Democratic Party Divide, Lettuce is Saving You Green, Colombia Rescue Efforts

Recent primary results were supposed to offer clues on voters' appetite for progressive candidates. But the results so far paint a muddled picture. What does that mean for the party's midterm strategy? I'm Michelle Martin, that's Leila Faddle, and this is of first from NPR News. New inflation numbers are out and lettuce, as in your produceiles, leafy greens, was a highlight. Retailers, you know, are going to cut prices in order to move that inventory. Particularly because it's also perishable products. How are lettuce prices impacting the cost of living? And in Colombia, rescue teams are racing to find earthquake victims still buried under rubble. Nearly 500 people are still missing. Stay with us for news you need to start your day. Democrats are clear on the goal. They want to win back control of Congress this November. Throughout primary season, the party has faced high profile divides over its future. Those tensions were on display this month in three Midwestern states where primary voters sent a mix of signals about what they want from the party. NPR political reporter Elena Moore has been following it, and she's with us now. Good morning, Elena. Good morning. So now that the Democratic primaries in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are over, what would you say is the key takeaway? Yeah, well, for months, we've seen leftist candidates pull off upsets in a handful of solidly blue house districts running on an anti-establishment message focused on affordability concerns. What made these racist Michelle notable is candidates were running on a similar message but putting it to a much broader statewide audience and the results were mixed. Okay. So talk us through that. Well, let's start last week in Michigan where Abdul Al-Sahead defeated Congresswoman Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate there. Al-Sahead pitched himself as a populist political outsider and he had the backing of key progressives like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He jumped up a lot of enthusiasm and heading into election day, the polls indicated he had a sizeable lead, but that's not what the results showed. He won, but only by a single percentage point, a little over 15,000 votes. And, you know, make no mistake, a win is a win, but those results show how divided this party is. I mean, it was virtually a 50/50 split. It also shows that the polls are not that great in primaries and state primaries, and let's be clear on that. Okay. And this week there was another race where this dynamic played out, the Wisconsin governor's race would happen there. Yeah. I mean, this was another really close race, decided by less than 4,000 votes. Ultimately, the establishment picked Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, narrowly defeated state representative Francesca Hong, a self-described democratic socialist. And people had been comparing Hong's candidacy to El Sayed in Michigan, but there were some key differences. I mean, for one, Hong had fewer endorsements from national progressives. She also faced criticism for past comments, supporting things like defunding the police and abolishing prisons, positions other leftist candidates have avoided. So running on this anti-establishment message may be politically popular right now, but the messenger still matters too. And let's go to Minnesota now. What stands out there? Well, it was an example that, you know, this intraparty fight is manifesting in different ways, right? Like, take the Democratic primary for Senate there, where we saw the state's lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan decisively beat Congresswoman Angie Craig. And Flanagan established herself as the more progressive candidate, but in the end, one of the big things that defined this race was the issue of immigration, specifically Craig faced criticism over her vote for a bill that makes it easier for immigration officers to detain and deport people without legal status. So where does all this leave Democrats if they start to shift from primary season to general election mode? Right. Well, the general election is all about growing your coalition, but that only matters if Democrats show up and in full. It's clear these anti-establishment candidates are reenergizing a part of the base that has felt disconnected from the party in recent elections. But that could come at a risk of alienating other key parts of the base. And Michelle, when you're looking at toss up races this fall, Democrats can't afford to have any voter stay home. That is NPR political reporter Alaina Moore. Alaina, thank you. Thank you, Michelle. There's a fire sale on lettuce right now that was one of the highlights of this week's inflation report. Lettuce producers are trying to win back grocery shoppers who are nervous after a widespread outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce from Mexico. Discounts on leafy greens are one of the factors helping to keep the overall cost of living and check. NPR Scott, Horacee is with us now to tell us more about this morning, Scott. Good morning, Michelle. So tell us what's happening in the produce aisle. Yeah, well, we got a new inflation report from the Labor Department this week and it shows lettuce prices plunged more than 16% last month. It was the biggest one month drop on record. And it's all because of that deadly cyclist prices outbreak that forced to recall some imported iceberg lettuce. Since then, anxious shoppers have been steering clear of other kinds of lettuce. And food economists David Ortega of Michigan State University says a lot of suppliers are offering discounts rather than let that lettuce go to waste. Retailers, you know, are going to cut prices in order to move that inventory, particularly because it's also perishable products produce prices tend to bounce around a lot depending on growing conditions and other factors. And you know, lettuce prices will probably rebound once this food scare passes. But for now, there are some bargains to be found and that helped lower grocery prices by about one tenth of one percent last month. Now I don't want to overstate this obviously lettuce is a fairly small part of most families overall grocery list, or take notes that supermarket prices in general are