The Abuse Allegations Against a Civil Rights Icon, and a 48% Rise in Oil Prices

0:00This podcast is supported by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Here's a story that's not getting nearly enough attention. Defunding Planned Parenthood has already caused chaos and harm, and access to essential reproductive care is plummeting. Right now, the Trump administration's backers in Congress want to permanently defund Planned Parenthood, forcing even more health centers to close, and millions at risk of losing access to care. It takes less than a minute to help. Go to plannedparenthood.org slash defend and make a gift of any size. From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford.

0:37Today's Thursday, March 19th. Here's what we're covering.

0:45The New York Times gets a lot of tips. Some of them turn into things and some of them don't. You know, it sounded almost unbelievable. But as I talked to some of these women, it just made me think that there was something there. My colleague Manny Fernandez followed up on a tip that came in a while back about Cesar Chavez, one of the most famous figures in the American civil rights movement. Chavez rose to prominence in the late 60s advocating for Latino farm workers. He went on to have streets named after him, annual parades in his honor. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The tip kicked off an investigation that ultimately found extensive evidence that Chavez, who died in 1993, groomed and sexually abused girls.

1:31All of the women that we talked to had not publicly revealed their stories before. One of the reasons they had been reluctant is they worried about tarnishing his legacy. They worried about sort of destroying all that. That weighed on them and that sort of guilt and pressure made them very scared about coming forward to tell their stories. In digging into the allegations, Manny, along with Times investigative reporter Sarah Hertz, talked with more than 60 people, including some of Chavez's family and top aides. They also reviewed hundreds of pages of records, emails, photographs, and uncovered what appears to be a pattern of sexual misconduct.

2:13Two women, who are now in their 60s, described Chavez molesting them starting at age 12 and 13. Both grew up on the compound of United Farm Workers, the organization Chavez co-founded. One said he told her he'd known they belonged together since he first saw her at nine. Also, Dolores Huerta, who started UFW with Chavez and is a civil rights icon in her own right, says he raped her, something she kept a secret for nearly 60 years. Huerta said she was afraid no one would believe her and that she didn't report it to the police because they were hostile toward the union. Other women described being sexually harassed by Chavez, and whispers about his behavior circulated in the UFW's inner circles.

2:58A handful of Chavez's relatives and former union leaders have been aware of various allegations for years, but there is no evidence that they made any efforts to fully investigate. In response to questions, Chavez's family told The Times the allegations are deeply painful and said, quote, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual misconduct. When my colleagues asked the UFW questions, the union canceled its annual celebrations for Chavez, which would have been at the end of this month. March 31st is often celebrated as Cesar Chavez Day. Since the Times investigation came out yesterday, officials across the country have been grappling with how to respond.

3:40At Fresno State University, for example, a statue of Chavez on campus was covered up by a black sheet. There are discussions underway about renaming the many schools, streets, and parks named in his honor. Several states and cities have canceled plans that they had to observe Cesar Chavez Day. Some have proposed renaming it Farm Workers Day.

4:09In the Middle East, a series of attacks yesterday raised fears about even more dramatic disruptions to the global energy supply. Iran said that Israel attacked a giant offshore natural gas field. And in retaliation, Iran began launching missiles at gas facilities in Qatar, a U.S. ally. Those strikes have continued into this morning. Altogether, these are some of the most significant attacks on energy sites of the war so far, and investors are worried that more oil and gas facilities in the region could be targeted. The price of oil is now almost 50 percent higher than before the war started. Meanwhile, in Washington.

4:48The complete lack of clarity should matter to everybody. Democratic senators on the Intelligence Committee pressed the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, about President Trump's reasons for going to war with Iran. And both officials directly contradicted one of his main justifications. Trump has said that Iran was, quote, working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America. But both Ratcliffe and Gabbard said that was years away. Notably, when Gabbard was pushed to explain whether there was an imminent threat, like Trump said, she suggested it was up to his interpretation.

