The US Supreme Court has tightened rules on electoral voters in the lead-up to the Presidential election in November. The Dakota Access Pipeline has been temporarily closed due to environmental concerns. A man in Tampa has found himself trapped in quarantine with hundreds of parrots. Join Ben Bowlin for more Strange News Daily, and share your stories on Twitter: #strangedaily.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Strange News Daily. It's a production of I Heart Media.
In a world full of bizarre events, unsolved mysteries, and
a billion stories from all corners of the globe, some
(00:22):
news gets lost in the shuffle. This is your gateway
to the stories on the fringe of the mainstream map.
These are your dispatches in the dark. I'm Ben Bolan,
and this is the Strange News Daily, our first story today.
(00:45):
The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that
electors who formally select the president can be required by
the state they represent to cast their ballot for the
candidate who won the state's popular vote. The justices unanimously
were ejected the claim that electors have a right under
the Constitution to defy their state and vote for the
(01:06):
candidate of their choice. Justice Elena Kagan said electors are
not free agents. They are to vote for the candidate
whom the states voters have chosen. Article two of the
Constitution and the Twelfth Amendment gives states broad powers over
electors and gives electors themselves no rights. This argument hinges
(01:28):
on the electoral college system. It was created by the
founding fathers and it's been the subject of a lot
of criticism lately, people say it's outdated or unfair to voters.
In two of the past five presidential elections, the winner
came in second in the national vote, but still won
the election because they won a combination of states that
(01:51):
yielded more electoral votes. This dispute before the High Court
could have injected an additional element of uncertainty in to
the ongoing presidential race. Just last year, the US Tenth
Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver surprised election officials when
it ruled that the Constitution, as written in sevente assumed
(02:12):
the states electors were free to vote for their favorite candidate,
and that if that is the case, the same would
hold true today. Constitutional scholars countered that although electors may
have had an independent vote at the time the nation
was founded, they've been required since the early eighteen hundreds
to vote in line with the wishes of the party
(02:34):
whose candidate won the state vote, and ever since then,
the political parties have chosen slates of electors who pledged
a cast a ballot for the party's presidential candidate should
hear she win the state vote. Paul Smith is an
election law expert with the Campaign Legal Center He said
the decision prevents the potential scramble over wavering electors in November.
(02:57):
He stated, voters should go to the polls with the
cafidence that their vote will count and that their political
system will be free from corruption. However, far from perfect
the current system, maybe the chaos of an unbound electoral
college would have been even worse. This is an important ruling.
In nearly every single election, there are a handful of
(03:19):
what are known as faithless electors. They ignore their commitment
to their party, and they can cast a vote different
from their states voters. These straight votes have usually been ignored,
and so far they have not made a difference in
the larger outcome. Most states have laws or rules of
some sort that require electors to abide by their pledges
(03:41):
and to follow the state's wishes. The Supreme Court agreed
to hear two cases on the issue, one from Washington,
where the state prevailed, and a second one from Colorado,
whose rules were overturned. Harvard University law professor Lawrence Lessig,
who represented the electors, said he was not in highly
disappointed to lose the case. When we launched these cases,
(04:04):
said Professor Lessie, we did it because regardless of the outcome,
it was critical to resolve this question before it created
a constitutional crisis. We have achieved that. Obviously, we don't
believe the court has interpreted the Constitution correctly, but we
are happy that we have achieved our primary objective. This
uncertainty has been removed. That he says is progress. Our
(04:37):
second story Today, a federal judge has officially ordered the
shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline. While it's shut down,
there will be an environmental review conducted. This project has
been opposed by environmentalists as well as the Standing Rock
Sioux tribe. The move was requested earlier this year by
Standing Rock, along with three other Sioux tribes in the Dakotas.
