🌊 Alabama Manhunt Underway

Happy National Punctuation Day.

You may be rolling your eyes, but punctuation can save lives. Consider the sentence: “Let’s eat grandma.” Without a comma, it’s a crime; with a comma, it’s a cozy meal. Or how about this sentence: “I find inspiration in cooking, my parents, and my dog.” Without commas, this isn’t a touching toast it’s a Netflix docuseries. Commas save lives.

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

Alabama Manhunt

A search is underway for a group accused of orchestrating a mass shooting in Birmingham, AL

• Around 11 PM on Saturday, a vehicle pulled up in a Birmingham nightlife district and opened fire on a hookah lounge, killing four and wounding 17. The vehicle then sped off. Authorities have made no arrests and haven’t identified the attackers

• Police believe the shooting was a targeted “murder-for-hire” plot and that the target was killed while the other victims were caught in the crossfire

• Authorities are now offering up to $100k for information leading to the culprits’ arrests

Dig Deeper

• Police recovered around 100 shell casings from the scene of the crime. They said that at least some of the gunfire was “fully automatic” and that the attackers likely used “machine gun conversion devices”

• Local police say they are sifting through tips, while federal authorities, including the FBI, are supporting the effort

KEY STORY

Southern Lebanon Evacuations

Thousands of people evacuated southern Lebanon as Israeli strikes killed ~500 in the region

• On Monday, Israel said it bombed 1,300+ sites in Lebanon where Hezbollah is storing weapons and related supplies. Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed ~500 people and injured 1,600, in what were by far the heaviest attacks on Lebanon since Hezbollah began striking Israel a day after the October 7 attacks. It’s unclear how many victims were civilians or militants

• Tens of thousands of Lebanese received automated evacuation messages from Israel, and roads out of Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon were packed with fleeing vehicles

Dig Deeper

• Hezbollah retaliated by launching dozens of missiles at Israel, including at a defense company’s facility and the Israeli military’s main storage facility in northern Israel

• Lebanon’s prime minister called Israel’s attacks a “war of extermination,” while the US and UN told Israel not to escalate

• In a letter released on Monday, Israel’s foreign minister said Israel “is not interested in a full-scale war” but will “take all necessary measures to protect ourselves”

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KEY STORY

70-Year Mystery Solved

A boy abducted at age six was found over 70 years later

• In 1951, a woman allegedly lured Luis Armando Albino from an Oakland, CA, park with a promise of candy, then kidnapped him and took him to the East Coast, where another family raised him. Despite extensive searches by authorities, he remained missing for decades

• In 2020, Albino’s niece took a DNA test, revealing a 22% match with a man later confirmed as her missing uncle. Renewed efforts in 2023, including the review of old newspaper articles and photos, led investigators to reopen the case, and in June, they confirmed Albino was living on the East Coast

• Albino – now a retired firefighter, Marine Corps veteran, and grandfather – recently reunited with his family. He thanked his niece, saying, “Thank you for finding me”

Dig Deeper

• Oakland police acknowledged the niece’s efforts “played an integral role in finding her uncle” and that “the outcome of this story is what we strive for”

• The FBI, meanwhile, continues to investigate the kidnapping case, but the missing persons case has been closed

KEY STORY

FBI: Crime Down

The FBI released its annual crime report Monday, which found that homicides fell 11.6%, violent crime fell 3%, and property crime fell 2.4% from 2022 to 2023

• The bureau claims it received data from police departments that cover collectively 94.3% of the US population, including from cities that didn’t provide data last year, like Los Angeles and New York City

• These statistics are at odds with those found in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), run by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and administered by the Census Bureau. It found no drop in violent crime and instead shows crime surging since 2019

Dig Deeper

• At the center of the disagreement between the FBI and NCVS is the source of the data. For the FBI, it’s from police departments, which have to opt in and can report what they want. For the NCVS, the data come from a group of 230,000 US residents who self-report crime, whether it gets prosecuted or not

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🇺🇸 Donald Trump said he likely will not run again in 2028 if he loses this year’s election

🚗 The US Commerce Department proposed rules that would effectively ban Chinese vehicles from the US market

✍️ President Zelensky is presenting a “plan for victory” to President Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump this week in Washington, DC

♻️ California sued Exxon Mobil, alleging that the oil company deceived consumers about the recyclability of plastic products

✈️ The head of Russia’s flagship Aeroflot airline said that he expects his company’s fleet to have in-flight Wi-Fi by 2028 – 20+ years after Western airlines first introduced the service

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: Does Googling your symptoms make you feel better or worse about your health problem?

🧠 Today’s question: What’s the prettiest part of your state? For non-American readers, what’s the prettiest part of your country?

