this is a town just out of Seattle, right?
- [34:14]
Kelsey Turner
Yeah, yeah, it's a town called Snoqualmie. It's a suburb of Seattle.
- [34:19]
Allison Gill
And it seems like I really get the sense that, like, the mayor, the city council, the police chief are like, all real close. You know, it seems like a closed circle that's, like, just hard to get through to.
- [34:33]
Kelsey Turner
Yeah, I definitely felt like I was being stonewalled by the city throughout my reporting on this, where I had tried to reach out many times.
- [34:43]
Allison Gill
Yeah, talk about that. Talk about how that happened, because it's, it's not just about, like, trying to report crimes. It's actually trying to get the information and the records request. How did that go? Like you said, you were stonewalled a little.
- [34:57]
Kelsey Turner
Yeah, it was hard to get the city to talk to me at all because they were clearly very exhausted by having to respond to Sherilyn's constant stream of emails and public records and calls. And so then when I had also reached out asking about Sherilyn's case, they just seemed like it was a non starter for them, like they didn't want to talk about it at all. And also there was this like, like pending litigation. So they, they told me that that's why they couldn't talk to me, but they really didn't respond at all. It was like, not until the city's attorney got back to me saying basically he said, talk, like, only email me. Don't email them. He said, the, the police chief and the mayor are not your pen pals. And so which to me, I was like, as, as a journalist, it's my job to reach out to them. Like, if I'm writing about them, I. I have to reach out directly to them.
- [36:00]
Allison Gill
Pen pal. Like you're a girl at camp or something. Like, that's.
- [36:04]
Kelsey Turner
Yeah.
- [36:05]
Allison Gill
Really terrible. Sorry that you were treated that way. You're like, hi, I'm a journalist. Ugh, that's awful. What, what other kinds of roadblocks did you. Well, talk a little bit about the roadblocks still, but I also am very interested in some of the other balls that were dropped in Sherilyn's case.
- [36:21]
Kelsey Turner
Yeah. So some of the, the balls that were dropped. In terms of the investigation, she did have definitely some legitimate concerns about how her case was handled. Where one was that she had worn these red pants on the night that she was assaulted. And there was another very similar case to hers 10 years earlier where the woman had also been wearing red pants, which might be a coincidence, but it was something that like, stood out to the two survivors. And so Sherilyn had wanted the pants and like the underwear and like the mattress top and like other pieces of evidence that to her she felt were like, really crucial to the case because there was some, like, feces on it. There were stains that looked like maybe it could be blood. Like she wasn't really sure. But the. The police had collected the evidence, but then hadn't turned it into the crime lab to get analyzed. And so she was very confused, like, why. Why the red pants had never been analyzed, why the mattress top hadn't been analyzed. Meanwhile, the police had basically, like, taken other clothing from her house, like, to. It was, like, a pair of jeans and other underwear that, like, she said she hadn't been wearing. And that's what got turned in to the crime lab. And then the police later also lost some pairs of underwear and never explained to her what. What happened to them, like, why they were lost. Yeah, there was also, like, the. The red pants had, for some reason, come to the police department from the hospital, because the hospital originally collected them. They came to the police department in this brown bag that was, like, soaking wet. I don't know why it was wet, but because of that, the detective took the pants out of the bag and hung it in a closet to dry, and then left them there for over a year, and then didn't come back to that closet until it was. Until the COVID 19 pandemic broke out. And he had to go back into the closet so that the police staff could use it for, like, showering and decontamination. So that's the next time that the red pants were seen. And so Sherilyn was emailing the police department asking, like, why were my pants, like, seemingly these, like, crucial evidence in this case? Why was it left in a closet for a year? Like, why was it never turned in? The. The police responded pretty much by saying, like, it wasn't necessary for them to turn it in. They said that the sexual assault kit had already been analyzed by the crime lab, and if. If it were necessary to analyze other evidence, the crime lab would have reached out and asked them for it, which they said hadn't been done. So the police were pretty much, like, it doesn't matter. Like, the pants don't need to be.
- [39:45]
Allison Gill
But they couldn't get DNA from the rape kit, could they?