(05:00):
The group's fear environmental harm from the oil pipeline, and
they've sued over the project four years ago. North Dakota
officials said such a move closing the pipeline would have
significant disruptive consequences for the state. It's oil has been
hit hard in recent months, primarily by a falling demand
for crude as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The
(05:25):
chairman of Standing Rock, Mike Faith, said the tribe is
trying to prevent a potential environmental disaster if the line
ever leaks. Reacting to the ruling today, he said, for
the tribe's sake, it's good news. I think for downstream
users it's good news. Also. The pipeline developer, Energy Transfer,
plans to challenge this ruling. In a statement, the company
(05:48):
called this an ill thought out decision and said it
will be immediately pursuing all available legal and administrative processes,
adding it is confident that once the full law and
the full record are are fully considered, Dakota Access Pipeline
will not be shut down and the oil will continue
to flow. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which
(06:09):
originally permitted the pipeline, has referred all media inquiries to
the U. S. Department of Justice, which is representing the
core of Engineers in the lawsuit. At this point, the
Department of Justice has no immediate comment, But this decision
has drawn criticism from what's known as the Main Coalition
That's spelled m ai N. It's a group of businesses,
(06:31):
trade associations, and labor groups that all benefit from infrastructure projects.
Their spokesman, Craig Stephens, said today's order to shut down
Dakota Access jeopardizes our national energy security and raises significant
concerns for the future of American energy infrastructure investment. The
pipeline is a big deal. This is a multibillion dollar project,
(06:55):
three point eight billion to be precise. After hearing arguments
by both sides and other interested parties and stakeholders, US
District Judge James Bosberg, who's overseen the lawsuit, revoked a
key Corps of Engineers permit for the pipeline and ordered
that Dakota Access shall shut down the pipeline and empty
it of oil by August five. Up to this time,
(07:18):
the pipeline has been carrying as much as five hundred
and seventy thousand barrels of oil each day. That's about
of the state's daily production before COVID hit. The judge
acknowledged his order will cause significant disruption to the Dakota
Access pipeline, North Dakota oil industry, and potentially other states,
but he also said that the Core of Engineers was
(07:40):
not able to substantiate its decision to avoid more thorough
environmental investigations. Our third story today, a lot of people
who are self isolating during the pandemic are seeing more
(08:02):
and more of their household pets. Dogs might be barking
through your Google hangout or your Zoom meeting. If you're
like me, you might have a couple of cats that
have become your catterwauling co producers. And while quality time
with pets is never a bad thing, of course, it
can be trying for even the most patient pet owner. Still,
(08:25):
you know, probably not as bad off as Mad Magic
is Molly. He is quarantined by himself with several hundred
squawking parrots. In an email to the Tampa Bay Times,
he put the subject line as s os. His letter said,
my name is Magidsmali, also known as Magic, and I
(08:47):
am a prisoner in my own property with over two
hundred parents no way to get in or out. He
says that since early March he's been trapped due to
a court order in a property dispute that's land locked
on his five acre Florida Birds Sanctuary in Tampa. It's
surrounded on all sides by other people's property, so he
(09:09):
has been flying solo taking care of love birds, macaws,
African grays and more. There's one large aviary on the
property and about fifty individual enclosures before the coronavirus is Molly,
who was fifty eight, said he had no shortage of
volunteers helping him out. Now, he says, I get up
(09:29):
before the sun and all day I'm cleaning, fixing cages,
feeding parrots until night. At night, I answer a few
emails from people who want me to take their parents,
but I can't take the parts now I am only
one person. Some volunteers were allowed to bring him food
early on after the court order, but they haven't been
back and his Molly says it's been a struggle to
(09:50):
feed the birds as well as feeding himself. Mostly, he
says both he and the parrots have been getting by
eating bananas and bamboo shoots, which he grows all over
the property. He's been rashening a few bags of rice
and sleeping in a small office nearby. Hop on the
internet if you'd like to see a virtual tour of
the sanctuaries. Molly recently gave one over a video app,
(10:14):
and as he spoke to the various parrots, they called back,
They barked, They imitated telephones and cats. One notable bird
just kept saying, what a beer? Want a beer? But
mostly was an unending, chaotic cacophony of shrieks and screeches.