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🇬🇧 Cinnamon rolls back: Cinnamon, a capybara who escaped from a UK zoo, has been safely returned after several days on the run. Zookeepers found her in a pond (below) and have since reunited her with her twin brother, Churro

🐛 Book worms: A Michigan public library closed after “multiple species of bugs” were found in a DVD case returned over the weekend

🎃 Sweet victory: Pop-Tarts says it’s releasing a Halloween costume inspired by its viral college football mascot, “Strawberry,” which was billed as the first-ever edible mascot

🚒 Crash and burn: Louisiana state police charged a 39-year-old fire chief with a DUI on Saturday after he crashed his district-issued truck into a fire hydrant

🤯 “Ultimate cheating device”: YouTuber ChromaLock uploaded a video revealing his modified TI-84 calculator, which he hacked to enable ChatGPT, internet access, and camera support

ROCA WRAP

To Fact-Check or Not?

Whose job is it to “fact-check”? What even is a “fact-check”? 

We explore those questions and more in this week’s Roca Votes.

One of our app users wrote to us in DMs to the Editor last weekend, “In your article about the debate you stated ‘it’s not our job to determine if it was biased..’. It is your job to fact check. You didn’t. Are you afraid that if you fact checked Trump or Harris on their statements; you would end up with one person looking like an idiot? You should actually fact check. Thats what journalists do. Are you too afraid of alienating half of your readers? Be better.”

Our position is as follows:

Fact-checking is far more complicated than that message acknowledges. Here’s one example of why:

During the debate, ABC News fact-checked Trump to say that crime has gone down under the Biden Administration. Let’s “fact-check” that.

An Example

Violent crime rates increased significantly between 2019 and 2020 and continued to increase between 2020 and 2021.

That same year, the FBI – whose crime reporting stat is considered one the main reference points on the matter– changed its reporting methodology. The US’ largest cities – including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago – then stopped submitting crime stats to the agency. Between 2021 and 2022, the FBI reports that the violent crime rate declined.

Another main reference point is the Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey, a study of 240,000 Americans’ experiences with crime. That showed that the share of people claiming to be a victim of violent crime rose by 47% between 2021 and 2022.

The most recent edition, reflecting 2023 data, notes, “The 2023 rate was higher than those in 2020 and 2021.” A fact-check could be, “Crime isn’t at all-time highs,” but to declare “crime has declined” is more complicated.

Another Example

Another example: In the debate, Trump said that under Harris, “You could do abortions in the seventh month, the eighth month, the ninth month.”

Harris said: “That’s not true.”

It is true: In seven states – including Minnesota, where Tim Walz is governor – there are no limits on abortion until the moment of birth. Minnesota data, for example, show that in the last five years, seven induced abortions have been reported in the third trimester of pregnancy. Data suggest such abortions are often because of fetal anomalies or maternal life endangerment.

Trump then added that Democrats support “execution after birth,” pointing to former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who said that if a baby was born with a very low chance of survival or severe deformities, “The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

Many people would find that reasonable; many people would find it to be murder.

Complicated Facts

Some facts are, therefore, complicated – but not all.

Trump declared that inflation under Biden has been “probably the worst in our nation’s history”; Kamala Harris declared that “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.”

Both are demonstrably wrong: When Biden entered the White House, unemployment was 6.4% – it’s been higher than that for around a quarter of the years since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, inflation averaged 8% in 2022. In 1974 and from 1979 to 1981, it was over 10%.

When to Fact-Check?

Then there’s the question of when we should fact-check

Should we fact-check candidates when they mischaracterize the other person’s opinion? Politicians do that constantly. Harris said that Trump wants to put “a 20% tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month,” calling it “Trump’s sales tax.”

That’s false: Trump doesn’t plan to enact a sales tax. He plans to enact a tariff on foreign goods, which could raise the prices of imported goods.

Harris similarly said that Trump promised “there will be a bloodbath” if he loses. That’s taken out of context: Trump was referring to auto industry jobs.

Trump, meanwhile, repeated claims that everyone wanted Roe v. Wade overturned – an obvious falsehood.

He said Harris “wants to confiscate your guns” and “will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania” and claimed that she “hates Israel…[and] hates the Arab population.” If she’s president, he claimed, “Israel will be gone.”

In the past, Harris has called for a ban on fracking and confiscating assault weapons. Now, she doesn’t. And even if she were president, she couldn’t necessarily do these things.

How do you fact-check this? Shouldn’t it be up to people to hear this and make up their own minds?

We’re curious about what you think. Reply to this email to let us know your thoughts.

ROCA VIDEO
Gen Z’s Insane Partisan Gender Gap

A historically large partisan gap exists among Gen Z voters. Male 18 to 29 year olds in swing states are 51 points more likely to vote for Trump than women between 18 and 29. 51 points!

Other polls suggest this trend has been underway for years. This video aims to explain it: What it means, why it exists, and more.

Make sure to subscribe to the channel!

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Thank you for all of the kind words on our YouTube travel content. For clarification, we have two channels: 1) RocaNews channel (on-the-ground content, currently in swing states); 2) We the 66 (our podcast and deep dives into important topics).

We’re just getting started with these and are always eager to hear your feedback. Have a great day!

–Max and Max