Here's How Kenyan McDuffie Will Change Washington

Corporate Greed And Chemical Recycling

More than three years after the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine shocked the nation, many Americans assume the crisis is over. And while the cameras may have left and the story has faded from the headlines, the fight ensues. In fact, some of the most consequential battles are happening right now and largely out of public view. From efforts to weaken chemical safety regulations to debates over rail industry consolidation and so-called “chemical recycling,” the decisions being made today could affect how communities across the country are protected from hazardous materials for years to come. That’s why I invited Jess Conard, founder of RailWatch, back to Facts Over Fear. Jess recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby lawmakers to preserve the Toxic Substances Control Act, a cornerstone of chemical safety regulation that has helped evaluate the risks associated with substances such as asbestos, formaldehyde, and vinyl chloride. It’s the same law advocates used to push for greater scrutiny of vinyl chloride following the East Palestine disaster. She was also there to advocate for stronger rail safety measures and to raise concerns about a proposed merger between Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, a move critics argue could increase corporate concentration while creating new challenges for workers, regulators, and communities located along freight routes. Notably, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently highlighted RailWatch during a public event, (go to 1:33:00 to listen) signaling that the concerns raised by community advocates are reaching some of the highest levels of transportation policy discussions. But advocates argue recognition alone isn't enough. The larger question remains whether policymakers are truly listening to the communities living alongside rail lines and chemical facilities every day. At the center of all of these issues is a larger question: Who bears the risk when corporations prioritize growth, consolidation, and efficiency over public health and safety? In this conversation, we discuss: • Why the Toxic Substances Control Act matters to every American • What could happen if key chemical safety protections are weakened • The truth behind “chemical recycling” and why critics are sounding the alarm • Whether rail safety reforms promised after East Palestine are actually happening • The potential consequences of a Norfolk Southern–Union Pacific merger • Why community advocates believe public attention is needed now more than ever FOLLOW NATALIE substack: https://substack.com/@factsoverfearnatalieb instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@nataliebencivenga/# tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nataliebencivenga threads: https://www.threads.com/@nataliebencivenga podcast via spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/47JYsn9LQchErS3cnHP2YF podcast via apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/facts-over-fear/id1855901950 FACTS OVER FEAR Let's dismantle the fear that is used to divide us surrounding the issues impacting the people and talk facts. ABOUT NATALIE Natalie Bencivenga is a socially-conscious journalist working towards building equity in our communities through storytelling. Her goal is to inspire, educate and activate people to become catalysts for positive change. Join her for transformative conversations that uplift and challenge the ways in which we perceive the world. Let's turn this moment into a movement – together.