This molly says, it's like living near an airport, you
(10:34):
get used to the sound. Most of these birds are
simply pets that someone else didn't want anymore. Some of
them were abused or injured. A few attacks someone, and
it's important to note that some of these birds can
live up to eighty years, which means that some of
them sadly outlived their owners. Linda Fowler, the neighbor who's
(10:56):
also involved in this property dispute, spoke with the media
as well. She said she previously allowed his molly to
use a path to his property, but she had to
take him to court because she was fed up with
him being a terrible neighbor. She said he failed to
honor a deal made when she sold him the property
ten years ago, allowing her to ride horses across his sanctuary.
(11:17):
She says, I operate a horseback riding ranch and children's camp,
and he jumps out of the woods looking like a
madman because he lives back there and he makes children cry.
After years of abuse from him, I said enough, he
needs to use his own egress and ingress, I'm over
it with him. She said that she spent one thousand
dollars in court fighting with her neighbor for years over
(11:38):
this property. She also says he has a different legal
path out to a public road he's supposed to use
through a different neighbor's property. That path, we should note
is currently blocked by years of overgrowth and someone else's fence,
But Fowler says that's not her problem and that it
is up to Mrs Molly to figure out how to
negotiate that with his other neighbors. A Hillsboro County judge
(12:02):
ruled in Fowler's favor earlier this year, but this week
the judge granted a state that will pause the court
order allowing his Molly to use the path while the
cases in the appeals process. His Molly's having a hard
time of it. He says he has no money. He
says he has no children, and he puts everything he
has into these parrots. If you'd like to learn more
(12:23):
about his Molly's story or get a closer look at
his Avian roommates, you can visit the sanctuary directly at
zacks dot com. That's all for now. We've been asking
you to chime in with suggestions for stories you think
your fellow listeners might enjoy, to hit us with your
best or worst puns and dad jokes, and to share
(12:44):
your personal experience with COVID nineteen, the ongoing protests, or
whatever else is happening in your neck of the global woods.
Let us know by tagging hashtag Strange daily on Twitter,
or reach out to me directly. I'm at been bullying
hs W on Twitter or APT been bulling on Instagram.
Thanks as always to our super producer Dylan Fagin, our
research associate Sam T. Garden, and most importantly, thanks to you.
(13:09):
I'm Ben Bullet. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, stay strange.
Strange News Daily. It's a production of I Heart Media.
In a world full of bizarre events, unsolved mysteries, and
a billion stories from all corners of the globe, some
(00:22):
news gets lost in the shuffle. This is your gateway
to the stories on the fringe of the mainstream map.
These are your dispatches in the dark. I'm Ben Bolan,
and this is the Strange News Daily, our first story today.
(00:45):
The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that
electors who formally select the president can be required by
the state they represent to cast their ballot for the
candidate who won the state's popular vote. The justices unanimously
were ejected the claim that electors have a right under
the Constitution to defy their state and vote for the
(01:06):
candidate of their choice. Justice Elena Kagan said electors are
not free agents. They are to vote for the candidate
whom the states voters have chosen. Article two of the
Constitution and the Twelfth Amendment gives states broad powers over
electors and gives electors themselves no rights. This argument hinges
(01:28):
on the electoral college system. It was created by the
founding fathers and it's been the subject of a lot
of criticism lately, people say it's outdated or unfair to voters.
In two of the past five presidential elections, the winner
came in second in the national vote, but still won
the election because they won a combination of states that
(01:51):
yielded more electoral votes. This dispute before the High Court
could have injected an additional element of uncertainty in to
the ongoing presidential race. Just last year, the US Tenth
Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver surprised election officials when
it ruled that the Constitution, as written in sevente assumed
(02:12):
the states electors were free to vote for their favorite candidate,
and that if that is the case, the same would
hold true today. Constitutional scholars countered that although electors may
have had an independent vote at the time the nation
was founded, they've been required since the early eighteen hundreds
to vote in line with the wishes of the party
(02:34):
whose candidate won the state vote, and ever since then,
the political parties have chosen slates of electors who pledged
a cast a ballot for the party's presidential candidate should
hear she win the state vote. Paul Smith is an
election law expert with the Campaign Legal Center He said
the decision prevents the potential scramble over wavering electors in November.
