Nevada's top election official on Trump's midterm threats

0:00Bill Marler:Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. This administration has not won a major single court case when it comes to our elections. And we'll continue to win these. They can make the threat of jail. They can make the threat of prison. We're protecting the fundamental right to vote. Nevada's Secretary of State on election security ahead of the midterms and why he won't be intimidated by President Trump.

0:41Bill Marler:It's Tuesday, July 21st, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBR. I'm Chris Bentley.

0:56Bill Marler:A little later on the show, we'll hear from a lawyer who has sued food companies over disease outbreaks, including cyclosporiasis. He says government cuts are making it easier for gastrointestinal parasites to infect our food supply.

1:11Cisco Aguilar:In July of last year, CDC stopped counting cyclospora. So you have budget cuts on the federal level, budget cuts on the state level, and then you're not even counting the parasite in question. Before we get to that story, though, President Trump wants to nationalize elections.

1:31Bill Marler:He's leaning on Congress hard to get them to pass a bill that would make it more difficult for many Americans to register and vote. But for now, the election system is administered largely at the state level. That means the duty to fairly and accurately carry out elections falls on 50 secretaries of state, or similar positions depending on the state. They're now facing pressure from a White House that wants to change how they run their elections, and a torrent of disinformation from the president about unfounded claims of fraud. Cisco Aguilar is one of them. He's secretary of state for Nevada.

2:12Bill Marler:He's a Democrat running for re-election this fall. And he told Scott Tong the president's claims that thousands of non-citizens have registered to vote in Nevada is just not true. We have not received any single piece of data to justify their number. We don't know how they got those numbers. But the fact that they're making these accusations is just part of their overall plan. We have a president of the United States who's trying to choose his voters rather than the voters choosing him and his colleagues. And that's unfortunate. Yeah. Going into this year's elections, the team in your state, do you sense that poll workers are being watched closely?

2:49Bill Marler:Are they nervous? Is your legal team preparing for possible legal questions, legal challenges in this environment? I used to say I used it as a secretary of state, but now I feel like a managing law partner and having to deal with so many lawyers on so many of these issues. As secretaries of state, we have to be on the front line. We have to be prepared for every situation. Yes, we are ready to go. You know, in the president's words, you're judged as a winner or a loser. And I think secretary of states are the winners right now. In the last two weeks, we've won three major legal cases, and that's because we were strategic in our legal approach.

3:22Bill Marler:We challenged his first executive order. We won. We got a ruling on the second executive order. We won. And then Nevada had a big win at the Supreme Court on mail ballots. You know, he's tried to get rid of mail ballots, even though he uses a mail ballot. 60 % of Nevadans use mail ballots in the last election cycle. And our two reddest counties, Nye County and Douglas County, are the highest adopters of mail ballots. So the fact that they continue to challenge these efforts just shows you that they don't understand elections. They don't understand their voters. And I think what they're trying to do is just disenfranchise large groups of voters, especially Latinos.

3:55Bill Marler:So this environment, this information, misinformation out there, these legal challenges that you're talking about, do you see all this as a bit of a dry run for 2028? Absolutely. We know that 26 is about 28. There are 26 secretary races across the country, 13 Democrats, 13 Republicans. And he knows that Democrats have majority of the battleground states except for Georgia, but Georgia is in our eyesight. If he can get control of these states, He knows that he can put his thumb on the scale for 28, and that's dangerous. And I hope the Democrats realize that they need to step up and support secretaries across this country.

4:30Bill Marler:Put his thumb on the scale. How? How could that happen? One, by targeting certain groups of voters. You know, he's targeting black voters in Georgia. He's targeting brown voters in Nevada. Latinos are 30 % of Nevada's voter base. They have every right to access the ballot box as Americans. And when you start talking about non-citizens being on the voter rolls and non-citizens voting, that puts a chilling effect in that community because nobody really wants to violate the law. Nobody intends to violate the law. But when you target a certain community and say they are, they're going to stay home.

5:01Bill Marler:Latinos are worried about their jobs. They're worried about their kids' education. They're worried about putting food on the table. And when you start to add stress that they could potentially be violating the law for their fundamental right to vote, that's a chilling effect. So as far as your job, Mr. Secretary, Secretary, how do you communicate to voters, don't stay home, exercise your legal right for people who are nervous? Right. We ask them to make a plan. You know, I have to be out there, out front. I have to be communicating directly to voters. Secretaries have to be uncomfortable because right now we can't sit back.

5:32Bill Marler:We have to be at the forefront of this fight, and we are. It's talking to voters, asking them to make a plan. In Nevada, we have the universal mail ballot. So every eligible Nevadan gets a mail ballot in the mail. We're asking people to use that if we're going to polling locations. If they are going to polling locations, go in groups, go with friends, and asking people to be poll workers. The more people that are poll workers, the more they're going to get other people comfortable to vote. The road to the White House runs through Nevada. We know that, and we need to encourage people to vote as much as possible.