- [39:48]
Kelsey Turner
No. So, yeah, they didn't get DNA from the rape kit, which is, like, difficult to find a suspect then in that case. But, yeah, so the rape kit had been analyzed, and they found indications of semen, which could be. My understanding is, like, most commonly the reason is because the perpetrator might have had a vasectomy, which means that there wouldn't be DNA in the seminal fluid. But it's also possible that the protein that exists in seminal fluid could also be produced by a female in, like, rare instances. And so the police pretty much told Sherilyn, like, oh, there's no way to tell if this indications of semen was produced by a man or woman. So there's a way to tell.
- [40:48]
Allison Gill
We get my red pants. Out of the closet and touch them. Like, it's just, it's unbelievable. And it's very frustrating to think about, you know, what she had to go through. And their main concern is what they have to go through from her. Just trying to get this done and done properly and I feel it. And the piece is really incredible. It's really well written. We're gonna put a link to it in our show notes so everybody can read this piece from you. So before I let you go, first of all, thank you for coming on and telling me about this. I was really, really particularly interested in how, how they treated you trying to get this information for the story. And it was pretty much what I had suspected it would be. So thank you for that. Thank you for speaking out. Thanks for telling this story. And can you tell everyone where to find and follow your work?
- [41:38]
Kelsey Turner
Yeah. So I'm a reporter for Investigate West. Our site is investigatewest.org we cover the region, so it's Washington, Oregon and Idaho and do all sorts of investigations. So you can follow me there.
- [41:54]
Allison Gill
Awesome. Thank you so, so much, Kelsey Turner. And I hope we, we have you back in the future with additional investigative pieces of yours. Thanks.
- [42:03]
Kelsey Turner
Absolutely.
- [42:04]
Allison Gill
Thank you so much, everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news. Good news, everyone. Then good news, everyone. All right, send in your good news, all your good news stories. Any confessions corrections, especially pronunciation corrections. Any shout outs you have to a loved one or yourself or a small business that could use a boost or your small business. We have tons of amazing makers and creators and entrepreneurs here with us, listening to the daily beans. Send that information to us and also shout out to government programs, whether it's Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, the PACT act, great VA health care you've received, wic, snap, anything that's helped you or your family out, we'd love to hear about it, especially student debt relief. Send those stories into us as well. And you can do all that by attaching your pod pet tax. That's how you get your submission in. You just include a photo of your pet. If you don't have a pet, send us an adoptable pet in your area. Or just grab any old animal for your favorite animal. I like a secretary bird. That's one of my favorite animals. Animals you can just send us a photo of of your favorite animal that you find on the Internet. And of course, if you don't have any animal photos, you can send a baby picture. Whether it's you as a baby or your babies as babies?
- [43:29]
Dana Goldberg
Yes, please.
- [43:30]
Allison Gill
We want to see all the baby photos and of course bird watching photos. We are accepting now bird watching. Which it can be, you know, a photo of a bird or you and your family and friends flipping off Trump properties. Or Musk will accept people flipping off Doge Teslas, you know, Cybertrucks, whatever.
- [43:52]
Dana Goldberg
We'll take them. We'll take them off.
- [43:53]
Allison Gill
We'll take all that bird watching. Send it to us dailybeanspod.com click on Contact Next. Well, first up, I should say from Max Nauta. No relation. He says that every time because he's not related to Walt Nauta of the Documents Case pronouns he and him. Hello Beans Queens, longtime listener here. Thank you so much for helping to bring us all through these chaotic and frankly scary times with some remaining sanity. So about Danish pronunciation. First of all, it's hard. Danish is a phonetically intolerant language in an otherwise very tolerant country, which means that words pronounced only slightly wrong will either mean something completely different or nothing at all. Hig has the Y sounding much like the u with an umlaut, the U with an umlaut in German hug and the GG like the g in gain. So here's a very short video on how to say that word. And no pod pet pics from me today, but here are some snapshots of our visit to Copenhagen last week, the beautiful city hall and the self operating metro trains. Again, thanks for all you do. It's important to keep humanity and you do that so beautifully. Max. Thank you so much. Hoog, you got it. Look at that beautiful photo.
- [45:08]
Dana Goldberg
Gorgeous. All right, thank you so much. This is from Kenny's mom. No pronouns given. Hello Beans Crew. Today I attempted to edit the Goa or the Google Maps name on Gulf of Mexico. Google has stopped the ability to edit dicks. Seriously, for my good trouble, I added business names, labels and direction corrections. I spread the word and showed my friends how they could do the same. I love listening to you two and the guests. I'm a new listener, retired and living in fear that my Social Security, Medicare and EBT will go by the wayside and I will actually be out on the streets. Your podcast helps me renew my energy. Never did I think that I would again have to protest for mine in all of my LGBTQ community. Fuck the Republican asshole administration. Fuck their fuckstick Prez Muskrat and his peeps. Sadly, I have to keep Chrome for my web hosting gig. This makes me very sad. On a good note, for my pet Tax, I submit. My best boy in the world, Kenny, the killer chihuahua.