(02:57):
He stated, voters should go to the polls with the
cafidence that their vote will count and that their political
system will be free from corruption. However, far from perfect
the current system, maybe the chaos of an unbound electoral
college would have been even worse. This is an important ruling.
In nearly every single election, there are a handful of
(03:19):
what are known as faithless electors. They ignore their commitment
to their party, and they can cast a vote different
from their states voters. These straight votes have usually been ignored,
and so far they have not made a difference in
the larger outcome. Most states have laws or rules of
some sort that require electors to abide by their pledges
(03:41):
and to follow the state's wishes. The Supreme Court agreed
to hear two cases on the issue, one from Washington,
where the state prevailed, and a second one from Colorado,
whose rules were overturned. Harvard University law professor Lawrence Lessig,
who represented the electors, said he was not in highly
disappointed to lose the case. When we launched these cases,
(04:04):
said Professor Lessie, we did it because regardless of the outcome,
it was critical to resolve this question before it created
a constitutional crisis. We have achieved that. Obviously, we don't
believe the court has interpreted the Constitution correctly, but we
are happy that we have achieved our primary objective. This
uncertainty has been removed. That he says is progress. Our
(04:37):
second story Today, a federal judge has officially ordered the
shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline. While it's shut down,
there will be an environmental review conducted. This project has
been opposed by environmentalists as well as the Standing Rock
Sioux tribe. The move was requested earlier this year by
Standing Rock, along with three other Sioux tribes in the Dakotas.
(05:00):
The group's fear environmental harm from the oil pipeline, and
they've sued over the project four years ago. North Dakota
officials said such a move closing the pipeline would have
significant disruptive consequences for the state. It's oil has been
hit hard in recent months, primarily by a falling demand
for crude as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The
(05:25):
chairman of Standing Rock, Mike Faith, said the tribe is
trying to prevent a potential environmental disaster if the line
ever leaks. Reacting to the ruling today, he said, for
the tribe's sake, it's good news. I think for downstream
users it's good news. Also. The pipeline developer, Energy Transfer,
plans to challenge this ruling. In a statement, the company
(05:48):
called this an ill thought out decision and said it
will be immediately pursuing all available legal and administrative processes,
adding it is confident that once the full law and
the full record are are fully considered, Dakota Access Pipeline
will not be shut down and the oil will continue
to flow. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which
(06:09):
originally permitted the pipeline, has referred all media inquiries to
the U. S. Department of Justice, which is representing the
core of Engineers in the lawsuit. At this point, the
Department of Justice has no immediate comment, But this decision
has drawn criticism from what's known as the Main Coalition
That's spelled m ai N. It's a group of businesses,
(06:31):
trade associations, and labor groups that all benefit from infrastructure projects.
Their spokesman, Craig Stephens, said today's order to shut down
Dakota Access jeopardizes our national energy security and raises significant
concerns for the future of American energy infrastructure investment. The
pipeline is a big deal. This is a multibillion dollar project,
(06:55):
three point eight billion to be precise. After hearing arguments
by both sides and other interested parties and stakeholders, US
District Judge James Bosberg, who's overseen the lawsuit, revoked a
key Corps of Engineers permit for the pipeline and ordered
that Dakota Access shall shut down the pipeline and empty
it of oil by August five. Up to this time,
(07:18):
the pipeline has been carrying as much as five hundred
and seventy thousand barrels of oil each day. That's about
of the state's daily production before COVID hit. The judge
acknowledged his order will cause significant disruption to the Dakota
Access pipeline, North Dakota oil industry, and potentially other states,
but he also said that the Core of Engineers was
(07:40):
not able to substantiate its decision to avoid more thorough
environmental investigations. Our third story today, a lot of people
who are self isolating during the pandemic are seeing more
(08:02):
and more of their household pets. Dogs might be barking
through your Google hangout or your Zoom meeting. If you're
like me, you might have a couple of cats that
