Water that gave us peace. Discover the film about chicagos first allblack high School Rowing team, and the reunion 20 years later that really could save lives. Plus, a whopper of a story about cows and Climate Change. Soledad you herd me [mooing] how the planet benefits when cows eat green. Soledad im soledad obrien. Welcome to matter of fact. Across the country, renters and landlords are sounding the alarm about a potential eviction crisis. The covid19 eviction Defense Project says between 19 and 23 million households are at risk of eviction by the end of september. So, depending on what congress does next, people like darlene turner, from the bronx in new york, are facing a nightmare. Darlene my name is darlene turner, and i live in the bronx. Ive been living in this building, in this apartment, for, like, 34 years. I work in the hotel industry. So i worked for a restaurant down in this city which has closed down due to the pandemic. With no income still. So its really hard to pay my rent. The People United will never be defeated. Darlene im four months behind since april. I owe 4000. Im afraid if i get evicted i will not have any place to stay. You know, ill be homeless. Ill have to go to a shelter. I worked for 34 years at my hotel and ive never been unemployed, so all this is the first time for me. I have a little bit of unemployment coming in, but its still not much, because i still have other bills to pay. I just feel that they should, you know, cancel rent, especially for the ones that cant pay rent. Its very emotional, because i hear so many things from other people, you know, on television, sleep on a street or going in a shelter, something i would have never thought in the year 2020 that this would ever happen. I really feel upset. Its like they dont care about us. They dont care if were homeless, you know, if we have any food to eat. Its like, this is the united states. We should be much better. They should care more about their people. Soledad matt desmond is with the eviction lab at princeton. Hes been studying housing, poverty, and eviction for over a decade, and is the author of the pulitzerprizewinning book evicted poverty and profit in the american city. Matt desmond, nice to have you darlene turner. Now she owes 4000. Shes four months behind on her rent. Is this story unusual, or is it typical . Matt every year in america, about 3. 7 million evictions are filed around the country. Thats seven evictions filed every minute in america. And so what ms. Turner is focusing on now is a problem that has been with us for years. For years, incomes for Many American workers have been stagnant, but rents have just gone up and up and up. So have utility bills. You know, the median rent in last 20 years. But incomes certainly havent. And help has been really slow to come to folks like ms. Turner. Only about one in four americans who qualify for any kind of housing assistance, like Public Housing or section eight rental vouchers, for example, received that assistance. Soledad so what protections exist for people like ms. Turner . Matt too few. So if i am arrested in this country, i have a right to an attorney if i cant afford one. But miss turner doesnt. Theres no right to an attorney extended to people in eviction court, except in a few big cities. New york city is one of them. Philadelphia is another. Four for families all over the country, those rights dont exist. And help like rental assistance and moratoriums are either getting drained out or quickly expiring all across the country. Soledad so obviously, the eviction lab, you do tons of research. Youve written a book about this topic. What do you know from just the data about what you believe is coming down the pike in this crisis . Matt so, in an average month in america, there are about 800,000 people that are threatened with eviction. Thats about the population of seattle every single month, typical. This is when we had less than 4 unemployment rates. This is when our economy was supposedly buzzing for most americans. Now, were in the middle of an economic crisis and a Public Health crisis. And its hard to think that number is not going to get bigger. Soledad whats the demographic that is hit the hardest always when were having these kinds of conversations . Matt racism is deeply embedded in this problem. Most white americans own their home and are shielded from the eviction crisis. Most black americans, latino americans, because of our systematic dispossession of people of color from the land, they dont. Theyre renters. And so they are disproportionately exposed to fluctuations in the rental market, high housing costs, and, of course, evictions. So about one in 40 u. S. Renters is evicted every year. For africanamericans, the rate is almost twice that, one in 25. And so, yes, this is a crisis that is going to hit africanamerican communities and latino communities especially hard. Soledad matt desmond, thank you for joining us. Thank you for your research and your insight. Appreciate it. Matt thank you so much. Next on matter of fact, backtoschool or home school . Will plans for your kids to go back to class pass or fail . Plus, they came from some of chicagos toughest streets. Find out how this crew got together and found peace and purpose. And, later, we take you back to the detroit boxing gym that exchanged punches for lunches, to feed their community. Thanks youre welcome. Devin, did you know geico is now offering an extra 15 percent credit on car and motorcycle policies . Ok . Thats 15 percent on top of what geico could already save you. So what are you waiting for . Dj khaled to be your motivational coach . Yo devin remember to brush in a circle motion. Thank you. Dj. Khaled. 