Here's How Kenyan McDuffie Will Change Washington

Washington, D.C. is heading into a rare moment of political transition. For the first time in 12 years, voters will choose a new mayor after Muriel Bowser announced she will not seek a fourth term. The primary election is set for Tuesday, June 16, and the stakes are clear: affordability, safety, and the future of how the District governs itself. At the center of that conversation is Kenyan McDuffie, a fourth-generation Washingtonian who has served on the D.C. Council for more than a decade and is now running to lead the city on a platform built around affordability, opportunity, and accountability. For many residents, the question isn’t abstract anymore. It’s immediate. Can you still afford to live in the city you work in? Housing costs continue to push families further from homeownership. Utility bills are rising. Childcare expenses are stretching monthly budgets to the breaking point. And for a growing number of Washingtonians, “making it” in the District requires more calculation than confidence. McDuffie’s campaign centers on addressing those pressures directly: cutting housing approval timelines, building and preserving tens of thousands of affordable units, expanding pathways to homeownership, and investing in neighborhood-level services that support families where they are. But the challenge facing the next mayor goes beyond housing alone. Residents are also asking what affordability really means when childcare costs rival rent, when energy bills spike unexpectedly, and when wages fail to keep pace with the cost of living. At the same time, public safety and governance remain central concerns. A recent Washington Post–Schar School poll found voters split almost evenly between those prioritizing crime and those focused on housing costs, underscoring just how interconnected safety, stability, and affordability have become in the District. There are also deeper structural questions at play: how much control D.C. actually has over its own systems, how federal oversight shapes local policy, and whether the city’s leadership can meaningfully insulate residents from broader economic pressures. McDuffie has also faced scrutiny from opponents over past votes and oversight decisions, particularly around utilities and rising energy costs. He has pushed back on those criticisms, arguing that opponents are mischaracterizing his record. On public safety, he has taken a both/and position: supporting tools like temporary curfews while emphasizing long-term investment in youth programming, community resources, and prevention-based strategies. “People should feel safe in their communities,” he has said, “and if they don’t have access to programming, that’s a failure of government systems.” This conversation comes at a pivotal moment for the District, as voters weigh not just who should lead Washington, but what kind of city it can become in an era of rising costs and increasing pressure on working families. We dig into those questions directly: affordability, housing, childcare, utilities, public safety, and what it actually takes to make life in D.C. more livable for the people who call it home. Listen to the full conversation and if you are in D.C., exercise your right to vote in the primary, tomorrow, June 16. Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other. FOLLOW NATALIE substack: https://substack.com/@factsoverfearnatalieb instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@nataliebencivenga/# tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nataliebencivenga threads: https://www.threads.com/@nataliebencivenga podcast via spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/47JYsn9LQchErS3cnHP2YF podcast via apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/facts-over-fear/id1855901950 FACTS OVER FEAR Let's dismantle the fear that is used to divide us surrounding the issues impacting the people and talk facts. ABOUT NATALIE Natalie Bencivenga is a socially-conscious journalist working towards building equity in our communities through storytelling.

Hey California, Are You Okay?

The New Surveillance State: What’s Going on with ICE in California City? Before we dive into today’s conversation, it’s worth noting one of the more uplifting political stories coming out of California. Reality TV star Spencer Pratt is OUT as a potential mayoral candidate for Los Angeles after a third-place finish in the Los Angeles mayoral race after initially competing for a runoff spot. The Trump-backed candidate built much of his campaign around frustration with the city’s political establishment and support for aggressive immigration enforcement, but as more ballots were counted, progressive candidate Nithya Raman overtook him for second place. Whether you agree with Pratt or not, his decline highlights something many politicians are learning the hard way: in Los Angeles, public anger over housing, affordability, and homelessness does not automatically translate into support for expanded ICE operations or hardline immigration policies. That brings us to today’s guest. Award-winning journalist, Ben Camacho, has spent years documenting the machinery of immigration enforcement in California. His reporting often focuses not on the headlines, but on the systems quietly expanding behind them. First, we’ll discuss his investigation into CoreCivic and California City, which revealed how the private prison giant sought to maintain operations at an ICE detention facility despite legal questions surrounding permits and state law restrictions on immigration detention facilities. The reporting raises important questions about the relationship between local governments, private prison corporations, and federal immigration enforcement. Then we’ll turn to an even broader issue: surveillance. Ben’s reporting on Flock license plate reader technology explores how massive amounts of vehicle location data are being collected, stored, and shared among law enforcement agencies across the country. Supporters argue these systems help solve crimes. Critics warn they are creating a growing surveillance network with limited public oversight and few guardrails around how data is used. Together, these stories tell a larger story about modern power. Immigration enforcement is no longer just about detention centers. Surveillance is no longer just about cameras. Increasingly, both are becoming part of the same infrastructure that's built on data collection, information sharing, and expanding state capacity. The question isn’t simply whether these tools work. The question is who controls them, who watches them, and what happens when systems built for extraordinary circumstances become permanent features of everyday life. NOTE: After doing some research, it seems to be ‘unclear’ as to how many Flock cameras there are. I saw reports of 80,000 all the way to 106,000 in use currently. Source: InkFree News cited well over 100,000+ FOLLOW NATALIE substack: https://substack.com/@factsoverfearnatalieb instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@nataliebencivenga/# tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nataliebencivenga threads: https://www.threads.com/@nataliebencivenga podcast via spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/47JYsn9LQchErS3cnHP2YF podcast via apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/facts-over-fear/id1855901950 FACTS OVER FEAR Let's dismantle the fear that is used to divide us surrounding the issues impacting the people and talk facts. ABOUT NATALIE Natalie Bencivenga is a socially-conscious journalist working towards building equity in our communities through storytelling. Her goal is to inspire, educate and activate people to become catalysts for positive change. Join her for transformative conversations that uplift and challenge the ways in which we perceive the world. Let's turn this moment into a movement – together.

