Independent News Drop

KELI From Inkwell, this is the Independent News Drop. It's Wednesday, May thirteenth. The time is four p.m. Central. I'm Keli, with Hast.

HAST Good afternoon. We're tracking a gene therapy safety question that's got the whole field watching, then Minneapolis and what happens to mutual aid when the moment passes, and a few moves on the international side. Let's go.

KELI The lead comes from STAT News on gene therapy — this is an update on a story we've been following. A company called Encoded Therapeutics is basically giving the field a warning about a drug designed to make gene therapy safer. The drug can reduce the risk of an immune response, which is real progress. But it appears to also blunt the therapy's actual effectiveness. So you're choosing between safety and whether the treatment works. The company is warning competitors now so they're not blindsided. Here's the thing that other coverage might miss: the whole gene therapy space is still learning what safe even looks like. Every company is running different trials with different patient populations. One company's safety data doesn't automatically predict another's. So when Encoded flags this trade-off, it's not a kill switch for the field — it's a signal that these calculations are harder than the early excitement suggested. Watch to see if other developers start publishing their own safety-versus-efficacy findings in the coming weeks. That's usually how you know whether an issue is real or isolated.

HAST Staying stateside. Minneapolis. In twenty-twenty, during the unrest after George Floyd's death, mutual aid networks in the city raised millions of dollars. The intent was to support people directly impacted. But according to NPR, most of those donors have moved on, and the people waiting for help — a lot of them immigrants — are still there. Community workers are reporting fatigue, funds are drying up, and the infrastructure that briefly existed is dissolving. This is the durability problem with crisis fundraising. The energy that mobilizes people for a moment doesn't sustain over years. The immigrants relying on those networks don't have the option of moving on.

KELI Different scale, but. Texas child welfare system — the state is asking for more time to monitor a Dallas-area foster care contractor called EMPOWER. Two children have died under the contractor's care over the years. The state said EMPOWER needs until August to improve conditions. The Texas Tribune is reporting that state oversight is ongoing, but the timeline suggests they're not moving toward decertification yet — they're giving the contractor room to correct. That decision will matter to families in that region trying to navigate the system.

HAST On the foreign policy front. The Senate took a vote today on curbing presidential war powers when it comes to Iran. It failed. But Al Jazeera notes there were enough Republican defections to show cracks forming. The vote wasn't close enough to pass, but it signaled that at least some Republicans are uncomfortable with how much latitude a president holds in that arena. The measure will likely come back up.

KELI Heavier next. ProPublica is reporting that immigrants detained in Chicago during what they're describing as a military-style raid are now seeking millions in damages. The detention raised questions about tactics and process. Lawsuits are moving through. We'll keep an eye on how those play out.

HAST Before we close, one date marker. In nineteen ninety-eight, India conducted nuclear weapon tests at Pokhran on this day, following tests on May eleventh, drawing economic sanctions from the United States and Japan.

KELI That's the Independent News Drop. We'll be back this evening. From Inkwell.