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Los angeles unified and san diego unified announced their 700,000 students will resume classes next month online, and return to classrooms when conditions allow. Chicago Public School officials are still negotiating. Las vegas schools are planning for inperson learning two days a week, and Online Learning three days a week. Its the same for miamidade. Merrie najimy is president of the 110,000member Massachusetts Teachers Association. I talked to her about the difficult decisions ahead in that state. Merrie najimy, nice to have you with me. Give me the specific details of what parents are saying to you and what teachers are telling you. Merrie so, parents and educators are united in their real fears that if we reopen schools at 100 capacity, we are going to jeopardize the health and safety of the entire community. So the Massachusetts Teachers Association has proposed a phasedin opening. Soledad what does the phasedin strategy that youre proposing look like . Merrie so, in the first couple of weeks of schools, educators need to come together. They need professional development. They need to redesign their curriculum. They need we need to make materials, boxes full of all of the math, science, art materials, and books for every single kid, for when theyre learning at home. We then need to meet oneonone with families. Before we do that, we need to rearrange our classrooms. We cant possibly expect our layout of our classroom to be the same. Soledad in new york, theres efforts to stagger the number of students so that youd effectively halve the number of students who are in class, because only half would show up on the different days. Merrie in massachusetts, our commissioner has relaxed the standards to say minimum of three feet is acceptable, and you can fit 20 kids in a 750 square foot room. Were saying its thats unacceptable. Thats unhealthy. That puts the community at risk, because theres other factors that work together. Its physical distancing. Its proper ventilation. And our schools in our oldest schools, the facilities just simply cannot keep up with what the new needs are. Soledad theres i think the numbers like 15 million kids who dont have access to broadband, like my kids all have computers to work on. What do you do for those kids, if youre going to have, you know, some percentage of it being online . Merrie our children in low income communities and in communities of color do not have equal access to technology. They did not have proper funding before the pandemic. So we need full funding and more full staffing, and more. And we need a guarantee that theres going to be Internet Connectivity and hardware for every family. Soledad what would you like to see . Some combination of online and inperson . Merrie this is going to be a challenge. There is a growing cry, though, across the country that the safest way to start is everybody going remote, and then moving closer to a combination of inperson and remote. Soledad merrie najimy, nice to talk to you. Thank you so much for joining me. When we come back, former nba star grant hill introduces you to a most beautiful thing. Grant that was a beautiful and arshay invites the Police Department to get in the boat with the team. That is so relevant with what is happening right now. Why he says this teams story could change history. And later, did you hear the one about cows and Climate Change . Soledad i think ive milked that story enough. Or have we . Soledad welcome back. In the late 1990s, a group of teens from rival neighborhoods unlikely bond. They became the first allblack high School Rowing team. And the word crew took on a whole new meaning for them. A documentary about this band of brothers is set to hit the big screen later this month. Take a look at this clip from a most beautiful thing. Some people asked, what college you going to go to. In that neighborhood, the big question was, what gang you going to join . A kid got shot in front of marley, killed him, dead right on the curb. Kind of makes you lose hope for your community. Unter changed everything. I walked inside the classroom t even swim. Do you want to take some west side kids over to the lake . Now, thats not going to work. It brought guys from different neighborhoods, from rival gangs, together in one boat. When its calm, when youre out there, it takes your mind away from any problems that you have. It worked in my life. There was something about the water that gave us peace, and we all needed that. Now, 20 years later, theyre back on the water. What are we training for . Chicagos sprints. We trying to rewrite history here, trying to start today. Malcolm is doing this to show his son another way, is going preston is going back in time to undo his mistakes. Alvins racing to celebrate the fact hes still alive, that hes still here. Now you get an opportunity to inspire another generation. Soledad the film is based on a memoir by rower and now motivational speaker Arshay Cooper. I recently talked to arshay, and mary mazzio, director of the documentary, and retired basketball star grant hill, one of the executive producers. Soledad arshay, and mary, and grant, thank you for talking with me. Arshay, lets start with you, because this documentary really is your story, kind of based on your book. And while the documentary is about rowing, it really and a lot of ways its about trauma, too, isnt it . Arshay yes, a lot, a lot of trauma . Just, you know, when youre around with so much violence, surviving, or really just trying to feed yourself and your family, trying to feed themselves, you go to school with a sense of toughness and not really being yourself. Its just trying to figure out how to protect yourself every day. And the film touches a lot on that kind of trauma. That started with my grandfather. My grandparents live in the south. Deal