- [46:13]
Kelsey Turner
Look at his shirt. I love this dog.
- [46:18]
Allison Gill
Kenny's mom. Thank you for that. I'm so sorry. The stress that this is causing, you know, our marginalized communities, our elderly, our federal workers, women.
- [46:33]
Dana Goldberg
It's just everyone who's not a straight.
- [46:35]
Allison Gill
White male I think right now, basically. Basically. And then even like some of them.
- [46:40]
Dana Goldberg
Farmers, even some straight white males. Yeah. Thank you for the correction. Farmers.
- [46:44]
Allison Gill
Farmers. I'm not saying that like most farmers, straight white males. But you know, there's a couple.
- [46:49]
Dana Goldberg
There's gotta be.
- [46:50]
Allison Gill
Sure, sure. I mean we have to accept them into our community, don't we? The straight white man.
- [46:55]
Dana Goldberg
As long as they act game public, I don't have a problem with them.
- [46:59]
Allison Gill
Sorry, sorry. Straight white guys. We love you. All right, next up from Donna Pronoun. She and her hello beans queens. I've been listening to you, you two lovely ladies since the pandemic. Sane, competent voices in this sea of dumb. Thank you. My good sorta news for today is that I send a corre to Google the three dot thing and I got a reply email from them I wanted to share. The way people and businesses are bending the knees so quickly to the dump annoys the holy out of me. Keep up the great work and the swearing. I appreciate you both very much. Warm regards. P.S. i pet sit as a side hustle. Donna's creature comfort. Excellent. So my pod pet tax, my current client this week is a rescue named Happy. He's a very creative good boy. All right, so here's the email. Thank you for submitting your feedback on the Gulf of America. Here's what you suggested. The correct name is Gulf of Mexico. If accepted, suggestions will be updated on Google search where they will help return richer information and more meaningful results. If you are the authorized representative for Gulf of America, review, review these guidelines to get verified. Yeah, I'm an official authorized representative of the Gulf of Mexico. All accepted feedback must comply with Google's terms of service. Well, thank you for submitting the correction. And look at this, Pupper. Oh, you are so blessed, Donna, that you get to hang out with opp other people's pets.
- [48:25]
Dana Goldberg
Seriously. I just have to say for all the people on the other side that immediately started calling it the Gulf of America, you should have no problem calling one person they them. Okay, let's keep it.
- [48:36]
Kelsey Turner
All right.
- [48:36]
Dana Goldberg
This is from Jim. No pronouns given. Hola Renes de la Floys. This is a multiple subject submission. Please don't hold it against me. No problem. Jim, there are puppy pics.
- [48:48]
Allison Gill
Oh, see, that makes up for it.
- [48:49]
Dana Goldberg
There you go. Way to go. Not bearing the lead. I've recently begun listening to your pod and I'm a big fan. First, a little correction. During a recent promo for your sponsor, Naked Wines, you mentioned a producer from Paso Robles. As a former resident and wine industry worker, please know that while Pasa. Oh, Rob Robles is the correct Spanish pronunciation, locals say Pasa Robles. Oh, they do. Pasa Robles. Or if you really want to be cool, simply Paso. Okay, okay. By the way, you obviously enjoy the delightful beverage, so hopefully you may have already visited the most wonderful region. If not, you must go. Let me know if you want or need tips. Secondly, another pronunciation request. In 1996, my daughter gave birth to our first grandchild. When he tried to call my wife Grandma, it came out Maga. Coincidentally, my daughter had called my mom Baga when she was a baby, so we thought it was perfect. Fast forward 20 years and well, you know. So my wife, the OG Maga. Maga. I don't even know which way this goes. Uses the word maga as part of her email address and often to explain that it's not a political statement, it's just her grandma name. I know it is pronounced Maga. There we go. Maga. The Orange Putzes group of idiots is referred to as the Maga.
- [50:14]
Allison Gill
Maga.