5:29It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat. That is up to the president based on a volume of information that he receives. It is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United States. Her answer seemed to undermine one of the key roles of U.S. intelligence staff, which is to make expert judgments about security threats. Yesterday, Senate Democrats tried to force a vote to stop U.S. military operations in Iran until Trump gets authorization from Congress. But for a second time, Republicans blocked that effort.

6:06Also at the Capitol. I hope that I'm not on the news every day. I hope DHS is just able to be laser focused on doing their job and it isn't controversial about taking care of the homeland. Mark Wayne Mullen, the Republican Senator Trump has tapped to lead the Department of Homeland Security, said at his confirmation hearing yesterday that he wants to steer the agency out of the intense spotlight that it's been in for the past few months. Under the former secretary, Kristi Noem, public support for DHS plummeted amid mass deportation operations and the high-profile killings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.

6:42Those words probably should have been retracted. I shouldn't have said that, and as a secretary, I wouldn't. In response to questions, Mullen said he regretted following Noam's lead in disparaging Alex Preddy, the ICU nurse who was killed in Minneapolis. And while he said he supports the Trump administration's overall deportation efforts, he suggested he would soften the agency's approach and have ICE agents carry out fewer major sweeps in cities. During the hearing, Mullen also addressed another controversy from the department, how Noam handled disaster relief. She had required her own office to sign off on all FEMA grants and contracts over$100 ,000, a process that significantly slowed down critical aid to communities across the country.

7:28Mullen said he would revoke the policy, adding, quote, I'm not a micromanager. The Senate Homeland Security Committee is expected to vote on advancing Mullen's nomination as soon as today.

7:45The blockbuster weight loss drug sold as Ozempic and Wigobi is about to go generic for billions of people. As of Saturday, the company that makes it, Novo Nordisk, will lose patent protection in India, and generic versions are expected to be available in China, Brazil, Canada, and more in the coming months. While Ozempic has obviously generated a lot of sales in some places, access has been pretty limited worldwide. Generics, which are often much cheaper, promise to significantly increase the number of people taking the drugs around the world. The market is there. Together, China and India have more than 800 million adults who are overweight or obese, and more than 360 million people with diabetes.

8:29In the U.S. and Europe, however, Ozempic is not expected to go generic for another five plus years. That's because drug companies have lobbied those governments intensely going back decades for extended protections to let them have monopolies on new drugs for longer. Their argument is that it's essential for innovation.

8:52And finally, on the coast of Southern California, just south of L.A., some residents are buying up Ocean View homes for prices that seem a little too good to be true. We have this amazing view and we like to sit on the couch here and watch the ships go by, watch the peacocks go by. Aylen Stewart bought her house a couple years ago in the affluent Portuguese Bend neighborhood of Rancho Palos Verdes. It just seemed like this house is half the price that it should be. Of course, that's when we figured out that, you know, there's a reason that the house is this price. It turns out the area is on a 700-acre active landslide.

9:30In some cases, that has sent floors off kilter, shifted structures across property lines, and even split homes in two. And yet, some houses there keep selling. Real estate agents have described the shifting land as an opportunity to buy at a discount. But there are obviously risks to that. In 2024, with the ground moving, utility companies shut off gas and electricity to large swaths of the neighborhood, forcing many residents to go off the grid and power their homes with generators and solar panels. The city has spent tens of millions of dollars on landslide mitigation. And while there has been some success, officials say the current cost of keeping the area inhabitable is not sustainable, and the measures may just be delaying the inevitable.

10:17Stewart, though, has no plans to move. The houses between hers and the ocean have sunk a little. So her views have just gotten better. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, a look at some of the options President Trump is considering for the war in Iran, including the possibility of sending in special forces to seize canisters of nuclear material. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow with the latest and the Friday News Quiz.

10:58This podcast is supported by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Here's a story that's not getting nearly enough attention. Defunding Planned Parenthood has already caused chaos and harm, and access to essential reproductive care is plummeting. Right now, the Trump administration's backers in Congress want to permanently defund Planned Parenthood, forcing even more health centers to close and millions at risk of losing access to care. It takes less than a minute to help. Go to plannedparenthood.org slash defend and make a gift of any size.