Plus: Elon Musk is trying to buy Twitter because of “free speech.”

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Saturday, April 16, 2022

In this issue of The Weekly Reveal:
* How calling the police ([link removed]) for help with homelessness can entangle people in a criminal justice cycle that leads them back to the streets – or worse.
* Elon Musk makes a bid for Twitter because he’s a “free speech absolutist,” but previous Reveal investigations ([link removed]) into Tesla and his reactions to them make us think otherwise.
* Join us on Reddit ([link removed]) on Earth Day for an “Ask Me Anything” with reporter Will Evans.

If you enjoy this week’s newsletter, forward it to a friend ([link removed]) . Have some thoughts? Drop us a line (mailto:[email protected]) with feedback or ideas!


** This Week on Reveal: How Living Outside Makes You a Police Target
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An officer stops to speak with unhoused people as part of a community policing patrol in Portland, Oregon. Credit: Melissa Lewis for Reveal

Cities have long turned to police as the answer to make homelessness disappear. On this week’s Reveal ([link removed]) , we go to Portland, Oregon, where unhoused people made up at most 2% of the population in recent years, but over the same time, they accounted for nearly half of all arrests.
* In 2020, more individuals were living outside than were staying in actual homeless shelters. The government first started collecting this data 14 years ago.
* Reveal looked at six major West Coast cities and found that people living on the streets are consistently more likely to be arrested than their neighbors who live in houses, even though those arrests are less likely to be for serious crimes.

Portland is one of 100 U.S. cities that has laws against lying down or sleeping in public places, according to the National Homelessness Law Center. And recent data shows the city receives calls about unhoused people an average of at least 80 times a day.

You’ll hear from reporter Melissa Lewis, who follows one man’s journey through the criminal justice system as he tries to disentangle himself from arrest warrants that keep accumulating. She talks with locals who are trying to build trust and connection with their houseless neighbors and others who are tired of seeing tents and call the police for help. And we learn the commitment that it takes to move off the street, one person at a time.

This is an update of an episode that first aired in December 2021.

🎧 Listen to Handcuffed and Unhoused online ([link removed]) or on Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) or wherever you get your podcasts.


** In the News
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What’s happening in the news – with a Reveal context
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Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc. Credit: Ringo H.W. Chiu/Associated Press

🔷 “I made an offer.” It’s been a whirlwind April if you’ve been keeping up with the relationship between Twitter and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. First, he disclosed ([link removed]) on April 4 a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the company’s largest shareholder at the time ([link removed]) . The next day, Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, announced ([link removed]) Musk was appointed to the board of directors. By April 9, Musk had changed his mind about joining the board. No reason was given, but Agrawal said in a tweet ([link removed]) Sunday that he believed it was “for the best.” Fast forward to this week, Musk on Wednesday made a bid ([link removed]
92108/twitter-elon-musk-buy-company) to purchase Twitter at $54.20 per share, or about $43 billion, saying ([link removed]) in a letter to Twitter’s board chairman that he believed in the company’s “potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe,” and that’s why it needs to be transformed as a private company.

But as this Associated Press explainer asks ([link removed]) , what is Musk really doing as he guns for Twitter? He touts himself a “free speech absolutist ([link removed]) ,” but is he really?

In 2018, Musk issued a series ([link removed]) of tweets ([link removed]) about the entire journalism industry shortly after a Reveal investigation ([link removed]) found Tesla prioritized style and speed over safety in its electric car factory, undercounted injuries ([link removed]) and ignored the concerns of its own safety professionals ([link removed]) .
* Former safety professionals said that Musk’s distaste for the color yellow and beeping forklifts led to cutting back on those standard safety signals.

Musk and Tesla responded to our findings by calling us an extremist organization ([link removed]) , rich kids in Berkeley ([link removed]) and propaganda ([link removed]) . Tesla was hit ([link removed]) with a government investigation after our story published. We didn’t stop there and continued to report on Tesla through the pandemic, where workers told us ([link removed]) the company risked lives by sending them to work in the shutdown. “How desperate are they that those cars are worth so many people’s lives?” said one paint department worker, who requested anonymity for
fear of losing his job.

📄 Take a look back at more of our Tesla investigations ([link removed]) .

🔷 It’s Black Maternal Health Week. Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday convened a meeting with Cabinet secretaries and agency leaders to discuss ([link removed]) the administration’s “whole-of-government approach to addressing maternal mortality and morbidity.” The White House also issued a presidential proclamation ([link removed]) about the week, making it the second year ([link removed]) it has done so.

In the United States, about 700 people die each year during pregnancy or in the year after, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ([link removed]) . The rate of deaths for Black moms is three times higher than the rate for White moms. In 2020, as racial disparities in health came into the spotlight amid the pandemic, we dug into how the legacy of racism affects maternal health in the U.S. Listen to the episode on Reveal ([link removed]) .

🔷 Spin from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy: In his first shareholder letter ([link removed]) as CEO, Jassy on Thursday said the company’s warehouse injury rates are “misunderstood” and there’s no “silver bullet” to fixing its numbers. We’ve been investigating Amazon’s workplace safety ([link removed]) for years. Based on the company’s own internal records, we’ve found serious injury rates in its warehouses were more than double the national average for the warehousing industry. And, just as relevant, we’ve found that company executives profoundly misled lawmakers, the press and public about the injury crisis.

Reveal’s Will Evans says ([link removed]) it’s not that complicated. Safety experts, regulators and former Amazon safety managers agree: The problem is Amazon is forcing its workers to work much too fast. If you fix that, you fix the problem. Until then, injury rates will continue to climb. Just this week, a new report ([link removed]) shows the company’s injury rate jumped 20% in 2021.

The truth won’t reveal itself. Help us deliver the stories that make a difference. Donate today.
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** Do you have questions on climate change and corporate accountability?
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Reveal’s Will Evans has led our reporting on Tesla and Amazon. Now, he’s focusing on how corporations are held accountable (or not) when it comes to climate change. His last two stories have included:
* How Amazon is drastically undercounting its carbon footprint ([link removed])
* How big-name companies like Google, Netflix and LinkedIn – which signed up to be climate leaders – were conspicuously absent from a climate action ad ([link removed]) that urged the federal government to “ACT NOW” on the climate crisis

🗓️ If you have questions about his work or these areas of reporting, join us for an “Ask Me Anything ([link removed]) ” on Reddit on Earth Day – Friday, April 22, at 1 p.m. EDT/10 a.m. PDT. Follow us ([link removed]) on Reddit to make sure you don’t miss it.


** Ending on a Good Note
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🏆 ‘Mississippi Goddam’ Named Finalist for Peabody Award ([link removed]) . The project was chosen as one of 60 nominees this year from nearly 1,300 entries.

🏆 ‘Into the COVID ICU’ Wins 2021 SABEW Best in Business Award in the Audio Category ([link removed]) . The Best in Business Awards honor excellence in business journalism and attracted a record 1,277 entries from 194 news organizations.

🏆 ‘Handcuffed and Unhoused’ Wins Third Place in Audio Storytelling from Best of the West ([link removed]) . “What I appreciated most about Reveal’s investigation into the policing of homelessness … was how effectively it humanized the people at the center of the problem,” one judge wrote.
This newsletter is written by Kassie Navarro. Drop her a line (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Weekly%20Reveal%20feedback) with feedback and ideas!

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