Bomb cyclone blizzard threatens holiday travel

Transcript

NIALA: Good morning! Welcome to Axios Today!

It’s Wednesday, December 21st.

I’m Niala Boodhoo.

Today: a winter bomb cyclone scrambles holiday travel. Plus, the public may soon see years of former President Trump's tax returns. But first, the growth in antisemitic hate in the U.S….that’s today’s One Big Thing.

NIALA: As Jewish communities across the country celebrate Hanukkah this week, antisemitic hate crimes in the U.S. are on the rise, and in several major cities might surpass numbers from 2021. That's according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Here's its director Brian Levin.

BRIAN LEVIN: I think that there are antisemitic attitudes that extend across a cultural and ideological spectrum. We're seeing folks draw in stereotypes and conspiracy theories across that spectrum.

NIALA: This fall we also marked the four year anniversary of the attack on Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue. The deadliest assault on Jewish people in the U.S. Axios’ Race and Justice Reporter Russell Contreras is here to talk about where things are today. Hey Russ.

RUSS CONTRERAS: Great to be with you Niala.

NIALA: By the numbers, what U.S. states are we seeing the spikes in these antisemitic hate crimes?

RUSS: The FBI released its annual hate crime report earlier this month, and it left out key states like New York, California, Florida. Now these states have some of the highest percentages of Jewish people in the country. So, what Brian Levine at the Center for Hate and Extremism says, look, “we're keeping track of these antisemitic hate crimes and we're seeing it approach record levels in 2021.” Not only that, year to date, if you look at January 1st to October this year, or in some cases November, there are actually higher numbers of antisemitic hate crimes in some of the largest cities in the country. So that tells us we probably hit a record in 2021, and we're probably may get close to that record this year.

NIALA: You mentioned the FBI's hate crime report that came out. How challenging is it to collect data on these attacks?

RUSS: Well, it's challenging because, this year, the FBI when it released its annual crime report, they said about 40% of law enforcement agencies didn't bother to turn in the reports. So if they're not bothering to turn in their basic reports about burglary and murder and assaults, they're not even budging on hate crimes. So we don't get an actual picture of what's going on without the work of people like the Center for Hate and Extremism.They get the data by looking at police reports, state crime data and also open records requests.

NIALA: What is social media's role in all of this?

RUSS: We do know that misinformation has been spreading on social media, whether it's Facebook, Twitter, even YouTube. That sometimes antisemitic tropes remain online for a long time. Brian says sometimes the soft antisemitic tropes remain. And what he means by soft is what we think are harmless stereotypes about Jewish people. But we know throughout history those soft tropes can develop into something harder and result in violence. And he says that sometimes we seem to dismiss someone something that may be marginally offensive and say, oh, that's just so and so being crazy. But, those sometimes snowball into something more dangerous.

So there are pressures on social media companies that, hey, you gotta do your part. I think there's also been a collective response by people when a celebrity says something, that people are attacking those statements. And it's not just Jewish people who are saying those statements are wrong. You see a coalition of Latinos, African Americans, Whites, who say, no, those statements are wrong and we must announce them immediately. Those are not harmless. They're actually harmful.

NIALA: Russell Contreras is Axios’ race and justice reporter. Thanks Russ.

RUSS: Thanks for having me.

The public may soon see Trump's tax returns

NIALA: One big Washington headline from last night: The Democratic-led House Ways and Means committee voted to publicly release six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns. The Axios’ political team reports that these will shed new light on Trump’s finances that Democratic lawmakers have tried to access for years…which Trump resisted. The Supreme Court paved the way for the release last month, when it denied Trump’s emergency application to keep the House from obtaining the returns. No word yet on when these could actually become public, but it’s another blow for the former president in a month full of them. Check Axios.com for the latest updates.

Coming up: the country braces for bad weather, just in time for holiday gatherings.

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A winter bomb cyclone scrambles holiday travel

NIALA: Welcome back to Axios Today! I'm Niala Boodhoo.

So we just heard from Russell Contreras, who is based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. After chatting with me, Russell, like many of you, is now headed out to see his family. But, according to the weather reports this week, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

RUSSELL CONTRERAS: For these holidays, I'll be going to Southeastern Colorado, where temperatures are gonna be around the high of five and the low of negative eight. I'm keeping warm by, of course, wearing thermal underwear and drinking a lot of alcohol, especially craft beer. I'm gonna be triple layering, maybe quadruple layering and I'll be walking with a dog who will be in a sweater.

NIALA: A lot of us are going to be in the same boat as Russell. This Arctic blast is expected to bring freezing temps to many parts of the country. In fact, some regions will experience their coldest Christmases in more than three decades. I asked Axios’ Climate and Energy Reporter Andrew Freedman to explain what’s going on.

ANDREW FREEDMAN: The extreme weather that we're seeing and about to see across the United States really originated up in Northern Canada. And even you can trace it all the way back to Siberia. This cold air is plunging south into the United States. There are weather warnings and advisories in effect all the way from Montana to the Gulf Coast. Those will be converted into some blizzard warnings in the Midwest, as two things happen: one, the Arctic air spreads south and east with time. As the Arctic Cold front passes certain locations, there's gonna be a really rapid drop in air temperatures. We're talking 30 to 40 degree temperature drops in only two to three hours with very strong winds.

We're also seeing this bomb cyclone take place, in the Midwest that'll take place especially Thursday, Friday and Saturday. As this really intense storm wraps up, delivers blizzard conditions to cities like Chicago, Kansas City, possibly Minneapolis, and moves eventually up north. The cold really will be not all-time record cold, but many people will experience the coldest temperatures they've experienced in their lives, considering some of this cold will be the coldest in 32 years, or just experienced in many decades.

NIALA: That’s Axios’ Andrew Freedman. So how is this going to actually play out around the country? Here are some of our local reporters to tell us what they’re preparing for.

JUSTIN KAUFMANN: Hi, this Justin Kaufman in Chicago city and suburban officials are preparing for the double header of major snow and extreme cold coming at this week's end. Likely the coldest Christmas we've seen in this area since the 1980s, it's gonna feel like it's negative 30 degrees. One meteorologist told the Chicago Tribune that the storm's worst case scenario could rival the 2011 storm that dumped more than 20 inches of snow and famously closed Lake Shore Drive. Chicagoans are scrambling to reschedule flights right now to avoid the storm. The city's Department of Aviation say they expect tomorrow to be the busiest day of the year for airline travel at O'Hare and Midway Airport.

LINH TA: Hey, this is Linh here in Des Moines. We've got high winds that are expected to start around the state, which can create really hazardous road conditions and make it hard to see. Experts are advising right now that if you can, you should really be staying home and trying to prepare for the storm. Travel could be near impossible at times. And if they are gonna go out, they need to have a preparation kit in their cars, just in case the worst happens.

NAHEED RAJWANI-DHARSI: This is Naheed Rajwani-Dharsi from Axios Dallas, where a lot of residents are planning to stay put and power up to prepare for arctic temperatures that will lower our windshield to below zero and bring strong wind gusts. Now, when you think of Dallas, you probably don't realize that we have winter weather here. But we do. People are probably knocking on all the woods and praying all the prayers that the Texas power grid holds up because in February 2021, a winter storm knocked out power for days, killed over 200 people and left many of us without running water. So wish us luck and hope we survive this.

NIALA: Thanks to Axios local reporters Justin Kaufmann in Chicago, Linh Ta in Des Moines and Naheed Rajwani-Dharsi in Dallas.

That’s all we’ve got for you today! I’m Niala Boodhoo - stay warm and stay safe. Thanks for listening, we’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.