with a lot of racism. And then my mom, who was living in the time of the war on drugs, and how the trauma was passed down to my generation. And so the water was there to help me get over that. Y,ou weren olympic rower. The sport is very, very, very, very, very, very white. Grant mary very very very. Soledad i left out some verys. Do you think that is going to change . Mary i think, honestly, were seeing in front of us people that are seeking to use the film as a starting point about a dialog around privilege. And when you think of privilege, our sport is rampant with privilege. That metaphor for getting in the same board you cant move forward without being together. And thats true in the sport. And its also so true in the troubled times that were seeing ourselves now. Soledad grant, do you think there is a role for sports in this complicated, messy conversation about race that were kind of in the middle of right now . And what is that role . Grant well, yeah, i think theres a valuable role in sports. Look, sports, i think, can be a healer, can be a unifier. I think it can be an example of people from all walks of life coming together and showing that they can work together, and have a common goal and a common theme. There was theres a moment in the film where arshay invites the Police Department, chicago Police Department, to train, and to actually get in the boat with the team. And that was a beautiful and important, powerful moment in the film that i think really will resonate now, in the world that were in. Soledad arshay, why have the chicago Police Department in on this . 20 years later, after youd all gotten out of school, and now you are coming back to do this race, why did you think that they needed to be part of this . Arshay to move forward, right . To truly move forward. What i learned from rowing is is to get together and have a conversation. And they dont know our names, right . They work in this community from 8 00 to 5 00 every day for years, and theres no relationship. But sports unite people, just like grant said. So if i can invite them, ill while we row, the conversation will start, and they will have to learn from us meaning the ears will be open. And that was an opportunity to get to know who we are, and how we contribute to our community, and how much we care. And that was the goal. You know, when this event happened with george floyd, they texted me. Right . I was able to tell them that this is not right. And im so glad i was able to do that. And that was the goal. That was the plan, to start these conversations, not among each other, but the ones, right, that is a part of the Police Department. And so and that was important. And thats why i invited them on invited them out. Soledad Arshay Cooper and mary marzio and grant hill, thanks, guys. I appreciate you talking about the project. You can watch the full interview about the documentary on matteroffact. Tv. Depending on the status of covid19, amc theaters have scheduled a limited release of a most beautiful thing on july 31. Coming up, this detroit boxing gym is back in business and they have some of you to thank. Well explain. Were all doing our part by staying at home. That could mean an increase in energy bills. You can save by using a fan to cool off. Unplugging and turning off devices when not in use. Or closing your shades during the day. Stay well and keep it golden. That could mean an increase byin energy bills. You can save by using a fan to cool off. Unplugging and turning off devices when not in use. Or closing your shades during the day. Stay well and keep it golden. Soledad in the midst of this pandemic, there are still incredible stories of people stepping up to help each other. A few weeks ago, we introduced you to khali sweeney, the founder of the downtown boxing gym in detroit. His gym offers a Free Afterschool Program for kids to have access to tutoring, mentoring, and boxing. When covid19 cases spiked there, the gym closed, and began to serve meals to families in need. Thats when we met the cains. Janine cain and her family were going through tough times because of job loss. But theres good news. After that story aired, help came pouring in for the family and the gym. One viewer was so moved, he donated a special pair of boxing gloves that had never been worn. They belonged to a loved one who passed away. A good reminder that we can choose to be in this together. When we return, what happens when a herd of cows starts eating green . Soledad an udderly important moove. Or should we say moovement . Did you know occasional bloating, gas, and abdominal discomfort can all be caused by an imbalance of bacteria in your gut . Taking align probiotic daily can help. Align contains a quality probiotic strain developed by gastroenterologists. It adds more good bacteria to your gut. To naturally help soothe your digestive upsets 24 7. Support your Digestive Health with align. The 1 doctor recommended probiotic. Try align today, the pros in Digestive Health. Also try align dualbiotic gummies to help support Digestive Health. For spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub . Grubhubs gonna reward you for that with a 5 off perk. doorbell rings [crowd] grubhub fireworks exploding an army family who is always at the ready. So when they got a little surprise. Two . They didnt panic. They got a bigger car for their soontobebigger family. After shopping around for insurance, they called usaa who helped find the right coverage for them and even some muchneeded savings. That was the easy part. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it easy. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it story is made for you. In an udderly important mooove, the food chain burger king is taking on Climate Change by changing the diet of