- [50:15]
Dana Goldberg
Maga. Very flat, a sound. Maga. So if you have to say that particular four letter word, please keep in mind a very progressive Maga who is so angry that it was co opted by fools. Finally, the recent post for Transgender Gender Anonymous had me, like so many others, in tears. My son and grandson, while not trans, are gay. Both are strong young men, successful in their fields and confident in themselves. But I always have the nagging worry in the back of my mind that because of who they are and who they love, some goddamn hateful bigot might target them in some way. The plus side is that they both live in progressive Los Angeles. Finally, as promised, puppy picks. Please meet Moose, the lab chocolate Moose. Get it? We lost the most awe. We lost the most perfect boy a few years ago. And I've never cried harder in my life. But there are so many good memories that make me smile each time I think of him. And no, Moose didn't play defense for the Boston Bruins, just bad lab teeth. Little Zora is the beautiful black Lab. We got her to train as a service dog and she is doing this job now as a companion for us veterans suffering from ptsd. She's doing an amazing job and we are so proud of her. Thanks for all the great work. I look to you for help to get us through this flood of sewage cascading over us from the musk white house. We shall overcome de nuevo. Muchos gracias.
- [51:40]
Allison Gill
Look at the beautiful babies. Didn't doesn't play for the Boston Bruins, just bad lab tea. Oh, look at that sweet, sweet baby. Thank you for that. What a great submission. I really appreciate it and welcome welcome to the Laguminati Gym. We're glad that you're here. Brenda from Richmond, she her says, I too have found the daily beans via Blue sky and I'm a big fan. Your delivery of the news and sensitive and or outraged commentary on its significance is a critical foil to the mainstream media. In response to the story about Denmark purchasing California, I reply that we all need more hoog in our lives these days. The Danish concept of hoog, pronounced fuga or fugitive, refers to creating cozy, welcoming spaces to support well being.
- [52:26]
Dana Goldberg
I'm so glad I didn't get either of those stories.
- [52:29]
Allison Gill
It's the antithesis of what's going on in the US Right now for our mental health. More Hygge, please. Thanks for helping me get through every day. And please help keep doing this important work. Here's my pet tacks. These are my fur girls, Piper and Nova. We adopted them from the Richmond SPCA about five years ago and they are both, both great snugglers. You have a ginger girl? No, Brenda. That's very rare. Ginger girls are very fancy. Oh, look at the beautiful void. Thank you for that submission. Adorable.
- [53:03]
Dana Goldberg
Cute. Okay, this one's from Catherine. No pronouns given. Hello. Thank you both for the incredibly kind, vulnerable and badass work you do. I'm more grateful for you too, than coffee in the morning.
- [53:14]
Kelsey Turner
Whoa.
- [53:14]
Dana Goldberg
Saying a lot. But my good news is not only am I going to Edinburgh this summer to see my favorite band, Oasis. Don't judge me. I'm 48, but I'm staying eight blocks away from the Edinburgh Zoo and I recently discovered they have a live cam. So the other good news is that when the bad news keeps getting bad in advance of my trip, I take time to go to the live animal webcam here from New York, and I watch them play, eat and sleep. It gives me something to look forward to when I finally see them in person. 10 out of 10. Highly recommend. And they're gonna have a link. There's a link in the show Notes to the Edinburgh Zoo. And yeah, you can watch the and again, thank you and I appreciate you both so much. Catherine, I love Edinburgh. I did the Fringe Festival a long time ago at the beginning of my career and it's just extraordinary. So I hope you have a fantastic time.
- [54:04]
Allison Gill
It is super fun. And I need to get back over there too. I need to stop by Edinburgh. I want to go back to Ireland. I love it there. The only problem is Dana, oftentimes when I go there I really don't want to leave and so it might be especially tempting to stay there, you know, these days. But thanks for all your good news submissions and your wonderful photos. Please send any good news you have to dailybeanspod.com click on contact. We would love to hear from you. And again, welcome to all our new listeners. There's so many. You're amazing. Thank you for supporting independent media and news with Swearing and Women owned Media. We really appreciate it. Do you have any final thoughts today, my friend?
- [54:46]
Dana Goldberg
I do not.
- [54:47]
Allison Gill
All right, well we will be back in your ears tomorrow for fugal saying Friday. Until then everybody take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health and take care of your family. I've been AG and I've been DG and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reeder with Moxie Design Studio Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information please visit mswmedia. Com. MSW Media.