6:02Mr.

6:02Bill Marler:Secretary, the Homeland Security Secretary, Mark Wayne Mullen, on Friday threatened prison time for state election officials who refused to cooperate with this administration's efforts to run elections, this threat, how is that being heard by you, by your colleagues? It's being heard loud and clear. Again, bring it because we know we're on the right side of the law. I have nothing to hide. I've done nothing wrong. And our court cases continue to prove that we're on the right side of the law. This administration has not won a major single court case when it comes to our elections. And we'll continue to win these.

6:34Bill Marler:They can make the threat of jail. They can make the threat of prison. We are battle ready and we're going to be battle tested, but we're going to do it in solidarity, knowing that we're protecting the fundamental right to vote. His threats of jail time or whatever it is, it's making his ego feel better. But in reality, they're just a bunch of losers threatening us. We've been talking to Cisco Aguilar, Nevada's Secretary of State. He's a Democrat. Mr. Secretary, thanks very much. Thank you, Bramie.

7:04Bill Marler:Coming up next, Indira Lakshmanan gets an update on the outbreak of cyclosporiasis, sickening people across the U.S. after washing her hands, of course. You might have heard the FDA said it got a false positive in the tests that led it to link Taco Bell and Taylor Farms to that infection people are rather evocatively calling the explosive diarrhea parasite. But what does a false positive really mean? More on that after the break. The Food and Drug Administration now says that an earlier review of a sample of lettuce collected from Taylor Farms in Mexico and analyzed for the parasite Cyclospora had resulted in a false positive.

7:50Bill Marler:Attorney and food safety advocate Bill Marler says this does not mean that the company is necessarily cleared of responsibility in a recent outbreak cluster linked to Taylor Farms lettuce and Taco Bell meals that federal authorities say may have sickened at least 1 ,600 people across five states. Those numbers may be an undercount of the spread of cyclospora in the U.S. As of yesterday, Michigan authorities say their state alone has seen more than 6 ,100 cases of people sickened from the parasite. Bill Marler joins us now. Bill, welcome. Thanks. So, Bill, how should we be thinking about this false positive news?

8:30Bill Marler:And does it mean ultimately that the hunt is still on for the source of the cyclospora outbreak?

8:35Cisco Aguilar:So the answer is testing of food products is incredibly rare to find it. And not to be kind of glib about it, but people eat the evidence. That's how people get sick. And so the people who got sick in May and June and even early July, that product is long off the market. It's not only been consumed, but it's passed its use-by date and it's probably been thrown away. The product that they tested was product that was coming in from Mexico that they stopped and tested. And it frankly wound up testing, you know, a false positive. It doesn't help or hurt, you know, the epidemiological investigation that has been done by multiple states.

9:28Cisco Aguilar:And it's not just like Michigan. It's, you know, dozens and dozens of states have been working together along with the FDA and the CDC. So you've got, you know, bureaucrats from all over the country all converging on the idea that this product came from Taylor Farms.

9:49Bill Marler:So you are representing three clients from Ohio and Michigan who are suing Taco Bell and the lettuce supplier, Taylor Farms, after getting intestinal illness. What are those clients telling you? What happened to them?

10:02Cisco Aguilar:Cyclospora is a human fecal parasite. It's quite uncomfortable, even in the most mild cases. And as you've seen in the news, the discussion about explosive diarrhea, sometimes these illnesses last for weeks, if not months, and some people have been hospitalized.

10:24Bill Marler:You say that the outbreak is an example of how cuts at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Trump administration hurt our safety when it comes to foodborne illness, and that there's also been a problem of local and state cuts to public health. Explain that to us, and how do you know that it's putting us in danger?

10:47Cisco Aguilar:Well, it's more of a, all these things are happening at the same time. You've had incredible cuts at FDA from Doge, all those Doge cuts.

10:58Bill Marler:Meaning the Department of Government Deficiency that was run by Elon Musk.

11:03Cisco Aguilar:Yes, correct. And then also a lot of the grants from the federal government to state health departments disappeared. So people in public health had frankly disappeared because there were no more funding. And then you overlay that with the fact that FoodNet, you have 10 states kind of as an early warning system to monitor in real time foodborne illness outbreaks. And in July of last year, the CDC stopped counting Cycospora. so you have budget cuts on the federal level budget cuts on the state level and then you're not even counting the parasite in question you know that's why we have 10 ,000 over 10 ,000 people sick and with cyclospora this year we're normally in a normal year in the u.s less than 2 ,000 so there's a lot we don't know and a lot of the reason we don't know it is because we've slashed public health.

12:06Cisco Aguilar:And, you know, we are in many ways flying blind, which only impacts the public in a negative way.

