'My daughter is missing'
Good morning, Short List readers!
I’m Nicole, here to start your weekend with a selection of a few must-read articles from USA TODAY. Take your time, read for a while and consider these compelling stories from our newsroom.
🔴 'My daughter is missing': Nobody knows how many missing and murdered Indigenous women there are, but it’s enough to have its own acronym: MMIW. May 5 marked the national day of awareness for MMIW, part of a grassroots movement to draw attention to outsized levels of violence against Indigenous people, particularly women and children. The FBI's National Crime Information Center reported 5,203 missing Indigenous girls and women in 2021, a total that was deemed an undercount in a report to Congress because of a lack of comprehensive data. USA TODAY’s Nora Mabie and Derek Catron told the story of Malinda Harris Limberhand’s search for her 21-year-old daughter, Hanna Harris. Her search is one of many and illuminates a problem that’s impossible to separate from centuries of suffering inflicted by the settlement of North America.
- 'Just another dead Indian': Indigenous woman's murder shows systemic struggles in MMIW cases.
- 'Don't overlook us': Slow Amber Alert rollout reflects missing, murdered Indigenous crisis.
- In California, a Native woman's killing remains unsolved: There are many others like her.
🟣 'People will travel': If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the right to abortion will be up to the states to determine. A direct effect of some states banning abortion while others protect it is that people may be forced to travel hundreds of miles out of state for abortion care. The need to cover rising travel costs is putting pressure on already-strapped abortion funds, which help people afford the costs of the procedure and other expenses such as childcare and back wages. Even with the help of abortion funds or, in some cases, company health care benefits, the high cost of traveling for an abortion is likely to fall disproportionately on low-income people and communities of color.
🔵 Seven-year-old Alexis Patterson didn’t come home from school in Milwaukee on May 3, 2002. Nearly a month later and more than a thousand miles away, Elizabeth Smart, 14, was missing from her bedroom. Some advocates argue that race was a key factor in how authorities and reporters handled the two girls’ cases. By the time Elizabeth had been gone for two weeks, USA TODAY had published three stories about her disappearance. There were none focused on Alexis. Elizabeth is white. She was found nine months after her abduction. Alexis is Black – and still missing. USA TODAY’s Gina Barton and Ashley Luthern dove into ‘’missing white woman syndrome’’ and how cases of missing Black people are covered less often than whites.
📰 Feds investigate peace corps employee: The Peace Corps Inspector General has renewed interest about a former employee who in 2019 killed a woman in Africa in a car crash. The investigator interviewed several people about their knowledge of John Peterson, 67, the agency’s former director of management and operations in Tanzania. The inquiry comes after USA TODAY in December exposed details of a chaotic episode in which Peterson’s vehicle plowed into and killed Rabia Issa, 47, as she set up a roadside food stand. The agency said the crash happened after Peterson had been drinking at a bar and brought a sex worker home. USA TODAY’s Tricia L. Nadolny and Nick Penzenstadler explain what’s behind the feds’ investigation.
More must reads below. 👇 See you next week!