still up about 2.7% over the last year. We're nowhere near those double digit increases that we saw in 2022. But you know, this is still top of mind for many consumers because what they are reacting to is the cumulative impacts of inflation. Beef prices as many people know are still quite high compared to where they were a year ago. On the plus side though, chicken prices are down a bit. Okay, but we got to talk about gas because high gasoline prices, everybody's talking about it. So what's happening at the gas pump? Yeah, gasoline prices came down a little bit in July as they did in June, but they are still way up compared to where they were before the war with Iran began. Triple A puts the average price of regular gas today at $4.7 a gallon. It's actually been going up again in recent days. And prices could climb further in August unless there's some real progress to get oil moving more normally through the Strait of Hormuz. Big picture, this week's inflation report shows the cost of living was up 3.4% in July from a year ago. That is a smaller annual increase than the two previous months. But look, inflation is still higher than most of us would like and that remains a challenge for the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve. And the Fed has promised repeatedly that it will get inflation under control. What is that going to take? Yeah, not so long ago, investors were betting it was going to take a jump in interest rates. At their last meeting in July, Fed policymakers held their benchmark rate steady. But there were three members of the committee who voted to raise rates. One of those was Beth Hammack, the president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank. Hammack later told Yahoo Finance, it would be better for the Central Bank to act sooner rather than wait and let inflation get out of control. I think about it a little bit like when you're driving your car. When you see that stop sign coming, you can either slowly pump your brakes or if you're not paying attention, you have to jam on the brakes really fast. My passengers usually prefer when I've got that gentle glide into it. But this week's somewhat cooler inflation report could prompt the Fed to coast a little bit longer and see if inflation continues to moderate. Right now that's the way a lot of investors are betting. That is NPR Scott Horsey Scott, thank you. You're welcome. In Colombia, the clock is ticking. Under Monday's powerful earthquake that killed more than 260 people. Each day that goes by means the chances of finding survivors drop. Reporter John Otis is in Cali, that's a city in Western Columbia that was one of the hardest hit by the quake and he's with us now once again. John, good morning. So it's been three days since the earthquake struck. You've been there for much of that time. Our search and rescue team still going to be able to find survivors. Yes, that's very much possible. I've spoken with rescue workers elsewhere who've pulled people out of collapse buildings after six days. One factor is climate and here in Cali, the warm weather could help trap people stay alive. That said, Colombian officials know they're in a race against the clock. At a news conference yesterday, Cali mayor Alejandro Eder said they have identified seven sites in the earthquake zone where they have the best chance to save people. Let's listen. We need a lot of order in the seven zones of rescue. We need a lot of silence. We need space so that the canyons. So here, the mayor is calling on Cali residents to avoid the disaster zone. So it's not to create traffic jams or to get in the way of rescue teams. Another reason is that workers inside the building need silence so they can use their listening devices to detect signs of life. Can you tell us more about these search and rescue teams? Well, most are from Colombia, which has a fairly robust defense system. But search and rescue teams have also arrived from the U.S., Mexico and other countries. You also see hundreds of volunteers doing the back breaking work of removing rubble. I met one of them, a software developer from Cali. His name was André Cifuentes. He spent the past two days cutting through rebar and pulling chunks of concrete from a collapse building. And as you'll hear, we kept our voices down to avoid disturbing the search teams listening for survivors. So, Cifuentes is telling me that all five floors of this particular building collapsed right on top of one another, and that leaves little space for survivors. But he also vows not to give up. You mentioned Cali's mayor. You were able to spend some time with him during these recovery efforts. Yes, I tagged along with Mayor Alejandra Er, as he visited a food distribution center. There he consoled quake victims who had lost their homes and thanked people arriving with donations. He looked pretty beat, but he actually sounded optimistic. For example, he thinks the city will get a lot of money from the national government to rebuild homes, hospitals, and the 167 schools that were knocked down. But you can sit down and start crying, or you can see it as a huge opportunity to rebuild 167 schools as brand new modern schools. So, I think that's the way you have to look at it. And I'll just note that the mayor hadn't slept since Monday's earthquake. So, as soon as our interview ended, he took off to catch a well-deserved nap. And you deserve one too, because you haven't slept either. That is John Otis reporting from Cali. John, thank you. Thank you. Congressman Rocana is seriously considering a run for president. Well, you know, they said Lincoln had an engine of ambition that knew no rest. So, I don't apologize for ambition. The question is, is it ambition for a public purpose? The California Congressman on why he thinks Democrats need a more progressive candidate in 2028. That's available today on a special episode of Up First. And that's up for Thursday, August 13th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Leila Faldon. Today's episode of Up First was edited by R.A.Z. Resvani. Alice Wolfley, Jason Braslow, Raphael Naum, and Tina Crya. It was produced by Ziyad Butch and Milton Gavada. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Carly Strange. Our technical director is Zach Coleman and our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us again tomorrow. [Music]