12:13Bill Marler:Bill, you've litigated food safety cases for decades. So I'm curious, what precautions do you take with fresh produce to prevent yourself and your family from getting sick?

12:24Cisco Aguilar:Well, right now, I would, you know, frankly, stay away from fresh fruits and vegetables that you can't cook. The outbreaks that I've been involved in the last two decades linked to leafy greens have all been mass-produced food that is bagged and shipped around the country. Those are, in my view, are the risks that are inherent in the system, especially a system where the folks who are trying to oversee it, frankly, have been cut back to a point where we're all at risk.

12:59Bill Marler:Bill Marler is a food safety advocate and attorney based in Washington State. Bill, thank you so much.

13:05Cisco Aguilar:Yeah, be careful out there.

13:12Bill Marler:We reached out for a response to what Bill Marler said. A representative for Taco Bell said the company is committed to safety and has removed defective lettuce from all restaurants. Taylor Farms posted a statement online yesterday saying it had recalled all iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico that was identified as the potential source of the cyclosporiasis outbreak and is working with health officials in their ongoing investigation. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was asked about this today as well, and he said, quote, we do have the outbreak under control, end quote.

13:50Bill Marler:More news coming up in just a minute.

13:59Bill Marler:Almost five months into its war with Iran, the Trump administration says it needs more money, fast. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is urgently asking Congress for$67 billion to help cover the costs of the war. The administration has already asked for a record$1.5 trillion in its fiscal year 2027 defense budget. So what's that latest infusion of cash, the$67 billion, going to get the U.S.? We asked retired Navy Admiral Mark Montgomery what questions Congress should ask Hegseth about that.

14:39Cisco Aguilar:What's this account for? Is it to last week, to next week, to next month's expected operations? In other words, is this the first of several bills for this fiscal year? or is this the only bill we'll get this fiscal year? And then another question that Democrats might ask is, are the weapons we're going to get in replacement, will they do a better job at defending? Have we made changes in what we're buying or what we're replacing with? Because a bunch of this is munitions. Some of it's operations. Some of it's the replacement of systems like aircraft. And then a lot of it's munitions. And they probably have some hard questions on the munitions.

15:17Bill Marler:You can hear that whole conversation right now at hereandnow.org, where you'll also find gaming recommendations from NPR staff and contributors. We just put out a new list of our favorite games of the year so far. NPR gaming editor and here and now producer James Mastromarino shared some of the picks with Scott Tong, starting with a game called Mugenics. Yes. And let me say that is a pun on eugenics. Don't worry. The makers of this game do not espouse real world eugenics of any sort. This is just a very silly, deranged cat breeding game where you'll have all these mutated kittens that you'll send on adventures.

15:57Bill Marler:They'll level up, they'll fight demons and alien threats and all sorts of things. And the best thing about it, especially for me as a radio producer, is that it has an in-game radio station that also plays jazzy tunes as you explore this crazy world, complete with lyrics. Well, it's midnight in the graveyard. The moon's behind a cloud And there's a cold, clammy chill Slowly creeping up my spine There's a black cat on a tombstone With a piercing yellow eye I got a feeling I'm being watched all the time All right, naturally, we would pick the game with the radio show inside. Anything else to talk about as far as Mugenics before we move on?

16:38Bill Marler:Well, it's just one example of the sort of, like, rich and diverse games that we have on this list that, again, are sourced from NPR staff and contributors. I just twice yearly send out a big staff email with a survey link. That's why it ends up so eclectic. Yeah. Well, the eclectic list of 45 on the list on NPR.org is also sorted. So I can do this kind of game myself. I can click, I like action or cozy. So let's do this. Let's click Nintendo Switch 2. If I have the Nintendo Switch 2, what new options should I think about? Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about Tomodachi Life, Living the Dream, one of many Switch games that's on this list.

17:19Bill Marler:A very silly kind of life simulator. Sensing a theme here. Yes, exactly. Where you get to create characters that populate this fantasy island. And then through the game's programming, will go on their own dates, become friends, fall in and out of love, go to restaurants and have completely non-sequitur conversations. And I'll warn you, you can set a kind of robo voice for each of the characters, which adds this sort of bizarre deadpan quality to all the humor because the game is quite funny. Let's listen. I don't empty my pockets before doing the laundry. In fact, I put more stuff into them. How are more people not doing this?

18:02Bill Marler:I love this. Okay, back to the NPR engine, as it were, the picker for a game that I want. and I'm going to click to say I like puzzles and I play games on my phone. Takes me to this game called TR-49, James. Tell me. Yeah, TR-49 was a bit of a surprise hit from the very beginning of the year. It's only$7. It's from this really interesting developer who's been making narrative puzzle games for years and years and years. And let me just pause you. I mean, are games on the phone generally cheaper? Yes, they are. Many of them are free to play. This is not one of those because it's a complete experience.