have become your catterwauling co producers. And while quality time
with pets is never a bad thing, of course, it
can be trying for even the most patient pet owner. Still,
(08:25):
you know, probably not as bad off as Mad Magic
is Molly. He is quarantined by himself with several hundred
squawking parrots. In an email to the Tampa Bay Times,
he put the subject line as s os. His letter said,
my name is Magidsmali, also known as Magic, and I
(08:47):
am a prisoner in my own property with over two
hundred parents no way to get in or out. He
says that since early March he's been trapped due to
a court order in a property dispute that's land locked
on his five acre Florida Birds Sanctuary in Tampa. It's
surrounded on all sides by other people's property, so he
(09:09):
has been flying solo taking care of love birds, macaws,
African grays and more. There's one large aviary on the
property and about fifty individual enclosures before the coronavirus is Molly,
who was fifty eight, said he had no shortage of
volunteers helping him out. Now, he says, I get up
(09:29):
before the sun and all day I'm cleaning, fixing cages,
feeding parrots until night. At night, I answer a few
emails from people who want me to take their parents,
but I can't take the parts now I am only
one person. Some volunteers were allowed to bring him food
early on after the court order, but they haven't been
back and his Molly says it's been a struggle to
(09:50):
feed the birds as well as feeding himself. Mostly, he
says both he and the parrots have been getting by
eating bananas and bamboo shoots, which he grows all over
the property. He's been rashening a few bags of rice
and sleeping in a small office nearby. Hop on the
internet if you'd like to see a virtual tour of
the sanctuaries. Molly recently gave one over a video app,
(10:14):
and as he spoke to the various parrots, they called back,
They barked, They imitated telephones and cats. One notable bird
just kept saying, what a beer? Want a beer? But
mostly was an unending, chaotic cacophony of shrieks and screeches.
This molly says, it's like living near an airport, you
(10:34):
get used to the sound. Most of these birds are
simply pets that someone else didn't want anymore. Some of
them were abused or injured. A few attacks someone, and
it's important to note that some of these birds can
live up to eighty years, which means that some of
them sadly outlived their owners. Linda Fowler, the neighbor who's
(10:56):
also involved in this property dispute, spoke with the media
as well. She said she previously allowed his molly to
use a path to his property, but she had to
take him to court because she was fed up with
him being a terrible neighbor. She said he failed to
honor a deal made when she sold him the property
ten years ago, allowing her to ride horses across his sanctuary.
(11:17):
She says, I operate a horseback riding ranch and children's camp,
and he jumps out of the woods looking like a
madman because he lives back there and he makes children cry.
After years of abuse from him, I said enough, he
needs to use his own egress and ingress, I'm over
it with him. She said that she spent one thousand
dollars in court fighting with her neighbor for years over
(11:38):
this property. She also says he has a different legal
path out to a public road he's supposed to use
through a different neighbor's property. That path, we should note
is currently blocked by years of overgrowth and someone else's fence,
But Fowler says that's not her problem and that it
is up to Mrs Molly to figure out how to
negotiate that with his other neighbors. A Hillsboro County judge
(12:02):
ruled in Fowler's favor earlier this year, but this week
the judge granted a state that will pause the court
order allowing his Molly to use the path while the
cases in the appeals process. His Molly's having a hard
time of it. He says he has no money. He
says he has no children, and he puts everything he
has into these parrots. If you'd like to learn more
(12:23):
about his Molly's story or get a closer look at
his Avian roommates, you can visit the sanctuary directly at
zacks dot com. That's all for now. We've been asking
you to chime in with suggestions for stories you think
your fellow listeners might enjoy, to hit us with your
best or worst puns and dad jokes, and to share
(12:44):
your personal experience with COVID nineteen, the ongoing protests, or
whatever else is happening in your neck of the global woods.
Let us know by tagging hashtag Strange daily on Twitter,
or reach out to me directly. I'm at been bullying
hs W on Twitter or APT been bulling on Instagram.
Thanks as always to our super producer Dylan Fagin, our
research associate Sam T. Garden, and most importantly, thanks to you.
(13:09):
I'm Ben Bullet. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, stay strange.
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