Interview with Butch Ware: Green Party Candidate for Governor of California

Facts Over Fear: From immigration detention and political dissent to affordability, third parties, and the future of democracy, Butch Ware argues the two-party system is failing ordinary Americans. At a moment when trust in institutions is fraying, immigration enforcement is escalating, and more voters say they feel politically homeless, today’s conversation asks a bigger question: What does leadership look like when the existing system no longer feels responsive to ordinary people? Just this week, the New York Times reported that a confrontation outside an ICE detention facility in New Jersey left protesters affected by pepper spray and raised new questions about transparency, detention conditions, and what happens when elected officials themselves say they’re denied access. If a governor cannot enter a detention center in their own state, what does that say about the state of democracy in our nation? Today I’m joined by Butch Ware. He is a historian, educator, activist, former Green Party vice presidential nominee, and now a write-in candidate for governor of California. His campaign argues for universal healthcare, housing, immigrant protections and structural reforms, while also challenging ballot access rules and the dominance of the two-party system. We discuss California’s future, immigration enforcement, surveillance, affordability, abortion rights, trans rights and whether alternative political movements are filling a void the major parties have left behind. Because this isn’t only a conversation about California. It’s a conversation about power: who has it, who challenges it, and what happens when ordinary people decide the existing system no longer speaks for them. FOLLOW NATALIE substack: https://substack.com/@factsoverfearnatalieb instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@nataliebencivenga/# tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nataliebencivenga threads: https://www.threads.com/@nataliebencivenga podcast via spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/47JYsn9LQchErS3cnHP2YF podcast via apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/facts-over-fear/id1855901950 FACTS OVER FEAR Let's dismantle the fear that is used to divide us surrounding the issues impacting the people and talk facts. ABOUT NATALIE Natalie Bencivenga is a socially-conscious journalist working towards building equity in our communities through storytelling. Her goal is to inspire, educate and activate people to become catalysts for positive change. Join her for transformative conversations that uplift and challenge the ways in which we perceive the world. Let's turn this moment into a movement – together.

ICE Is Occupying Memphis

What happens when the people filming police become the people under investigation? My guest, independent journalist Nick Valencia joins me as we start in Memphis, where a federal lawsuit alleges residents were harassed or intimidated for recording law enforcement activity tied to the Memphis Safe Task Force — a sprawling multi-agency operation involving local police, federal agencies and ICE. Are Americans are entering an era where power increasingly watches citizens, while becoming harder for citizens to watch in return? Then we head to Virginia, where Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger is facing backlash after vetoing bills supporters said would make courthouses safer for immigrants and reduce opportunities for ICE detentions. The result? A growing debate inside the Democratic Party itself: What does resistance to ICE actually look like when Democrats govern? And finally, we zoom out to something even bigger: the Democratic Party’s ongoing struggle to explain what went wrong in 2024. Because all of these stories from immigration, enforcement, civil liberties, to erosion in institutional trust point to the same underlying problem: If Democrats can’t consistently mobilize voters around immigration, healthcare, housing, wages or democratic institutions, what exactly are Americans responding to instead? Let’s unpack who holds power, who gets watched, and whether either party still understands what voters are asking for. FOLLOW NATALIE substack: https://substack.com/@factsoverfearnatalieb instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@nataliebencivenga/# tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nataliebencivenga threads: https://www.threads.com/@nataliebencivenga podcast via spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/47JYsn9LQchErS3cnHP2YF podcast via apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/facts-over-fear/id1855901950 FACTS OVER FEAR Let's dismantle the fear that is used to divide us surrounding the issues impacting the people and talk facts. ABOUT NATALIE Natalie Bencivenga is a socially-conscious journalist working towards building equity in our communities through storytelling. Her goal is to inspire, educate and activate people to become catalysts for positive change. Join her for transformative conversations that uplift and challenge the ways in which we perceive the world. Let's turn this moment into a movement – together.